re: "Is Camp Liberty really a 'concentration camp' for the MEK?"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") had a good synopsis of the PMOI state-of-play last month.


Money quote(s):


"The U.S. government has worked hard to find a new location in Iraq for the thousands of members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization that is being kicked out of its home at Camp Ashraf by the Iraqi government.


But now the State Department has to answer aggressive charges that the new home for the MEK, a former U.S. military base called Camp Liberty, is a "concentration camp" with horrid conditions. What's more, these charges are coming from senior U.S. politicians and experts, led by former New York mayor and presidential candidate Rudi Giuliani."


To re-cap, not only is the PMOI/MEK a designated foreign terrorist organization, but its uniformed arm, consolidated at Camp Ashraf, has "Protected" status under the Geneva Conventions.


"The State Department worked with the United Nations to prepare Camp Liberty, now renamed Camp Hurriya (Arabic for "freedom"), to get it ready for the MEK, but the MEK has been reluctant to move there. The first tranche of about 400 MEK members started relocating this month.


Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, who was on the panel with Guliani at the Feb. 26 conference, wholeheartedly agreed with his take on the conditions at Camp Liberty, according to a press release put out by the Global Initiative for Democracy."


There are a number of reasons which spring to mind as to the PMOI's reluctance to move, distrust of the Iraqi government or of either (or both) the U.N. and the American embassy's effectualism, control, or indifference to their fate being only a few. Not to mention that they'd be separated from whatever resources (equipment, cash, gear, and weapons) they may have stashed away at Camp Ashraf. A move of personnel gives many opportunities for them to be shaken-down for such of those things as they may try to move with them.


"Neither man ever called Camp Liberty a "concentration camp" or a "garbage dump" when it housed hundreds of U.S. soldiers for years during the Iraq war."


Camp Liberty was neither a "garbage dump" nor a "concentration camp" when it was the home of hundreds (thousands?) of U.S. troops who, as is their practice, daily strove to not only maintain but improve their position.


Subsequent to their withdrawal, a period of very thorough Iraqi-style looting (i.e., to include plumbing and electrical fixtures and even pipes and wiring) very likely left the place an un-inhabitable "garbage dump."


"Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Ted Poe(R-TX) both questioned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the MEK at Wednesday's hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with Poe directly raising Guliani's accusation that the new location amounted to a "concentration camp."


Clinton didn't comment on the "concentration camp" charge and simply emphasized that the U.S. was working hard to safely relocate the MEK to Camp Liberty, keep the Iraqi government from harassing the MEK, and ensure that the U.N. monitors the camp and provides help for refugees. She also said that if the MEK really wants off the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO), it should get with the program at Camp Liberty.


"Congressman, given the ongoing efforts to relocate the residents, MEK cooperation in the successful and peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, the MEK's main paramilitary base, will be a key factor in any decision regarding the MEK's FTO status," Clinton said."


That's quite an interesting statement, since getting "with the program at Camp Liberty" is almost certainly not one of the statutory requirements for being de-listed from the FTO list.


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