AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Marking the seventh anniversary of their foundation, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) held a military parade for the first time on June 26. The parade was covered massively by regional and international media, with many of them suggesting that it marked the PMF entry to a new era of its life.

The ant-terror movement’s parade was held at a camp in Diyala that was once called Camp Ashraf and hosted anti-Iranian terrorist organization, Mujahideen Khalgh Organization (MKO) harbored by dictator Saddam Hussein. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Defense Minister Juma Anad, Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanemi, National Security Advisor Qassem al-A’araji, the Chief of General Staff Abdelamir Yarullah, and a number other senior army commanders.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces military parade

As mentioned, this parade enjoyed a very wide coverage from media and political observers. But the question is about the political, security, and symbolic messages that this event sent.

The interesting point is that the military procession of the PMF was held at a time when this force has been widely attacked by the enemies of the Axis of Resistance especially the US and some Arab countries in recent years. But the PMF’s demonstration of force showed that the enemies plots have gone nowhere and the voluntary units have emerged even stronger than before and continue their march towards their ideals.

PMF established in Iraq’s security and political stability

The massive parade marks the establishment of this popular force in the country’s power structure. Following ISIS attack on Mosul, the grand Shiite Cleric Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa for taking up arms against terrorism on June 13, 2014, at which point Iraqi Shiites mobilized in various units within the PMF. The popular forces’ entry to the anti-ISIS war of was game-changing to the battlegrounds.

Over 40 units constituted the PMF, with their role undeniable in obliteration of ISIS on the ground. It has around 120,000 fighters and the PM is its top commander-in-chief. Faleh Al-Fayyad is its commander and Sadegh al-Saadawi is its chief of general staff. Hadi al-Amiri is the deputy and field commander of the popular forces. The Fatah coalition represents the PMF in the Iraqi parliament. Currently, the force focuses on expulsion of illegitimate American troops from Iraq, as this agenda has legal backing provided by the parliament’s bill for the government to expel the foreign forces. Amid the home and foreign conspiracies against the PMF, the military parade has much to tell and vindicates establishment in the country’s security structure.

Legal and political establishment

It should be taken into account that since its foundation, the PMF faced internal and external opposition. The opponents call for disbanding of these forces and prevention of their activities. They argue that the PMF are parallel to the regular army. The opponents are extremely afraid of the PMF closeness to Iran, a country that provided unwavering support to the anti-terror operations. A Sunni political community, led by the former parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, is the main opponent of the PMF existence. Another opponent is the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani.

In a wider range, part of secular politicians, from both Shiites and Sunnis, are opposed to these forces. Outside the country, the US is the top actor calling for their disbanding. Saudi Arabia, the Israeli regime, the UAE, and the European countries also take hostile stances against the groups. All this opposition comes while the PMF was recognized as part of Iraqi armed forces in November 2016. In March 2018, the ten PM Haider al-Abadi ordered their merger into the armed forces. The recent parade shattered the speculations about their disbandment. The presence of political and military leaders bore witness to establishment of the PMF in the nation’s political and legal establishment.

PMF, a trans-religious force in Iraq

The Parade also demonstrated that the PMF is a trans-religious and trans-sectarian force. The reality is that Iraq has been mired in sectarian tensions since 2003, but the Popular Mobilization Forces showed that it is possible to transcend religious and ethno-sectarian boundaries. In fact, although the Shiites were at the core of the PMF, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis also joined it, and they are still at the top of decision-making process.

By AhlulBayt News Agency

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Nejat Society, Mazandaran Office: Mr. Mohammadi, what did you and your colleagues think of camp Liberty (TTL) before you moved there?

Majid Mohammadi: as you know, Camp Ashraf was an isolated, restricted place where members were under a 24-hour controlling system. When the idea of moving to Liberty was proposed, the majority of guys thought that they would finally go to another place in which they would not be limited and controlled and they would be able to have access to the outside world.
In our private talks, we said that we would ultimately find a way to leave Iraq. Some of the members, who did not want to return to Iran, were happy because they thought that Liberty would open the way to go abroad.
But, we didn’t know that Rajavis intended to build another Ashraf in Liberty.

– What do you mean by building another Ashraf?

– I mean that the organizational control and cult-like practices exercised by the Rajavis, at Camp Liberty was worse than those applied at Camp Ashraf. MKO leaders knew that Liberty is not like Ashraf. It’s not an isolated, closed location with no access to the outside world so they enhanced the organizational control in Liberty to prevent defection and eventually the collapse of the cult.

From the beginning of our arrival at TTL, one of the criminal commanders of the MKO, named Abbas Davari, who had been previously sent there, started holding meetings for members. He said:”The difference between Liberty and Ashraf is that the former was completely under our control, no one was able to interfere in the organization relations but here at Liberty we are dependent on the outside world and Iraqi forces. We should work hard to maintain this Camp and chang it to another Ashraf.”
In order to assure those who realized what “loosing Ashraf” meant, he said, ”It is right, Liberty is a temporary Camp but you should know that Ashraf has been reproduced .We never
leave Iraq.”

At Camp Liberty, they could not fill members’ schedules with forced labor so they held numerous mind control meetings. We attended various manipulation meetings for over 12 hours a day.

– Mr. Mohammadi, speaking of your full-time schedule in Liberty, what was your daily routine?

– From early in the morning (at prayer time) until late at night, we were planned to labor. The cult authorities made us do futile works. For example, they had us move the sand in the camp under the pretext of building streets. Our daily routine was to move the sand to places the authorities said, but as the space was limited, when the task was done, they would find faults with us. they said,” Your female superior doesn’t approve your work” or” you should follow the plan that sisters used”, etc. Once again members had to move the sand to another place, thus our working time was full.
Regarding meetings, I said, twelve hours a day. Our daily routine was to eat breakfast and then to carry the sand until 10:30 am. Then we had a break and we had a meeting until noon.
After lunch, the meetings continued until sunset when we had a break to drink tea. Then we used to go playing sports, however, there wasn’t any possibility for playing games. After dinner time, again we had to attend meetings until midnight.

– How long did you stay at Liberty? How was the condition and facilities there?

– Liberty was a marshy land near our port. It had been known as Saddam Hussein’s hunting ground. After American invasion, the land was dried and filled with sand by US forces and their base was built there. Considering MKO expulsion from Iraq, the camp was allocated to the group as a temporary transit location following the agreement signed between UN representatives and Iraqi government.
A part of this region, about 500 square-meters, in the heart of Iraqi units was allocated to settle MKO forces.
Iraqi police has six stations inside the base.The camp contains 7 parts and each port is divided to 4 blocks. Residents live in Conexes, each conex is resided by 7 people. it is worth to mention that, according to arrangements made by UNHCR supervisor, each conex was due to be allocated to two people but the cult leaders placed 7 people in every conex in order to prevent private meetings and to control members more strictly. The other conexes were used for mind control meetings such as Current Operation and Weekly Cleansing and also for commandants.
Based on the agreement signed by Iraqi government and UN authorities, each Conex should be equipped with TV, air conditioner, telephone etc. until the two residents are granted asylum and leave the camp. But the cult leaders confiscated all Telephones.
The Televisions had no antenna. We were just allowed to watch the MKO channel in the eating place at specific times.
In order to impose more pressure and more limitation, they did not allow us to use the facilities left by American troops. For example, we were not permitted to use the gym which was highly equipped. This was their excuse: ”If we open the gym, members want to build their body, and this is definitely for their desire to have wife and a normal life. So, suggesting the idea of using the fitting center is kind of opportunistic act.” The authorities even did not let us use the exercise mats of US soldiers.”They have the smell of life, they shouldn’t be used”, they said.

– Did the mind control System work the way it worked at Ashraf?

– Yes, exactly. The transfer of members from Ashraf to the new place which is called Temporary Transit Location has changed members’ spirit. The cult leaders have to increase their control over members so that they can maintain the cult-like relations and structure. They hold long-time meetings, gather all members together. They seriously fear members talking to each other in order to prevent members from communicating with their peers; they have divided that 500 – Square-meter place in to smaller areas using bags of sand. The 7-people conexes are divided to two units and each unit is supervised by a high-ranking member to extend their 24-hour control over members.
The camp authorities are severely afraid of members’ gathering in a place. Members are not allowed to gather in the eating place at the same time. Each unit has to attend special ceremonies under the supervision of its own commander who tells them where to sit and when to leave the hall.
On the other hand, they claim that the pressure imposed at Liberty is actually originated in the war we have against Iran. They say,” we are in the battle.”
They try to manipulate members so as they cannot think anything else and ultimately come to different conclusions and decisions.

– What did the MKO leaders think of leaving Iraq?

– As a whole, they suggested that they would not leave Iraq whether at Ashraf or Liberty.
As an obvious contradiction, they told high-ranking members that they would turn TTL into another Ashraf arguing that the Arab Spring would bring change to Iraq too and this way the situation would turn in favor of their cult. But, for low-ranking members, they had another argument.
They told them to be patient until the problem for leaving Iraq would be solved.”If you don’t want to stay with us, be our guest for some time until a solution is found to your problem but don’t give up and don’t go to Iran,” they told us.

Another thing that I should mention about pressure at Liberty is that Rajavi’s nonstop printed and audio messages were the actual troubles for members.
He tries to convince forces not to give up, to stay there. This way, the commandants could more easily suppress the members.
In his last message, he offered four options to the members:

First: if you announce your defection, we deliver you to Iraqis and they will consequently hand you to Iran where you will be tried and executed.
(it is worth to know that before offering such an option, we had attended numerous meetings in which we were told that we would be tortured and executed in Iran so everyone was terrified of going to Iran. After our minds was manipulated ,this option was suggested.)
Second: if you have a good family in Europe, they can follow your case to take you there. (Practically such a solution was impossible for the majority of members who had no one in Europe.)
Third: stay a Mujahed and leave your fate to the Organization.
And after some time he suggested the forth option:
“Stay with the MKO as a guest”. The result of all these options was to stay in the cult and to get depressed in their dirty practices.
In all his messages, Rajavi considered return to Iran as treason. He had made a taboo out of this option.

– Mr. Mohammadi, what’s your idea about the fate of members who are currently imprisoned at Liberty?

– In my opinion, the MKO case in Liberty is just the same as its case in Ashraf. Members should again be staying in suspense for a long time. Although, they have been delisted by European Union since three years ago, not even a member could manage to leave Iraq.
In addition, the cult authorities do not want the members to leave the cult establishment and Iraq. Indeed, the Rajavis are the obstacle against MKO expulsion. I believe that Rajavi doesn’t hesitate to make a thousand people die in order to prolong his stay in Iraq.

– What’s your suggestion to help them leave Iraq as soon as possible?

– As the presence of families at Camp Ashraf had awakened the members for escaping the cult, their presence at Camp Liberty will also be helpful regarding the fact that Liberty is much smaller than Ashraf in size and suppression is much stronger there. Families can play a key role n liberating their loved ones.
Families can assure their children that they are able to make the right decision for their fate demanding UN representative visit their beloveds.

– Thank you for the time you gave Nejat Society. And last question, what do you do now?

– I’m a construction worker and I will soon get married being impressed by Maryam [Rajavi]’s ideological revolution!

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That is to say, MKO has adopted a blind, antagonistic way of struggle against the preferably peaceful attempt by the Iraqis to end the increasingly tense stalemate with less bloodshed. Emboldened by its last July’s violent reaction against the Iraqi forces that left many casualties, MKO is preparing for further systematically organized defensive measures to defend its bastion against any similar move by the government. Although the terrorist and cultic nature of MKO well justifies speculations about its potentialities in application of violent and aggressive approaches, the assertions by the defectors is a given warning that the organization is busy preparing for a much bloody confrontation.

Stated by Alireza Fattahian, the defector who has recently managed to flee the terrorist cult, MKO has started a new round of training to bludgeon Ashraf residents into a bloody resistance and confrontation:

Hundreds of vehicles equipped with a variety of cameras are on a 24 hour patrol round the camp to announce red alert as soon as sensing any suspicious move. On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays the members undergo self-defense trainings by using non-fire arms like knives and bow and arrows. The latter is so sophisticatedly made that easily penetrate any common protective jackets. They have also devised petrol-filled capsules wrapped in cloth that can be catapulted far away. Another creative weapon is a very sharp, short knife carried under clothes to be used in close man to man encounters. As there is an anchor rope that is used to pull away the forces. They have recently crafted a hand-grenade-like pack filled with wax-like material to stun whoever intends to harass their women members. They have prepared especial green, thick and shockproof military uniforms to ward off blows by the security forces. The trainings, started three months ago, begin from 6 in the morning to 12.

The disclosure that reveals only some aspects of MKO’s harsh defensive reaction against lawful measures to evacuate Ashraf has frustrated the group since it is recently engaged in a vast propaganda blitz to influence the public opinion and to show how it has been oppressed and victimized. No doubt, Ashraf is a crisis and tense stalemate the Iraqi Government has to deal with but it seems that it lacks the needed decisiveness and experience when coming to treat with an aggressive group like MKO. It is a proven fact that the more lenient it is toward the group to arrive at a peaceful solution the more aggressive and violent attitude the terrorists emit. The government’s withdrawal after the last July’s bloody clash with Ashraf residents, who demonstrated their potentialities in creating big crises through self-destructive practices, has emboldened them to strengthen for later encounters if the Iraqis ever dare.

In the interim, MKO anticipates that two outlooks will be possibly promising to reach a conclusion. First, to postpone, and if possible to wholly resolve, the issue of relocation and evacuation of Ashraf and second, to impose legal leverages on Iraqi authorities that, as Rajavi has reiterated, will be to the group’s advantages. At least the Iraqi Government, in its rather long tension with MKO, should have learnt that Rajavi never assents to any peaceful or moderate solution. But, does it mean that the tragic armageddon between the two is inevitable?

The answer can be either yes or no depending on the extent of the government’s cooperation with the defected members and benefitting their experiences that will be of advantage to it. Although the Iraqis have become familiar with some aspects of the terrorist cult, but to deal with a cult like MKO requires its own especial approaches since it is hard to evaluate the costs of encountering a terrorist cult that has already proved its potentialities in inflicting irreparable social damages and committing self-destructive activities.

Rajavi knows well that the closure of Ashraf is the beginning of its cult’s decline since nothing can guarantee what happens to the relocated members; it is the concentration of members and regular cultic instillations that ensures the integrity of the cult. The group needs a closed bastion under its own control so as not to wound the integrity of its central tenets that might cause permanent disillusionment and disintegration of the members. At the same time, it must sufficiently mute the active condemnation of internal and external critics and dissidents. Thus, a tragic end will be an inevitable solution which will put all costs on the Iraqi Government to hold it accountable for the bloods shed.

The Iraqi authorities must give serious considerations to the warnings of those who are detached from the body of the organization and can share valuable information and experiences. They have now the opportunity of taking advantage of the international supervising organizations and bodies as well as the media to fully control and watch the moves of MKO and its suspicious practices within the walls of Camp Ashraf before it is too late. At least, the public opinion, advocates of MKO and even the victims themselves will come to know who is the real responsible for any tragic event the organization is preparing to instigate at the ripe time.

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However, this issue has been ignored by the US forces while taking the control of camp Ashraf, the cultic bastion of the notorious terrorist cult of Mojahedin. Surprisingly enough, the Americans’ negligence in this regard not only led to the stability of organizational relations of Mojahedin but also resulted in a number of negative consequences like illegal resistance of Ashraf residents against the legal demands of Iraqi government.

The statements made after the process of transitions in Iraq resulting in Iraqi forces’ taking control of camp Ashraf imply that the American forces have behaved passively toward Mojahedin taking no preventive measure against them. In fact, since the fall of Saddam up to the deployment of Iraqi police in camp Ashraf, no effort has been made for the organizational dissolution of Mojahedin. Seemingly, this is the reason why Mojahedin disagreed to let the Iraqi police in.

Considerable evidences indicate that the coalition forces and the Americans were so indifferent and passive toward Mojahedin that they never cared about the authoritarian approaches of MKO’s leaders exerted on MKO Ashraf residents and also failed to prevent the exit of opposition forces from Ashraf based on some hidden agreements made between Ashraf leaders and the US commanders.

In fact, there was no control and surveillance on the internal and external relations of Mojahedin. There are many reports that verify the active cooperation between the US commanders and Ashraf leaders. There are numerous evidences indicating that American forces were obliged to classify organizational and military forces of Mojahedin based on their rank and control them separately but they refrained to do so and in some points it seemed that Mojahedin had the upper hand compared to the invading forces.

What is of great importance is that Mojahedin have been aware that the presence of Iraqi police in camp Ashraf will not be limited a physical presence. The reason of the violent reactions of Mojahedin and victimizing Ashraf residents in the course of June events is in this regard.

According to the statements of Iraqi officials, the palisades inside camp Ashraf are mainly used for controlling Ashraf residents, their movements, and relations and imply the complexity and organizational hierarchy of MKO. While the control of camp Ashraf was in the hands of the US forces, Mojahedin felt safe; however, the presence of Iraqi police in Ashraf as well as removing the palisades poses a threat to MKO leaders loosing the control of their bastion. In fact, the measures had to be implemented on Mojahedin seven years ago are just on the agenda of Iraqi officials. These are the primary steps for setting MKO rank and files free from cultic relations of Mojahedin.

Footages of the human shield of MKO members in complaint to the removal of palisades by Iraqi police shown in Mojahedin TV indicate the importance of these fences as a symbol of the internal and closed relations of Mojahedin. This action as well as separating MKO leaders from the rank and files may pave the way for dissidents to leave camp Ashraf and find the chance to govern their own destiny free from the cultic bonds of the organization. The demolishing of the strategic and ideological container of Mojahedin, camp Ashraf, should have been accomplished right after the invasion of coalition and American forces. Now, the presence of Iraqi forces in camp Ashraf is a step forward to fulfill the objective; the harsh backlash of Mojahedin leaders was not unexpected since it challenged its cultic sovereignty.

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BAGHDAD – The number of Iraqi soldiers and police has strained the government’s budget, hindering reconstruction projects, Iraq’s prime minister said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said more of next year’s budget should go to reconstruction rather than security, setting the stage for possible layoffs at a time when questions have been raised about the ability of its existing force to keep a lid on the violence.

The comments came the same day that a group of 36 Iranian opposition members were returned to an exile camp in northern Iraq after nearly three months in Iraqi custody and despite an ongoing effort to expel them, a government spokesman said.

About three-quarters of Iraq’s budget was used to pay salaries and operations of Iraq’s more than 640,000 security personnel, al-Maliki said.

"This is a dangerous phenomena for the Iraqi economy," he told a group of businessmen gathered in Baghdad. "Instead of allocating 74 percent of this year’s budget to pay salaries, we think that a big part of our budget should go to construction."

The comments came a week after Iraq’s deputy finance minister said that although the proposed $70 billion budget for 2010 is almost 20 percent higher than the one this year, it still falls short of the country’s funding needs.

It is unclear when parliament will vote on the budget.

The 36 Iranian opposition members were returned to Camp Ashraf, where nearly 3,500 members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran have been confined since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, while the Iraqi government works to find a country other than Iran that will take them, said spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

"We demand the international community help provide a place for them because they are unwanted persons," al-Dabbagh said. "We are looking for a country that is willing to accept them."

The 36 were detained in July following a deadly melee between the exiles and Iraqi security forces at the camp, an incident that caused an international outcry from human rights groups and raised questions about the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government’s ties to Iran.

The men were detained during two days of confrontations at the camp that left at least 11 people dead — shot, beaten or run over by military vehicles, officials have said.
The opposition group claimed the 36 were on a hunger strike during their detention and were in a weakened state when they arrived back at Camp Ashraf.

The Iraqi government has said it was trying to establish a police station at Camp Ashraf and blamed the violence on the resistance by Iranian exiles.
Iraqi judicial authorities did not pursue charges against the men after their detention and ordered them freed.

The group, known as MEK, operated for years in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military turned over responsibility for Camp Ashraf to the Iraqis on Jan. 1.
The U.S. considers MEK a terrorist organization, though one that has provided the Americans with intelligence on Iran. The European Union removed it from its terror list this year.

SAMEER N. YACOUB
Associated Press Writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

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The US ambassador to Baghdad has recently advised the Iraqi government to soften its stance on the members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).

Iraqis believe that the move is in parallel with part of MKO’s efforts to extend their stay in Iraq and to bring Camp Ashraf under US control.

The US military officially handed over the control of the camp — which houses MKO members regarded by NATO forces as protected under the Geneva Conventions — to the Iraqi government in January, 2009.

Baghdad has repeatedly vowed to shut down the camp and expel MKO members from the country.

Adnan al-Seraj, the head of the Center for Iraq Media Development, on Wednesday described the US embassy’s support for the MKO as an apparent violation of the principle of the Washington-Baghdad security pact, and called for the immediate expulsion of MKO members.

Iraqis have also criticized some internal media for their coverage of stories calling for the release of 36 MKO members detained in a raid by Iraqi security forces on July 28.
Over the past couple of days, a number of Iraqi newspapers and TV stations, affiliated with the Baath Party of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, have carried advertisements backing the release of MKO members.

One ad, containing the pictures of the 36 detainees and also published in the Washington Times, says the group’s members were arrested for assaulting Iraqi troops during the unrest in the Camp Ashraf, while Iraqi police say they were detained for ‘illegal entry’ to the country.

Analysts believe that the recent media campaign to portray MKO members as victims, aims at pressing the Iraqi government to allow the terrorist group stay in the country, and to bring the facility under the US military protection again.

Most Iraqis, however, want the terrorist group, which carried operations against Iraqi Kurds and Shias during the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein, out of their country.
The MKO is also responsible for several acts of terror in Iran including the 1994 bombing of a revered Shia shrine in Mashhad, eastern Iran.

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The 3416 individuals inside Camp Ashraf have no legal status in Iraq. They are not entitled to ‘protected persons’ status under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Neither will they be granted political refugee status by Iraq. Nor will Iraq forcibly repatriate them. But, although the MKO has been de-proscribed, at its own behest, as a terrorist group in Europe, no western country is willing to offer asylum to the individuals — even though 1015 MKO members have a passport or residence permit of a third country. After months of fruitless negotiations with MKO leaders — with U.S. observation — a police post was established inside Camp Ashraf at the end of July. In spite of violent resistance by the MKO which led to 11 deaths, the camp residents are now subject to Iraqi law. Following evidence that MKO leaders were committing widespread and systematic human rights abuses inside the camp, the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry, in conjunction with international humanitarian agencies, is now set to properly monitor activity at the camp.

Massoud Khodabandeh made several recommendations in his report. The Government of Iraq should remove around seventy MKO leaders in order to protect the rank and file members from human rights abuses and coercion. The camp must be thoroughly searched — something the U.S. Army failed to do since 2003.

Stressing that western governments bear a responsibility toward the MKO’s victims trapped inside Camp Ashraf, Mr. Khodabandeh says that western politicians must prevent further political abuse of MKO members by the Rajavi leadership and guarantee the rights of those individuals who renounce violence and are willing to return to society. European governments should work with Iraq and the UN to find third countries to which other individuals in Camp Ashraf can be transferred.

For more information contact: Anne Singleton +44 (0) 113 278 0503

Link to the first report:
https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/1710

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The women formed a human chain while the men chanted, confronting Iraqi troops moving into their compound. Gunfire rang out, and the soldiers waded in with batons, wooden bats and automatic weapons.

By the end, officials said, 11 Iranian exiles were dead _ shot, beaten or run over by military vehicles.

Throughout the confrontation, American soldiers who once protected the Iranian opposition group stood by. According to U.S officials, they had no legal authority to intervene. One video taken by the exiles even shows soldiers get into a white SUV and roll up their windows as the bloodied men plead for help.

The deadly melee at Camp Ashraf, the base of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, provides a glaring example of what can go wrong as the U.S. military scales back and the Shiite-led Iraqi government flexes its muscles.

The U.S. military guarded the camp since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 under an agreement that made its 3,400 residents "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions. The military stopped observing the agreement after a new security accord with the Baghdad government took effect in January, U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip Frayne said.
 
Responsibility for the camp then passed to the Iraqi government, which promised not to use force against the group. A small contingent of U.S. military police still monitors the camp, but the military said they were under orders not to intervene in the July 28 confrontation.

"We could not become decisively engaged with a situation that really is up to the sovereign Iraqi government to settle in a peaceful manner as they have assured us that they would do," a senior U.S. military official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"Even in a situation that allowed engagement, we didn’t have nearly the amount of forces present to jump in the middle of this fray," he said.

Iraqi officials said they were trying to establish a police station at the camp. And there are numerous other issues on which the Iraqi government could go its own way _ like the fate of anti-al-Qaida Sunni militias, which are strongly supported by the U.S. but now seem to get less backing from Iraq’s Shiite leaders, or the multiple disputes between Baghdad and the Kurdish north, which the U.S. has sought to mollify lest they explode into violence.

"These kinds of things are only going to happen more often and in other places, and the U.S. has to decide what are we going to do about it," said Army Reserve Col. Gary Morsch, who was stationed at Camp Ashraf and maintains close ties with the exiles there.

The bloodshed brought rare criticism by Washington of the U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces. But U.S. officials tried to balance it with the larger policy goal of handing over greater responsibility to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki while U.S. forces reduce their presence.

"Iraq was trying to extend its sovereignty to Camp Ashraf. We understood what they were trying to do. They did not do it well," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington two weeks after the raid.

Camp Ashraf and the presence of the Iranian exile group have long been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad. For years, Iraq’s Shiite-led government has wanted to remove the group, because of its past ties to Saddam. Iran, a close Shiite ally of Baghdad, has also been pressing for the expulsion of the group, which seeks the overthrow of Tehran’s clerical rulers.

The Iraqi treatment of the exiles could also be an indicator that Iran’s influence in Baghdad is growing as Washington’s wanes, though Iraqi officials staunchly deny the raid was at Tehran’s behest.

"If you want to know how independent the government of Iraq is from the Islamic Republic of Iran, watch what happens to the people of Ashraf," said Raymond Tanter, president of the Wshington-based Iran Policy Group and a member of the National Security Council in the Reagan administration.

Baghdad "wanted to establish its independence from the United States and possibly was motivated to show that independence by cracking down on Ashraf," he said, pointing out the raid coincided with a Baghdad visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The People’s Mujahedeen is deeply controversial. Critics call it a cult with an ideology mixing Marxism, secularism, an obsession with martyrdom and near adoration of its leaders. The U.S. considers it a terrorist organization, albeit one that has provided the Americans with intelligence on Iran. The European Union removed it from its terror list this year.

The group _ also known by its Farsi name the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq _ is the militant wing of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. It carried out a series of bloody bombings and assassinations in Iran in the 1980s, though it says it renounced violence in 2001.

The MEK fought alongside Saddam’s forces during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, and Saddam set up a number of bases for them _ including Camp Ashraf, their last remaining foothold in Iraq, located in a barren desert stretch north of Baghdad, 50 miles from the Iranian border.

After Saddam fell, U.S. troops took control of Camp Ashraf and disarmed its fighters, confining them to the 30-square-mile compound. In return, the military signed the agreement with the camp’s residents giving them protected status.

The exiles transformed Camp Ashraf into an oasis of well-kept gardens, water fountains and palm trees along marked-out streets, where the residents _ including 900 women _ live in barracks-like housing segregated by sex. Morsch, 58, of Bucyrus, Kan., recalls how American soldiers guarding the camp got to know the residents well, sharing meals and inviting each other to celebrations.

The government has barred media visits to the camp since the raid.
The Iraqi government says it was exerting its right to establish a police station in Camp Ashraf and blames the violence on the resistance by Iranian exiles. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told the AP on Monday that the forces entering to set up the station were met by "demonstrations with people wielding sticks, swords and knives."

The U.S. military sent a medical team into the camp two days after the raid and 19 people were transported to an American hospital with serious injuries. Iraqi forces also detained 36 men accused of violently resisting the raid, prompting a hunger strike by some camp residents demanding their release.
The fate of Camp Ashraf’s residents remains up in the air.

The Iraqi government has forwarded several proposals, including sending them to third countries other than Iran, where they would face possible execution. "The world has to help us find a place for them," al-Dabbagh said, reiterating the promise to treat them humanely and not to forcibly expel them. "We cannot accept the presence of such an organization inside Iraq."

The People’s Mujahedeen insists that the protected status agreement has not expired because of a clause saying it is valid until the situation is resolved. The group has called on the Americans to reassert control over the camp until another arrangement could be made, such as the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.

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A former member of the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) claims the US turned a blind eye to the terrorist nature of the ‘Rajavi cult’.

Mohammad-Hossein Sobhani, 49, from the central Iranian town of Saveh, came into contact with the MKO two years before the 1979 revolution in Iran, which overthrew the pro-US Iranian monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Five year later, after working in the organization’s administrative and student departments, he was whisked away to Iraq to assume his role”as a unit commander at the training school for urban guerrilla warfare.”

After questioning the organization’s”armed struggle and presence in Iraq”, Sobhani claims he was beaten, tortured and”held in solitary confinement for eight-and-a-half years, from September 1992 to January 2001.”

“The reason why I started to raise my objection was that I believed that the strategies employed by Masoud Rajavi were meant to secure his domination on its members,”Sobhani said in an exclusive interview with Press TV.

The former senior MKO official said Rajavi resorted to”cult-like”practices, including forced divorce and celibacy.

He would separate couples claiming that”such practices would liberate the members”from competing loyalties. Their children were also sent to European countries, Sobhani said.

“Rajavi would justify forced divorces by claiming that these practices would free a member, and pave the way to transform a micro society into a macro one and overthrow the Islamic Republic,”Sobhani said.

During his interview, he also claimed that because”the organization forbids matrimony, for the past 25 years no child has been born to a man and woman inside the organization.”
He said the US had committed a colossal mistake in not dealing with the residents of the MKO training camp in eastern Iraq, known as Camp Ashraf.

The camp, home to 3,400 Iranians loyal to Rajavi, was the base for operations against the Tehran government during the eight-year war as well as operations against Iraqi Kurds and Shias during the 1991 uprising against former dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Rajavi maintained a mercenary-like relationship with Saddam Hossein, after Iraq’s invasion he wanted to forge the same relationship with the Americans so he announced that he was ready to [willingly] lay dawn his arms,”Sobhani explained.

“Although the Americans were fully aware of the fact that the MKO was a terrorist organization, they still cooperated with Rajavi,”he claimed.

Americans in Iran were one of the primary targets of the group throughout the 1970s. They assassinated a number of American citizens, namely William C. Cottrell, Colonel Lewis L. Hawkins, Donald G. Smith, and Colonel Jack Turner inside Iran.

“As a former member of the group, I feel that the Americans have made a grave mistake with regards to the organization. Six years after overthrowing Saddam, the MKO is still brainwashing the residents of Ashraf Camp with the help of the Americans,”Sobhani said.

The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its top leadership and members fled the country some twenty years later after carrying out numerous acts of terror inside the country.

The group masterminded a series of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, including the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 senior Iranian officials were killed, including the then Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.

Download MKO dissident broaches US ties with Rajavi cult

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Americans troops had guarded the camp since 2003, but recently handed over responsibility to Iraqi forces. Baghdad promised that the exiles would be protected.

There is no authoritative version of events, but it does not look as if that promise is being kept. The Iraqi government claims the exiles threw stones and Molotov cocktails when Iraqi forces entered the camp, ostensibly to establish a police post. The exiles have video showing Iraqi forces beating people with clubs and charging them with vehicles. The administration’s response has been weak. Officials say they will press Iraq to fulfill its promises but can only do so much now that Iraq is in charge.

The camp’s residents are members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), which is committed to overthrowing Tehran’s government. Saddam Hussein welcomed them to Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war and they have lived at the camp ever since.

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government now has good relations with Iran and little enthusiasm for the MEK. The Americans are at best ambivalent. The group, which some consider a cult, is on the American terrorism list for attacks against the United States (in the distant past) and more recently against Iran. In 2004, the United States — seeking to stabilize Iraq — recognized the camp’s residents as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention, after they signed statements renouncing terrorism and gave up their weapons.

Residents say that Washington has now betrayed that commitment. They have a legitimate complaint. But the MEK has also made no effort to reduce tensions with the Iraqis.

The United States should not retake control of Camp Ashraf. But it must warn Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that it will more closely monitor how the exiles are treated. Iraq’s government must formally charge those arrested, give them a fair trial and take steps to avoid a repeat of last month’s bloodshed. If Iraq is determined to close the camp, Washington, Baghdad and the United Nations should develop a process.

Residents are barred from resettling in many third countries because of the group’s terrorist designation. Finding a solution will not be easy, but none of the exiles should be forcibly returned to Iran.

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