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Mujahedin's fate in Iraq
06-Oct-2008
The Bush administration inherited many of Iraq's problems when it invaded that country, including an Iranian terrorist organization funded and armed by Saddam Hussein, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO). Though in the midst of a war on terror, the Bush administration chose in 2003 to protect 3,000 of the organization's militants and house them in a camp given to the group by Saddam — Camp Ashraf just north of Baghdad.
Ever since, the fate of this State Department-listed terrorist organization has been unclear. Hated by Iraqis for its involvement in Saddam's crimes against the Iraqi people, the Baghdad government wants to expel the group. But no country is willing to take them.
Though the Iranian government wants to put the group's leadership on trial in Iran, it seems less interested in the organization's rank and file. The European governments have little interest in taking in 3,000 battle-hardened Muslim militants, fearing that they will use Europe as a base to plan and execute further terrorist attacks.
The U.S., on the other hand, has already contradicted its own principles by giving preferential treatment to an organization on the State Department's terrorist list — even though President Bush himself pointed to the organization's patronage under Saddam Hussein as evidence of Iraq's support for international terrorists in his speech to the United Nations in September 2002.
"Iraq continues to shelter and support terrorist organizations that direct violence against Iran," President Bush said. To complicate matters further, if reports that the U.S. has used MKO terrorists for cross-border raids into Iran are true, then Washington certainly doesn't want these militants to end up in Iranian hands.
Washington seems doomed if it does, doomed if it doesn't.
Members of the terrorist organization have protested outside the White House this past week, angered by the Bush administration's decision to hand over Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will surrender the MKO members to Tehran, they argue, who in turn will imprison and execute them.
Though approximately 500 MKO fighters have been repatriated to Iran and no reports of abuse have emerged according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversaw their return, sending rank-and-file Mujahedin members to Iran against their will would be irresponsible.
Hated by the Iranian people for having fought on Saddam's side in the Iraq-Iran war, the Iranian Mujahedin is understandably fearful of the fate awaiting them in Iran. After all, the Iranian government systematically violates the human rights of journalists and union leaders alike, let alone anti-Iranian terrorists.
Yet, contrary to the protesters outside the White House, the issue is not a choice between freedom in Camp Ashraf and captivity in Iran.
The Mujahedin is not an effective opposition to the unpopular government in Iran as the organization's defenders in Washington claim, but a politico-religious cult that brainwashes its members, places children of Mujahedin members with other families in order to prevent parents from defecting, and who according to Human Rights Watch, maintains control by torturing its rank and file. "Members who try to leave the Mujahedin pay a very heavy price," according to Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch.
Its involvement in terrorism is undisputed. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s. It supported the taking of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and blasted Ayatollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages should have been executed. It made a pact with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and fought alongside his army against their Iranian countrymen. Later in the 1990s, they became Saddam's most trusted henchmen, tasked with quelling Kurdish and Shiite uprisings against the Iraqi dictator.
According to defectors, Mujahedin members in Camp Ashraf celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In 2004, French authorities descended upon the Mujahedin headquarters in France, arresting the leader of the cult, Maryam Rajavi. Immediately, zealous Mujahedin members staged hunger strikes and several set themselves ablaze. Hardly the behavior of a democratically oriented opposition group.
But the vast majority of the Camp Ashraf residents are not so much members of a terrorist cult as they are victims of it. The camp is itself a prison. It may have provided Mujahedin militants with protection against ordinary Iraqis who sought to avenge their relatives killed by the Mujahedin at the behest of Saddam Hussein, but the prison has primarily enabled the leaders of the terrorist organization to prevent the rank and file from defecting.
Rather than debating where to expel the Mujahedin terrorists, help should be provided to the rank and file to break with the cult and make free choices about their future. It's the only humanitarian solution to this dilemma - and one that defeats rather than protects this anti-American terrorist group.
This oped appeared first in the Washington Times.
• Trita Parsi is president and founder of the National Iranian American Council and author of "Treacherous Alliances: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States." The opinions expressed are his own.
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> do youself a favor , watch this documentary
by Another Lost Iranian in Paris (not verified) on Tue Oct 07, 2008 01:04 AM PDT//www.linktv.org/programs/mek
One of the best recent documentary on the MEK so far.
> Dulles airport CBP officers
by Another Lost Iranian in Paris (not verified) on Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:29 AM PDTBack in 2003, I used to work for Air France at DC's Dulles airport. One day, I saw litteraly HUNDREDS of iranians in the arrival section, wich was quite an unsual scene, not like we were in LAX airport I mean.
After observing them while drinking my coffee, I quickly realized they were mojaheds (specific way of wearing hejabs, javad look, Rajavi t-shirt, ect... mostly from Germany and Scandinavia). That day I was asked to help customs and DHS agents with some persian translation, since many passengers were flying on Air France. I understood that most of these badbakht were being SENT to the D.C area , with an ''all inclusive'' package PAID by MEK cells around Europe,in order to participate in arally/concert in Arlington.
After spending like 3 hours there,and translating why they were travelling to the U.S, where they'd be staying and so on, I decided to go and talk to the CBP head officer there. I was relatively young at that time, I didn't want to appear like a smart ass. So I played low profile : ''Sir , I think I should let you know that these passengers are members of a terrorist organization listed by the Department of State, and...'', he didn't let me finish : ''yea I know, they're MEK'' and walked away.
The U.S Government was consciously assisting the MEK setting up a huge rally in the D.C area (and by the way,the Gipsy Kings were singing at the concert...). I was so disappointed, and disgusted.
For a couple of days, you could see RAJAVI T-SHIRTS and balloons all around the airport.
hey, Department of Homeland Security : Khejaalat am bad chizi nist.
Let's not forget ....
by Omid Parsi (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 09:32 PM PDTI wonder if the writer has any clue as to how the Islamic Revolution came about or whether has alternative agenda ... I am no fan of the Mujahedeen or the IRI, but it is treacherous to imply that the IRI owes its existence to anyone other than the MEK. The current regime is the result of the Mullah Establishment hijacking the revolution that was originally fought by the MEK and some other left-wing groups. Mullahs and their thugs never had the courage to take to the streets with guns to battle the Shah, but they were soon able to unleash unspeakable terror on all those who actually did the fighting to topple the Pahlavi regime. Any terror that the MEK is (rightly) accused of, was in retaliation for the greater terror that the Mullahs and their thugs committed against all their rivals. Let's not forget that to this day Bani-Sadr was the only freely elected president of IRI!
If you are going to distort and rewrite history, better wait some 70+ years for all first-hand witnesses of the Islamist revolution to be senile or dead first!! You can call the MEK terrorists, but it is an established fact that the IRI and their Hezbollah thugs are the mother of all terror that has lasted nearly 30 years. Next to the Hezbollah, the MEK are honorable freedom fighters if only because they never succeeded ...
Omid Parsi
New York
Irandokht
by Jaleho on Mon Oct 06, 2008 07:13 PM PDTFifth column is a group of traitors formed inside a government but working against the national interest of that government.
For example, many Israeli-first Americans are said to work like a fifth column in the US. Douglas Feith, Richard Perle , Wolfowitz etc. and the Office of Special Plans inside Pentagon is a good example of some a fifth column working inside the Pentagon. Of course, some peole say that the Israeli-occupied-US Congress is another :-)
Hey, I couldn't resist the opportunity to explain fifth column in a way that Kurdish W and that Sam broken-record-guy would hate to see, and probably you too, sorry :-) :-)
American wife
by Jaleho on Mon Oct 06, 2008 07:00 PM PDTThis article is a very good one in that it clearly exposes the role of the US regarding Mujahedeen and Camp Ashraf to begin with. And, I mean you to read it critically and carefully not because I want to have one more chance to say "dirty Americans did this or that," for average Iranians these are quite OLD stories.
But, you need to read it carefully since many Americans really have no clue who MKO are, and what role the US has had in keeping them in Iraq, both during Saddam's rule and after 2003. You will find lots of contradictions in US policy towards this terrorist organization, so try to understand why is it so!! Then you'll go far beyond calling some raw names for an entire cult-like imprisoned group who for over a generation are kept in a camp, with new kids growing up there, kept, fed, and trained like attack dogs who would be used if the boss needed them.
I believe the first step is for US to take them off their payroll, they print their propaganda in the fanciest color papers since they get so much money from the US for their anti-Iran propaganda. They should get a job like the rest of the humanity to sustain their lives rather than being paid by the US to stay in a camp for future possible use. And they will have to work if they are not fed and kept in that prison. The higher ranks like Maryam Rajavi herself will have no choice but to live in hiding all her life under the protection of some foreign government who has been feeding them so far. Some probably would end up facing justice in the hand of Iran. But, the regular kids growing up there, many of the members who were kept there because the cult doesn't allow them to leave, the ones who would like to go to Iran and they should have every right to be repatriated. And the US, instead of paying them to stay there, should help break up the prison they are in and get absorbed anywhere they can get a safe job.
What should be done with MEK?
by Mammad on Mon Oct 06, 2008 05:27 PM PDTIn my opinion, the top leadership of the MEK - Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, Mehdi Abrishamchi, Mahmoud Ataei, Mohammad Mohaddesin, Ali Safavi, Alireza Jafarzadeh, et al. - must be put on trial by the International Criminal Court, not only for being partly responsible for the death of thousands of MEK young and impressionable supporters, but also for their role in the suppression of Kurds and Shi'ites in Iraq after the Persian Gulf war of 1990-1991.
The rest of them should be allowed to resettle anywhere they want and are allowed to. Then, when we have a truly independent judiciary in Iran some day, they should respond to the charges against them, if they go back to Iran, like everyone else.
Many of you may not know where MEK started from in 1965, and how it ended up to be the traitor organization that it is now. But, believe me, I know them. Abrishamchi's family was a close family friend in our neighbourhood; his younger brother Hossein was a close friend of my younger and late brother, and I had several friends who were MEK and got killed, both before and after the Revolution. I also have several friends in my area who have lost loved ones due to what Rajavi, one of the worst figures in Iran's contemporary history, wanted to do without any rationale or logic, out of pure and sheer lust for power.
Mammad
Samsam jan
by IRANdokht on Mon Oct 06, 2008 05:00 PM PDTI never thought I would read something 4 times and still go: huh?
what language is that anyway? or is it a riddle? what's "5th collumn"? what's an "s closet"? "case and point the 2 emamzadehs"?? I think that last sentence is malformed or something...
hmmmm do you always talk like that?
would you say the islamists' hate for anti-islam ever matches your hate for anyone who doesn't think the way you do?
do you see the parallel?
it's very interesting actually...
IRANdokht
dear Irandokht
by sickoflies (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 04:42 PM PDTI have no data on camp Ashraf's current situation and their members. But one thing I know, they don't deserve to be sent back to the Islamic Republic to be killed by worse traitors/criminals than themselves.
Jaleho
by American Wife on Mon Oct 06, 2008 04:42 PM PDTBack to my original question... what do you expect the US to do with them? These "poor people"? I suggest that the US is keeping them ALIVE in lieu of "keeping them afloat". So... for the sake of these "poor people", do we give them to Iraq or let them go back (like they really would want to) to Iran.
heh, Forget about Rajavi loser, talk Mullahs 5th collumn
by samsam1111 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 04:32 PM PDTI wonder what Bush will do with Qadesiyeh regime,s closet Baradar Asghars & Khahar Zeynabs 5th column & Regime apologists on US soil. Since They are busy buying up politicians & Media outlets for anti US subversive activities. Case & point , the 2 Emamzadehs . I think the danger from These Malakhs is much greater than their former Ommatist Taazi cousins the Mujaheds. Because the latter is actively involved in espionage.
American wife
by Jaleho on Mon Oct 06, 2008 04:04 PM PDTControl your Irish hot blooded "instant outrage" please!
It is a known fact that the US supported Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and equipped Mujahedeen with everything including vital intelligence, and used them as cannon fodders to attack Iran. And it is a well established fact that US has been trying to keep them afloat in Iraq since 2003 just in case they'd need them in a war with Iran again.
What is it that you are outraged at exactly? Once in a while you ask me a question following a comment I make, quite outraged and surprised, and when I take the time to answer you, you don't even seem to be interested in learning the opposite point of view that you were so passionately intrested to know about!!
When you think your reaction might last more than an "instant," get back to me.
Mujahedins
by G. Koliantz (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 03:34 PM PDTBoth Mujahedins and the current regime of Iran are the same f***.
Jaleho
by American Wife on Mon Oct 06, 2008 03:30 PM PDTAre you reading the same article as I am? Sick hope of using these POOR PEOPLE? Just curious... what do YOU think should be done? An obviously anti-American group who would more likely than not align themselves with the nearest and dearest terrorist group available... I rather think the US is being pretty damn lenient.
Other than my instant outrage at Jaleho's statement, the article was interesting and well written. One thing I think is insanely naive... or perhaps just wishful thinking... is the notion of "rehabitating" MEK. I'm sure every criminal in every jail would appreciate the opportunity to "break away" from the BAD PEOPLE instead of paying their dues.
Mujahedin
by choghok on Mon Oct 06, 2008 03:20 PM PDTI had a neighbour during my student time which was an Iranian who had escaped camp Ashraf with his family. He was lucky. He said that if you wanted to leave they would throw you out of the camp with no help and they saw that you would suffer in Saddams Iraq. He used to say that everything was controlled by the leaders. Women were not allowed to smoke so they would do that in the toilets, Rajavi has made it forbidden for married couples to have sex with a Fatwa.
Mujahedin used to go around in European countries and gather money by pretending to be pro democracy opposition they would then move the money illegally (manually) to France which was their base outside Iraq.
I am sure that with these actions Mujahedin show that they are not fit even to run a public bathroom let alone a country.
/Bidar bash ke ma bekhabim
sickflies
by IRANdokht on Mon Oct 06, 2008 02:43 PM PDTwhat do you think of Camp Ashraf?
IRANdokht
Dear Mr Parsi
by IRANdokht on Mon Oct 06, 2008 02:41 PM PDTThis is a very well written, clear and unbiased article. I agree with you that they should be given the right to chose if they want to go back to Iran or not. Iraqi government would most likely not grant them that right.
One issue that is troublesome to me is the story of these folks' children that were taken away from them and are being raised in different countries. I once read that these Camp Ashraf residents who sold all their belongings and joined the terrorist cult in Iraq surrendered all their money to them and their children were placed in various homes away from them.
I can't imagine how many children were taken and where they would be, how would these folks find their kids? or would they ever?
If the kids are being raised in Europe, would the european countries help these people locate their kids? would they allow them to search?
Another issue of course would be the type of mental health care they would need to be able to join any society they will end up in. As far as I know mental health care is not really big in Iran and with the pressure they would face there, even if not imprisoned or tortured, these prisoners of Camp Ashraf may actually face a more brutal fate after their release.
I hope Rajavis face justice and are put on trial for the crimes they have committed against Iran and all Iranians.
Thanks again for a great article
IRANdokht
Good one Mr. Parsi!
by Jaleho on Mon Oct 06, 2008 02:08 PM PDTIt is high time that the US give up its sick hope of "one day" using these poor people as its own free cannon fodders against Iran. (yet again!)
A humane decsion should be made for them, in particular for their younger generation who had no fault except for being born in the wrong place and are trapped now.
Who has pepetrated more
by sickoflies (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 01:48 PM PDTWho has pepetrated more unspeakable crimes against Iran and the Iranian people, more domestic and foreign terror,MKO or the IRI?
Who has enriched the armsdealers and the enemies of Iran, MKO or IRI?
//www.williambowles.info/guests/2005/iran_cla...
//iranian.com/main/blog/hbpm1/blood-tears-sac...
Who has brainwashed more Iranians against their own well-being and their very own identity and nation?
Who has given 33% of Control of Caspian sea to Russians? Whose pockets the oil revenues go to, MKO, or the IRI's aghazadeh and oligarchal clergy??
Who are the traitors and the terrorists here??? Who is funding Hizballah, Hamas, Shia death squads in Iraq both killing Iraqi sunnis and American troops???
Impressive approach
by AmirAshkan Pishroo on Mon Oct 06, 2008 01:47 PM PDTTrita Parsi proves himself yet again to be one of the most original political strategists. He has come up with a very smart solution for the rank and file of this Sharmgin sect.
Ali1
by Karim S (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 01:27 PM PDTAli1 - i can't speak for Parsi, but i am surprised you have not read his criticism against the IRI. It's even in the piece above - he is talking about how unsafe it would be for the MEK to return to Iran since Tehran has a horrific human rights record. How could you miss that section - it's central to the entire argument...
~Karim
mixed feelings of dispise and piti
by mani981 (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 01:08 PM PDTI, like most Iranians (regardless of thier political views) despise Masoud Rajavi for selling himself to the highest bidder, selling out his own country and taking advantage of thousands of simple minded and perhaps well meaning youth in his quest to become the next "Supreme Leader" of Iran. As far as the members our concerned, I have to feel pity for at least some of these sheep who followed a wolf as thier leader.
here u go again....
by ali1 (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:12 PM PDTmr parsi,
I agree with many of your points re: MEK.
however, once again, you are offering IRI's version of the story.
I have NEVER heard you state ANYTHING regarding the mullahs' disgraceful and bloody record in their 30 year oppression of iran and its people.
I'M VERY CURIOUS as to why you are so inclined!
for once, you should state the brutal facts about the mullahs- their direct hand in the burning of cinema rex, their use of palestenian assasins as soldiers during the revolution, their murder of tens of thousands of opposition figures, and on and on
why is it that you CONSISTANTLY avoid stating anything that might shed some light on the REAL TRUTH ABOUT IRAN'S PLIGHT FOR THE PAST 3O YEARS....
I am not going to call you an agent of the mullahs, but, nontheless, it is a recurring theme in your writings!
Well said!
by Karim S (not verified) on Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:49 AM PDTThe MKO are fanatics, but their low level people are victims. Not sure I agree that they shouldn't be punished for their crimes though.
now, embrace yourself for the attacks that will come against you and niac! Even though you reject sending the mek till Iran, we know what the accusations will be - that you are pro-mulla bla bla bla...
Well, the mek will only prove you right by resorting to personal attacks and slander.
keep it up!
~Karim