U.S. warns of ‘dangerous’ confrontation as Iranian exiles balk at moving from Iraqi base

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

State Department officials warned Friday of the potential for renewed violence between Iraqis and an Iranian dissident group living north of Baghdad, citing stalled efforts to relocate the Iranians to a new, temporary home.

Leaders of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, have refused since early May to allow additional convoys to travel from the group’s current Iraqi headquarters, dubbed Camp Ashraf, to a new facility on the grounds of a former U.S. military base near Baghdad, the officials said.

U.S. officials have been encouraging the move as part of a negotiated plan to end a standoff with Iraqi authorities, who contend that the group’s members are in the country illegally. MEK officials, however, have complained about poor conditions at the new camp, ranging from inadequate electricity to poisonous snakes.

While acknowledging logistical problems at the new base, State Department officials on Friday issued an unusual appeal to MEK leaders to end the standoff before a July 20 deadline set by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-warns-of-dangerous-confrontation-as-iranian-exiles-balk-at-moving-from-iraqi-base/2012/07/06/gJQAu34dSW_story.html

[stockholmer]

1. the MEK is a terrorist (real, not fake psy-op sheep-dipped type) cult

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq--sometimes referred to as the MEK, the MKO, the PMOI, the NCRI or, perhaps more fittingly, "The Cult of Rajavi"--is a strange terrorist group by anyone's reckoning.

They wear identical khaki uniforms and headscarves, singing songs to their cult leaders, Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam. They adhere to an eclectic mix of ideological influences, having been variously described as Marxists, messianic Shiites, and even secular democrats. And they are a US State Department designated terrorist organization that has been responsible for bombings, attempted plane hijackings, political assassinations, and indiscriminate killings of men, women and children.

But this is not your average terror group.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303505504577404473860446952.html

Iran Exile Group Nears U.S. Rebirth

Bloody Past

Mujahedin-e Khalq has allegedly killed Americans, Iranians

1965 Three college students found MeK in Tehran.

1970s MeK backers opposed to the Shah assassinate U.S. officials, the U.S. says.

1981 MeK operatives set off bombs that kill more than 70 members of Iran's Islamic Republic Party, Iran says.

1986 MeK relocates operations to Iraq and allies with dictator Saddam Hussein.

1988 Iran repels MeK cross-border attack, leading to the executions of thousands of its supporters inside Iran.

2002 MeK's political wing presents intelligence accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear sites.

2003 MeK renounces terrorism after Hussein's fall and the U.S. capture of Camp Ashraf. Residents are given 'protected persons' status under the Geneva Convention.

2011 U.S. and Iraq agree to relocate MeK members out of Camp Ashraf.

May, 2012 U.S. says it will decide on whether to remove MeK from a terrorism list 60 days after Camp Ashraf closes.

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is moving to remove an Iranian opposition group from the State Department's terrorism list, say officials briefed on the talks, in an action that could further poison Washington's relations with Tehran at a time of renewed diplomatic efforts to curtail Iran's nuclear program.

The exile organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MeK, was originally named as a terrorist entity 15 years ago for its alleged role in assassinating U.S. citizens in the years before the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and for allying with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein against Tehran.

The MeK has engaged in an aggressive legal and lobbying campaign in Washington over the past two years to win its removal from the State Department's list. The terrorism designation, which has been in place since 1997, freezes the MeK's assets inside the U.S. and prevents the exile group from fundraising.

Senior U.S. officials said on Monday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has yet to make any final decision on the MeK's status. But they said the State Department was looking favorably at delisting MeK if it continued cooperating by vacating a former paramilitary base inside Iraq, called Camp Ashraf, which the group had used to stage cross-border strikes into Iran.

snip

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Brown Lloyd James: Lobbying for Backers of a Terrorist Group

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/mujahedin-iran-mek-lobby-brown-lloyd-james

Over the years, the Iranian opposition group and State Department-listed terrorist organization Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) has won a bizarro patchwork of high-profile supporters. John Bolton, Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.), big-time Republican lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, Tom Ridge, Howard Dean, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel have all called on the US government to stop treating the MEK, also known as The People's Mujahideen of Iran, as a terrorist group. This obscure Paris-based outfit—labeled a cult by its critics—that has assembled such an impressive roster of backers now also has the help of Brown Lloyd James, a major international PR firm with a track record of taking on controversial clients.

In late August, hundreds of MEK supporters descended on Washington, protesting the group's foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) listing in front of the State Department with attendees yelling slogans like "We want justice, we want peace, we want MEK off the list!" Speakers including former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and ex-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell held forth on why they believe the group is the best hope for secular democracy and human rights in Iran. (The MEK's FTO status is currently being considered by a court-mandated review.)

The well-organized event and high-profile speakers indicated the kind of large-scale, well-funded MEK lobbying enterprise that has been suggested by various media outlets. Jila Kazerounian, one of the rally's press liaisons, was quick to quash that notion. "There is no MEK lobby, that you read about in these articles," she said. "The closest thing we have to a lobby is the money from grassroots supporters; these Iranian Americans—educated, doctors, businessmen, lawyers, young, old." Nevertheless, in the thick of the crowd was a Brown Lloyd James account executive who told me he was taking notes on the rally for his superiors in Manhattan.

In May 2011, the firm was hired by a Germany-based MEK backer named Ali Taslimi working on behalf of Camp Ashraf, a refugee camp in Iraq north of Baghdad that houses over 3,000 Iranian MEK members and supporters. For an initial fee of $40,000, Brown Lloyd James signed on to provide political consulting services and "a broad range of public relations services for the months of May and June 2011" to Camp Ashraf, which is officially listed as the client.

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The Menacing Plots of the MKO

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/25/the-menacing-plots-of-the-mko/

The ill-omened, inauspicious plots of the terrorist gang Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization against Iran seem to have no end. The recent letter signed by 44 U.S. Senators addressed to President Obama in which it was implied that time for diplomacy with Iran is over and other options to deal with Iran’s nuclear program should be considered is said to be a magnum opus of MKO.

The website of Habilian, a non-governmental organization which represents the families of 17,000 terror victims of Iran, has recently published a news story, suggesting that the affiliates of MKO are behind the letter which near to half of the U.S. Senators signed and requested President Obama to end diplomatic efforts and dialogue with Iran and consider other options in dealing with the country’s nuclear standoff.

The pro-Israel Senator Roy Blunt who has made fanatic statements in support of Israeli regime and enjoys strong ties to the Iranian-American Cultural Association of Missouri, an MKO affiliated organization, was the mastermind of the letter to President Obama. Blunt’s website introduces the Senator as a staunch supporter of Israeli regime, saying that he “believes America’s strongest ally in the Middle East is the democracy in the state of Israel, an alliance that dates back to Harry S Truman.”

In the introductory page of his website, it’s further mentioned that “Iran’s ongoing rush to become a nuclear power poses a terrible danger to the region and certainly to Israel… the United States must not allow Iran or any other dictatorship to develop nuclear weapons that can be used against us or our allies.”

snip

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The MEK went and fought on Saddam's side in the Iraq/Iran war. They are universally HATED as traitors in Iran, by almost every major group, across every spectrum. Yet in USA neo-con/neo-lib (and many others) delusional circles, the thinking is that the MEK can be used to set up a new Western-friendly regime after the US takes out the country.

Madness.

[castnet55]

2. Who Cares?

What are we doing even getting involved in this. It's Iraq's' internal issues. We aren't officially even in Iraq anymore and need to but out of it.No money, no guns and no support of any kind. The same for Ha-mas.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. I thought US combat operations...

in Iraq had ended. Yes, there is a lot of sarcasm in that statement.

[may3rd]

4. This is a group Saddam himself granted refugee "camp" status after the Iran/Iraq war ended

The US destroyed their heavy armor and tanks after the occupation started

[awoke_in_2003]

5. And?

We shouldn't have invaded Iraq in the first place, and should stop occupying it now.