MPs, jurists worldwide condemn Iraqi forces’ attack against Ashraf residents

The wave of international condemnations continues against the Iraqi forces’ vicious Monday attack on Ashraf residents during the inspections of the 6th convoy headed to Liberty. 

Dr. Rita Süssmuth, former president of the German Federal Parliament Bundestag, the International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf representing 8,500 jurists from around the world, the International-Parliamentary Campaign in Defense of Ashraf and Klaus Bresser, former chief editor of German 2. TV ZDF, issued statements strongly condemning the Iraqi forces’ violence against Ashraf residents.

Criticizing and protesting UNAMI’s inaction vis-à-vis these illegal measures and flagrant aggressions, these dignitaries and societies stressed that the Iraqi government’s aggressive measures against Iranian regime dissidents have raised international abhorrence. They emphasized the UN and US government have the obligation to condemn these violent measures and use all means at their proposal to prevent any similar reoccurrence.

Dr. Rita Süssmuth, former president of the German Federal Parliament Bundestag 

Top U.N. official in Iraq ‘misled’ world on camp for Iranians

The top U.N. official in Iraq directed his staff to cover up the prisonlike conditions of a relocation camp for Iranian dissidents in reports to the world body, said a former U.N. official who has resigned in protest.

In his first interview since leaving his post, Tahar Boumedra told The Washington Times that Martin Kobler, U.N. special representative for Iraq, wanted the dissidents relocated quickly to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. Army base near Baghdad’s airport, and then moved out of Iraq.

Mr. Kobler “misled [the U.N.] headquarters in New York, Washington” and the dissidents about conditions at Camp Liberty in his rush to move them from Camp Ashraf, where they have lived since 1986, said Mr. Boumedra, the former human rights chief at the U.N. mission in Baghdad.

Mr. Boumedra said he “got the shock of my life” when he first visited Camp Liberty in December.

“I had visited a lot of prisons but that place was worse than a prison,” said Mr. Boumedra, an Algerian activist who has promoted human rights and penal reform in North Africa and the Middle East for many years.

Containers that had been used as soldiers’ living quarters were piled high with trash. Doors dangled from their hinges, and windows were smashed.Iraqis vandalized the camp after U.S. troops left, he said, and facilities were in utter disrepair.

Mr. Kobler “asked us to go back and take pictures of the camp and the facilities, and make sure that the most appealing pictures are to be put in a file and presented to the residents and the diplomatic community that, ‘Here is a camp of high standards, meeting all the refugees’ requirements,’” said Mr. Boumedra, who left Iraq in May.

“He asked me, and I underline this, that we make sure that ‘sellable pictures,’ be used,” he said. “I found myself fabricating reports and doctoring pictures in order to mislead my organization, the international community and the Ashrafis.”

About 2,000 of Camp Ashraf’s more than 3,000 residents have been transferred to Camp Liberty under a deal brokered by the United Nations. The first group arrived in February.

The Iranian dissidents and their supporters, including a bipartisan group of lawmakers and former U.S. officials, have complained since January about substandard living conditions at Camp Liberty.

Asked about Mr. Boumedra’s allegations, Mr. Kobler’s office directed questions to the U.N. headquarters in New York.

“It is regrettable that such a distorted picture is being presented of the efforts of the United Nations in Iraq to resolve peacefully the situation of Camp Ashraf,” said Jared Kotler, a New York-based spokesman for the U.N. Department of Political Affairs, which oversees the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq.

Mr. Kotler said the U.N. mission under Mr. Kobler’s leadership has worked “diligently and impartially to facilitate a peaceful solution that respects the rights and concerns of both the residents and the government of Iraq.”

“These efforts are one of the main reasons why this very tense situation has not already spilled over into further violence,” he added.

Dispute over living conditions

Known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MeK, the dissidents sought the overthrow of Iran’s theocratic regime in the early 1980s, and Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein gave them refuge at Camp Ashraf, a base near Baghdad. After Saddam’s overthrow in 2003, U.S. military forces disarmed the dissidents, who renounced violence in 2001.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, an ally of Iran, has sought to shut down Camp Ashraf, which Iraqi forces have attacked several times with deadly results. The dissidents fear that Mr. al-Maliki will turn them over to Iran, where they expect they would be imprisoned, tortured or executed.

The U.N. brokered a deal with Iraqi leaders to move the dissidents to Camp Liberty.

Mr. Boumedra, the lead U.N. official in talks with the Iraqis to close Camp Ashraf, said he advised Mr. Kobler not to accept a memorandum of understanding that came out of those talks because the Iraqis were dismissive of international human rights standards.

Mrs. Clinton: Blacklisting MEK is Illegal; License for Massacre in Iran, Iraq

"No American President wants to see our values tarnished such as we saw in April 2011 and no President wants to go into election with blood on his hands"

General General James Conway, Commandant of the US Marine Corps (2006-2010)

The New York Times published an article by Scott Shane in which 'anonymous' State Department officials once again pop-up to hatch new conspiracies against the MEK (PMOI), the Iranian pro-democracy opposition to the mullahs in Iran. Apart from the hot-air and flawed arguments which sharply contradict official UN reports, realities on the ground have a more rational advice:
One should not go above the law and act as tyrants would expect. It is beneath US values to be entrapped in Tehran's scenario.

Facts contradict FLAWS

The article highlights "the groups' refusal to relocate" but fails to shed light on reasons for the deadlock. This will no doubt leave the blame on the MEK, unless readers compare a list of more than 100 breaches of agreement, harassments and looting carried out by the Iraqi government, as well as engineered plots to dismantle the group, under US-UN inaction.

Many reports have been released by wikileaks and recently by the Iranian resistance that revealed complicated plots by Iranian Intelligence and directives involving foreign embassy staff and lately the UNAMI chief Martin Kobler, to make life hard for the dissidents in both camps, in order to stop their opposition against Tehran.

The article blames the victims for being victimized while whitewashing two bloody massacres by the Maliki government condemned in the Spanish Court of justice as crimes against humanity. The article says, "both American and United Nations officials have urged the group to complete the move to avoid further violence."

It is true to say that when one's enemy (Tehran) becomes one's Savior, our paradigm shifts. We lose our sense of direction and morality; the good becomes the bad and victims become villains. Under all this bravado the 'anonymous' State Department 'tippers' would blame the coming massacre on the defenseless refugees who are 'protected persons' and should be secured by the US under R2P laws.

The true intention of the article is not so obscure as the two 'anonymous' State Department officials diffuse annoying antics that lead readers to assume the situation at both camps is "heaven on earth" with more than enough "video-games and sodas" to last all 3400 residents a lifetime.

Reality Besmirched, Conditions Greatly Inhumane

- The Maliki government has breached (1) the agreement it signed without the consent of the residents with the UN.
- On August 10, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's official report (2) classified "Liberty," where 200 MEK members relocated out of goodwill gesture to pressures by the US-UN, as a 'detention centre' and not a refugee camp. It is therefore, careless of the State Department officials to believe that vociferous pranks could shade over realities.
- On August 10, UN rights experts warned of 'massacre' in Iraq's Ashraf camp. (3)
- Family members of Ashraf residents are being persecuted (4) and on the verge of death (5) because of the US Blacklisting that provides the best alibi for the increasing violence towards MEK prisoners of conscience.
- Unlike claimed "comfort" in Ashraf and Liberty, the Iraqi government is at loggerheads with each request of the residents. Dubious tactics frame the residents for the blame. Therefore, while US-UN observers are present; the Iraqi counterpart valiantly accepts some of the requirements that abide the red lines defined by Tehran. After the agreement, Iraqi officers controlling the camp provided splitting-hair excuses that exhaust the residents and practically make it impossible (6) to retract the agreed needs.
- There are immoral and inhumane sides to the Iraqi degrading treatment of the residents; corpses of some of the deceased residents has not been allowed (7) to be buried, as part of a psychological campaign to demoralize the residents.

It is time for Hillary Clinton to do what is right

It is therefore, a tragic irony and bitter immorality that the US State department wishes to enchain MEK, not because the camps are 'paramilitary' but because the residents are fighting for their privileged rights: generators, refrigerators and the right to stay safe.

It is time for Mrs. Clinton to do what is right and just and not what the 'job' would require. We can write history on both the dark side and the bright side.

Delist the MEK before thousands of our families and relatives are victimized.

Mahin Saremi escaped from Iran, after arranging for her husband's memorial ceremony and seeing her son in Camp Ashraf. She was under surveillance, but escaped before she could be taken to Evin Prison. One of the organisers of the 2009 uprisings, she transferred video clips and news to the outside, avoiding government censorship. Many of her friends are in prison and on trial for Moharebeh.

Iran’s ‘chicken crisis’ sparks protests

Iranian demonstrators purportedly took to the streets in a rare act of public defiance last week, but not over corruption, unemployment, or social and political reform.

The protests were reportedly over chicken, which has become the latest symbol for Iran’s deepening economic malaise.

Videos circulating on social media websites purported to show demonstrators marching in Neishabour, a city located about 500 miles northeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran.  In one YouTube video, a number of people could be seen lining a street in Neishabour chanting slogans critical of the nation’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Others chanted against the rise in prices.  Photos posted to blogs in iran appeared to show similar scenes from the northeastern province, though, the videos and pictures could not be independently verified.

Recent discontent in Iran has focused on rising prices of food staples, such as poultry.  Many Iranians blame the government and tightening international sanctions over the country’s controversial nuclear program for the economic decline and rising inflation.

The price of chicken in Iran has increased nearly threefold in the past two months. Chicken now sells for around 80,000 rials a kilogram, roughly $6.15.

Earlier this month, one senior government official caused a stir when he urged Iranian state television to avoid broadcasting images of people eating chicken. Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, chief of Iran’s national police forces, announced at a press conference that pictures of poultry could spark social unrest, with potentially unforeseen consequences.

“They show chicken being eaten in movies while somebody might not be able to buy it,” said Ahmadi Moghaddam in mid July. “Films are now the windows of society and some people observing this class gap might say that we will take knives and take our rights from the rich.”

Meanwhile, one of Iran’s top-ranking conservative clerics has been doing his part to quell concerns over what some are calling Iran’s “chicken crisis.”

“We see that many people are shrieking over the price of chicken.  But what’s the worst that can happen if one doesn’t eat it? The overwhelming majority of doctors say that meat products don’t make for good food,” said Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, according to state media.

                                                     

Iran offers bachelor’s degree in how to be a prison warden

The four-year BA courses are due to start in the autumn at two higher educational colleges run by the Iranianprison service.

Their introduction offers an insight into the theocratic regime’s priorities at a time when large numbers of political prisoners are being held and some prisons are packed to six times their capacity, according to Iran’s prison’s chief, Gholamhossein Esmaili, who has said there are 220,000 inmates nationwide.
It follows the scandal at Kahrizak detention facility in Tehran after the bitterly disputed 2009 presidential election, when several detained protesters – including the son of a prominent government scientist – died in custody. A parliamentary inquiry subsequently concluded the deaths were due to injuries inflicted by their jailers.

The new courses coincide with the abolition of several social science degrees at prominent institutions, including Allameh Tabatabai University, which will cease to offer a journalism course in the next academic year.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered a halt to the expansion of a range of social sciences degrees, including women’s studies, human rights and law, after declaring them “founded on materialism” hostile to Islam.

By contrast, the jail warden courses – offered under the title “Judiciary Aid Work” – have the highest official blessing after senior prison officials spent three years preparing them.
Nasser Rabiei, deputy director of the Iranian prison service’s education and research centre, told the Arman newspaper that they would bring jailing practices “up to date”. He said 80% of enrolled students would be recruited from among existing wardens.

The newspaper Jam-e Jam, citing official statistics, reported that 80 new inmates are admitted to Iran’s prisons every day. It said that under the country’s penal code, Iranians could potentially be imprisoned for more than 1,640 separate offences, many of which are not considered crimes in most countries.
Drewery Dyke, Iran researcher at Amnesty International, said the courses could improve some inmates’ conditions but that prisoners of conscience may not benefit. “However much training there is, it’s not going to be allocated to the parts of prisons controlled by the intelligence services and revolutionary guards, where political prisoners are kept.”

Iran’s nuclear facilities ‘Thunderstruck’

Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website said.

A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an email it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the email, part of which is published in English on the website.
F-Secure Security Labs, which is linked to F-Secure Oyj, the Finnish maker of security and cloud software, said that while it was unable to verify the details of the attack described, it had confirmed that the scientist who reported them was sending and receiving the emails from within Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

Iran’s nuclear program and oil facilities have been subject to a succession of cyber attacks that the Foreign Ministry said in May were launched by hostile governments as part of a broader “soft war.” Iran accuses the United States and Israel of trying to sabotage its technological progress. Both say Iran’s nuclear activities may have military intent, an allegation that Iran denies.
Mikko Hypponen, chief security officer at F-Secure Security Labs and the person involved in the correspondence, said he received three emails on July 22 from an individual with an aeoi.org.ir email address, receiving replies after he responded. After researching the person’s name on the Internet, Hypponen said he found “plenty of nuclear science papers and articles published by someone with this name.”

“I can’t confirm that the person was who he said he was. And I can’t confirm any of the things he said actually happened,” Hypponen wrote. “But I can confirm I was emailing with someone who had access to an aeoi.org.ir address.”

Document Reveals: UNAMI Chief-Iran-Iraq to Shut Down Refugee Camp: Deliver to Iran

Mr. Koblers’ new road-map has a spirit of shocking deceptions, fallacies and inverted claims; intently ignores dire needs of residents; no further relocation with such plots A document(1) received from sources inside Iranian government has reveale

Baghdad (I-Newswire) July 26, 2012 - The same sources report that, Mr. Kobler, UNAMI chief in Baghdad, had UNAMI rent Hotel Yamameh for a similar plot at the beginning of July. This hotel was mentioned by Iraq's security advisor as a second Temporary Transit Location (TTL) for MEK members in Camp Ashraf, in the memorandum of understanding, signed by Mr. Kobler. One Document displayed in Iranian opposition Television, Simay-e-Azadi, disclosed a full time contract between the “Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Baghdad – Trade Counsel," bearing the signature of the "Islamic Republic of Iran – Ministry of trade – Trade Counsel – Bagdad" and an Intelligence agent named “Mehdi Nejatnia” and the Iraqi government. The hotel was to house 400 MEK members who were in the fifth convoy going to camp Liberty; It alleged to be used as a concentration camp against the pro-democracy group; MEK. According to sources in Iran, UNAMI proposed to buy the contract with a higher bid to persuade the GoI into a new contract with the UN agency. Mr. kobler visited his counterparts in Iran in May 2012 to negotiate matters. The visit coincided with the fifth convoy of Camp Ashraf residents leaving for Camp Hurieh (Liberty). The operation that was to relocate the refugees peacefully to third countries was hustled by the Iraqi government stopping short of a third assault on the residents. Hundreds of breaches were reported in consecutive statements by the Iranian opposition office in Paris (NCRI), resulting in a stalemate. The visit drew a negative response that back lashed in resolutions and written statements by the residents, their representatives, lawyers, parliamentary groups and dignitaries in Europe and the U.S. On 24th of April, on return from Iran, Maliki's security advisor, Faleh Fayaz Al-Ameri disclosed UN participation in a Tehran engineered scenario to handle its fierce opposition in Camp Ashraf. The objective was to wear down MEK members in an abrasive process of negotiations, without manifesting results, in order to relocate; scatter and gradually repatriate them back to Iran. Al Ameri disclosed that: “Mr. Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Iraq, has talked in details with Iraqi and Iranian parties through the Iranian Embassy or other channels communicating with Iran in order to provide the requirements for implementation of the ..to close camp Ashraf and put an end to the presence of this organization on Iraqi territory. Talks included the mechanisms and Iran’s role in what has to be done to solve this matter…” The opposition disclosed in a recent statement that UN representative had participated in a dozen meeting with its Leadership, and residents have exchanged at least 40 letters and proposals with much leniency to resolve the crisis. Each time the UN Special representative has introduced plans and no deeds. Mr. Kobler’s current “road map” is believed to be related with recent revelations and following his trip to Iran. In a letter to the opposition leadership, he was said to have expressed his intent: “We are in contact with the Iraqi government on a roadmap to relocate camp Ashraf “ In a statement released by the NCRI the “road map” is rejected as having “shocking deceptions, fallacies and inverted claims." The office dubbed the “attrition process” as repetitious hollow promises that started since December 18, which are only adjustments to “Iraqi governments’ patience” rather than the resident’s most primary needs such as drinking water from city sources or lift trucks that would prevent physical labor of residents under sky-high heat of 65 Celsius. “In this Road map, similar to previous ones, all the humanitarian requirements of the residents like water, electricity, and utility and personal vehicles and forklifts have been postponed to an unspecific and unclear arrangement.” Previous drafts had unfulfilled promises include: - Camp Liberty’s water supposed to have been connected to the city water before the month of Ramadan. -Electricity problems were to be resolved by resident’s own power generators, some looted by Iraqi government and others yet not allowed to be taken to Liberty. With rising temperatures, lack of electricity in the camp has become a threat to life. -Residents were to auction their belongings in Camp Ashraf to accommodate for expenses such as food, electricity and livelihood in Prison Liberty with UN observance. Merchants have been threatened and intimidated by the GoI, leaving no possibility for transactions. - Every small need of everyone is inspected; re-considered, checked and sometimes deleted by Iraqi government agents. Residents have paid more than 2 million dollars only to buy fuel over the past five months. NCRI statement emphasized: “Mr. Kobler is repeating once again the identicle scenario in order to evict and relocate the remaining residents to Liberty's prison only based on hollow promises without provision of the humanitarian minimums. In practice, this is the same plan of the Iranian regime and its Iraqi proxies to compel the Iranian opposition to submit and surrender." While Mr. Kobler tones “suppressive” moves by GoI as a “generous” move, the ‘Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’ of the Human Rights Council in a recent letter has rebuffed his empathy to the Iraqi government calling “deprivation of liberty...a violation of international law.” The opposition leader Maryam Rajavi initiated a proposal last December, to curb attempts by Tehran. The proposal involved either her participation in talks with the GoI, or a conference chaired by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) and a decision making Iraqi officials and to resolve the crisis. (NCRI statement January 2, 2012 statement). Both initiatives were rejected by the Iraqi government. Mr. Koblers passionate applause of “generous” achievements of the Iraqi government in the “Liberty” deal has now taken new meaning. It seems the UN is finally providing its true shades to the world. Notes: 1- Iranian Intelligence plot Iraqi Hotel to relocate MEK members in Iraq:“This document stipulates that: “We (the Iraqi Government) put our conditions to members of the organization and want them to submit eventually.... In many cases the UN justifies Iraqi conditions and demands the members of PMOI to accept them, because Liberty is Just a transit location and their stay in there will be a short one.” Based on this document, the government of Iraq would complain that “not all of the UN mission are in total agreement with the government of Iraq, however, SRSG Mr. Kobler specifically agrees with all Iraqi government’s demands. We believe he does not want to oppose the Iraqi government and to obscure his relation with the Iraqi government for the sake of PMOI.” The PMOI has raised some demands “We show positive reaction to these demands to collaborate with the UN, but these demands will never be fulfilled. The Iraqi government and it’s negotiator have only agreed to discuss the minor and unimportant issues. The issues which do not have serious implications in the situation like field medical visits or delegations which are less important issues. The government of Iraq would react strongly to some of the demands posed by the residents.... the new camp should be based on the needs of the Iraqi government and not the needs of the members of the Organization, the Iraqi government will not relent from the main issues”. 2- Protect Iran's Freedom Fighters in Camp Ashraf-Time: Apr. 18, 2011 3- Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its sixty-third session, 30 April–4 May 2012 The GoI has assigned Labeed Abbawi, Iraqi deputy Foreign Minister, to exhaust all his efforts to hinder all measures by the UN various bodies with regard to Ashraf and to not participate in the committees formed by these bodies. In yet another move, Hajj Ali Navidi, the agent of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in the regime’s embassy, has staged banquets for three successive days for a number of Iraqi merchants, engineers and clergies aimed at activating them in favor of mullahs’ regime’s interfering policies in Iraq. Most of the invitees refused to participate in the banquets.