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Camp Liberty

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Unique Footage from inside MKO’s Camp Liberty in Iraq’s Baghdad

Al-Alam News Network has reported exclusively for the first time from inside the camp known as the”Liberty”that elements of the MKO terrorists were held there for years.

Camp Liberty is a former United States military installation in Baghdad which has been used from 2012 to 2016 to house 3000 members of MKO terrorists, Al-Alam News Network correspondent reported on Tuesday.

Al-Alam News Network correspondent Wesam Al-Tamimi has assured that the Al-Alam team was the first TV network which succeeded to produce a report from inside the Camp Liberty.

The MKO has assassinated over 12,000 Iranians in the last 4 decades. The terrorist group had even killed large numbers of Americans and Europeans in several terror attacks before the 1979 Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Lastly, the United States has helped the last group of the MKO terrorists to escape from Iraq to Albania in September 2016.

Download Unique Footage from inside MKO’s Camp Liberty in Iraq’s Baghdad

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Camp Liberty

Final group of Iranian dissidents leaves Iraq camp

BAGHDAD — A camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group in Iraq was officially closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania on Friday, the group said.

FILE – In this Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 file photo, members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq organization seen inside the Liberty refugee camp in Baghdad, Iraq. The Iranian opposition group said Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 that a camp housing its members in Iraq has been officially closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania. The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq has been based in Iraq since the 1980s, when they received arms and support from Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. (Hadi Mizban, File/Associated Press)

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq has been based in Iraq since the 1980s, when they received arms and support from Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. U.S.-led forces disarmed the group after the 2003 invasion and settled them at a base north of Baghdad.

Late Friday night a car bomb targeting a shopping mall in eastern Baghdad killed 11 people and wounded 28, according to police and hospital officials. Three Iraqi policemen were among the dead, the officials added.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the press.

The attack comes as Iraqi ground forces are moving into position around Mosul ahead of a planned operation to retake the militant-held city from the Islamic State group.

The Iranian opposition group, whose members who were flown out of Iraq Friday, was listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department for years over its killing of Americans. The MEK was also accused of taking part in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam, allegations denied by the group.

The MEK says it renounced violence in 2001. The U.S. military in Iraq signed an agreement with the group in 2004, promising that members would be treated as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The State Department removed the group from its list of terrorist organizations in 2012.

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau thanked the governments of Albania and Iraq.

“We are grateful to the Government of Iraq for facilitating the departure of the MEK. And we are specially appreciative of the extraordinary efforts of the Albanian Government, the Albanian Prime Mister Rama, to welcome these people who are in need of international protection,” Trudeau said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked member states and international organizations for “the successful resolution of this humanitarian issue,” in statement issued by his spokesman.

Iraqi forces raided Camp Ashraf, the group’s longtime base north of Baghdad, in 2009, shortly after U.S.-led forces handed over responsibility for the camp to the Iraqi government. The group was later relocated to a former military base in the capital.

Armed groups have repeatedly attacked the group since Saddam’s ouster, killing scores of its members.

While the casualty figures could often not be independently verified, the United Nations repeatedly expressed concern about the safety and security of residents of the group’s camps.

The group said last year that more than 20 members were killed in a missile attack on their camp, but the figure could not be independently verified and the MEK has made exaggerated claims to the media in the past.

By Qassam Abdul-Zahra , Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report.

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Camp Liberty

Mojahedin Khalq finally expelled from Iraq

The remaining members of an exiled Iranian opposition group based in Iraq for decades left on Friday for resettlement in Albania following several attacks on their camps in recent years.

More than 280 members of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) living at Camp Liberty, next to Baghdad International Airport, departed from Iraq, the group said in a statement.

Under a deal brokered by the United States and the United Nations refugee agency, almost 2,000 dissident Iranians have been resettled in nearly a dozen European countries since the start of 2016.

Until a few years ago, PMOI, also known by its Farsi name Mujahideen-e-Khalq Organisation (MKO), was listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

The group sided with Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s war with Iran in the 1980s but fell out of favour with Baghdad after he was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

A rocket attack claimed by a Shi’ite Muslim militia in October killed 23 PMOI members.

The group has offices in the United States and Europe.

The remaining Iranian dissidents in Iraq, who seek the overthrow of Iran’s clerical leadership established by the 1979 Islamic revolution, were disarmed after Saddam’s fall and later moved to Camp Liberty.

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Camp Liberty

Pictorial – sixth group of families in front of Camp Liberty

Families of Liberty residents gathered in front of the camp gates for the sixth time, on July 31st afternoon.

Picketing families are from various provinces from all over Iran. According to the authorities, about a hundred more are seeking to obtain Iraqi visa to join the campaign. This has been the biggest campaign run by families in order to release individuals who are taken as hostages by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization( the MKO/the Cult of Rajavi), although the security situation of Iraq is not proper as well as the weather.

sixth group of families in front of Camp Liberty

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Camp Liberty

Prospects for relocating all residents out of Iraq in 2016 at their most buoyant

Update N° 14

Update on the implementation of solutions for residents of Hurriya Temporary Transit Location (TTL)

 The relocation of residents of the Hurriya Temporary Transit Location (TTL) out of Iraq continues to maintain momentum, with more than 1700 residents having now been relocated to a situation of safety in third countries. This represents a significant milestone: more than half of the residents registered by UNHCR have now been successfully relocated.

Prospects for relocating all residents out of Iraq in 2016 are at their most buoyant since international efforts to find solutions began in 2011. UNHCR is supporting a steady and growing stream of movements out of Iraq in coming months. It is hoped that the process will be completed well before year end.

This progress has been achieved with the cooperation of the residents who have proceeded with the relocation process despite difficult circumstances, including the attack on 4 July 2016, which fortunately did not result in any casualties. 

Ongoing success in the implementation of solutions has also been assisted by the residents’ commitment to meeting the bulk of the associated costs, particularly for long term support of all residents relocated out of Iraq who have no access to state-sponsored assistance. This commitment is crucial to the ongoing implementation of solutions for the group.

UNHCR deeply appreciates the measures taken by some countries to relocate residents to situations of safety and security. Albania’s exceptional contribution to this humanitarian endeavour merits special note, as Albania has received a significant proportion of the residents who have been relocated. Likewise, the United States has been actively supporting the relocations in a number of ways, and without those sustained and concerted efforts, the progress reported here could not have been achieved.

Despite noteworthy progress made over the last two years, UNHCR maintains its call upon States to find ways to offer long term solutions for the residents in the Hurriya TTL and to do so with urgency. This appeal should be read in light of the potential for more attacks on the Hurriya TTL, as has been recently witnessed. This emphasizes the need for quick and pragmatic action on the part of States to ensure that these people are very swiftly relocated to a situation of safety and security.

UNHCR continues to call upon the Government of Iraq to take all possible measures to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, including ensuring access to life saving medical treatment and assistance with the provision of goods and services to enable the residents to make arrangements for their own protection.

UNHCR also recalls the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Iraq and the United Nations explicitly recognizes that residents benefit from the principle of non-refoulement.

UNHCR, Geneva,

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Camp Liberty

40 Wounded As Rockets Fired at Mojahedin Khalq (MeK) Camp Liberty

At least 40 people were wounded today when rocket fire landed at Camp Liberty, a base of operations of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK), with the attacks causing considerable destruction and leaving several large craters in the camp.

A former US military base near the Baghdad Airport, Camp Liberty was where the MeK, an ally of Saddam Hussein, was relocated after their expulsion from Camp Ashraf. The group is considered a terrorist organization in Iraq and Iran, though US pressure has kept meant they’ve mostly just been left alone at the camp, with Iraq eager to be rid of them outright.

The MeK spokesmen are accusing groups “affiliated” with Iran of being behind the attack, and indeed Shi’ite militias have been responsible for previous attacks. So far there has been no claim of responsibility for the latest strike.

The MeK was also listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department for decades, though heavy lobbying by the group and a number of hawkish politicians believing they could make the MeK an ally against Iran ultimately ended that designation. Canada and the European Union have also removed the designation in recent years.

The UN has been trying to relocate the MeK out of Iraq, but has only managed to remove about a third of them as of the most recent reports. That leaves nearly 2,000 still stuck at Camp Liberty.

Jason Ditz,

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Camp Liberty

Rockets target Iran exiles at Iraq camp Liberty

A barrage of rockets targeted a camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group near Baghdad on Monday, injuring several people, an Iraqi security spokesman and the exiles said.

The People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) members are waiting at the camp to be resettled outside the country.

The camp was targeted in a rocket attack last year that killed at least 26 people.

"A number of rockets fell on Camp Liberty," Baghdad Operations Command spokesman Saad Maan said in a statement, referring to the camp where the PMOI members are housed.

Maan said that some 20 rockets were launched towards the camp from a truck in an area west of Baghdad, some of which fell short, wounding Iraqi civilians.

"According to reports from Camp Liberty, as of midnight tonight, more than 40 residents were wounded or injured in the missile attack on the camp," the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the PMOI’s parent organisation, said in a statement.

The statement blamed Iran-affiliated militias for carrying out the attack.

Powerful Shiite militia forces that are hostile to the PMOI are present in areas west of Baghdad, while the Islamic State jihadist group lacks the interest to attack the group.

Camp Liberty, a former US military base, has since 2012 housed members of the PMOI, a group that originally opposed the shah but later fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces against Iran’s clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The PMOI was also accused by the US State Department of taking part in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam, making it widely reviled by members of the country’s Shiite majority, which came to power after 2003. It has denied the accusations.

The exiles have been repeatedly targeted in the years after being disarmed following Saddam’s overthrow, with dozens of its members killed in attacks it generally blamed on Iranian and Iraqi authorities.

At least 26 people were killed and many more wounded in a rocket attack on Camp Liberty last October, according to the United Nations.

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Camp Liberty

MEK leaders in Camp Liberty admit conditions and security are well above basic standards

Charlotte Leslie Conservative, Bristol North West

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the human rights situation in Camp Liberty, Iraq.

Tobias Ellwood The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

We remain concerned about the residents of Camp Liberty. Our Embassy in Baghdad regularly raises this issue with the Government of Iraq and we support the United Nations’ calls for more to be done to protect residents. We are working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to relocate all the residents to safe third countries.That being said, Monitors from the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) regularly visit Camp Liberty and issue daily reports which provide an update on the situation there. Their assessment remains that the provision of life support systems such as water, electricity and food continue to be well in excess of basic humanitarian standards. They have reported that the relocation of protective bunkers and installation of additional protective concrete walls, to increase the security and safety of the residents, has been completed. Iraqi government officials have reported that diesel tankers and trucks containing food and other supplies continue to routinely enter the camp, that residents continue to be referred to hospitals and that the clinic remains in operation. Residents’ representatives have confirmed this to be accurate.

Theyworkforyou.com

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Camp Liberty

Suffering parents of MKO hostages in front of Camp Liberty

A number of families of residents of Camp Liberty picketed in front of the camp advocating the release of their loved ones taken as hostages by the leaders of the Mujahedin Khalq.

48 people including families of Ashraf residents traveled to Baghdad , Iraq from Fars, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Kermanshah, Qazvin and Tehran on Saturday May21st, 2016. They went to gate of Camp Liberty the next morning and launched their campaign to call on their loved ones in the Camp who have had no contact with them for years now. The families have had no information on the physical and mental conditions of their children since they were recruited by the MKO. The group has kept members in isolation under a sever manipulation system.

Suffering parents, brothers and sisters of the MKO members have one main demand; a free visit with their beloved ones. However, families were faced with harsh behavior of the guards of the camp who had covered their faces. They were filming families carrying cameras while insulting them from time to time.

But families offered them, flowers and candies and told them about their real request which was getting some information about their loved ones but an MKO guard hit the candy container and offended them.

Nevertheless, picketing people kept calm and repeated their demand. A grieving brother tried to give them some photos of former members who previously left the group — to encourage them to leave the camp– but the guard threw back the photos torn!

On the other side of the walls and curtains some residents of the camp were seen from a narrow split between the wall and curtain. They looked sad and depressed regretting the free world. Eventually the split was covered by a cloth.

This is the fifth time that families of MKO hostages go to the gate of Camp Liberty and they do not succeed to visit their beloveds. Although, they know that the MKO leaders will not allow them to see their children, they repeat their campaign because no other way is left for them.

 Unfortunately, Rajavi still has an absolute rule over his members exploiting and abusing them and there are still authorities who ignore the sever violation of human rights that takes place in the cult-like MKO under the rule of Massoud Rajavi.  

Translated by Nejat Society,

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