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State Department Officially Removing MEK From US Terror List

After a few months of will-they-won’t-they tension, the US State Department decided on Friday to officially remove the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, State Department Officially Removing MEK From US Terror List which the Iranian exile group has been on for the past 15 years.

CNN broke the story:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to notify Congress as early as Friday that she intends to take the [MEK]…off a State Department terror list, three senor administration officials told CNN…MEK was placed on the US terrorism list in 1997 because of the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992. However, since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf [in Iraq] "noncombatants" and "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions. The group is in the final stages of moving from a refugee camp in Iraq where they’ve lived for more than 25 years is nearing completion under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.

The Paris-based MEK—which enjoys a solidly low level of popular support among Iranians—is also called the The People’s Mujahideen of Iran, and was founded in Tehran in the mid-1960s as a synthesis of Islamic principle, left-wing populism, and violent resistance to the Shah. It has since been blasted by critics as a totalitarian, hero-worshipping cult with a history of engaging in indiscriminate mass murder (a particular sore spot is the allegation that MEK fighters acted as a death squad for Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in Iraq). Today, the group is reportedly on the frontlines of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, and has a long, bipartisan list of powerful friends in the US who pitch the group as the Western-friendly and pluralistic antidote to the Islamic republic.

The bizarro patchwork of high-profile advocates includes John Bolton, Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.), at least two Romney campaign advisor, Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Ed Rendell, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and ex-FBI director Louis Freeh. Some of these top supporters received subpoenas from the Treasury department last March during an investigation of speaking fees for pro-MEK events—something that could potentially amount to providing material support to a designated terror organization.

As I reported last year, well-funded MEK backers also received a lobbying assist from high-powered international PR firm Brown Lloyd James—a company that has something of a reputation for sanitizing the records of dictators with names like Qaddafi and Assad. (Other clients have included AARP, the state of Qatar, the Washington embassy of Ecuador, Al Jazeera English, Russia Today, Forbes, and the famous composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.)

By Asawin Suebsaeng

September 22, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

MP Unveils Key Iraqi Political Party’s Link with Terrorist MKO

An Iraqi parliamentarian disclosed that the country’s al-Iraqiya alliance, headed by former Iraqi MP Unveils Key Iraqi Political Party's Link with Terrorist MKO Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, has tight cooperation with the anti-Iran terrorist group, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

"The organization (the terrorist cult) has strong links with a number of al-Iraqiya leaders and is directly supported by these (political) leaders," Member of National Iraqi Alliance at the Iraqi parliament Qassem al-A’raji told FNA on Wednesday.

He also said the MKO (also known as MEK, NCR and PMOI) most likely has tight ties with fugitive Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi.

As regards the recent evacuation of MKO’s main training camp in Iraq, the Iraqi lawmaker called it "a victory for the Iraqi nation and government’s will and determination".

He added that the greater victory would be the trial of all criminals for their crimes against Iraqi people.

Earlier this year, the Iraqi government set a new deadline for the MKO to evacuate its members from Camp Ashraf by October this year.

The MKO cannot find a shelter outside Iraq as it is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Earlier in July, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the UN Secretary-General’s Representative in Iraq Martin Kobler agreed to put an end to the dossier of MKO’s presence in Iraq in accordance with the deadlines announced last year.

The MKO is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

September 20, 2012 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Netanyahou and Rajavi: The Only Two People to Cheer Canada

The act of Canadian Foreign Ministry to cease diplomatic relations with Iran shocked most people. The Canadian mass media criticized the closure of the Iranian Embassy in Toronto. Netanyahou and Rajavi: The Only Two People to Cheer Canada Former director of National TV of Canada (CBC) is among those who strongly criticized the foreign minister.

Also, former Canadian politicians including its former ambassador in Tehran reacted negatively to his government’s action. John Mundy, who served in Canadian Embassy in Tehran, in 2007, suggested that cutting off Tehran looks like a mistake that removes Canada’s major role in international negotiations with Iran, on its nuclear program. Critics against Canadian decision include the implausibility of the reasons advocated by the Foreign Ministry. Political experts do not see the reasons such as lack of security for diplomats and human rights abuse in Iran, as justified.

They believe that the decision was made in the absence of diplomatic regulations and under the pressure of other countries.

The cult of Rajavi (Mujahedin Khalq Organization) which is always a part of anti-Iranian arguments, welcomed the decision of Canadian government.

According to the announcement of the so called National Council of Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president elect of the Iranian resistance (!) welcomed the “Courageous act” of Canadian foreign Minister who closed their embassy in Iran. The leader of the Cult of Rajavi expressed her pleasure about Canadian act despite the fact that half a million Iranians live in Canada and now they are prohibited from consular services. This has become a big problem for them and also for human rights bodies. Besides, Maryam Rajavi, Benjamin Netanyahou, the Israeli Prime Minister welcomed the act of Canadian government.

A few days after the decision was made just two people congratulated the Canadian state: Maryam Rajavi and Benjamin Netanyahou.

It is worth to know that Rajavi’s company with Netanyahou is not an accident. They have many other things in common when it comes to Iran. Both are strong supporters of military invasion to Iran. Maryam Rajavi who claims to be a supporter of Iranian people, complaints all the time why Western countries do not invade Iran. She is a strong supporter of imposing more sanctions against Iran. Like Netanyahou, she severely urges on the necessity of invasion to Iran.

Maryam Rajavi accuses the West of negligence towards Iran. This is exactly the same as accusations Netanyahu put on the West. Maryam Rajavi’s persistence about attacking Iran is not surprising. The cult has had a longstanding cooperation with Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran. The leader of the cult knows that there is no place for her and her cult in peaceful, diplomatic approach towards Iran, and they cannot survive unless they launch a bloody, military invasion.

The irony is that Maryam Rajavi shows off as a highly pro-democratic leader in all her speeches. However, the dark terrorist background of the cult declares that she never thinks of people. After the closure of Iranian Embassy in Canada, Rajavi in accord with Netanyahou never regarded numerous problems that may occur for the large number of Iranian immigrants in Canada.

Translated by Nejat Society

September 20, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Inside Israel’s Secret Wars: Mossad’s Elite “Kidon Killers”

A new book reveals that a department known as Kidon within the Mossad has dispatched assassins into Iran in order to murder the nuclear scientists, thereby stunting the country’s nuclear energy program.

Authors Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman in their book Spies against Armageddon: Inside Israel’s Secret Wars state that the notorious spy agency has killed at least four Iranian nuclear scientists, including targeting them with operatives on motorcycles, an assassination technique used by the elite killers at Kidon.

The Kidon killers “excel at accurate shooting at any speed and staying steady to shoot and to place exquisitely shaped sticky bombs” and consider it their hallmark.

Kidon, known to be one of the world’s most efficient killing machines, is technically described as a little Mossad within Mossad.

Tasked with carrying out covert ops across the world, Kidon has embarked on a number of black ops and assassinations in different countries.

Those who kill for Kidon are selected either from within the Mossad spy agency or from among the natives of the countries where they plan to carry out assassinations.

For instance, in case of the nuclear assassinations conducted in Iran by Kidon, they basically hired people with Iranian or dual nationalities. One of the Mossad assassins was Majid Jamali Fashi who confessed he had cooperated with Mossad for financial reasons only.

Majid Jamali Fashi assassinated Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a professor at Tehran University in January 2011 by blowing an explosive-laden motorbike via a remote-controlled device. He reportedly received training from Mossad inside Israel as well as $120,000 to assassinate the Iranian scientist. According to his confession, Jamali Fashi received forged documents in Azerbaijan’s Heydar Aliyev Airport to travel to Tel Aviv.

He confessed, “I woke up early in the morning and as we were trained I went to the warehouse. I had to prepare the box which contained the bomb. I took the motorbike out of the house and reached a location that I had to contact them. I went to the alley [where the professor resided]. It was vacant. No one was there. I brought the bike to the sidewalk and parked it in front of the house. They told me that the mission had been accomplished and that I had to discard my stuff.”

Jamali Fashi was executed under the Iranian judicial system on 15 May, 2012. Parenthetically, Azerbaijan has in recent years become an apparent haven for Mossad spies and assassins.

Another Mossad operative of Iranian nationality has been identified as Ja’far Khoshzaban, alias Javidan, who has been working under the auspices of Azeri security forces and who has been involved in nuclear assassinations. Iranian intelligence ministry has demanded the extradition of Mossad’s Iranian spy from Azerbaijan. Iran has reportedly obtained documents, suggesting that Azeri officials have aided and abetted Mossad and CIA agents in their targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists, namely Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. As a matter of fact, CIA is constantly mentioned along with Mossad as the main elements in the nuclear assassinations.

Ahmadi Roshan was assassinated on January 11, 2012 when an unknown motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to his car near a college building of Allameh Tabatabaei University in northern Tehran.

Using the same ‘sticking bomb technique’, the Kidon assassins attached bombs to the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi and detonated the explosives on November 29, 2010. Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi and his wife only sustained minor injuries.

As a rule, the Kidon kill team is comprised of four highly seasoned men: 1. Tracer 2. Transporter 3. Helper 4. Killer. The tracer spots the target. The transporter guides the assassination team to the target. The helper basically serves as the motorcycle driver who helps the killer and the killer is tasked with shooting the target or attaching magnetic bomb to the car of the victim.

According to the book Spies against Armageddon, the Kidon agents are well-trained in shooting and placing “exquisitely shaped sticky bombs” and consider it their hallmark.

These facts aside, it rather seems sort of naïve to disregard the role of the CIA-backed MKO terrorists in the nuclear assassinations and give all the credit to the Kidon agents. There is solid evidence which evinces the MKO role in the assassination of the Iranian scientists.

American commentator Richard Silverstein believes that the primary source of income for the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) comes from the assassinations the group conducts within the Iranian soil at the behest of the Mossad. He argues that “If you’re a terrorist on behalf of Israel, as MKO is, then you’re kosher as far as (US-based Israeli publicist) Dershowitz is concerned. And your money is golden. Where does the money come from? Possibly from the Iran assassinations the MKO performs on Mossad’s behalf, which undoubtedly pay well. Then there’s the possibility that the USD 400-million Bush allocated for destabilizing Iran in 2007 has found its way either to the MKO or Mossad (or both)”

More to the point, the CIA works in the same satanic league with the Mossad and MKO. Time and again, the officials in Washington have encouraged and even confessed to the killings of the Iranian nuclear scientists.

Former US senator Rick Santorum callously described the assassination of Iranian scientists as “wonderful,” threatening that those who work for Iran’s nuclear program “are not safe.”

“On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I think that’s a wonderful thing, candidly.”

He also said, “I think we should send a very clear message that if you are a scientist from Russia, North Korea, or from Iran and you are going to work on a nuclear program to develop a bomb for Iran, you are not safe.”

Also, former Bush administration ambassador to the UN John Bolton said on Fox News that the killing of an Iranian scientist and sanctions against Iran constitute only “half-measures in the quest to stunt Iran’s nuclear ambitions”.

Former White House Speaker Newt Gingrich has called for covert action, including “taking out their scientists” and cyberwarfare.

Quotations of this nature are legion and all these facts reinforce the idea that Washington has been making clandestine efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear energy program in cahoots with Tel Aviv and their lackey, i.e the MKO.

By Dr. Ismail Salami

September 19, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Will the MKO Go to the Good-Terrorists Side?

Only a few weeks are left to the deadline a US Court assigned for the State Department to make decision on the terrorist designation of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization. Whether the State Department will delist the group or not depends on the US government’s approach about terrorism. The US reaction towards terrorism has been propagandistic.

“The common American tendency to view the outside world in starkly divided Manichean terms between friends, allies and good guys on one side and adversaries and evil-doers on the other side arises in many circumstances but seems especially marked in discussions of terrorism, writes Paul Pillar of the National Interest.[1]

A few weeks ago the US black listed the Pakistan-based Haqqani network. Designation by the State department as a foreign terrorist organization would bring sanctions including criminal penalties for anyone providing support to the group and seizure of any assets in the US, reported Guardian. [2] Haqqani group is linked to al-Qaida .

Paul Pillar believes that listing or delisting of a particular group gets promised by those with an agenda that has nothing to do with enforcement of a criminal statute. “This has been seen most obviously with the well-financed campaign to delist the Iranian cult-cum-terrorist group the Mujahedin –e-Khalq,” he writes. He suggests that pushing for a particular group’s listing in this case the Haqqani group, is a way of making a statement. [3] Perhaps not because of the attacks it launched in Afghanistan but for the recent attacks on the US embassy in Kabul and on other US troops in the region. The listing might complicate the US-Pakistan relations.

On the other side of the issue of terrorism, we got the news of the removal of Nepal’s Maoist Party from the DOS’s blacklist. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maosit) was founded in 1994 and from 1996 through 2006 it waged a bloody insurgency against the government, during which about 16000 people dies, according to Moscow Time.[4]the group laid down their arms in 2006 and engaged in legal politics but the US government delisted it six years later. The Boris Volkhonsky writer of the Moscow Time article asserts that the first listing of the Maoists by the US was due to the murder of two US embassy security guards not for the 16000 people murdered by the group. He also notifies that as a China –leaning party, the Maoists will help the US to start its own game on the prospective battlefield of regional politics in which China’s influence is growing. [5]

About the MKO probable removal of the FTO list, Moscow Time reads: ”It was reported recently that the US is mulling over the possibility of lifting Iranian Mujahedin Khalq (People’s Mujahedin) not because they ceased to be terrorist, but for the simple reason that its main foe is the ruling regime in Iran, which suits Washington perfectly.”[6]

The writer also refers to Baloch separatists in Pakistan and Syrian opposition as real terrorist attackers who are supported by the US as levers to exert pressure on government of the region. [7]

Besides numerous acts of violence the MKO committed against the Iranian civilians, it killed 6 Americans in Iran in the 1970’s. After the Islamic Revolution, the group supported the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran and opposed the release of the hostages. They even called for a protest to ask for the execution of American diplomats as imperialist hands in Iran.

Years passed and the MKO turned out to be an ally for the US. Seymour Hersh’s investigative report on the New Yorker revealed that the Bush administration has offered the MKO elements with military and intelligence training in the US territory, Nevada desert. [8]

“Like so much of US foreign policy, the idea that the US would legitimize a crazed cult like the MEK sounds like the plot of a bad thriller,” writes Justin Raimondo, editor of the antiwar website. [9]

The difference between what we call “terrorism” and what the US government does is that terrorism for the US is the term you use when people not on your side do it. Seymour Hersh reports on long-standing ties between Mujahedin Khalq and the US Special Operation force. The MKO is now on the America’s side.

By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1]Pillar, Paul, Dividing the World into Terrorists and the Rest, The National Interest, September4, 2012
[2] Guardian, US set to blacklist Haqqani as terrorist organization, claims report, Septemeber7, 2012
[3] Pillar, Paul, Dividing the World into Terrorists and the Rest, The National Interest, September4, 2012
[4]Volhonsky, Boris, the US-Nepal: good terrorists and bad terrorists, Moscow Times, Septemeber7, 2012
[5]ibid
[6] ibid
[7] ibid
[8]Hersh, Seympour, Our men in Iran? The New Yorker, April6, 2012
[9]Raimondo, Justin, Hillary’s Terrorists, antiwar.com, May16, 2012

September 18, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

The remaining MKO members moved from Camp Ashraf

Iraqi sources say 680 members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have been moved from their original residence in the eastern province of Diyala to a new camp near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. 680 MKO members moved from Camp Ashraf to new camp in Iraq

Diyala provincial officials said the seventh group of the MKO terrorists was transferred from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf and situated about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, to Camp Liberty on Saturday.

The sixth convoy of about 400 residents of Camp Ashraf was moved to Camp Liberty on August 29.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The MKO has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

September 16, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Terror In The Name Of Democracy: Terrorism Continues

From the initiation of MKO’s armed warfare in mid-1981 until the end of the same year, the death toll of its terrorist operations rose to 338

A Point to Underline

An overlooked point increasing the complexity of the terrorist bombing on August 30 is that majority of the authorities having a role in undertaking investigations into the case and seeking prosecution of the elements have become the victims of terrorism themselves. Just after the explosion, the presidential council comprising Hojjat-al-Islam Rafsanjani and the Chief Justice Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili appointed the Prosecutor General Ayatollah Rabbani Amlashi to investigate the case. A few days later, he announced the result; the terrorist perpetrator had been identified to be Massooud Keshmiri. An assassination attempt was conducted on Ayatollah Amlashi by MKO and although he escaped the death, he was later assassinated by another violent group.

Ayatollah Ali Qodussi and Asaddullah Lajevardi were other involved authorities that were targeted by MKO. Ayatollah Ali Qodussi, the attorney general, was leading an investigation into the explosion at prime minister’s office. Just 6 days after the explosion, on 5 September, an incendiary bomb blasted at his office that led to his death. Asaddullah Lajevardi, a former director of Tehran’s Evin prison and public prosecutor, was assassinated at a time when he had been retired. But he was targeted by MKO because he was suggesting and engaged in a struggle to reopen the case of MKO’s bombing atrocities

A Brief Report of MKO’s terrorist Operations in 1981

From the initiation of MKO’s armed warfare in mid-1981 until the end of the same year, the death toll of its terrorist operations rose to 338 according to its own published reports. The operations can be classified under three categories: 1. Bomb attacks against official and public targets and assassinations of authorities, 2. Orchestrating violent and riotous demonstrations, 3. Targeting civilians. The followings are a record of MKO’s major and significant terrorist and violent activities within a 6 month span.

1. Bomb attacks against official and public targets and assassinations of authorities

June 1981: Bomb blast at Qom railway station left more than 50 casualties with 7 killed.

June 1981: A bomb was blasted in an attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei, Tehran’s leader of Friday Prayer at the time.

June 28, 1981: Bomb explosion at IRP headquarters killed nearly 74 high-ranking officials including Ayatollah Beheshti, the leader.

July 6, 1981: Assassination of chief prosecutor in Gilan Northern province.

August 30, 1981: Bomb explosion at prime minister’ office, killed the new president, Ali Rajai, and his Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar.

August 1981: Assassination of Hassan Ayat, a member of Assembly of Experts for Constitution and a Member of Parliament.

September 1981: Bomb explosion at the central building of the Prosecutor General of the Revolution killed Ayatollah Ali Qodussi

September 1981: Suicide attack targeted Ayatollah Seyyed Asadollah Madani, a senior cleric, in Tabriz.

A suicide attack targeted seyyed Abdolkarim Hashemi Nejad, IRP leader, in Khorasan province.

October 1981: A bomb blast on Nassir Khusrow Street in Tehran crashed down a hotel and many houses and shops and many civilians were killed.

A bomb explosion on Khayyam Avenue in Tehran killed 20 residents and left many injured.

November 1981: MKO detonated a bomb on Vali Asr Avenue in front of the Quds department store leading 4 people to their death.

On November 24 two bombs exploded at Tehran’s Railway Station killing three.

December 1981: A suicide attack targeted Ayatollah Abdul-Hussein Dastgheib, a senior cleric in Shiraz and a number of other civilians.

2. Orchestrating violent and riotous demonstrations

June 20 1981: MKO demonstrators set cars on fire and attacked civilians in downtown Tehran. At least 30 were reported killed and 200 injured from the sides of the demonstrators. Similar demonstrations were reported from other Iranian cities.

August and September 1981:

– 30 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires on fire in Gurgan St. in Tehran.

– 25 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires and a bus on fire and threw hand-grenades in Tehran-No St. in Tehran

– Around 80 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires on fire, threw Molotov and fired guns in Kamali St. in Tehran

– Around 70 Mhjahedin demonstrators set two buses on fire and threw hand-grenades that left 10 casualties in Vali-Asr St. in Tehran

– 60 Mhjahedin demonstrators disturbed the order and killed two civilians in Azarbayjan St. in Tehran

– Around 60 Mhjahedin demonstrators threw Molotov at the banks and stores and exchanged fire guns in a clash with guards in Behnudi St. in Tehran

– Around 40 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires on fire and threw Molotov in Sina St. in Tehran

– Around 40 Mhjahedin demonstrators fired guns at people and police forces in Behnudi St. in Tehran

– Around 100 Mhjahedin demonstrators set two buses and some tires on fire and threw Molotov at a gas station in Vali-Asr St. in Tehran

– 12 Mhjahedin demonstrators threw Molotov at a greengrocer in Behnudi St. in Tehran

– 27 September: Many armed Mhjahedin demonstrators set a few buses on fire and machine-gunned civilians killing and injuring them in downtown Tehran.

3. Targeting civilians

The civilians who were targets of MKO’s terrorist atrocities were of a variety of classes; teachers, merchants, drivers, workers and the like. Majority of them were targeted and attacked on charges of being a supporter of the Islamic Republic, having beard, and resisting against the perpetrators’ demands.

September 15, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats

Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats, hoping to resettle Iranian exiles elsewhere

Iraq offered foreign diplomats on Tuesday a rare glimpse at a camp that is the new temporary Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats home of an Iranian exile opposition group that has a long-running feud with Baghdad, winning from the envoys cautious praise of the conditions there.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposed the move to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base on the outskirts of Baghdad, from another camp in Iraq. They say it is an intolerable prison. Iraq says that it is up to international standards.

The back-and-forth bickering feeds into a wider, decade-long dispute between the MEK and Iraq over the fate of the former guerrilla movement. Iraq considers the MEK to be terrorists and wants them to leave the country. The MEK, also called the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, wants to move back to their old home at Camp Ashraf northeast of the capital.

Foreign diplomats who visited the dusty complex of former U.S housing containers described the conditions as acceptable. Some said the conditions there looked good compared to other refugee camps.

“I wouldn’t choose to live here, but when we talk about refugees … and what their living conditions are all over the world, this should be considered exceptional,” said Ramon Molina, the Spanish Embassy’s deputy chief of mission.

“It is not very good, but it is not bad also, said Pakistani diplomat Saif Khwaja. “The people who are living here are not from Iraq, and the Iraqi government is bearing the burden of these people.”

The MEK complains they are not allowed to leave and they live without reliable electricity, air condition or water supplies.

“This is not a place to live in. This is not a camp. This is only a prison,” said Liberty resident Homa Roboby, 28. “They are trying to make a life here that is intolerable.”

The MEK is an opposition group to Tehran’s clerical regime. Several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq by dictator Saddam Hussein. But the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, which is bolstering its ties with Iran, says its members are living in Iraq illegally.

The group is also designated as a terrorist organization by the United States but Washington is currently weighing whether to take them off the list — a decision that will be made in upcoming weeks.

Camp Liberty was designed as a compromise way-station for the U.N. to speed the exiles out of Iraq peacefully. Iraqi security forces have launched two deadly raids since 2009 on the MEK’s longtime home at Camp Ashraf, an inclusive mini-city that the exiles never wanted to leave.

At Liberty, the exiles live in cramped portable housing units left behind by the U.S. military, which occupied the base until it withdrew its troops from Iraq last December. They receive medical attention in a former first aid station. And they eat in a former U.S. dining hall complete with flat-screen TVs that looks very much like how the military left it — with the addition of fresh flowers on tables.

A small patch of yellow sunflowers was planted outside the dining hall, and twinkly lights were strung around posts and from the ceilings in an attempt to brighten up an area that has been dingy if sufficient for inhabitants long before the MEK arrived.

Most of the exiles wore loose clothes in khaki and other muted solid colors, and swarmed the visitors with their grievances. “Message fully understood,” one British diplomat said repeatedly.

The Associated Press and Iraq’s state-run TV were also on the tour in the first time the government has allowed journalists inside Liberty since the MEK began moving there earlier this year.

The exiles’ local leader, Abbas Davari, called the camp “dilapidated” and complained that the Iraqi government has delayed the MEK from moving generators to Liberty from Ashraf, and stymied construction of a new water treatment system.

Gorges Bakoos, who is overseeing the issue for the government, said officials are trying to solve both problems. In the meantime, he said, each exile receives at least 200 liters of water every day, above the U.N. standard of 120 daily liters per refugee. And he said residents already get electricity around the clock — unlike most Iraqis who only get a few hours each day.

The exiles denied that. “In front of you, they say one thing, but once you go — no way,” said Youssef Mahoozi, 51, who lived at Ashraf for 25 years before moving to Liberty six months ago.

The next group of exiles will move within days from Ashraf to Liberty, where U.N. will process their refugee applications and try to find counties to accept them. After that, an estimated 200 will remain at Ashraf for a few more weeks as they try to sell property left behind to traders.

The U.N. has interviewed about 90 Liberty residents but has yet to find any countries that will take them. “We are in dire need of countries coming forward to offer their help,” Gyorgy Busztin, deputy U.N. envoy to Iraq, told the diplomats.

BY Lara Jakes of AP

September 13, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Ashraf Camp to be evacuated of MKO by end of this month

Police sources said today that the anti-Iranian Ashraf Camp shall be fully evacuated by the end of this month. Ashraf Camp to be evacuated of MKO by end of this month

The source told Aswat al-Iraq that 2400 members of the camp were moved to Freedom Camp near Baghdad airport in six groups.

There are 800 members remaining who will be moved in two batches; the first will comprise of 600 members and the second 200.

The Camp shall be fully closed by the end of this month, the sources confirmed.

It was intended for the camp to be the headquarters of Dijla Operations Command, which includes Diala and Kirkuk military operations, due to the site’s location.

Iraq agreed with the United Nations to evacuate Ashraf Camp, Diala, 57 km northeast of the capital, Baghdad, and move its anti-Iranian members to an alternate camp near Baghdad before moving to another haven.

Ashraf Camp is the military camp of anti-Iranian Mujahidi Khalq (The People), which was regarded by the United States, Iraq and Iran as a terrorist organization, unlike the European Union which lifted it is name from terrorist organizations in 2009.

The members of the organization lack any legal position in Iraq, but the Iraqi government pledged to close it by the end of 2011.

September 10, 2012 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Hamed Moradi escape Camp Liberty

Hamed Moradi is the third person to run away Temporary Transit Location (Camp Liberty) during the two past weeks. He is from Khoramabad, Lorestan. Previously Mr. Hassan Sharqi from Hamed Moradi escape Camp Liberty Shahsavar, Mazandaran and Mr. Ablodkarim Ebrahimi from Ilam succeeded to escape camp Liberty after 24 years of imprisonment in the cult of Rajavi.

Following their release, families of other cult members who are from the above mentioned cities have been contacting us in the hope of getting news about their loved ones held as hostages in the MKO. They have had no news from their children in 10 to 30 years of their imprisonment. Regarding the recent escape from the cult and their eventual contacting with their families, other families got hopeful to see the release of their families.

Although, they are told that their children have no access to telephone unless they step out of the Camp, they think that all members were released. A mother’s message from Ilam:”For God’s sake, tell my son, Sattar Kheiri to call his old mother, I’m dying.”

Translated By Nejat Society

September 10, 2012 0 comments

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