October 26, 2026

Posts Comments

Clinton Under Pressure

March 1, 2012 by

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week pressed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her failure to remove the Iranian resistance from the U.S. list of terrorist groups.

They warned that the lives of more than 3,000 dissidents living in a camp in Iraq are in danger because of the State Department’s refusal to take them off the list. The Iraqi government has even used the list as an excuse to attack the unarmed dissidents, one committee member said.

Rep. Ted Poe told Mrs. Clinton that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last year cited the U.S. terrorist designation as a reason to refuse to allow a congressional delegation to visit the rebels of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

Mr. Poe, Texas Republican, recalled that Mr. Maliki said his government treats the people there as a terrorist group because the United States lists them as such.

“So he dumped it back on our designation as the reason he was treating them the way he was treating them,” he said.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher warned Mrs. Clinton that the rebels are “in grave danger.”

“There are 3,000 Iranian exiles who have been residing in Iraq … because they are enemies of the Iranian mullah dictatorship,” the California Republican said.

Mrs. Clinton defended her department’s handling of the group’s nearly 4-year-old request for removal from the list. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the request from Camp Ashraf in 2008, but a federal appeals court two years later ordered the State Department review the request.

“We are deeply concerned about the security and safety of these residents of Camp Ashraf,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We continue to work on our review of the [PMOI] designation.”

Attorneys for the PMOI this week increased pressure on the State Department by filing a request that the federal appeals court in Washington order Mrs. Clinton to remove the group from the terrorist list.

Viet Dinh, a former top Justice Department lawyer now representing the resistance, noted that Mrs. Clinton has recognized the group’s reunuciation of violence and is “legally bound to delist their organization.”

“She cannot pocket veto PMOI’s application for revocation of its terrorist status,” he said.

The group operated as an armed resistance against the Iranian regime from the Iraqi base as a guest of dictator Saddam Hussein, a bitter enemy of Iran’s.

The rebels surrendered their weapons to U.S. forces who toppled Saddam in 2003. The U.S. later declared them protected persons under international law, but Washington turned them over to Iraq on Jan. 1, 2009.

The resistance has been on the terrorist list since 1997, when President Bill Clinton declared them a terrorist group in an attempt to improve relations with Iran.

Mr. Dinh on Tuesday filed a writ of mandamus, a legal maneuver that asks a judge to order a public agency to fulfill a statutory duty. He said the PMOI’s lawyers want the federal court to “order the secretary of state to delist the group as a foreign terrorist organization.”

Mr. Dinh drew immediate support from many former U.S. national security officials who joined a legal brief filed by Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor and one of the top U.S. defense attorneys.

Mr. Dershowitz said the former national security officials and retired generals who joined him in his brief all had access to intelligence on the PMOI or had first-hand dealings with the resistance.

They believe “there is no evidence that PMOI has the capability or intent to engage in terrorism or terrorist activities,” Mr. Dershowitz said.

He also complained that the State Department’s “foot-dragging” is “powerful evidence” it cannot justify keeping the PMOI on the list.

Others who joined Mr. Dershowitz in the brief include: former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; former FBI Director Louis Freeh; former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani; and retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/1/embassy-row-clinton-under-pressure/

Filed Under: Delist, News, US Congress Tagged With: , ,

Petition in US Court of Appeals to Remove PMOI from US Blacklist

February 27, 2012 by

WASHINGTON – Today, the legal counsel for Iran’s principal opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), filed a Writ of Mandamus in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to enforce the Court’s July 2010 ruling which ordered the Secretary of State to reconsider the PMOI’s petition to be removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

The PMOI “seeks a writ of mandamus, in the face of unwarranted and unreasonable agency delay, to order the Secretary of State to delist PMOI as a designated ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization,’ or, alternatively, to act on PMOI’s request for delisting within 30 days (and specifying that, if she does not, the designation shall be revoked).”

Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 PMOI members since 1986, was attacked by Iraqi forces in July 2009 and April 2011. The Iraqi government justified both massacres, in which 47 unarmed civilians were murdered, as cracking down on “terrorists.” According to Members of US Congress Iraqi officials have acknowledged that US designation of the PMOI is partly to blame for the bloodshed in Camp Ashraf.  The UN refugee agency officials have also told members of US Congress that as long as the PMOI remains listed, it would be near impossible to find third countries for Ashraf residents.

Filed Under: Delist, News Tagged With: ,

Assassination of Iranian Scientist and US Role

February 15, 2012 by

THE HUFFINGTON POST (UK)

The mysterious assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist on 12 January, raised questions on who was responsible for a series of similar killings.

Rumours initiated by pro-Iran bloggers made headlines claiming it was a “joint Mossad-MEK” operation. None of the claims were backed by anything beyond an unnamed “secret Israeli source.”

A month later, the NBC news ran a piece with the same headline: Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists. A story that seemed designed to pour fuel on an almost extinguished fire.

When asked about a possible MEK involvement, an unnamed US official told NBC “All your inclinations are correct.” Another unnamed official in the same story cautioned “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.”

The MEK had rejected any involvement right after the attack. So why would this suddenly be a news story again?

It is very obvious the NBC pitch is designed primly to demonise the MEK/PMOI which constitutes the principal opposition to the Iranian regime today.

The story prompted a series of articles both in favour and against the assassinations. The common denominator remained MEK-bashing, as intended. The mullahs and their US lobbies were pleased as Punch.

A CNN report who tried to verify the NBC claim ended quoting other senior US officials that “they are not sure of the [MEK] connection.”

What would the MEK gain from such terror acts? An organisation that stopped its military operations more than a decade ago, showed extreme cooperativeness with US-led coalition forces in Iraq in handing in all its weapons, was successfully removed from European terrorist lists after years of thorough legal investigations; and has won a similar U.S. Federal Court of Appeals’ ruling – pending implementation by the State Department for nearly 20 months.

Getting involved in assassinations would certainly be the last thing they need at this stage.

While the MEK remained committed to non-violent means, the Obama Administration abandoned their share of the written commitment which was to protect the unarmed MEK members in Iraq until their final disposition. This has so far cost the lives of some 50 MEK members who were cold-bloodedly murdered during Iraqi army raids on their camp since 2009, while US troops were standing by and watching.

The State Department, unable to produce a shred of evidence to back MEK’s Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) designation nearly two years after the D.C. Court told them to do so, obviously feels frustrated by a growing number of high ranking former officials publicly questioning the Administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to respecting the rule of law.

These renowned personalities, who served the United States honourably for many years, include former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Patrick Kennedy and Governor Ed Rendell from the Democrats as well as Rudy Giuliani, Andrew Card, John Bolton and others from the Republicans, plus Former FBI and CIA Directors and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I call on the State Department of the United States to be honest, to be truthful, and to follow the facts,” Kennedy told a conference in New York on Feb. 14, referring to MEK’s bizarre FTO designation.

With the elections coming up in a few months, the last thing the State Department needs is the embarrassment of being seen insincere and even incapable of responding to demands of its own courts to provide facts for its claims.

Attributing assassination of Iranian scientists to the MEK which no doubt would serve, most of all, Iran’s state of terror, could also serve the US State Department with the following:

A – Short of any proofs, it would help justify MEK’s FTO designation with fiction rather than facts.

B – Sending an indirect warning to those former officials who don’t buy Tehran-orchestrated defamation of the Iranian resistance that: If you continue, we’ll charge you with providing support for terrorism.

C – Fabricating links between MEK and Israel would also fuel the liberal and the left to produce anti-MEK sentiments which help bringing the State Department out of isolation in the public opinion in this case.

D – Justify abandoning protection of the refugees in Camp Ashraf.

Whichever of the reasons, producing phony fiction stories about MEK death squads teaming up with Israel, make those unnamed US Administration officials look more ridiculous than right.

It will certainly further add salt to the wounds of those in Iran who had hopes in President Obama when they poured in millions into the streets of Tehran following the 2009 sham presidential elections only to be disillusioned with Obama’s “non interference” which was equal to a green light for their cruel suppression.

Even many Iranians who are not necessarily in love with the MEK see USA’s forsaken promise to protect Ashraf and letting the unarmed refugees to be slaughtered by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s thugs as a betrayal.

The least expected from this Administration is to distance itself from such ludicrous disinformation by publicly denouncing these baseless accusations.

Firouz Mahvi, Iranian Opposition Activist

Filed Under: Delist, News Tagged With: ,

Iran Policy Committee: NBC Deceived by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and Anonymous U.S. Sources

February 15, 2012 by

PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Wednesday, 8 February 2012, the NBC Rock Center TV program website ran a provocative story, “Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News.” The article claims, “Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.”

In conducting covert operations against Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, the NBC story asserts that Israel’s intelligence service supposedly uses as a proxy the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MeK), an Iranian dissident group the State Department classifies as a terrorist organization.

According to Professor Raymond Tanter, former member of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush White House and now President of the Iran Policy Committee, “Left out of the NBC story is that the State Department categorizes the MeK as a terrorist group despite the law and facts.” Tanter added, “Tehran’s anti-MeK propaganda machine also routinely blames the MeK for terrorist actions, irrespective of evidence to the contrary.”

Consider an October 2011 criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department against Iranian agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force charged with involvement in a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. In discussing Tehran’s role in the plot, the former head of the Department of Justice 2007-2009, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, made an assessment of the law and facts concerning the MeK terrorist designation. General Mukasey said on 14 October 2011, “Continued listing [of the MeK] is totally unjustified as a legal matter. There are no facts that justify maintaining MeK on the terrorist list.”

And what is Tehran’s response when confronted with evidence of its own complicity in the Saudi assassination plot? Professor Tanter said, “The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security blames Israel and the United States and asserts MeK involvement. Even the State Department promptly denied MeK responsibility in the plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador and accused Tehran of fabricating news stories to exploit skepticism about the scheme.”

Tanter added, “A similar pattern is apparent in the accusation reported in the NBC story by Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, of alleged collusion between the MeK and Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. “Larijani simply fabricated a narrative associating Israel with the MeK to exploit uncertainty about the nature of those who are engaged in assassinating Iranian scientists,” according to Tanter.

The NBC story claiming to connect Israel to the MeK also alleges an association of the MeK to al Qaeda. Supposedly, the MeK cut a deal with Pakistani-born terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Yousef also built a bomb that MeK agents allegedly placed in a shrine in Mashad, Iran, in June 1994. 

The IPC book, Terror Tagging authored by Professor Tanter with the Foreword by General Mukasey, refers to the bombing of the Mashad shrine mentioned in the NBC report implicating the MeK and linking it to one of the operatives in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing—Yousef. Tanter stated, “Contrary to the NBC anonymous U.S. government source, an open Pakistani source accuses a Pakistani militant not the MeK as having connections to Yousef to carry out the 1994 shrine bombing.”

Although [the Iranian] government blamed the Mujahedin-e-Khalq in a TV show to avoid sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni, the Pakistani daily “News” of March 27, 1995 reported, “Pakistani investigators have identified a 24-year-old religious fanatic Abdul Shakoor residing in Lyari in Karachi, as an important Pakistani associate of Ramzi Yousef. Abdul Shakoor had intimate contacts with Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and was responsible for the June 20, 1994, massive bomb explosion at the shrine Imam Ali Reza in Mashhad.

At the time of the 1994 Mashad bombing, the MeK denied any role. And a few years later, during one of the regime’s regular factional feuds, a former member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence asserted that the bombing had been perpetrated by the Ministry, and in particular, by Saeed Emami, then one of its deputies.

A main theme of the NBC story is its assertion, anonymously backed by American officials, of collusion between Israel and the MeK. That claim provides a convenient rationale for the Iranian regime to engage in terrorist attacks against Israeli diplomats. “Accusing Israel of using as a proxy a ‘terrorist’ organization to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists provides false legitimacy for Iranian assassination plots in Washington as well as a trio of plots and bombings against Israelis in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Georgia, and Bangkok, Thailand,” according to Professor Tanter.

Regarding the anonymous leak that lends a veneer of credibility to the NBC story, on 11 February 2012, former Director of the FBI, Judge Louis Freeh, called for an investigation of the leak to NBC because it damaged U.S. national security; and former Governor of Vermont and presidential candidate, Howard Dean, said, “Either the source committed treason or committed the usual Washington sin of lying to the press.”

http://iranpolicycommitteepublishing.wordpress.com/

SOURCE: Iran Policy Committee

Filed Under: Delist, News Tagged With: ,

Bipartisan Group of U.S. Leaders Calls on State Department to Remove Iranian Dissidents From Terror List, Urges UN to Protect Them

February 14, 2012 by

PRNewswire

NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — A bipartisan group of former U.S. political and military leaders is calling for the U.S. State Department to remove a prominent Iranian dissident group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran/Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (PMOI/MeK), from its list of terrorist organizations, saying the classification is unjustified and 3,400 Iranian dissidents housed at Camp Ashraf in Iraq cannot be safely resettled until the change is made.

“What troubles me is the politicization of the national terrorist list,” former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-RI, said at a conference attended by more than 1,000 Iranian-Americans and community leaders Saturday in New York. “I call on the State Department of the United States to be honest, to be truthful, and to follow the facts.”

The event, entitled, “The Iranian Revolution, Three Decades Later: Prospects for Change, the Role of the Opposition and Camp Ashraf,” was organized by Global Initiative for Democracy (GID) and held at the landmark Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Former Freedom House Executive Director and the GID founder and President Bruce McColm convened the conference. Other panelists included Carl Bernstein, Gen. George W. Casey, Jr., Governor Howard Dean, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Director Louis Freeh, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and Gen. Hugh Shelton.

In July 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the State Department had violated the due process rights of the MEK and remanded the case to the Secretary. Nearly 19 months later, the State Department has refused to act.

“Why is the State Department waiting so long? What is it, two years now that they have been delaying in making this decision? These are terrorism experts,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said of his fellow panelists, who included former US Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former FBI Director Louis Freeh. “They know terrorism. These people know terrorism when they see it. This group [PMOI/MeK] is not a terrorist group. Lift the designation and let’s have our country on the right side [of the law and facts].”

At issue is the fate of some 3,400 Iranian dissidents housed at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, whose protection was handed over to the Iraqi forces in early 2009. The residents of the camp, most of whom belong to the MeK, voluntarily disarmed to U.S. forces in 2003, and were recognized as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention by the U.S. government in 2004.

Iraqi forces have twice attacked its inhabitants, resulting in 47 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries. Until the United States revisits its designation of the MeK as a terrorist group, it is unlikely that any of those living at Camp Ashraf would be allowed to emigrate to safety in the United States or any European nation.

Director Freeh said that the group would soon petition the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia to compel U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to revisit the State Department’s terrorism designation for the MEK.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested another way to prod the State Department into action.

“The dollars that drive the State Department are appropriated by the Congress,” Hastert said. “And just the threat of holding up part of that appropriation will certainly get the State Department’s attention. I think this is important and it can be done. ”

Another speaker, famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, challenged fellow reporters to cover a story he said had so far escaped the attention it deserves.

“One of the things that we do as journalists, the most important thing we do, is decide what is news. And this is news,” Bernstein said. “And one of the things we do when we decide what is news is we decide what portion of the story is devoted to what we know to be fact and what portion of the story is devoted to what we know is a lie. We have a responsibility not to inflate the lie and give it equal time to what we know is the truth. What is news here is [the failure to delist] is serving the purpose of the Iranian regime. That is news.”

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean noted that even in spite of the fact the camp has twice been attacked, Camp Ashraf leaders have agreed to send 100 Camp Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty, a new facility in Baghdad which Dean described as being “essentially a prison that would be governed by Iraqi military forces, without preconditions – despite the fact that residents there would have no access to attorneys and no international monitors would be able to evaluate conditions there.”

“This situation is not resolved,” Dean said. “I believe that when one side offers without conditions to do something…then we have an obligation to accept that.” Dean added, “It is immoral to sit and claim you are negotiating in good faith if you can’t take yes for an answer. Our government has a question about whether they are a moral government.” Lt. General Deptula, the former Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance at the Air Force, said “The idea to relocate residents who have already agreed to leave Iraq to Camp Liberty, before departing Iraq, is suspect at best. Does Tehran have a plan to arrest a number of the residents of the camp through its Iraqi surrogates and do they plan to use the relocation process as a means to get their opponents arrested?”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bipartisan-group-of-us-leaders-calls-on-state-department-to-remove-iranian-dissidents-from-terror-list-urges-un-to-protect-them-2012-02-14

Filed Under: Delist, Luminaries, News Tagged With: ,

Bi-Partisan Members of Congress, Prominent Former Officials Call for Peaceful Resettlement of Camp Ashraf Residents, Removal of the Dissidents from Terrorist List

February 7, 2012 by

PRNEWSWIRE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Members of Congress, prominent scholars and former U.S. officials called for a speedy and peaceful end to the standoff over the fate of 3,400 pro-democracy Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, amid warnings that a failure to quickly and safely relocate them would endanger their lives.

“There is a looming genocide that could occur if a number of different things don’t go right in the next weeks and months,” warned former FBI Director Louis Freeh. “Our goal here is to make sure that genocide does not occur.”

“This issue is simple, and at this critical time, the U.S. position must be clear and steadfast,” added Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “International humanitarian standards must be upheld, human rights must be respected – these are universal obligations, and the residents of Camp Ashraf deserve no less.”

The event, held in the Cannon Caucus Room, was sponsored by the House Foreign Affairs Committee member Ted Poe (R-TX). Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Dan Lungren (R-CA) and Trent Franks, (R-AZ) also spoke.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, also spoke in support of those at Camp Ashraf, as did Marc Ginsberg, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Morocco during the Clinton administration.

The residents of Camp Ashraf are members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Speakers also called for the State Department to remove the group from its list of terrorist organizations, a move that would speed their relocation, a view shared by renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz and former New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato.

The group, which was placed on the list in 1997, renounced violence in 2001. When the U.S. military took control of the camp in 2003, it conducted detailed research and analysis on each of the residents there – all of whom voluntarily disarmed – and found no evidence of terrorist activity or association. Parallel investigations by other U.S. and international law enforcement organizations reached the same conclusion.

“A thorough individual background investigation… produced no evidence of wrongdoing, no evidence of criminal acts, and absolutely no evidence of terrorism by these people,” said retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who was the camp’s commander. “I didn’t read or get my information second and third hand. I lived it. I experienced it. I know it.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government took over control of Camp Ashraf from the U.S. military in 2009, has claimed that the Iranian dissidents’ presence in Iraq “raises problems with Iran.” In 2009 and 2011, the camp was attacked by Iraqi forces, resulting in 47 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries. Maliki had sought to close the camp at the end of 2011, but bowed to international pressure and allowed it to stay open until the end of April.

At issue is the fate of the dissidents; whose return to Iran would be tantamount to a death sentence. The MEK, other Iranian dissident groups and human rights organizations argue that those living in Camp Ashraf should be safely relocated to other nations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And while the Camp residents have already been granted “protected persons” status under the 4th Geneva Convention, Iraq has practically blocked the resettlement efforts by not allowing the UNHCR to start its process even though the UN body declared its readiness to do so in September.

The residents’ supporters are also wary of the Iraqi government’s desire to move them to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport, citing the lack of access to the camp by family members and lawyers, the lack of freedom of movement, the absence of UN inspectors inside the camp, the belief that those housed there would be denied adequate medical care, and the fear that they would be mistreated or brutalized by Iraqi forces.

“The way Camp Liberty has been pre-designed and controlled by the Iraqi regime, clearly at the behest of the Iranian regime, it is now a prison camp, not a refugee camp,” Freeh said.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bi-partisan-members-of-congress-prominent-former-officials-call-for-peaceful-resettlement-of-camp-ashraf-residents-removal-of-the-dissidents-from-terrorist-list—-californian-society-for-democracy-in-iran-138898629.html

Filed Under: Delist, Luminaries, News Tagged With: ,

Regime Change in Iran: The Conditions Are Now Ripe

January 30, 2012 by

THE HUFFINGTON POST

Life as a mullah in Iran must be pretty disconcerting. All those in power in Tehran today are no doubt deeply worried about their economic wellbeing and the future of their rule. Sanctions have come in waves and are sapping away at the foundations of the national economy. The US and the European Union are intent on disabling the Iranian central bank, the oil industry, and even the regime’s ability to trade gold and diamonds.

If economic problems were not enough, the mullahs’ main regional ally, Syria, is descending into civil war. From Tehran, it must seem like only a matter of time before Damascus falls – much like Tripoli did – leaving the mullahs with no nearby ally other than war-torn Iraq.

Those in power are probably constantly looking over their collective shoulder. As with other countries of North Africa and the Middle East, Iranians are a youthful, restive people who have shown a willingness to rise up against totalitarianism in the past.

Conditions are, in short, ripe for regime change. All that is required is for an organised opposition to rise up and take the reins of power. For the mullahs, this last point is key: the Iranian opposition, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), must be annihilated at all costs if they are to survive.

Within this context it is easy to see why the 3,400 men and woman living in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, are at the top of the list of Tehran’s targets. These people are PMOI/MEK sympathisers and have represented a thorn in the side of the Iranian regime for decades.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iran’s stooge in Baghdad, threatened to dismantle the camp by the end of 2011 and scatter the residents. Given that Iraqi troops had already raided the camp on more than one occasion, killing dozens, there were real fears that the camp’s end would also be the end of the residents themselves. The deadline was only extended when PMOI/MEK leader Maryam Rajavi agreed that the residents be re-housed in Camp Liberty, a former US military base in the Iraqi capital.

Mrs Rajavi’s agreement was given reluctantly and only after receiving assurances from the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and that the United Nations would monitor conditions in Camp Liberty, where many residents faced a long stay. Sadly, this trust has been betrayed within weeks. Not only is the Iraqi government reneging on its promises to respect the lives and decency of the Ashraf community, the UN is keeping silent about the transformation of Camp Liberty into a concentration camp, a place more fit for cattle than human beings.

“Do you think the UN’s action with regard to Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty is unusual?”, asked Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, during his speech to an international conference earlier this month. “They’re ignoring the fact that these people are going to live in one square kilometre. They’re ignoring the fact that there’s no drinking water in Camp Liberty”. There is not a “single road with asphalt in the camp” or a “single piece of green area”, Mr Giuliani told the conference, which was organised by the French Committee for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran. This was not a camp, he said, but a prison.

“The Iraqi government has refused to allow any of the residents to visit because they don’t want them to see how terrible the conditions of their imprisonment are going to be”, he continued. “The UN has not objected to any of this. It is simply disgraceful for the UN to allow this to go forward. It’s disgraceful for the UN to submit to the demands of a regime like Maliki’s and ultimately to close its eyes to the fact that really what they’re doing is submitting to the demands of the Iranian mullahs”. Al-Maliki was, the event heard, “just a puppet on a string doing the bidding of the Iranian mullahs.”

To add salt to the wounds, the UN ambassador to Iraq, Martin Kobler, has failed to deny the most outrageous Iranian claims. According to the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, hundreds of the Camp Ashraf residents are willing to be transferred to Tehran – where, as PMOI supporters they would face prison, torture and possibly execution. The United Nations considers the PMOI/MEK to be a terrorist organisation, according to the latest Iranian diplomatic salvo. Why doesn’t Mr Kobler deny these falsehoods? Whose side is the UN on?

Ashraf residents must believe that theirs is a story of betrayal. It was the US, after all, that, after liberating Iraq, promised to protect them if they agreed to disarm. The US is out of Iraq, but the residents are far from safe. A second betrayal is now in the making. For a body such as the United Nations, silence in the face of oppression is nothing short of scandalous.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, CBE, FRSA, QC

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lord-carlile/iran-regime-change-conditions-are-ripe_b_1237828.html

Filed Under: Delist, News Tagged With: ,

Day 300 of State Department Sit-in: Iranian-Americans Call on Secretary Clinton to Delist the MEK, Protect Camp Ashraf Residents

January 26, 2012 by

PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ —  Friday, January 27, 2012, marks the 300th day of a sit-in across from the US Department of State by the families and supporters of Camp Ashraf residents.

The participants will be asking Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to revoke the unwarranted designation of the MEK based on the facts and law and as a necessary condition for safety and security of the residents of Camp Ashraf

3,400 members of Iran’s principal opposition the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) and their families reside in Camp Ashraf. They have been formally recognized as “asylum seekers” by the United Nations since September 2011.

Following the April 2011 massacre at Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade revealed that, “In private discussions, the Iraqi ambassador’s office has said the blood is not on the hands of the Iraqi government but is at least partially on the hands of the State department because the MEK is listed as a terrorist group and, accordingly, Iraq doesn’t feel that it has to respect the human rights of those in the camp.”

The H. RES 60, which has some 100 bi-partisan cosponsors, reiterates that “the FTO designation of the MEK has been used by Iranian surrogates in Iraq as well as the Nuri al-Maliki Government in Iraq to attack the MEK members in Camp Ashraf or impose inhumane restrictions on them, which has led to loss of life.”

Meanwhile, officials in the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have told members of Congress that MEK’s FTO designation has blocked the UN agency’s efforts to find a safe haven outside of Iraq for Ashraf residents.

As Iraqi government continues to breach its agreement with the United Nations for a peaceful resolution to the humanitarian crisis in Camp Ashraf, time is running out to re-settle the residents in third countries.

The prompt and expeditious removal of MEK’s FTO designation will enhance US efforts to better fulfill its moral and legal responsibilities for ensuring safety of Ashraf residents. It will also remove a major obstacle to the resettlement of the residents in other countries. 

SOURCE: US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/day-300-of-state-department-sit-in-iranian-americans-call-on-secretary-clinton-to-delist-the-mek-protect-camp-ashraf-residents-138164424.html

Filed Under: Delist, News Tagged With: ,

Former Senior US Government Officials: Remove MEK from US Terror List, Protect Camp Ashraf Residents

January 13, 2012 by
Former Senior US Government Officials: Remove MEK from US Terror List, Protect Camp Ashraf Residents
Filed Under: Camp Ashraf, Delist, Publicity Ads Tagged With: , ,

EU court upholds bar on Iran group terrorism listing

December 21, 2011 by

REUTERS

BRUSSELS – The EU’s highest court upheld a decision Wednesday to remove an Iranian opposition group from the EU’s terrorism blacklist, a ruling that could affect the fate of thousands of the organization’s members stranded in Iraq.

France had appealed against a decision by a lower EU court that ordered the European bloc to remove the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) from its terrorism list, but the European Court of Justice rejected the appeal.

It upheld a 2008 decision by the ECJ’s court of first instance, which held that the EU had failed to provide the PMOI with evidence that formed the basis of a decision to keep it on the terrorism list.

“The adoption of such a decision must, in principle, be preceded by notification of the incriminating evidence and by allowing the person or entity concerned an opportunity of being heard,” it said.

French officials said they regretted the court’s ruling and pointed out that some of Paris’ closest allies continue to list the PMOI as a terrorist organization.

The PMOI, which strongly opposes Iran’s clerical rulers, waged a violent insurgency against the Shah in the 1970s and staged attacks on U.S. interests, but now says it has renounced violence and supports secularism and democracy.

Despite lobbying on the group’s behalf, the United States still lists it as a terrorist organization.

The EU dropped its terrorist designation in 2009 after the 2008 court case. EU officials said the decision was based on the legal case and not a result of concluding that it was no longer a terrorist group.

The group’s status is an important issue right now, as it could have an impact on 3,000 activists stranded at a camp in Iraq, where they were once guests of former leader Saddam Hussein and later received protection from U.S. troops.

The government of Iraq, which is friendly with Tehran, says it will close Camp Ashraf by the end of this year, leaving just days to resolve their fate.

Washington has tried to persuade the activists to accept a U.N. plan to move to a new camp near Baghdad airport. From there, they could eventually be resettled abroad, which is easier to organize if countries do not list them as terrorists.

Camp residents say they fear for their safety now that U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq, ending their nine-year presence.

In a statement, PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi welcomed the court’s decision and called on the United States to take the PMOI off its terrorism list, saying the residents of Camp Ashraf had suffered the consequences of the listing.

Tuesday, Rajavi said the PMOI would agree to the U.N. plan provided the United Nations, the United States and European Union supported and endorsed the proposal and the Iraqi government guaranteed the residents’ security and well-being.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-eu-iran-france-idUSTRE7BK26N20111221

Filed Under: Delist, News Tagged With: