Following a raid by the Iraqi military on the headquarters of the terrorist group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has suggested that “countries who care about the fate and human rights of this group’s action … should welcome them and they should resettle them in their countries.”
… Founded by Iranian students in the mid-1960’s, the People’s Mujahedin mixed Marxist, left-wing and Islamic ideology. In those early days they fought against the then-Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, then briefly sided with the country’s new rulers after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. According to the U.S. State Department, the Mujahedin were linked to the killing of at least six U.S. military and civilian personnel in Iran before the revolution and were involved in the invasion of the U.S. Embassy and the capture of U.S. diplomats as hostages in the months that followed. The State Department put the group on its list of foreign terrorists in the 1990s and it remains on the list to this day …
..the MEK should not be declassified as a terrorist group, or for that matter receive any U.S. backing, for several reasons…Those who argue for backing the MEK aka MKO/PMOI because it would allegedly help destabilize the regime in Tehran give no specific recommendations, meanwhile affirming that they do not endorse the MEK as future rulers of Iran…Although the U.S. government should urge the Iraqi government to treat MEK members humanely, it must not remove the group from the list of terrorist organizations, or work with it in any way.
… The Iraqi Constitution prohibits the presence of mujahedin or any other militia groups from neighboring countries, whether it’s the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party], whether it’s the PJAK [Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan], or whoever to have presence on Iraqi territory and to launch attacks against our neighbors. Constitutionally, this is not allowed and the mujahedin or the MEK/MKO/PMOI member [Mujahedin-e Khalq] of the Ashraf camp have to respect Iraqi law..
..An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Saad al-Matalabi, said forensic tests that included US experts have been completed on the bodies[of MKO/MEK/PMOI members] to determine whether a medical team’s initial findings had been correct…“They were shot execution-style,” Mr. al-Mutalibi told the Monitor. “The first medical reports indicated they were shot at very close range – gunpowder was found on the wounds.”He also said they appear to be have been shot with handguns rather than the rifles used by the Iraqi military.
… A classic example of this is when you look at the American and Israeli support of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, which was killing Americans in Iran back in the 1970’s during the Pahlavi era. But it has certainly become convenient for the United States and Israel to have an alliance with this so-called Marxist terrorist organization as long as these people are doing their bidding in Iran ..It is also noteworthy that the Saudi Arabian regime has been helping to bankroll this Mujahedin-e-Khalq or MEK …
… Although the camp was disarmed in 2003 by the U.S. military, both Baghdad and Washington consider the MEK aka MKO/PMOIa terrorist organization. Washington has blacklisted the group for its attacks against U.S. interests in the 1970s and ’80s. Iraqi officials have frequently said the Iranian exiles are”illegal aliens”with no legal right to remain in the country and that they must travel to either Iran or another country. They have repeatedly warned that they will close the camp, which was under U.S. military protection until 2009,..
… Deaths resulting from an Iraqi army raid on an Iranian opposition[MKO/MEK/PMOI] camp on its soil were caused by the camp’s[Ashraf] own guards firing on residents attempting to escape, an Iraqi spokesman said Thursday. The comments from Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh came shortly after a United Nations spokesman in New York said 34 people were killed in the April 8 raid on Camp Ashraf, the residence of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI), in Diyala province north of Baghdad. ..
Some Iraqi lawmakers supported the decision by the government to end the file of Mojahedin-e-Khalq-e-Iran Organization(MKO)..Speaking to AKnews, Zeinab al-Tayee from Ahrar Party accused the organization of”being funded by terrorist groups.”..Tayee said her party backs expelling MKO from Iraq and hoped the decision comes into effect as soon as possible..Tayee reiterated the presence of the group is contrary to the Iraqi constitution, a point frequently raised to criticize Maliki’s government…
The group periodically conducts terrorist acts against the Islamic Republic. As a matter of fact, it is the USA and the EU that use the group for their political purposes to destabilize Iran. The West hopes that the group will become a tool to tame Iran. As for Mujaheddins[MKO/MEK/PMOI], they have been cooperating with the West actively for over 20 years already. They used to have their one and only strongman – Saddam Hussein, Iran’s sworn enemy. He could use them in his own interests whenever he wanted to.