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Wednesday 28 December 2011

MEK Claus: Why Christ to Spartacus to Thomas Jefferson to the MEK/PMOI?


Before I begin my long essay explaining the meaning behind the above title I have to make an introduction for the purpose of this series of essays: I begun this stream during Christmas time and It is a matter of Honor, Choice and Values. If you are bored with these terms, you can stop reading right now. 

With Christmas Season passing, one can’t help think about basic values and how one has lived to realize them through the past year. For some the “good” is only fictitious and the “bad” is everyday life , while eccentrically killing all values and justifying it as “collateral damage” , life is only satisfying one’s self ego and getting a check list ticked. But these two “terms” have been in our ears since we were children. It has never been buried regardless of modern life disbelievers.

Most of us dreamt of the “heroes” who helped vanquish the evil and restore the Good when were children. Icons such as Robin Hood, Richard the lion heart, Spartacus later on evolved into Thomas Jefferson and Che Guevara and Martin Luther king as we grew older. But this line of confrontation has always existed in history; from Moses  who stood up against the tyrants of Egypt to Jesus who taught the poor how to confront poverty up to  Mohammad and his disciples who fought to defeat deception and warmongering of the tyrants’ plundering under the name of religion. This confrontation, despite the price and the sadness it has brought for those undertaking its burdens directly, has been the cause of social evolution and defeating of all historic dogmas restricting or hampering the evolution of mankind.

The marginalization of “good” and “bad” has been an essential spotlight to keep those who want the best good ending. 
Each era, will have its landmarks and the spotlight that make the difference in people’s choice in taking sides.

Taking sides with the “good” obviously is not tantamount to a heavenly reward on earth. It is mostly as painful as giving birth. But then again, that pain is the result of elements that cannot be ignored and are essential for the formation and preparation of the fetus for its next stage of evolution.

Imagine for one moment that you were present at the scene of the last “trial” of Jesus Christ by the Roman emissary. What would you have done if you knew that Christ was the “Light”? Silence would under the circumstances, be accomplice to the crime of his crucification. Even after his barbaric death, the repugnance and misery of keeping silence would bear the same as of those who nailed his hands and feet and lashed and tortured him during his last hours. Criticizing him for his wrath and “violence” at the temple against the malicious religious tyrants’ lust for wealth ,would be exactly helping his killers; spitting on him while he was carrying his own cross on his drained shoulders would be as if one is shutting all doors of humanity on his face.

So what would you have done?

It is exactly under such arduouscircumstances that only those who had faith in his values and stood up for the “good”, such as his mother, paid the price and gave him water and cleaned hisblood dripping forehead before he was pushed away again to be crucified.

But change, bears a heavy price. It was his opening remark to one of his followers when he was alerted of the consequence of allowing his capture; this is the price for the change of mankind. Surely he was referring to a never ending value with distinctive precincts from the Bad and very much in reach of mankind on earth?
Where I come from, conscience and honor outweighs pragmatic short term claustrophobic eager to get the “benefits” out of life at the price of some one else’s head.

 It is not fictitious to sacrifice ones ego to help others get a better chance in life, and there is a serious battle between the “good” and the “bad” and where the “light” gets even more active, when the “dark” strikes the heart and minds of people. In such a place, heroes are real people who have suffered extensively only to prevent others from suffering. They are the real people who first sacrifice when the time comes without “reconsidering “the odds and balancing the price for that sacrifice.

They compete in this honorable preservation of basic humanitarian values and with each competition they are hurt, but deep inside they know quite well that they are paving the way for all generations to come, to have what they never had: Freedom. The key to all the “cultish ““terrorist” features in sacrificing for others has been: un-conditional, one sided love.

Mankind makes history, but it is not his objective. 
History is made of decisions of each and every one of us, when we are confronted with making the choice to side with the “good” or the “bad”. 

What has always distinguished us from other forms of creation has been “the Freedom” to make “choices” and the “Will” tokeep to the “sacrifice” we have to make to bring about a “change”. Hardly anything is changed without a push from somewhere and that push has a price. Making the right choice at the right time will be determinant in the direction the history of mankind is taking, either to the steep hills of the land of lost values; betrayal; murder; extinction or prosperity; freedom; warmth and love?

I am speaking of the Mujahedin – e – Khalqof Iran (MEK/PMOI).  The Iranian opposition movement that was formed more than 40 years ago.

The past couple of months the MEK/PMOI havemade headlines. It may not be surprising for many who know the situation because of prior history, while for others it is not even a subject matter. I am speaking about the “eye of the storm” that has changed our history so far and will change the history of the region in the future and mankind later.

I am speaking of that “spotlight” that shines on the margins of distinction between the “Tyrant, torturer, Killer, oppressor, fascist, deceptive, demagogue religious Mullahs” and the “Demos Crotas” ( The Latin word for Democracy which in simple words is the peoples participation in Ruling).

It is today’s landmark  for loyalty to uphold the values which represent the “good “and the litmus test for all those who wonder where they stand in the story of Scrooge.

I shall explain why in my next essays.

Sunday 18 December 2011

CNN interview with Governor Tome ridge and Governor Howard Dean


CNN December 13, 2011
Moderator: Should America allow the drone just to sit in there, in Iranian hands?

Howard Dean: That is what happened in Iraq. To go and blow everything apart and it is a mess. I am glad we are leaving Iraq because I don't think we should have gone in there in the first place. But the truth is we are leaving a mess behind. We are leaving a prime minister who has basically participated in war crimes and has been investigated for that, we have 3400 unarmed Iranian dissidents who the United States promised we would keep out of harms way who are likely to be massacred when we leave. This is a very messy withdrawal. I am delighted we are leaving but I don’t think that the American people are going to be very happy when they see what we have left behind.

Moderator: I was going to ask you specifically Governor Ridge about Camp Ashraf which I know you are both concerned about. This is effectively a kind of ghettoized area in Iraq and is full of Iranians who are supporting the opposition party in Iran and are being severely mistreated. What can you tell me about that?

Tom Ridge: Well the 3400 men and women in Camp Ashraf which is about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad surrendered their means of self protection to the US army in 2003 and 2004. When I mean they surrendered their means of self-protection they were a democrat resistance group, they have been a thorn in the Mullah and Ahmadinejad’s side for a long, long time. They surrendered tanks and anti-aircraft and artillery pieces thousands and thousands of small weapons to defend themselves. We made, the US government promised individually every one of them, after they were vetted, after we determined they were not terrorists, and by the way since that time the United Kingdom, the EU and a court in Washington D.C. concluded they are not terrorists. We promised to provide for their protection, their security and their safety. It was fine until we withdrew. Since that time, the Iraqi government, under the direction of the prime minister Maliki, with a strong vocal public support of the Iranian regime, has attacked that camp twice, have killed over 40 people, wounded hundreds and it has set a date that they are going to close that camp at the end of this month, ironically or coincidentally, the date our last soldiers to be withdrawn and then they are going to relocate them. Let me tell you this, I think Howard and I agree this is a precursor to, relocation is a precursor to a human rights genocide the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. They will relocate them either to Iran because a third of them are dissidents who are already in Iranian prisons, 25% of them are women and its just a… This administration unfortunately for whatever reason has chosen to ignore that plight. It’s our integrity, it’s our word, and it’s our bond, it’s our credibility. We ignore it.

Howard Dean: Let me just add to that. The FBI screened all these people; the FBI counter-terrorist folks screened all these people in 2006. Not one of them is a terrorist according to our FBI. This is outrageous what is going on. It is an outrageous behavior by the State Department and frankly the administration has direct responsibility for making sure that the promises were kept. We kept one promise; that is we kept George Bush's promise to get out by the end of 2011. We need to keep the promise to people of Ashraf. We ought not to be complicit in human rights massacres.

Moderator: There is a sense that the President is being not weak but certainly not that strong with Iran; holding back a bit. We see that incident with the drone. We see what is happening with this camp.

Howard Dean: I think that is unfair. We don't know. It is also possible we might have had something to do with blowing up the solid fuel facility. So we don't really know what is going on behind the scenes in Iran and I am willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt. I am not willing to give anybody the benefit of a doubt if 3400 people are murdered who are unarmed, whom we promised to defend them and welched on our commitment. That I will not forgive.

Moderator: Let me just give the final word Governor Ridge to Iran. In simple terms, how should the President deal with Iran?

Tom Ridge: Every time we go to the UN to try to get a sanction, they end up building a couple of more centrifuges. This is the single greatest terrorist organization in the world. They support Hamas, Hezbollah.

They are responsible for killing our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. You need to delist these men and women in Camp Ashraf are on our foreign terrorist organization list. The President by picking up the phone calling Secretary Clinton: "Take them off that list. Go to the UN. Get blue helmets to protect them and tell Maliki you are not closing the camp until the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has a chance to review them all. They are all protected under the Geneva convention. They are all looking to be resettled to outside of Camp Ashraf. The President has to make it happen.

Moderator: Thank you governor, I think we got the point loud and clear. Thank you both very much.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/ashraf/11544-cnn-interview-with-governor-tome-ridge-and-governor-howard-dean


Maryam Rajavi: The Iraqi government tries to hide behind the empty rhetoric of national sovereignty to justify its brutal and repeated attacks on Ashr


NCRI - On Saturday December 10, on the International Human Rights Day, and on the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s meeting with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in Washington DC, in a call to President Obama, American and European dignitaries urged annulment of the December 31 deadline on Ashraf and the forcible relocation of its residents inside Iraq, warning of an impending massacre and human catastrophe in Ashraf.

Speakers to the meeting were: Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance; André Glucksmann, author and a member of New France Philosophers; Andrew Card, President Bush Chief of Staff (2001-2006); Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor (2003-2011) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Mitchell Reiss, U.S. State Department Head of Strategy Development (2003 – 2005); Alan Dershowitz, one of the most prominent advocates of individual rights and the most well-known criminal lawyer in the world; Geoffrey Robertson QC, prominent British jurist and former appeal judge at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone; Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Prime Minister of Algeria; Patrick Kennedy, U.S. Congressman (1995-2011); Senator Ingrid Betancourt, Columbian presidential candidate; General David Phillips, U.S. Military Police Commander (2008-2011); Jean-François Le Garrett, Mayor of Paris 1st District; Aude de Thuin, the founder of Women’s Forum for Economics; Cynthia Fleury, West contemporary philosopher.

Below is speech by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi at international conference- Paris:


Prestigious guests and respected friends,

Today is Human Rights Day. It is the sixty-third anniversary of the day the United Nations General Assembly declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.”

We honor the memory of all the brave women and men who fought for this ideal.

Today we can hear the voice of Professor Kazem Rajavi, the Iranian martyr to the cause of human rights, who once said that we write the true history of human rights with our blood.

Brave heroines and heroes, such as 120,000 Iranians who were murdered by the mullahs in Iran in the past three decades, including 30000 brave political prisoners who were massacred in 1988.

They have made human rights a progressive cause.

The women and men who persist in Ashraf in the most difficult of circumstances in a life and death struggle are at the forefront of this cause.

The message of Ashraf residents who persist and the people of Syria and the Middle East who have risen up is: dictators can no longer drench the peoples under their rule in blood under the guise of national sovereignty.

The progress of human rights today faces a formidable wall of regressive policies and interests.

On the one side there are the dictators that cling to power with suppression and murder. On the other side are governments and politicians who keep silent in the face of this barbarism either out of submission or petty interests.

The world watches the public hanging of Iranian youth in the streets, the merciless torture of political prisoners by Khamenei’s henchmen, and the inhuman siege of Ashraf and the psychological torture of its residents through 300 loudspeakers blaring profanities and threats 24 hours a day. Silence in the face of such crimes has emboldened shaky dictators. Such silence must end.

Dear Friends,

The world today stands with Ashraf residents despite all the plots and pressures piled upon them by the Iranian regime and its puppet Iraqi government.

The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Iraq called for the postponement of the suppressive deadline of the Iraqi government to close Ashraf, in a session of the UN Security Council four days ago. He called for protection of the lives of Ashraf residents and stressed that there can be no acceptable solution without the agreement of Ashraf residents.

Three days ago, Members of Congress Both parties strongly criticized the US government lack of action and condemned the deadline and the idea of internal relocation.

Yesterday, Baroness Ashton, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs stressed that the priority is the security of the residents.

In recent days, an increasing number of governments, including the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and the United Kingdom have called on Iraq to extend the deadline.

Previously, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and many other world parliaments, the human rights committee of the Iraqi parliament, 85 Iraqi MPs, and several leading Iraqi officials such as the Vice-President and Vice-Premier have declared the deadline as invalid and condemned any forcible relocation.

In a declaration signed by 1 million and fifty thousand Iraqis until now, the Iraqi people have clearly said that “the deadline to close Ashraf and forcibly relocate its residents inside Iraq is a prelude to another attack.”

Indeed, the world unanimously bears witness to the innocence and righteousness of the defenseless residents of Ashraf.

If the Iranian Resistance and the Ashraf residents did not base their position on a desire for freedom, truth and justice, then the world would not have supported them as such.

What do the residents of Ashraf want?

Aside from the cancellation of the criminal deadline set by the Iraqi government, what are the undeniable principles that guarantee the minimum measures for protection of the residents?

The first principle is to defend the lives and security of Ashraf residents. Any plan must guarantee the protection of Ashraf residents with acceptable assurances from the UN, US and EU, including with UN Blue Helmet forces or EU forces.

Secondly, the PMOI will not accept any armed Iraqi force inside of its camp. Iraqi forces must not have any role or intervention particularly in the lives and security of 1000 women residents of Ashraf during the time until their transfer to third countries.

Thirdly, as stressed in the report of the UN Secretary General to the Security Council, any solution for Ashraf must be a bilateral agreement between the Ashraf residents and the Iraqi government.

Fourthly, the siege and all pressuring and threatening measures, including judicial warrants for arrest and extradition must be cancelled.

Dear Friends,

The residents of Ashraf have repeatedly announced that they are ready for any option other than elimination or surrender.
They accepted the European Parliament plan for resettlement in third countries.
They offered seven alternative plans.
They renewed their applications for refugee status and they are now considered as asylum seekers by the UN.

They were always prepared for negotiation and continue to be.

They are ready as in the past months for full cooperation with the UN.

They will accept any expenses for their own protection based on financial assistance from their compatriots. They honor Iraqi sovereignty. But this does not mean that they will go to slaughter on their own feet.

As the UN Secretary General’s representative said in Tuesday’s UN Security Council session, sovereignty can never be an excuse for systematic violations of international human rights, international humanitarian law and refugee rights. These rights of Ashraf residents have been systematically, violently and brutally suppressed during the past three years.

In response to flexibility and cooperation of residents of Ashraf and initiatives by governments and UN as well as to calls by Amnesty International and other human rights organisation the Iraqi government has constantly created obstacles, impeded the UNHCR work and has tried to putting the victims in place of the oppressor and blame the residents for lack of progress.

The Iraqi government has shown until now that it cannot be trusted in any of its promises or commitments to cooperation with the UN.

It has prevented the UN’s effort for verification of Ashraf residents’ refugee status for three months. It completely denies the UN position on recognizing Ashraf residents as asylum seekers with basic protections. It has ignored the UNHCR and UN Secretary General’s Representative’s request to postpone the deadline. It has not accepted the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights’ request for an impartial investigation into the massacre of April 8.

Therefore, the protection of the lives and security of Ashraf residents must be guaranteed by the international community in any solution for their future.

Dear Friends,

The Iraqi government tries to hide behind the empty rhetoric of national sovereignty to justify its brutal and repeated attacks on Ashraf residents, including the two massacres in Ashraf.

Are the 300 loudspeakers installed around Ashraf by the Iranian intelligence ministry, or the jamming transmitters with IRGC logos installed around Ashraf, a sign of Iraq’s sovereignty?

What does it say about Iraqi sovereignty that US commanders report that the Iranian regime’s Qods Force commander directs policy in Iraq? Whose sovereignty is that?

Since the transfer of security responsibility of Ashraf to the Iraqi government, the entry of goods into Ashraf is met with the strict and repeated control of security forces.

The Iraqi government has instituted the rules of a prison in Ashraf under the guise of exercising national sovereignty. In the name of sovereignty, they have converted the hospital attached to Ashraf to a torture center.

Yesterday, the Iranian regime dispatched a gang of its mercenaries associated with the Qods Force to the gates of Ashraf under Iraqi support to launch a demonstration in which they threw rocks and bricks at Ashraf residents and reacted to world solidarity with Ashraf residents.

So if Iraqi sovereignty is not an excuse for doing Tehran’s bidding in killing Ashraf residents, then what is it?

It is for this reason that we stress the responsibility of the United States government in this crisis and call on the US to protect Ashraf residents based on international laws; to prevent forcible relocation of defenseless Ashraf residents. This is a US responsibility and within US capabilities.

In particular, after Maleki’s trip to the United States, the US will be especially responsible for any crime committed by Maleki’s government against Ashraf residents.

The US bears responsibility because the current crisis in Ashraf is a direct result of the US war in Iraq.

The US bears responsibility because it signed an agreement with each and every resident of Ashraf pledging to protect them.

The US bears responsibility because it transferred security of Ashraf to a government whose enmity with Ashraf residents was clear.

The US bears responsibility because it is a signatory to the UN declaration of RtoP (Responsibility to Protect) and it is obligated to intervene to prevent a crime against humanity in Ashraf.

The US bears responsibility because it played a major role in helping form the current Iraqi government.

The US bears responsibility because it should not sit idly by in the face of a preventable crime from a moral and humanitarian point of view.

Finally, I should point out that if the US again fails to honor its legal and moral obligations it will be the best reward to the mullahs. The American people will not likely forgive such a thing in the upcoming US elections.

The safeguarding of the lives of Ashraf residents is a clear issue.

Their right to life is not a complex or undoable matter.

As the UN Secretary General’s Representative said in the recent UN Security Council session, Ashraf residents’ lives must be protected.

Unfounded and outdated analysis of the State Department experts should be thrown away.

End this complacency in the face of the Iranian mullahs’ sinister will and their Iraqi proxies. They want to give themselves the right to commit crimes against humanity in the name of national sovereignty. Do not surrender to their demands. Do not be complicit in the killing of the sons and daughters of the Iranian people, and take action on your obligations under international law and the principle of “Responsibility to Protect”!

Dear friends,
On the international day of human rights while the long enduring pains of oppressed people of Iran continues in prisons and in all over the country, we strongly believe resistance and perseverance of the Iranian people will overcome the evil of repression. The enchained angel of freedom will be relapsed and the Iran’s betrayed human rights will revive.

I would like to end my remarks with unending praise for the brave Iranians who have for months participated tirelessly in sit-ins in Geneva and Washington DC and all through the world in this campaign.

I remind them of Massoud Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance leader’s remarks when he said: “You represent the flames of honor and resistance of an enchained nation.” And as he said, I too say: “The force of our nation’s conscience and resistance will finally triumph.
I thank you all.


http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/ashraf/11523-maryam-rajavi-the-iraqi-government-tries-to-hide-behind-the-empty-rhetoric-of-national-sovereignty-to-justify-its-brutal-and-repeated-attacks-on-ashraf-residents

General Phillips: A cry must come out loud and clear that we will not stand for violence against the protected persons of Camp Ashraf, this deadline m


NCRI - On Saturday December 10, on the International Human Rights Day, and on the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s meeting with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in Washington DC, in a call to President Obama, American and European dignitaries urged annulment of the December 31 deadline on Ashraf and the forcible relocation of its residents inside Iraq, warning of an impending massacre and human catastrophe in Ashraf.(Click her for Video)

Speakers to the meeting were: Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance; André Glucksmann, author and a member of New France Philosophers; Andrew Card, President Bush Chief of Staff (2001-2006); Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor (2003-2011) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Mitchell Reiss, U.S. State Department Head of Strategy Development (2003 – 2005); Alan Dershowitz, one of the most prominent advocates of individual rights and the most well-known criminal lawyer in the world; Geoffrey Robertson QC, prominent British jurist and former appeal judge at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone; Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Prime Minister of Algeria; Patrick Kennedy, U.S. Congressman (1995-2011); Senator Ingrid Betancourt, Columbian presidential candidate; General David Phillips, U.S. Military Police Commander (2008-2011); Jean-François Le Garrett, Mayor of Paris 1st District; Aude de Thuin, the founder of Women’s Forum for Economics; Cynthia Fleury, West contemporary philosopher.

Below is speech by General Phillips:

Madame Rajavi, distinguished guests, most importantly the family members of those who were injured at Camp Ashraf or those who are still at Camp Ashraf, it’s an honor for me to be here today. I was a solider for over three decades. And a little over ten years ago I first learned of the existence of a group of Iranians dedicated towards democracy in Iran. I researched this group. Little did I know that in very short time I would be personally involved with this group, their leaders, and their plight.

But first, I have suffered at the hands of terrorists. I was the director of security for the Army at the Pentagon on 9/11, September 11th. Shortly thereafter I deployed as the senior military policeman responsible for many missions in Iraq, the first being rebuilding the Iraqi police, the detention of the senior leaders of the former regime, and what I consider most importantly the safety and security for the over 3,000 members of the MEK at Camp Ashraf.

Yes, protected persons at Camp Ashraf. I was there when they voluntarily disarmed. I was there when they consolidated at Camp Ashraf. I saw what remained of their other facilities after they were looted and destroyed. I was there when each and every person of the MEK was biometrically identified, vetted, screened and individually interviewed. Did we find any terrorists or criminals or undesirables among the several thousand men and women? No. Each was thoroughly investigated and not one was identified as having any linkage to criminal acts. A few had unpaid parking tickets. That might seem a little humorous, but I use that to show how thoroughly we investigated each member of the MEK. I really had to step back and wonder as a commander, why are they identified as terrorists? I tried, I tried very hard to find some credible allegation, some overt or covert crime, criminal acts, anything as to why this group was labeled in so despairing a way. I could not. My soldiers asked me, “Sir, they support democracy, freedom, and especially equal rights for women.” I did not have an answer for my soldiers.

And it wasn’t rhetoric. I witnessed firsthand equal rights in action at Camp Ashraf. I spent a significant amount of time living and working at Camp Ashraf. I have the pleasure to know almost every senior leader of the MEK at Ashraf, and a significant number of their junior members. After the vetting process was completed I brought the message back to Madame Parsai, then commander, now I refer to her as Madame Zohreh, Mr. Davari and many of the other leaders that they were now classified as protected persons under the Geneva Convention and I was personally charged with their safety and security, a mission which I took very seriously and to this day take very seriously. Yes, even now, though I’m no longer responsible directly for the safety and security at Camp Ashraf, I still feel morally responsible.

As far back as 2003 everything we asked of the MEK they complied with. Everything. And we established procedures so they could self-sustain, so that they could go and purchase some of the logistics they needed. But most importantly, in order to allow visitors, especially their family members, to come see them. Did some of the members of the MEK want to leave during my tenure? Yes, of course. Small numbers. A few just up and left. Others, they were turned over to my forces and we housed them until we could find a disposition be established for where they would go. There were vague allegations of torture and people being held against their will by the MEK. This is wrong. I had open and unrestricted access to every area on Camp Ashraf, and I took advantage of that. I staged independent, unannounced inspections and never, ever discovered any indication of torture, or any one being kept against their will. And I tried to prove those allegations. But the only thing I was ever able to prove without a doubt was that the allegations were false. Some of the members of the MEK who wanted to leave were actually driven to the gates of my operational base and dropped off. Were there any issues between my units, my forces, and the MEK at Ashraf? Of course. But they were few and far between, and they were all resolved by simple discussions, and understanding between each other.

I spent well over a year working to receive definitive guidance as to a way ahead at Camp Ashraf. I brought many senior leaders of the coalition forces to Ashraf. To give a generalization, they were all stunned that we were keeping them in such limbo. I left Iraq frustrated after that tour, and a year later when I returned I saw that there had not been a change. There was still no definitive guidance. During that tour I was charged with rapidly rebuilding the Iraqi police, and simultaneously I was General Petraeus’s subject matter expert on all police and security operations including the security at Camp Ashraf.

What is the resolution? What happens next? We continue to press. The over 3,400 persons at Camp Ashraf were given a promise of protection following a very thorough vetting process—and I know this for a fact because I’m the one that went and saw Madame Parsai and brought forth the promise. I feel so strongly about that promise that even now I would return to Ashraf and act as an intermediary between the MEK and the Iraqis who I know many of their senior leaders. And I feel so safe with the supposed terrorists that I would take my own daughter with me. She is a vocal supporter of human rights and rights for women. And you know she’s excited to go.

Because I fear that unless we have some type of intermediary, some type of initiative rapidly another tragedy will occur. We’ve seen members of this organization viciously attacked in the recent past. And in a few weeks if this deadline is not postponed we could see it again. Close Camp Ashraf. That sounds quite ominous to me, especially for the people there. When you hear others talk about the MEK and the people of Camp Ashraf, who they are or who they are not, ask do they really have knowledge? Have they been to Ashraf? Do they know these people or anything on what’s taking place within that 36 square kilometer facility? Or are they just reiterating a lot of rhetoric?

I know the people of Camp Ashraf. I’ve been there. I’ve lived there. And they trusted us when we promised our safety and security way back in 2004. There are a few places in the world where I won’t let my guard down. Camp Ashraf is not one of those places. I fear that Camp Ashraf may become one of those places, though, very rapidly. And violence could be wrought upon unarmed—I know they’re unarmed, I was there when they gave their arms up—men and women, young and old. A cry must come out loud and clear that we will not stand for violence against the protected persons of Camp Ashraf. This deadline must be postponed. Evil thrives in darkness, so let’s shed some light on Camp Ashraf. I tried to find a terrorist at Ashraf and I could not. I tried to find torture at Camp Ashraf and I could not. I tried to find people held against their will at Camp Ashraf. I could not. I only hope the world is listening. Thank you, Madame Rajavi for this humbling yet daunting opportunity to address this august group. Thank you.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/ashraf/11521-general-phillips-a-cry-must-come-out-loud-and-clear-that-we-will-not-stand-for-violence-against-the-protected-persons-of-camp-ashraf-this-deadline-must-be-postponed

Ashton calls for cooperation with UN to resolve Camp Ashraf problem

BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Kuwait News Agency - KUNA)EU High Representative Catherine Ashton has praised the ongoing efforts of Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), to find an urgent solution for an orderly departure of the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq before the end of this year.

"It is now essential that all concerned parties show flexibility and cooperate fully and constructively with the UN in this process, which offers the only available prospect for a safe way forward," said Michael Mann, spokesman of Ashton in a statement.

The EU foreign policy chief reiterated her call on the government o

f Iraq to continue its discussions with Kobler in order to come to an acceptable solution.

She also called on the Ashraf Camp residents and their leadership, as well as on EU Member States and third countries to cooperate fully and without delay with the UN plan.

"All parties, and all those who have any influence upon them, must make the security and safety of the residents their utmost priority," added the statement.

Camp Ashraf is home to the Iranian dissident group called the MKO.


http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/ashraf/11540-ashton-calls-for-cooperation-with-un-to-resolve-camp-ashraf-problem