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.

U.S. and UN Should Carry Out Their Promises to Iranian Dissidents

As the Iraqi government was tightening the screws on the 3,400 Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf, the UN (with U.S. help) brokered a deal to move them to an abandoned U.S. Army base near Baghdad, where they would be processed as refugees for transfer to third countries.

It's hard to believe, but that was SIX MONTHS ago. And what has happened in that time? More than half of the these members of the People Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) - in an effort to show good faith and accept the promises of the international community - have been relocated in Camp Liberty, an ironic name to say the least.

There, they have been subjected to prison-like conditions, harsh treatment, lack of basic sanitary facilities, and totally unacceptable restrictions at the hands of the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki, who is nothing more than a proxy for the regime in Tehran.

And what of the U.S. and UN promises to these innocent individuals who heeded the appeal of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, to accept the move as part of a supposed quid pro quo that would mean their freedom elsewhere in a short time?

Well, that short time becomes ever longer. And the promised UN processing of these "refugees" has not resulted in a single individual being relocated from Camp Liberty. Instead, that facility grows more overcrowded by the day, with the accompanying worsening of conditions.

To make matters worse, the U.S. has done nothing to remove the MEK from its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

For reasons that have never been explained, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton linked that action to the move from Ashraf to Liberty. Yet, despite the MEK bending over backwards to accede to U.S. demands, they are still waiting for the promised delisting.

Almost a month has gone by since a U.S. Federal District Court gave the State Department until October to act on the listing or the court would do it itself, yet not a word has been heard from Foggy Bottom on the issue.

Both of these matters were the subject of a massive rally of more than 100,000 Iranians last weekend in a Paris suburb - together with the larger issue of freedom for all of Iran from the tyrannical rule of the mullahs.

This gathering of Iranians from around the world, together with hundreds of their international supporters from nations near and far, fully noted the latest failure of Western negotiators to get any concessions from Tehran regarding its nuclear ambitions.

Since the negotiations began, three months have passed, with no obvious progress. Indeed, the only result is that the Iranian regime is three months closer to its ambition of developing not only nuclear energy for its own domestic use but also nuclear weapons to enhance its threat of terror in the Middle East.

It was heartening to see the broad support for the cause of Iranian Resistance from military leaders, diplomats, lawyers, UN ambassadors, writers, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners, and of course politicians from across the spectrum, all united in the cause of a Free Iran.

It also was inspiring to hear the words of Mrs. Rajavi, at the mass gathering:
"... I see in you and with you tens of millions of Iranians who are yearning for freedom.
"I hear the voice of my brave sisters across our homeland.
"I hear the voice of proud prisoners of conscience in the dungeons of Ali Khamenei.
"And I hear the voice of students, workers, teachers and all those who long for freedom and liberation.
"Indeed, all of us hear your outcry from the four corners of Iran and your voice resonates in our ears.
"Indeed, the cry of every Iranian is Freedom, Freedom.
"In you, I see the enraged peoples of the Middle East who have risen up against despotic and murderous regimes. I mean the people of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other regional countries whose representatives are here today."

Yes, she inspired us, and we will continue to demand justice until the world acts on her vision.
Meanwhile, we must continue to press the United States and the UN to keep their promises.

Surely that is not too much to ask - is it?

Washington’s Smear Campaign Against MEK Vs. Death In Camp Liberty

Council of Europe Siding With The MEK And Its US Supporters
by Fabian Mahmoudi

As Washington’s smear campaign fires away at MEK, Bardia Amir-Mostofian, a 44 year old engineer and resident of Ashraf, dies of cardiac arrest due to fatigue following a 48-hour-long transit inspection after entering Camp Liberty.

Bardia was one of 700 residents who volunteered to go to the Camp described to be a “prison” by a recent statement by the Council of Europe. (Full statement of Council of Europe)

International pleas by the opposition (MEK) alerting the US,UNAMI and international community of a plot to fail the relocation and blame it on the opposition has not been heeded when most needed.

The statement released by the opposition blames Baridas’ death on his extreme fatigue and stress cause by the rush imposed by Iraq and UNAMI to relocate before the Iranian New year.

The MoU does not allow residents the freedom to transfer their movable belongings.

MEK Women ; warriors and Resistance Fighters in a prison called “Camp Liberty”

An article by one of our contacts who is a researcher and anchor journlist as well as women's activist :S.Azad

The portrayal of women warriors have been the subject of history, mythology, culture, film, folklore and gender studies. It is time to unravel a real ongoing epic involving 21^st century women warriors who have not only outwitted their past ancestors experience in facing cultural and psychological barriers which enchain them in their quest for the “good” but are at the forefront of changing the trend of social political evolution Humankind: The MEK.PMOI women.

In terms of Islamic history, breaking barriers for gender equality has always been the tradition of the Prophet himself;

Responce to MSNBC lies about MEK

Response from the Natonal Council of Resistance of Iran

Editor's note: The following reponse to this article was received after publication from Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the Nationa Council of Resistance of Iran.

The claim that the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) had any role in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and the claim of the PMOI/MEK cooperation with Mossad is a sheer lie without even a scintilla of truth.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran has repeatedly denied the baseless allegation of playing a role in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. The primary source of this baseless allegation has been the propaganda machine of the Iranian regime and its officials. The last MEK denial was on January 11, 2012. Faced with tightening sanctions, growing internal and international isolation, the prospect of losing its strategic ally in Syria and growing internecine internal feuding, the clerical regime is paranoid about the prospect of delisting of the MEK by the U.S. Department of State. As such, it resorts to any fabrication and fairy tales, including the one that has been rehashed by NBC, to prevent the delisting of the MEK. 

The Iranian Resistance revealed last year that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had ordered a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to liquidate any managers or experts in nuclear projects if it detected that they are distancing themselves from the regime or intend to leave the country. He also said that the killings should be blamed on the MEK, the U.S., Israeli operatives or “world arrogance”.

On January 7, Fereydoon Abbassi, the Director of Atomic Organization of Iran, referred to widespread dissatisfaction among the regime's nuclear experts and told IRGC-run Fars news agency: "One should not lose site of the fact that just as we had deserters during the war, there are those scientists who refrain from cooperating with nuclear projects in order to maintain their international ties... Of course, we have never been worried and are not worried about this issue since there are plenty of human resources and experts in the country. At the moment, there is greater demand for activity in nuclear projects than there is the possibility.”  He predicted curiously that since the enemy cannot prevent the entry of science in Iran, "it resorts to assassinating Iranian scientists."

The totally fabricated story on the MEK is nothing but rehash of the thread-bare and baseless propaganda by the clerical regime. It gets repeated for a sole political objective: To justify the illegal, immoral, and baseless continuation of terrorist designation of the MEK by the State Department. A listing that is totally discredited, punctured from all directions and is on its death bed. It should be reiterated that no fantasy story such as the one by NBC and remarks by anonymous officials who according to the article make vague comments such as "all your inclinations are correct," cannot provide last minute oxygen to keep this listing alive.

The DC Federal Appeals Court ruled on July 2010 that there were no credible evidence on this listing and all of the documents provided by the State Department had been heresy and uncorroborated.  It said their sources were unknown or suspect and some were in and of themselves implausible. Thus, the court ordered the State Department to review this listing. More than 100 members of Congress, including Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, in a rare bipartisan initiative called for revoking of the listing. Dozens of the most senior national security officials of the past four administrations have joined this campaign.

Contrary to the claim of the article, this rare consensus, as has been stipulated by the most senior national security officials of the past four administrations, is because there exists no evidence and document connecting the MEK with terrorism and the US government has not been able to provide even a single document to this effect.

It is not a coincidence that the main source of this story, similar to the shows broadcast by mullahs on their state TVs, is Mohammad Javad Larijani, who has been introduced as advisor to Ali Khamanei.

The main mission of Larijani, who in fact has been one the ideologues of the ruling dictatorship, is to justify at the international stage the brutal suppression, public hangings and stoning to death  of Iranian people by the clerical regime.

Blaming others for what oneself does, is one of the main attributes of Iranian regime and its officials. In fact, Larijani is the same person that on 1990 officially declared that the only means for the survival of the clerical regime was to expand its fundamentalist brand of Islam other Islamic countries.  It is clear that the main means of this expansion has been export of terrorism, and fundamentalism.

The unfounded nature of these allegation become all the more clear if one recalls the claim about MEK's cooperation with the Ramzi Yousef for bombing Imam Reza Shrine in Mashad in 1994. This allegation amounts to defamation and could be pursued legally.  The MEK has never had any contact or connection to Ramzi Yousef. It is very telling that when this tragic bombing took place on June 20, 1994, Ali Khamenei, personally attributed the bombing to the MEK, something the MEK flatly denied at the time. A few years later, during the regime's factional feuding, a former member of the regime's Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) revealed that the bombing had been perpetrated by the MOIS and in particular by Saeed Emami faction, then a deputy of the MOIS.

Shahin Gobadi, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Paris, February 9, 2012

 

Patrik Kennedy: If you care about the security of the United States, which you’re sworn to uphold, then take this sham of this terrorist listing and t

NCRI - In an international conference held in Paris on Friday, January 6, at the invitation of the CFID (French Committee for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran), dozens of distinguished American and European dignitaries warned of obstructions and non-cooperation by the Iranian regime and Government of Iraq in guaranteeing a peaceful solution for Camp Ashraf, where members of the Iranian opposition reside in Iraq.

The conference speakers were Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance; Gov. Howard Dean, former Governor Vermont, Chair of the Democratic National Committee (2005-2009) and US presidential candidate (2004); Gov. Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania and the first US Homeland Security Secretary (2003-2005); Louis Freeh, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1993-2001); Gov. Ed Rendell, Chair of the Democratic National Committee (1999-2001) and Governor of Pennsylvania (2002-2011); Judge Michael Mukasey, US Attorney General in the Bush Administration (2007-2009); Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, former Director of Policy Planning at the US Department of State; General James Conway, Commandant of the US Marine Corps (2006-2010); Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Member of US House of Representatives (1995-2011); Gen. Chuck Wald, former Deputy Commander of US European Command; Gen. David Phillips, Commander of U.S. Military Police (2008-2011); Prof. Alan Dershowitz, one of the most prominent advocates of individual rights and the most well-known lawyer in criminal cases in the world; Ambassador Dell Dailey, Head of the State Department's counterterrorism office (2007-09); Col. Wesley Martin, former Senior Anti-terrorism Force Protection Officer for all Coalition Forces in Iraq and Commander of Forward Operation Base in Ashraf; Prof. Ruth Wedgwood, Chair of International Law and Diplomacy at Johns Hopkins University; Philippe Douste-Blazy, Former French Foreign Minister and to the UN Secretary General; Alain Vivien, former French Minister of State for European Affairs; Rita Süssmuth, former President of German Bundestag; Günter Verheugen, European Commissioner (1999-2010) and former Advisory Minister in German Foreign Ministry; and Sen. Lucio Malan, Member of Italian Senate.

Below is speech by Hon. Patrik Kennedy:

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I salute you. I want to salute you. And I want to salute your family members in Camp Ashraf because they’re putting their lives on the line for another set of hostages, for another people that are prisoners and that’s their compatriots in Iran who are prisoners to the Mullah’s theocracy and brutal dictatorship in Tehran.

Let there be no mistake about it that the fight for Camp Ashraf is a fight to free Iran from this tyrannical regime. We need to have relocation, not only of the residents of Camp Ashraf, but relocation of the Mullahs in Tehran.

Let’s be honest and now I want to speak to my friends in the United States. Let’s understand what this terrorist listing means. For all of you, you know what it means. It’s an execution order for your family members. But it is also a mortal threat to the national security of the United States of America. After 9/11, no American can stand by while we honor false and hypocritical and political lists like this. We cannot afford, as the United States, to play games, to play political games with national security. So I say to the State Department, I say to my colleagues in Congress, former colleagues in Congress, understand this: if you care about the security of the United States, which you’re sworn to uphold, then take this sham of a list and tear it up.

And I want to have actions because I agree with my colleagues on the stage that words are not enough. Do you realize right now that there are 13 billion dollars in American military sales that are going to Iraq? Do you want to get the attention of the American public? Do you want to get the attention of the Congress and the President of the United States? Then introduce a resolution in Congress that says that the moment there is a violation of international law and a crime against humanity by using the training and weapons provided by the United States of America, we are going to suspend any future military sales to the people of Iraq. You want to get the attention of the American public? That’s what you do.

Finally, let me just say, as Madame Rajavi so eloquently said, everyone here is part of the answer. Each of you has a responsibility. All people of goodwill have a responsibility to do the right thing. And when my uncle Robert Kennedy spoke in Cape Town, South Africa in 1966 when no one ever thought they’d see the end of an apartheid because it took another generation before apartheid ended, he said, “Each time a person stands up against injustice or acts to improve the lot of others, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope.” And coming from the million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples can create a current that can knock down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Each of us, each one of us has an opportunity to make a difference and in the totality of all these acts will be written the history of this cause when we are able to see the peaceful relocation of your friends and family members and of human beings who are disarmed and all that they want is freedom and all they want is to be with their families. And if you stick to this, I’m confident that we’ll ultimately see the day where they will truly be free. Thank you very much.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/ashraf/11608-patrik-kennedy-if-you-care-about-the-security-of-the-united-states-which-youre-sworn-to-uphold-then-take-this-sham-of-this-terrorist-listing-and-tear-it-up-