Henrick Hermansson at American Thinker ("a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans") outlined the problem.
Money quote(s):
"U.S. troops are set to completely withdraw from Iraq on the 31st of December. That is also the date for another more ominous deadline: al-Maliki's government has ordered what looks to be a bloody attack on innocent political refugees on that very same day, despite strong condemnations from human rights groups, parliamentarians, and journalists from around the world. Maliki's order to empty Camp Ashraf, which will no doubt lead to a massacre, came after his meeting with the Iranian leader Khamenei. Dispersion of the camp residents no doubt will resemble what happened to the Jewish community during the Second World War.
The attack will target the 3,400 residents of Ashraf, or "Camp New Iraq," who are Iranian political dissidents hated by Iraq's powerful neighbor. The camp has been attacked by Iraqi forces twice before, once in April this year and once in 2009, and in total more than 47 of the civilian residents were killed -- either shot or run over by armored vehicles. At present the camp is inhumanely blockaded by Iraqi troops who prevent medical and other vital supplies, journalists, human rights groups, and parliamentarians from entering."
The deadline has obviously passed, without (yet) tragic results for Camp Ashraf's inhabitants.
Sec. Clinton has deputized Amb. Daniel Fried to lead U.S. efforts on resolving this issue and in a U.N.-brokered compromise with the al-Maliki government, the residents of Camp Ashraf will be moved to the former Camp Liberty, where their situation can be monitored by both UNHCR and U.S. Embassy personnel.
See Amb. Fried's presser here.
"The residents of the camp have a complicated history. They fled Iran after tens of thousands of political dissidents were executed by the Khomeini regime in the eighties. They were welcomed in Iraq, which, with the support of Western governments, was at war with Iran. Most of the residents have lived in or near Ashraf now for a quarter-century and have built lives, schools, and a beautiful mosque there. They were also integral in revealing the Iranian secret nuclear facilities. As a source of inspiration, they are important to the "Persian Spring." All in all, this is more than enough to put them on the regime's death list.
The residents also have a complicated history with the U.S. In 1997, as a gesture of goodwill to the "moderate" Khatami government in Iran, the U.S. put the residents (or rather the organization many of them belong to) on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations, without any factual basis. In the EU and Britain, courts have declared terror designations of this organization "perverse" and removed them. Despite a federal court ruling ordering the designation to be reviewed, the removal process is being stalled for political reasons in the U.S. by the State Department. At the same time, the residents of Ashraf have been protected by and had very good relationships with U.S. troops, been designated as protected persons by the U.S. under the fourth Geneva Convention, and have been declared U.S. allies by chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, FBI directors, and other prominent members of the intelligence community."
With all due respect to Mr. Hermansson, some of the above isn't exactly the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
1. "They fled Iran after tens of thousands of political dissidents were executed by the Khomeini regime in the eighties." They fled Iran after the Revolution (which they participated in as allies of Khomeini, including, possibly, the U.S. embassy takeover) and the mullahs started purifying the new regime (as one does). They may even have started the fighting between the Khomeini regime and their particular faction, being rather fond of explosive and other violent forms of assassinations at the time.
2. "They were welcomed in Iraq, which, with the support of Western governments, was at war with Iran." They were welcomed by Saddam Hussein's regime, which used them as loyal shock troops to put down revolts by, among others, the Kurds. With Saddam gone, they don't have a lot of friends left in Iraq.
3. "As a source of inspiration, they are important to the "Persian Spring." " That's wish-fulfillment fantasy talk. There was never any indication that the protesters who filled the streets took any inspiration from the PMOI/MEK. If anything, the mullahcracy seems to have been successful in painting the PMOI/MEK as traitors to Iran, due mostly to the PMOI/MEK's own actions in fighting against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.
4. "In 1997, as a gesture of goodwill to the "moderate" Khatami government in Iran, the U.S. put the residents (or rather the organization many of them belong to) on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations, without any factual basis." While CAA takes a backseat to none in questioning the timing of the decision to list the PMOI/MEK, they have done what they have done, fully meriting their place on said list.
5. "Despite a federal court ruling ordering the designation to be reviewed, the removal process is being stalled for political reasons in the U.S. by the State Department." Placement, and removal, of an organization on the State Department's terrorist organizations list follows a protocol, subject to periodic review. CAA had a chat, last year, with one of the people who had previously been charged with conducting that review and didn't come away thinking that the process had been politicized.
6. "At the same time, the residents of Ashraf have been protected by and had very good relationships with U.S. troops, been designated as protected persons by the U.S. under the fourth Geneva Convention, and have been declared U.S. allies by chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, FBI directors, and other prominent members of the intelligence community." Camp Ashraf's PMOI/MEK inhabitants took great care and pains with what we used to call their "charm offensive" to ingratiate themselves to the U.S. troops assigned to their protection. This doesn't by itself make them bad people (assassinating U.S. personnel in Iran before the Revolution will suffice on the organizational level to earn that classification), nor does, necessarily, being enemies of America's enemies (i.e., the "evil mullah regime" in Iran) make them good people. Their entitlement, based upon my own close reading of the Laws of Land Warfare, to Protected status doesn't hinge upon them good or bad people. Lastly, the JCS, FBI, and the IC don't get to decide who are U.S. allies (or not).
"The residents of Ashraf enjoy as wide bipartisan support as any issue in Washington today."
True enough. And CAA would view them much more sympathetically, given how long ago the PMOI/MEK's anti-U.S. violance took place, if they'd simply own up to it (at long last) and stop with the denials.
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