NPR

Trump Administration’s Support For Iran Protests May Backfire, Experts Warn

When President Trump warned Iran over Twitter on Sunday night about severe consequences for any threats toward the United States, it did not just come out of the blue.

Speaking to reporters on Monday about the president’s all-caps threat, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump’s language has been “pretty strong” toward Iran all along.

But the Trump administration has been ramping up rhetoric about what it calls Iran’s “malign” behavior in the region. Administration officials also seem to be trying to encourage Iranians to rise up against their government.

Protests have mounted in recent weeks in Iran, as the country struggles with an economic crisis that has grown more severe since President Trump’s decision in May to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on the country.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been tweeting about the protests — sometimes exaggerating them. He’s trying to show Iranians that the Trump administration backs those opposing the Iranian leadership.

In a speech to members of the Iranian-American community on Sunday in Simi Valley, Calif., Pompeo said the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, is trying to help residents in Iran get around Internet censorship.

“The BBG is also launching a new 24/7 Farsi-language TV channel,” he said. “It will span not only television, but radio, digital and social media format, so that the ordinary Iranians inside of Iran and around the globe can know that America stands with them.”

When he was asked during that speech whether it was realistic to think that the Iranian people will be able to take control of the country from what Pompeo described as a “mafia”-like regime, the secretary of state had an easy answer: “Of course.”But retired U.S. ambassador John Limbert, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran, has his doubts.

“I keep wondering who is feeding him this information,” Limbert said of Pompeo’s remarks. “It’s clear from his speech that he understands nothing about the internal dynamics of the country.”

Limbert was among those held captive at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran during the 1979-1981 Iran hostage crisis, and more recently advised the Obama administration.

He worries about the influence of an Iranian exile group that advocates the overthrow of the Iranian government and was included on the U.S. terrorist list until 2012. The group is called the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, which means People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known by its initials MEK.

“Their message is that the place is on the verge of overthrowing the Islamic Republic, which has been a claim for the last 40 years and that they, in particular, are the logical democratic, pluralistic replacement. Now, if you believe that, I have some Florida real estate I could sell you,” he said.

Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton is a supporter of the MEK. And U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley retweeted a video posted last week on an official MEK account.

The State Department, though, says no known member of the Iranian exile group was invited to Pompeo’s speech. His message was mostly about supporting Iranians inside the country who have been protesting.

Trump’s late-night tweet addressed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and went into a sharply worded warning in all capital letters of a massive yet unspecified American response if Iran ever threatened the United States again.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif shrugged it off in his own tweet Monday afternoon: “COLOR US UNIMPRESSED: The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them —albeit more civilized ones—for 40 yrs. We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!”

COLOR US UNIMPRESSED: The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them —albeit more civilized ones—for 40 yrs. We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 23, 2018

A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was quoted in Iranian media saying “Iran will resist pressure from the enemies” and that Trump’s threats against the country amounted to “psychological warfare,” Reuters reported.

“America wants nothing less than [to] destroy Iran” but “Trump cannot do a damn thing against Iran,” the commander added.

Tensions escalated between the Trump administration and Iran, even as Iranians put pressure on their government. Analysts say activists inside Iran see a connection between the international tensions and the worsening economics.

“I see a new generation of Iranians on the scene who are impatient and especially very troubled with the way they pay the price for their government’s foreign and domestic policy,” said Hadi Ghaemi, who runs the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York City-based nonprofit advocacy group.

But Ghaemi, speaking via Skype, said the Trump administration’s other policies hurt average Iranians. Those include a travel ban and the resumption of economic sanctions, including a new round set to target Iran’s automotive industry next month.

“We do find it quite odd that the administration is so passionate and loud about human rights in Iran but really not in other [countries],” he said.

Another Iran watcher, Ariane Tabatabai of Georgetown University, also fears the rhetoric from Washington could backfire.

“We have a bit of a Goldilocks problem when it comes to Iran on a number of levels, and this is one of them,” she said.In her view, the Obama administration was so determined to reach a nuclear deal with Iran that it ended up ignoring protesters inside the country.

“President Trump, on the other hand, I think is too forceful,” she said. “I think that he believes because his hard line on North Korea paid off that it is also going to pay off with Iran. And I just don’t think that’s the case.”

Michele Kelemen and Alex Leff,

July 25, 2018 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Iranian Exile Group;MEK Lobbies To Get Off Terrorist List

An Iranian exile group is ramping up its lobbying campaign to get off a U.S. terrorist list, and the issue has sparked a fierce debate among foreign policy experts about the wisdom of such a move.

Supporters of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq see it as a potentially useful group in countering Iran. It has provided the U.S. information about Iran’s nuclear program, for instance. Others see it as a dangerous cult and warn that taking it off the Foreign Terrorist Organization list would undercut peaceful Iranian dissidents, who want nothing to do with the MEK.

Despite sanctions against it, the MEK has managed to enlist members of Congress and some high-profile former U.S. officials to press its case.

The U.S. State Department is under court order to review the MEK’s status, and officials say that review is continuing.

Obligation To Protect?

The group’s supporters, meanwhile, often stand vigil outside the State Department. At one such event this week, MEK supporter Farah Salehi, a software engineer from Berkeley, Calif., said that the group should never have been on the terrorist list in the first place.

"The MEK designation was a wrong designation that was made in 1997 as a goodwill gesture to the Iranian government," Salehi says.

She calls this an urgent matter because thousands of MEK members live in Iraq in a place called Camp Ashraf. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants them out, though Camp Ashraf residents fear there are few places they could safely go. If they returned to Iran, the MEK says its members would be jailed, or worse.

"Maliki is using this label as an excuse or justification that these are terrorist people and they don’t need to be protected and it’s OK to go ahead and massacre them," Salehi says.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean agrees, saying the U.S. promised to protect residents of Camp Ashraf.

"They are unarmed. And 47 of them over a two-year period were mowed down by Maliki’s people. And I don’t think the United States should be permitting those kinds of human-rights abuses," Dean said in a recent interview with NPR’s Talk of the Nation.

Dean and other former officials have accepted large speaker fees from groups linked to the MEK.
But he insists, "This is not a scary group of people. And in the past, who knows what they did. But the fact of the matter is they’re not a terrorist group."

May Send Wrong Message To Iranian Activists

The U.S. government has linked the MEK to the killing of several American military officials and civilians who were in Iran in the 1970s. But the group says it renounced violence long ago.

Robert Hunter, a retired ambassador now with the National Defense University, says the residents of Camp Ashraf ought to be protected. But, he adds, "getting into bed with these people, I think, would be a profound mistake."

Hunter describes the MEK as a Marxist cult, whose members have learned the ways of Western public relations.

"This organization is not a friend of the United States and it never has been. Even though their tactics have changed, they now smile sweetly on us and others, their basic strategy and leadership has not changed at all," Hunter says.

If the U.S. takes the MEK off the terrorism list, Hunter worries that this would send the wrong message to Iranians seeking more democracy. He says the MEK is hated by many Iranians because it was once a tool of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during and after the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

Others feel that taking the group off the list would put more pressure on the Iranian government.
Kenneth Katzman, an analyst with the Congressional Research Service, says Iran watchers have been debating the ramifications of such a move and there are two sides of the argument.

He points out, though, "the Foreign Terrorist Organization list is supposed to really be decided on the technical question of, is the group a terrorist group or not."

And that is the only question the State Department is supposed to decide.

by Michele Kelemen

October 5, 2011 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Dissident Iranians Live In Limbo In Iraq

Iraq: We treat Mojahedin Khalq have no status

Listen to the Story (4min, 27Sec)
An old Middle East aphorism says "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." With the United States and Iran at odds, it should mean warm relations between the United States and the opponents of Tehran.

But a group of 3,400 Iranian dissidents, currently living north of Baghdad, has posed a dilemma for the U.S. government.

They were given U.S. military protection in 2003 after the American-led invasion of Iraq, but now the Iraqi government wants them out. The trouble is that they don’t want to leave.

The Mujahedeen-e Khalq organization, known as MEK, was part of the alliance that overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979. But it quickly ran afoul of the Islamic revolution. The organization moved to Iraq in the 1980s. Since then, the dissidents have lived as refugees at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

Refuge in Iraq came at a price, though. Saddam Hussein put them to work against their own country during the Iran-Iraq war. And he had other jobs for them, as well.
Ali al-Zuhairi, an Iraqi tribal sheik in the town of Khalis, near Camp Ashraf, recalls bitterly how the MEK helped Saddam put down the Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in 1991. Zuhairi claims the MEK killed rebel Iraqis and left their bodies in the street. He calls them "terrorists."

Officially, the U.S. government agrees, and designates the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization. But on the ground in Iraq, the U.S. treats the group differently, says Mohammad al-Shemari, another resident of Khalis.

Quil Lawrence, National Public Radio

November 4, 2009 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

U.S. Protected Iranian Exiles in Limbo in Iraq

(Anne Garrels reporting from Baghdad) RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I’m Renee Montagne. STEVE INSKEEP, host: And I’m Steve Inskeep. Good morning. We’re about to bring you up to date on a group that’s called a terrorist organization or even a cult. It’s called those things but it’s under the protection of the U.S. military. It’s a group of Iranians. They want to overthrow Iran’s government and they are in exile right now in Iraq.

We’re going to hear this morning from both sides of the border about one of the stranger stories to emerge from the war. The story centers around the Iranian exiles who call themselves the People’s Mujahideen, or MEK. Their U.S.-protected camp is called Camp Ashraf.

NPR’s Anne Garrels begins with the story of one woman who escaped them. ANNE GARRELS: Last spring after living in Camp Ashraf for half her life, 40-year-old Batul Soltani made a run for it. She fled to the nearby American military compound. Though U.S. soldiers protect Ashraf from outside attacks, Batul says they do nothing to stop the MEK from continuing to persecute its members.

Ms. BATUL SOLTANI (Former Member, MEK): (Through translator) The MEK leadership remains in control in the camp and we had no choice but to stay. We were under psychological and physical pressure. The U.S. does nothing inside Ashraf. They allow the MEK to terrorize the inmates.

(Ms. Soltani)

GARRELS: Until the U.S. invasion, the MEK carried out cross-border attacks against the government in Tehran. It also helped Saddam Hussein target his enemies at home. The new Iraqi government made up of those former enemies has no love for the MEK. After the U.S. invasion, American soldiers disarmed the militants and set up checkpoints around the camp to protect its members from Iraqi retribution.

Some in the Bush administration and Congress believe the MEK could be a useful ally against the Iranian government, though U.S. officials say that view is no longer widely held. They and the Iraqi government would like the militants at Camp Ashraf to leave the country. A few hundred have fled but Batul says most cult members cannot act freely, either because they’ve been brainwashed or because of MEK pressure.

Ms. SOLTANI: (Through translator) I never saw the Red Cross or American soldiers inside the camp. The MEK leadership manipulates anyone who comes in so they see only what they want them to see.

GARRELS: Recruited in Tehran as a teenager, Batul says her dreams of overthrowing the Iranian government turned into a nightmare. Once she and her young husband arrived in Ashraf, all couples were ordered to divorce. Her children were taken away.

Ms. SOLTANI: (Through translator) My son was six months old and my daughter was five. They said you can’t keep your children here. We will send them overseas to Europe. I have not seen my children in 16 years.

GARRELS: MEK commanders also took away the members’ documents and warned them they would be arrested by Saddam’s security if they tried to leave. Then after the U.S. invasion, Batul says MEK leaders warned them the Americans would kill anyone who left.

Batul says she stayed on hoping if she were a dutiful member she would eventually be reunited with both her children and her husband. Finally a year ago she stole a car, made a dash for a U.S. checkpoint, and was given refuge by the American military. She’s now searching for her children.

Ms. SOLTANI: (Through translator) I am asking Iranians all over the world if they know anything about my children. The Mujahideen won’t tell me where they are.

GARRELS: Defectors say the Mujahideen keep those wishing to leave out of sight. Asghar Farzin says he was one of the lucky ones. An American colonel during an initial search of Ashraf five years ago discovered him by chance in an MEK prison.

Mr. ASGHAR FARZIN (MEK Defector): One day someone knocked my door. I saw American commander because I can explain for him in English, he sat next to me and listened to me.

GARRELS: With the help of the American officer and the Red Cross, he was able to leave Ashraf. But he says others still there need help and counseling.

Though they acknowledge a significant number of cult members are trapped, U.S. officials speaking on background say it’s not safe for American soldiers to go into the camp. U.S. and U.N. officials say they cannot force members to go back to Iran against their wishes. But the U.N. has not found other countries willing to take them. The clock is ticking.

Under a new status of forces agreement, the Iraqi government will likely take control of Ashraf by the end of the year. Caught at the end of a press conference, General Douglas Stone, who’s currently in charge of Ashraf, made it clear he would like this mess to go away. He said it’s going to be discussed with the Iraqis, adding, things like this don’t go on forever, right? But after five years he still has no solution.

Anne Garrels, NPR News, Baghdad.

NPR News Morning Edition April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Efforts to Return Exiles to Iran Problematic

(Mike Shuster reporting from Tehran)RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Efforts to return exiles to Iran problematic Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran’s government has regarded Camp Ashraf warily, but some Iranians are helping MEK members get back home. NPR’s Mike Shuster reports from Tehran. MIKE SHUSTER: Like Batul Soltani and thousands of others, Arash Sametipour could’ve been trapped in Camp Ashraf all these years. He joined the MEK in the 1990s, and in 2001 he was sent from Iraq into Iran to assassinate an Iranian general. The plot failed, he lost his right hand in a grenade explosion and was imprisoned in Iran. Now he runs the Nejat Society in Tehran, a non-governmental group that helps former members of the MEK who want to get out of the organization. Recently Sametipour was in Baghdad to meet with some of them, who he agrees are in an impossible situation. Mr. ARASH SAMETIPOUR: Since these people, they did not have any legal documents and the situation in Iraq was really critical for them, we decided to provide them any humanitarian help that we could, and I think we were successful in that point.

SHUSTER: Of the MEK militants in Camp Ashraf, more than 200 have left the camp on their own and have been living in the transitional camp the U.S. set up nearby. These people, Sametipour says, want to leave the MEK but don’t necessarily want to return to Iran.

Iran’s government still views the MEK as a threat and wants to see the group disbanded, according to Ali Resaid(ph), the director of the North America department of Iran’s foreign ministry.

Mr. ALI RESAID (Iranian Foreign Ministry): They are a very serious and very dangerous terrorist group and it is recognized by European and even the U.S. government.

SHUSTER: Iran’s government would like to take custody of the leaders of the MEK and put them on trial, says Sametipour.

Mr. SAMETIPOUR: They were involved in brainwashing process and terrorist Arash Sametipour operations inside Iran. Iranian authorities have announced that these people must be prosecuted in Iran. I think a list of 50 to 60 people are there who Iranians want them. They want them to be prosecuted.

SHUSTER: But it is the position of the Iranian government that the vast majority of those who live in Camp Ashraf are free to return to Iran without punishment, says Ali Resaid.

Mr. RESAID: For those of them who have repentance of their activities, also those of them who are not seriously involved with any assassination or these sort of things, we have amnesty for them.

SHUSTER: The Nejat Society has tested Iran’s offer of amnesty. Arash Sametipour says his group has helped repatriate several hundred former MEK members, and he says they are now living normal lives in Iran.

Mr. SAMETIPOUR: Right after fall of Saddam Hussein, Iranian government had announced officially that there is an amnesty for those who are willing to return home. We have talked to many authorities over here and this is a truth that, you know, when they come back over here to Iran there won’t be any prison waiting for them. They can just live like any other citizen.

SHUSTER: When Sametipour was in Iraq recently he concluded that the U.S. is not really sure what it wants to do with those in Camp Ashraf. Some in the U.S. government, he fears, may still be tempted to use them as a bargaining chip with Iran.

That may also be the case between the government of Iran and Iraq. The issue was on the agenda when Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, traveled to Baghdad in early March for talks with Iraq’s president, Jalal Talibani. Iraq’s government may simply take custody of these people if they are released by the U.S. In that case their fate may figure significantly in the future of relations between Iraq and Iran.

Mike Shuster, NPR News.

NPR: Morning Edition, April 28, 2008

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89990562

April 28, 2008 0 comment