US troops to hand over major military base to Iraqi forces
… The US Army hands over an American military base near a compound housing an Iranian 
opposition group known as Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) to the Iraqi security forces. the step was taken as the US says it is preparing to withdraw its troops from Iraq by 2011 …Download US Troops left FOB GRIZZLY
The U.S. military will relinquish control of a base near a compound housing an Iranian opposition group next month, a move that will close a chapter on one of the most intractable issues in U.S.-Iraqi relations.
The presence of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran at Camp Ashraf has long been an irritant to Iraq’s Shiite-led government, and the exiles expressed fear that they would face violence without the Americans there to protect them.
The announcement Thursday of the base closure on July 1 came nearly a year after Iraqi security forces raided the camp, prompting a melee that officials said left 11 residents dead and dozens injured.
The U.S. military guarded the camp since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 under an agreement that made its more than 3,000 residents "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions. The military stopped observing the agreement after a new security accord with the Baghdad government took effect last year but maintained the nearby base.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bob Owen said Thursday that the closure of the base known as Camp Grizzly is part of the transition as American forces prepare to leave the country by the end of next year.
"U.S. forces will continue to reduce our footprint in Iraq, and this is another base that will be turned over to the (Iraqi government) as we continue our transition to stability operations," he said.
Members of the Iranian faction, which fought with Saddam Hussein’s forces against Tehran in the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, have made several claims about a host of alleged abuses and pressure tactics by Iraqi authorities who are eager to oust them from the country.
Ashraf’s residents are very reluctant to leave the camp because of fear of being detained and threatened with deportation.
Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment. In the past, the government has said the exiles will not be forcibly returned to Iran, where the Islamic leadership considers the People’s Mujahedeen, or MEK, an enemy of the state.
The United States lists the MEK as a terrorist organization, though one that has provided the Americans with intelligence on Iran. The European Union removed it from its terror list last year.
A member of the European Parliament sent a letter this week to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raising concern about a U.S. departure from the area.
Struan Stevenson, the European Parliament’s point man on relations with Iraq, warned it would "be an extremely dangerous development that could lead to a new humanitarian catastrophe with far greater dimensions compared to the events of last July."
Shahriar Kia, a spokesman for the group who lives at the camp, expressed fears about the future.
"The American government is responsible for the future of the people in this camp," he said in a telephone interview from the camp. "This will give a green light to the Iranian regime for any future attack especially when a new government in Iraq hasn’t been established."
Iraqi politicians are jockeying over the formation of a new government after inconclusive elections on March 7.
Iraq’s two largest Shiite political blocs signaled Thursday that their alliance is still strong by giving it a name, keeping them on track to form the core of the country’s new government.
The alliance between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition and the hard-line religious Iraqi National Alliance was created more than a month ago. But there have been no outward signs of progress on key steps toward forming the government such as bringing in other partners that would give them a ruling majority in parliament or naming a candidate for the top government job, prime minister.
With behind-the-scenes negotiations moving slowly, there has been speculation in the Iraqi media that the alliance might not last.
But in a sign of its strength, lawmaker Khalid al-Attiyah said Thursday the union will now be called "National Alliance."
He said the coalition would have 159 seats in 325-member parliament, still four seats shy of a ruling majority.
No group won an outright majority in the parliamentary election, but the rival Sunni-backed Iraqiya list claims it should be allowed to form a government because it won the most seats, with 91 compared to State of Law’s 89.
Parliament must still formally approve the National Alliance as a recognized coalition after it convenes for the first time on Monday. Lawmakers will also elect a new president, who will task the largest bloc with forming the new government — including designating a prime minister, Cabinet officials and awarding other top political jobs to supporters.
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Associated Press Writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Hadeel al-Shalchi and Lara Jakes contributed to this report
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
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a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
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On July 28, clashes erupted at Ashraf in Diyala Province when the ISF attempted to establish a police presence inside the more than 3,400-person compound of the terrorist Iranian dissident group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The clashes resulted in the deaths of 11 MEK members and injuries to 30 ISF officers. The government credibly claimed the MEK provoked the clashes by staging a violent demonstration to block the ISF from entering the compound.
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d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons
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There were allegations during the year that some of the 3,400 members of the MEK terrorist organization located at Ashraf were denied the right to leave under threat of reprisal from MEK leaders. These allegations were corroborated by several former Ashraf residents who had fled the camp. Individuals claimed to have been subjected to psychological and physical abuse, including threats of reprisal against family members and solitary confinement in Ashraf to discourage defections.
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Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses
Congressional Research Service
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RL32048
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)/Camp Ashraf
Of the groups seeking to replace rather than moderate the regime, one of the best known is the 
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).5 Secular and left-leaning, it was formed in the 1960s to try to overthrow the Shah of Iran and advocated Marxism blended with Islamic tenets. It allied with pro-Khomeini forces during the Islamic revolution and supported the November 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran but was later driven into exile. Even though it is an opponent of Tehran, since the late 1980s the State Department has refused contact with the PMOI and its umbrella organization, the National Council of Resistance (NCR). The State Department designated the PMOI as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in October 19976 and the NCR was named as an alias of the PMOI in the October 1999 re-designation. The FTO designation was prompted by PMOI attacks in Iran that sometimes kill or injure civilians—although the group does not appear to purposely target civilians. In August 14, 2003, the State Department designated the NCR offices in the United States an alias of the PMOI, and NCR and Justice Department authorities closed down those offices. The regime accuses the group of involvement in the post June 2009 presidential election violence.
The State Department report on international terrorism for 2007 asserts that the organization—and not just a radical element of the organization as the group asserts—was responsible for the alleged killing of seven American defense advisers to the former Shah in 1975-1976. The report again notes the group’s promotion of women in its ranks and again emphasizes the group’s “cultlike” character, including indoctrination of its members and separation of family members, including children, from its activists. The group’s alliance with Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980s and 1990s has contributed to the U.S. shunning of the organization.
Some advocate that the United States not only remove the group from the FTO list but also enter an alliance with the group against Iran. The FTO designation was up for formal review in October 2008, and, in July 2008, the PMOI formally petitioned to the State Department that its designation be revoked, on the grounds that it renounced any use of terrorism in 2001. However, the State Department announced in mid-January 2009 that the group would remain listed; the next review of the FTO list is in October 2009.
The group is trying to build on recent legal successes in Europe; on January 27, 2009, the European Union (EU) removed the group from its terrorist group list; the group had been so designated by the EU in 2002. In May 2008, a British appeals court determined that the group should no longer be considered a terrorist organization on the grounds that the British government did not provide “any reliable evidence that supported a conclusion that PMOI retained an intention to resort to terrorist activities in the future.” Currently, the governments that still list the group as a “terrorist organization,” include the United States, Canada, Australia. In June 2003, France arrested about 170 PMOI members, including its co-leader Maryam Rajavi (wife of PMOI 5 Other names by which this group is known is the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) and the National Council of Resistance (NCR). 6 The designation was made under the authority of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (P.L.104-132). founder Masoud Rajavi, whose whereabouts are unknown). She was released and remains based in France, and is occasionally received by European parliamentarians and other politicians.
The issue of group members in Iraq is increasingly pressing. U.S. forces attacked PMOI military installations in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and negotiated a ceasefire with PMOI military elements in Iraq, requiring the approximately 3,400 PMOI fighters to remain confined to their Ashraf camp near the border with Iran. Its weaponry is in storage, guarded by U.S. personnel. In July 2004, the United States granted the Ashraf detainees “protected persons” status under the 4th Geneva Convention, meaning they will not be extradited to Tehran or forcibly expelled as long as U.S. forces have a mandate to help secure Iraq. Another 200 PMOI fighters have taken advantage of an arrangement between Iran and the ICRC for them to return to Iran if they disavow further PMOI activities; none are known to have been persecuted since returning.
The U.S.-led security mandate in Iraq was replaced on January 1, 2009, by a bilateral U.S.-Iraq agreement that limits U.S. flexibility in Iraq. The group fears that, now that Iraqi forces have taken control of the camp, Iraq will expel the group to Iran. The Iraqi government tried to calm those fears in January 2009 by saying that it would adhere to all international obligations not do so, but that trust was lost on July 27, 2009, when it set up a police post in the Camp, which was resisted by PMOI residents. The PMOI says about a dozen were killed in the clashes. Some observers say Iraq might move the camp to Iraq’s interior, away from the Iran border. The EU “de-listing” might help resolve the issue by causing EU governments to take in those at Ashraf.
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5 Other names by which this group is known is the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) and the NationalCouncil of Resistance (NCR).
6 The designation was made under the authority of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (P.L.104-132).
Kenneth Katzman – Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs – www.crs.gov
Terror Group Swears It’s Changed Its Ways. Scouts’ Honor
WASHINGTON-The People’s Mujahidin is sick and tired of being called a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. So leaders of the terrorist group settled on a uniquely American strategy for handling this problem: They sued.
Yes, the group has done its share of assassinations, bombings, embassy attacks and killings of U.S. troops. But that was long ago, and now the People’s Mujaheddin wants to let bygones be bygones. It says it has devoted itself to democracy and nonviolence, and it would like very much to be taken off the State Department’s list of international terrorist groups.
Friends of the People’s Mujaheddin Organization of Iran-a k a MEK, a k a Mujaheddin-e Khalq, a k a National Liberation Army of Iran, a k a National Council of Resistance, a k a Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors-assembled Tuesday at the U.S. courthouse here to hear Andrew Frey of the firm Mayer Brown plead their case.
"Today’s PMOI is unique among foreign terrorist organizations," the lawyer told a three-judge appellate panel. "The organization has foresworn violence. We walk the walk. There have been no terrorist acts by PMOI for eight years."
But couldn’t the attacks resume? "The fact that terrorist activities are bad if they happen could be said of the Girl Scouts," Frey reasoned.
The People’s Mujaheddin as Girl Scouts. Only in America.
People’s Mujaheddin fighters were old-school terrorists who once battled the shah of Iran. They then went to Iraq and, with Saddam Hussein’s help, attacked the ayatollahs. They allegedly killed hundreds of people, but now they call themselves a nonviolent Iranian opposition movement. About 3,400 of them and their family members still live at Camp Ashraf in Iraq-and they have plenty of friends in the United States, including former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who watched Tuesday’s proceedings from the front row.
The government’s lawyer, Douglas Letter, wasn’t about to negotiate with "an organization that for at least 30 years has been involved in terrorism, violence, assassination, et cetera."
He admitted the public record was not sufficient to demonstrate that the group still poses a threat, but he said "it was the classified material" that made it clear that the group still deserves its terrorist listing.
Here the People’s Mjuaheddin has a problem: The group is allowed to respond to the classified evidence but is not allowed to see it. "Due process," Letter explained, "is a flexible concept."..
But if the proceedings seemed stacked against the People’s Mujaheddin, consider this: How many other countries would allow a terrorist organization to sue the government for name-calling?
In a bonus for the group, it had its day in court on the same day a grand jury in the very same courthouse was hearing from two hairstylists about their conversations with Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House state dinner crashers. A bank of television cameras stood sentry outside the courthouse-not for the terrorists, but for the stylists, who arrived in a Hummer limousine.
An overflow crowd was in the courtroom, where some men standing in the back passed notes in what looked to be Farsi. The clerk called up case 09-1059, <I>(ital) People’s Mujaheddin Organization of Iran v. U.S. Department of State, et al</I> . (end ital) She struggled with the pronunciation, starting with "People’s Mooha" before correcting herself.
Frey assured the judges that his client "rejects the sharia," or Islamic law, and renounced its Marxist past. He said the group is "totally committed" to a democratic and secular Iran.
Judge Karen Henderson asked if the lawyer could provide "affirmative evidence that supporters who may be anywhere in the world have foresworn violence."
"I can’t speak to individual members," Frey admitted.
Frey was asked about the accusation that the group was behind plans for bombing in Baghdad. "That kind of thing does not constitute substantial evidence," he replied. And the accusation that the group was training women to be suicide bombers? "Utterly implausible," he said.
"We’ve got eight years, I believe, of a clean record," he pleaded, citing such "powerful evidence" as the "disbanding of the National Liberation Army."
Maybe so, but it will probably take more than a lawsuit to solve their image problem. In the hours before Tuesday’s hearing in Washington, a bomb went off in Tehran, killing a nuclear scientist. Iranian authorities, naturally, blamed the United States, Israel-and the People’s Mujaheddin.
Dana Milbank
QUESTION: On Iraq, Camp Ashraf, the Iranian opposition, says that the Iraqis are going to move them next Tuesday, I think. Are you going to try and use your influence with the Iraqis not to move them? The opposition says there’ll be bloodshed if they do attempt to do that.
MR. KELLY: Well, I think what we would do, first and foremost, is to urge the Iraqi authorities to conduct any such relocation with the residents of Camp Ashraf, that it be done in a lawful and humane way. They’ve made clear to us, to the Government of the U.S., that they do plan to do this. And this is entirely an Iraqi planned initiative. And as I said before, we’d expect this be carried out in a humane way.
We have, all along, recognized Iraqi sovereignty over the entire territory of Iraq, including the area where Camp Ashraf is located. And as I think we’ve said before, the Government of Iraq has assured us that they would not deport any of these citizens to any country where they would — if you have a well-rounded fear of being treated inhumanely.
So we — I mean, we’re engaging the Government of Iraq. Diplomatically, we respect Iraqi sovereignty. But of course, we’re making it clear that we would expect these – the residents of Camp Ashraf to be treated well and with respect. "
U.S. urges caution with PMOI in Iraq
Washington respects any Iraqi decision regarding members of the dissident group People’s Mujahedin of Iran but urges caution, the U.S. State Department said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said this week that members of the PMOI would be relocated from their Camp Ashraf enclave in Diyala province first to Baghdad and then to a desert outpost in the Shiite south of the country.
The PMOI opposes the clerical regime in Iran. Washington lists the group as a terrorist organization for its violent methods of opposition, though the group surrendered is weapons in 2003 and now claims its policy is based on peaceful dissent.
Iraqi forces stormed the Camp Ashraf enclave when U.S. combat forces pulled out of major cities to their military bases earlier this year. Several Ashraf residents died during the raid.
The group claims Iraqi authorities are acting out against its members under pressure from Tehran.
Amnesty International said Baghdad gave the group until Tuesday to leave the camp or they could face deportation to Iran.
Ian Kelly, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said Friday that while Washington recognizes Iraq’s sovereign right to exercise authority over group, human rights should be observed.
"Diplomatically, we respect Iraqi sovereignty," he said. "But of course, we’re making it clear that we would expect the residents of Camp Ashraf to be treated well and with respect."
The United States expects to keep to its plan to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within a year despite a spate of bomb attacks, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said on Thursday.
"During this year we’ll ensure that our troops are withdrawn on schedule, by the president’s timetable," U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In their place would be a "strong healthy relationship between the U.S. and Iraq," he said.
U.S. forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein and 130,000 troops still remain to help secure the country and train Iraqi forces. They withdrew from urban centers in June.
President Barack Obama has set a deadline of August 2010 for the removal of U.S. combat forces and all American troops are to be withdrawn by the end of 2011. Some 4,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed, tens of thousands of Iraqis have died and millions displaced in the past six years.
Hill said the Aug. 19 bombings that killed nearly 100 people at the Iraqi finance and foreign ministries had been "particularly horrifying" but he believed the Iraqi people rejected a new cycle of violence.
"The bombings in recent months show that we still have to deal with al Qaeda in Iraq that tries to rekindle violence," said Hill, who has been ambassador since April. "To the great credit of the Iraqi people, they have not risen to the bait."
The top U.S. commander for day-to-day operations in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Charles Jacoby, said he believed that most of the high-profile attacks since June had been carried out by al Qaeda, and that any accelerated U.S. troop withdrawal may hinge on whether those attacks subsided.
DISSIDENTS
"It’s too early really to say right now whether the operational environment is going to support accelerated troop withdrawals. We’ll be ready to do that if we’re asked to and if we think that the security environment has improved," Jacoby told reporters at the Pentagon in a video-conference from Iraq.
"One of the questions is how much longer al Qaeda can continue these types of high-profile attacks. They are not frequent … we will see if they punch themselves out."
In the Senate, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said that if Iraqis rejected a bilateral security pact with the United States in a possible referendum next year, "then I believe we have no choice but to withdraw all of our forces as quickly as we can."
Hill also said the United States was monitoring the status of Iranian dissidents who were arrested in Iraq in July when Iraqi security forces moved into an Iranian exile camp.
He said U.S. officials had sought and received assurances from Iraq that the 36 detainees would be treated humanely and not sent back to Iran.
"We have made it very clear to the Iraqi government, that we are interested in the well being of these people, the preservation of their human rights; that they should not be forcibly repatriated to Iran," Hill said.
Residents of Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border say the Iraqi government killed at least seven people when security forces moved in on July 28, an incident that raises concerns about the dwindling U.S. influence in Iraq. Thirty-six camp residents were arrested by Iraqi police on charges of rioting.
Camp Ashraf is home to the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) dissident group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Iraq and Iran. The U.S. military had awarded the 3,500 camp residents protected status after they agreed to surrender weapons in 2004.
(Additional reporting by Adam Entous)
By Susan Cornwell
Maryam Rajavi once again resorts to her ex-enemy to survive. Following the raid by Iraqi police to Camp Ashraf, Maryam Rajavi asked her new God-father and her former Imperialist enemy, the United States for help. According to THE HOFFINGTON POST:
The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran wants the United States to re-establish temporary control over Camp Ashraf, where some 3,500 of its members have been confined since being disarmed by U.S. forces after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran – an umbrella group that includes the People’s Mujahedeen.
Iraqi authorities raided the camp on July 29 with the aim of setting up a police station inside, according to officials in Baghdad. They said six people were killed and 35 people were detained after the exiles resisted the effort and provoked a riot.
The National Council, however, accused the Iraqis of staging the raid at Tehran’s request, and said nine people were killed and some 500 injured, while 36 people were detained. It also alleged the Iraqis were denying medical help to seven people seriously injured, and blocking food and medical supplies to the camp.
Iraqi forces took over the camp’s security from the U.S. military on Feb. 20 as part of a security pact. The U.S. military had pledged that the camp’s residents would be treated as "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions.
The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, which is committed to toppling Iran’s regime, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.
Mrs. Rajavi perhaps remembers their anti America slogans:”American! Get lost! “.Today she does not hesitate to declare her ideological shift:
Rajavi urged the United States to take control of the camp, and asked that the United Nations set up a long-term mission there.
Rajavi also called on Washington to prevent any camp members from being extradited to Iran – as the U.S. military had assured.
"The international community and Western countries must react immediately," Rajavi told The Associated Press after holding a news conference in Paris.
On 28 and 29 July 2009, more than 3000 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) were forcibly evicted by the Iraqi police from their Ashraf base in Iraq. The armed confrontation left 13 people dead, 36 missing and countless wounded.
Adressing the western media, the Mujahedin office in Paris alleged that the operation was carried out by the government of Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at Iran’s behest.
Furthermore, the organization accused the International Red Cross of passive complicity with both the Iraqi and Iranian authorities.
The truth of the matter is that the decision to sever ties with the MEK was taken by Washington following a study undertaken by the Rand Corporation, which established, on the one hand, the criminal character of the organization (cracking down on Kurdish and Shia dissidents on behalf of Saddam Hussein) and, on the other hand, its sectarian set-up (the religious cult of the Rajavi couple and the sequestration of their members). In particular, the study shows that the Mujahedin – highly adept at spinning – managed to hoodwink the Department of Defence and to obtain Donald Rumsfeld’s direct protection on the basis of false allegations.
A public version of this report titled "The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq. A Policy Conundrum" has been put out by the Rand Corporation. It is undoubtedly the best reference work on the subject.
Voltaire Network was unable to obtain the classified version of the document. It contains, in addition, an account of the false intelligence transmitted by the MEK since 2003 to the Department of Defence regarding the so-called Iranian nuclear military program. Such intelligence, on which the neo-conservatives used to feast, was subsequently verified and totally discredited by the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell.
It would appear that Washington’s decision was prompted by the failure of the « green revolution ». This operation was in fact orchestrated with the participation of the Mujahedin-e Khalq who staged various attacks during the presidential campaign and organized bloody provocations during the demonstrations. Considering the fiasco, it was preferable to part company with such incompetent collaborators and to erase any trace of that collaboration.
Voltairnet
