re: "Ros-Lehtinen defends MEK as State Dept anger grows"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside The Foreign Policy Machine") provided an update on the unfolding PMOI/MEK situation.

Money quote(s):

"The State Department is growing increasing frustrated with the MEK and its American lobbyists, and now with two leading lawmakers who are injecting themselves into the cause of the Iranian dissident group.

Tensions between Foggy Bottom and supporters of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization opposed to the Iranian regime, have been building for months. The plan to relocate 3,200 members of the group from its compound in Iraq to a former U.S. military base appear stalled as the group lobbies to be taken off the list of terrorist organizations.

A federal court has ordered the State Department to make a decision on delisting the MEK by October, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has indicated that the group's willingness to complete the move to the former base, Camp Liberty, will be a key factor in the department's decision. State Department officials, however, now believe the MEK is stalling."

Stalling or otherwise playing for time is something the PMOI is very good at.

"Administration officials believe the MEK is getting bad advice and unhelpful support from its team of American advocates, some of whom are paid handsomely to advise the MEK and lobby the administration on its behalf (though all insist they are promoting the MEK's cause out of sincere conviction). The Treasury Department has opened an investigation into the funds paid to these activists, which often come from Iranian-American groups in the United States and are paid through a speakers' bureau."

That these Iranian-American groups are acting as proxies for the PMOI and other NCRI-related groups should be obvious.

"The MEK seems to believe it can keep control of Camp Ashraf, its longtime compound near the Iran-Iraq border, and Clinton will still be under pressure to delist the group, this official said."

Camp Ashraf is where they have their own facilities, radio station, museum, cemetary, and probably weapon caches as well. Moving to somewhere they haven't had years to prepare, and during which movement they could be searched or otherwise molested, is not on their list of preferences.

"This week, the MEK got the support of two new powerful Americans, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA). The pair are circulating a letter this week to Clinton asking her to improve the conditions in Camp Liberty for the MEK."

&

"(L)awmakers are requesting that the MEK residents in Camp Liberty be connected to the Iraqi main water system, be given more power generators, and be given new cars and trucks and other supplies. The administration official said that some of the requests are valid but the characterization of the conditions in Camp Liberty as "dreadful" is unfair.

"Really, are new cars a basic human right?" the official said."

Nice snark, but are they asking for new vehicles (note that they included both cars and trucks in their request) to replace old, wornout, destroyed, or confiscated ones? Just thought I'd ask....

7/18

re: "Clinton asks Kerry for help on budget"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") was following the back-and-forth at budget request time.

Money quote(s):

"Clinton called the Senate's allocation of $42 billion for State and USAID in 2012 "reasonable," but warned that deeper cuts in the House's proposal would force State to shutter some overseas posts and reduce the number of civilians working in conflict areas, as well as result in the U.S. government "turning our backs on the world's hungry and sick."

The State Department and the development NGO community have been focusing on the idea that the diplomacy and development budgets comprise less than 1 percent of federal spending."

Bearing in mind that foreign affairs is one of the powers and responsibilities for which the federal government is specifically charged by the U.S. Constitution, it can reasonably be asked by this is such a small percentage of the budget.

Setting aside percentages and pretending that this budget sufficient to the task, a reasonable person might question what the other 99+ percent of the budget entails, and if it's going for things that are appropriately the duty of the federal government to fund.

10/17

re: "Terrorist group’s supporters throw party in U.S. Congress"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") reported from bizarro-world (which is to say: Capitol Hill).

Money quote(s):

"It's not every day that groups supporting a State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization hold a party in the U.S. Congress, but that's exactly what happened today when the friends of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) threw their Nowruz party in the hearing room of the House Foreign Affairs Committee."

Okay, they didn't bill themselves as the FOMEK (friends of the MEK), but that's essentially who they were. See below.

"(T)he event is sponsored by "Iranian American communities" from around the United States, but the mention of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty is a clear reference to the MEK, a group designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization that has about 3,000 members living in the secretive Ashraf compound in Iraq.

The U.N. and the State Department are working to move them to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport, but the MEK is resisting that move, and has enlisted its many supporters in the United States to decry the conditions at the former military base. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani even went so far as to call Camp Liberty a "concentration camp." "

Normally, I have every respect in the world for the former mayor, but in this case he's either a willing dupe or being played.

No shame in being played by the PMOI; they're quite good at it after all.

"(T)he Treasury Department's counterterrorism unit has issued a subpoena to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell for records related to his paid advocacy of the MEK, as part of an investigation into the web of organizations that support the terrorist group.

There is a long list of Iranian-American organizations that fund pro-MEK events and pay speakers fees to MEK supporters. Many of these organizations - such as the "Global Initiative for Democracy, whose homepage is entirely devoted to the MEK's concerns and who hosted an MEK conference in January -- seem to have no other function other than to advocate for the MEK, and the actual sources of their money is unclear.

Receiving funding from a terrorist organization or even providing it with "material support," which could include advocacy, is a crime." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

Crime is in the eye of the prosecuting (nor non-prosecuting) attorneys, it would seem.

"The campaign by the MEK's supporters to disparage Camp Liberty and lobby for the MEK's removal from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations has included huge rallies outside the State Department, massive sit-ins at Congressional hearings, and an ongoing vigil outside the State Department's C Street entrance."

The vigil seems to have evaporated of late, just to give an update on that.

"Congressional aides attended the event on Thursday in the hearing room both out of curiosity and hunger for free food. But multiple aides told The Cable the event was bizarre, even by Congressional standards." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

CAA has never worked on Capitol Hill, himself, although he's worked in the vicinity at two different executive departments. Still, at least some the of the "hill rats" got a nice kabob lunch out of this.

3/22

re: "U.N. Iraq chief: The countries of the world must take MEK ‘refugees’"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") reported on the UN's efforts to resettle the PMOI.

Money quote(s):

"The United Nations and the State Department have been struggling to convince the Iranian exile group the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) to move to a former U.S. military base in Iraq, but the real need is for third countries to accept MEK "refugees" on a permanent basis, according to the top U.N. representative in Iraq."

That would be Martin Kobler, "the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq."

"The MEK is a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization opposed to the Iranian regime that has been living in a closed compound in Iraq called Camp Ashraf for years. The Iraqi government has pledged to close Camp Ashraf, using force if necessary, so the U.N. and the State Department are slowly but surely cajoling Ashraf's 3,200 residents to move to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport.

But that's only a temporary solution. Unless other countries start accepting MEK members for relocation, they could face the prospect of being returned to Iran, where they could face retribution from the Iranian regime they have been fighting for decades."

They "could" at that.

"Part of the difficulty of dealing with the MEK group members at Camp Ashraf is that they have been cut off from the world for years and little is known about their individual histories or whether they would qualify for refugee status. Some reports say that MEK members are still conducting violent attacks inside Iran at the behest of the Israeli government.

The United States is legally barred from accepting any refugees from members of a foreign terrorist organization. There is also no plan for what happens to those MEK members who do not qualify for refugee status."

It seems unlikely that any of the 3,200 interned PMOI members in Iraq are conducting any attacks in Iran, but that doesn't mean they couldn't possibly be involved, directing, or in some other ways supporting those attacks.

"Kobler disputed the claims made by the MEK and its long list of American advocates that the Camp Liberty site is not fit for human occupation."

Kobler's not just saying that to hear himself talk, by all reports.

"Kobler declined to comment on reports that the MEK is involved in ongoing attacks on the Iranian nuclear program and its personnel inside Iran. He also declined to confirm that U.N. reports have stated that MEK members were intentionally sabotaging the facilities in Camp Liberty in order to make the camp look worse than it is" (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA)

Not that the Iraqis aren't capable having looted or otherwise degraded the Camp Liberty facility after the U.S. departed, but since U.S. embassy folks are reported to have inspected the place prior to any PMOI members being moved there.... let's just say I give some faith and credit to my colleagues in Baghdad.

"Some advocates of the MEK, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have called Camp Ashraf a "concentration camp," a reference Kobler said is insulting and offensive."

4/16

re: "The GOP's new love for Amb. to Syria Robert Ford"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") noted where a diplomat did well out of doing good.

Money quote(s):

"Ford has actively engaged with Syrian opposition groups and has put himself at personal risk by attending meetings of opposition leaders and funerals of Syrian activists. These efforts have convinced a large portion of the GOP, which stymied his confirmation last year, that his presence in Damascus is a useful way of confronting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and not a concession to the brutal dictator."

Every few years we see an ambassador like this, who rocks the boat on behalf of the United States or speaks uncomfortable truths to power.

"Ford said he still meets with Syrian Foreign Ministry officials, as has as recently as last week, but only about routine diplomatic business and not about the regime or overall U.S. policy. "There really is not a lot that we need to say to the Syrian government," Ford said. "We don't need to discuss their reform initiative because we don't take it seriously."

Ford said he is definitely not trying to get himself kicked out of Damascus, as some in Washington believe. He is also meeting frequently with Syrians who are "on the fence," and could be turned against the Assad regime, such as business leaders, government employees, Christians, and the Allawite community, which has until recently been loyal to Assad.

Amid discord between various opposition groups inside and outside Syria, Ford's message to the Syrian opposition is that it should unite and put together a plan for transitioning to a new government. "Otherwise it's just going to be very bloody and bad later," he said. He is also urging them to keep the protests peaceful in order to maintain international sympathy.

There has been some discussion in Washington about why Ford doesn't announce his activities in Syria or post about them on his Facebook page, which he has used to criticize the Assad regime. Ford said his activities are well-covered in Syria and around the region by the Arab language press.

"I'm thinking much more about my audience here in Syria; I'm not so worried about the Washington repercussions," he said."

9/23

re: "The MEK is the new Code Pink"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") told us about the PMOI's visit to Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom.

Money quote(s):

"About 50 supporters of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) took over the first three rows of the audience at Tuesday morning's hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Senate Hart Office Building. The hearing was to examine President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year, and featured testimony by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey."

This was in mid-November of last year.

(Sorry about the time it took for me to get to this.)

"(T)he MEK supporters at the Hart building today sat politely in their bright yellow sweatshirts and ponchos, which had slogans printed on them calling for the State Department to take the MEK off of their list of foreign terrorist organizations -- a move that is supposedly under consideration.

We overheard one staffer at the hearing quip, "When your critics allege you are a cult, you probably shouldn't dress like one." "

Good one.

On the other hand, you see tour groups doing the same thing abroad. Maybe they just didn't want to lose anyone?

"The MEK, whose ideology fuses Islam and Marxism, was formed in Iran in 1965. It allied itself with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and fought against the Shah and his Western backers during the Iranian Revolution. After falling out of favor with Khomeini, the group was given shelter in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, who used them to conduct brutal cross-border raids during the Iraq-Iran war.

After the fall of Saddam, the United States helped broker an agreement whereby 3,400 MEK members were confined to a complex in northeast Iraq called Camp Ashraf, protected by the U.S. military. The camp was handed over to the Iraqi government in 2009."

Fusing "Islam and Marxism." Check. Very good. Now: what could possibly go wrong there?

"(F)alling out of favor with Khomeini"? You've got to be kidding me? The PMOI and the Revolutionary government went to war with each other!

"Since 2009, the MEK has conducted a multi-million advocacy and lobbying campaign in Washington, with the help of dozens of senior U.S. officials and lawmakers, many of whom have been paid for their involvement. The list includes Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Sen. Robert Torricelli, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, former CIA Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations John Sano, former National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, Gen. Wesley Clark, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, former CIA Director Porter Goss, senior advisor to the Romney campaign Mitchell Reiss, Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, former Sen. Evan Bayh, and many others.

In an August rally outside the State Department, Kennedy declared, "One of the greatest moments was when my uncle, President [John F.] Kennedy, stood in Berlin and uttered the immortal words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner,'" Kennedy exclaimed. "Today, I'm honored to repeat my uncle's words, by saying [translated from Farsi] ‘I am an Iranian, I am an Ashrafi.'"

Kennedy admitted he was paid $25,000 to emcee the rally."

CAA would have served as "emcee" for free, but wouldn't have done it in as cheerleaderly a fashion as 25k to a Kennedy will buy you.

11/15

re: "Patrick Kennedy on the MEK: I am an Ashrafi"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") had recapped the big PMOI/MEK rally at Foggy Bottom last August.

Money quote(s):

"Hundreds of supporters of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) movement converged on the State Department on Friday to hear former U.S. congressmen and senior officials call for the U.S. government to take the MEK off its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) emceed the rally in front of the State Department headquarters."

Just to be clear, this is not the same Pat Kennedy who looms so large at State Department.

That would have a lot bigger deal, frankly, in terms of getting the PMOI/MEK delisted.

"Kennedy advocated taking the MEK off the terrorist list, which it has been on since 1997, and accused the Iraqi government of committing war crimes by killing innocent members of the MEK at Camp Ashraf. 3,400 MEK members live in the desert camp in Iraq under restrictive conditions."

The facts presented don't have all that much to do with whether the PMOI/MEK belongs on the terrorist organization list or not. Not the length of time they've been on the list, not whether the Iraqi government killed some of their members (innocent or otherwise; and Iraq has grounds for a grudge against them, btw), nor the conditions under which they live at Camp Ashraf or anywhere else.

I do like the description of Camp Ashraf as being a "desert camp."

(I'll give you a "desert camp"....)

Conditions at Camp Ashraf, largely through the efforts of their own members and organization, are pretty nice compared to anything near to the camp. They bottle their own soda (we called them "mek cola," a term to which they objected), bake their own bread, and make their own ice cream.

"Next up was Rendell, who called on the international community to militarily intervene in Camp Ashraf, comparing it to Muammar al-Qaddafi's assault on Benghazi earlier this year."

What an awesomely bad idea, not to mention politically impossible in the U.S. context. Precisely what "international community" does he have in mind? Include us out.

"MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, who lives in Paris with her husband Massoud Rajavi (who hasn't been seen in public since 2003), is banned from traveling to the United States. But she spoke to the rally via a video message on a big screen, and accused the State Department of giving implicit permission to the Iranian and Iraqi governments to kill children."

The reason no ones seen Massoud is, probably, because he's dead. Not even mostly dead but really and truly dead.

"The Cable's informal headcount put the number of attendees at about 1,000 to 1,500, with long lines of young Iranian-Americans wearing shirts with photos of dead MEK members imprinted on them. Some attendees had photos of the Rajavis on their shirts. Add to that flags, confetti, and a full drum line." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

8/26

re: "MEK rally planned for Friday at State Department"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") posted a decent piece about the PMOI/MEK in advance of one of their rallies.

Money quote(s):

"Supporters of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) movement are planning their largest-ever gathering in Washington on Friday in front of the State Department."

CAA wasn't really around much that day so I couldn't say it was any bigger (or smaller) than the usual bunch of usual-suspects hanging around the Foggy Bottom metro station or across C Street.

"The State Department placed the MEK on its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1999 for its involvement in bombings that killed six Americans, but is reviewing that status now.

The event is the latest and greatest example of the MEK's multi-million dollar effort to build support among Washington's political elite."

Every organization on the FTO list gets reviewed periodically; it's part of the process once you're on the list. Some organizations, presumably, graduate from the FTO list. There are established criteria in that regard and, should the PMOI/MEK ever manage to meet them, then they'll be taken off of the list.

As for their "involvement in bombings," that's accurate if you define "involvement" to include things like "planned" and "carried out."

"So what is the MEK? Well, that depends on who you ask. The group, which has an ideology based on the fusion of Islam and Marxism, was formed in Iran in 1965. It allied itself with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and fought against the Shah and his Western backers. After falling out of favor with Khomeini, the group was given shelter in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, who used them to conduct brutal cross-border raids during the Iraq-Iran war.

MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, who lives in Paris with her husband Massoud Rajavi, reportedlytold her followers in 1991, "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."

After the fall of Saddam, the United States helped broker an agreement whereby 3,400 MEK members were confined to a complex in Iraq called Camp Ashraf, which was protected by the U.S. military but then handed over to the Iraqi government in 2009." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

Not a bad three-paragraph history, but some (IMHO) high points it misses are these:

- The PMOI/MEK may very likely have been involved with the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and subsequent hostage-taking. They didn't have their big fallout with the mullahs until afterwards; and

- Nobody's seen husband Massoud since sometime in 2003. There's speculation in some informed circles that he may have been one of the PMOI/MEK members (including leadership) who were killed by Coalition (presumably U.S.) airstrikes on PMOI/MEK bases in Iraq during the U.S. invasion (and before the PMOI/MEK formally capitulated to U.S. special forces).

"The MEK says it renounced violence in 2001 and professes to be leading the resistance to the Iranian regime. That claim, in addition to lucrative payments to former officials in both parties, has bought it a lot of attention and friends in Washington."

Cash always will do that.

8/25

re: "Are the MEK’s U.S. friends its worst enemies?"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") got some inside spin (or was used as a mouthpiece) on the ongoing PMOI/MEK relocation dustup.

Money quote(s):

"For years, a slew of advocates - many of whom have been paid for their services -- have flooded U.S. airwaves on behalf of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization opposed to the Iranian regime.

After months of difficult negotiations, the MEK has finally begun moving out of its secretive Iraqi home near the Iranian border, called Camp Ashraf. But the group's American advocates have now become a major obstacle in the international effort to move the MEK to a new home in Iraq and avoid a bloody clash with the Iraqi military, officials say.

U.N. special representative in Iraq Martin Kobler, with help from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and the State Department, has organized efforts to relocate the MEK to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport. The first convoy of about 400 MEK members arrived there last month. The second convoy of about 400 MEK members arrived Thursday at Camp Liberty, Reuters reported. " (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

Camp Ashraf is not, and deliberately so, particularly close to the Iranian border, at least in terms of how much of Iraq actually is.

"(R)etired U.S. officials and politicians -- many of whom admit to being paid by the MEK or one of its many affiliates -- have mounted a sophisticated media campaign accusing the U.N. and the U.S. government of forcing the group to live in subhuman conditions against its will at Camp Liberty, an accusation U.S. officials say is as inaccurate as it is unhelpful."

CAA can neither confirm nor deny whether current conditions at Camp Liberty are "subhuman" nor, if they are, whether that's due to looting or to, as Mr. Rogin relays, actions by the PMOI/MEK themselves.

That being said:

a.) CAA's recollection of how Iraqi military bases were looted by Iraqis themselves following the Iraqi military's defeat by U.S. forces make it entirely believable that a similarly thorough and systematic looting of Camp Liberty occured subsequent to the U.S. withdrawal last year; and

b.) CAA's familiarity with the PMOI/MEK's history of playing-the-West-like-a-fiddle also make it eminently believable that they would themselves degrade conditions at Camp Liberty for propaganda purposes.

(That's just how they roll.)

"(A)ccording to an Obama administration official who works on the issue, it's actually the MEK that is trashing Camp Liberty -- literally. According to this official, the U.N. has reported that MEK members at Camp Liberty have been sabotaging the camp, littering garbage and manipulating the utilities to make things look worse than they really are. While there are some legitimate problems at the camp, the official admitted, the U.N. has been monitoring Camp Liberty's water, sewage, and food systems on a daily basis and the conditions are better than the MEK is portraying."

Sadly, CAA's trust of the U.N. is a degraded as conditions at Camp Liberty are reported, by some, to be. Like arms control, I'd like some U.S. inspectors to backstop reports of "better than the MEK is portraying."

Don't we have an embassy somewhere near there? Isn't the point of moving the PMOI/MEK to Baghdad so that it's easier for the American embassy, as well as the U.N., to monitor conditions?

".... a years-long, multi-million dollar campaign by the MEK and its supporters to enlist famous U.S. politicians and policymakers in their efforts to get the group removed from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations and resist Iraqi attempts to close Camp Ashraf, which the new government sees as a militarized cult compound on its sovereign territory."

The PMOI/MEK is a somewhat larger organization, or set of organizations, than the purely military, uniformed arm which was resident in Iraq and, subsequent to their capitulation to U.S. forces, consolidated at Camp Ashraf.

They're definitely cult-like, as we understand the term. But they've been essentially disarmed, at least in terms of heavy weaponry.

"The administration official told The Cable that, as delicate negotiations between the U.N., the United States, the Iraqis, and the MEK continue, the role of these often paid advocates is becoming even more unhelpful and potentially dangerous."

These "advocates," paid or otherwise, include some very big name folks, at least some of whom had high enough security clearance access to know better (in terms of who the PMOI/MEK are).

"The relationship between the American advocates and the MEK leadership, led by the Paris-based Maryam Rajavi, has led both to pursue strategies that neglect the dire risks of sabotaging the move from Camp Liberty to Camp Ashraf, the official said. Rajavi is said to have created a cult of personality around herself and to rule the MEK as a unchallenged monarch."

Madam Rajavi, it should be noted, has been at Camp Ashraf, or even in Iraq, since before the U.S. invasion. Her compatriots there are, essentially, pawns in a larger game and hostages to fortune.

"Another example of the American advisors' unhelpfulness was the MEK's recent public call to be relocated en masse to Jordan, an idea the U.S. official said came from the group's American friends. There was just one problem: Nobody had asked the Jordanians."

Given the Jordanian's history with a certain other exile "resistance group," it'll be cold day on the equator before they agree to host the PMOI/MEK.

"The arrival at Camp Liberty Thursday of the second convoy may signal that the MEK is coming around to the realization that the Iraqi government will never allow it to stay at Camp Ashraf. But the U.S. official warned that the group may have more tricks up its sleeve."

3/8

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.


2/29

re: "Earthquake shakes State Department and diplomatic community"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") was at Main State the day of the earthquake.

Money quote(s):

"After a few moments of shaking and swaying, the State Department remained intact. The building management staff immediately began searching for damage, but it was not clear whether some early evidence, such as cracks in the stairwells, came from today's earthquake or was there already. Dozens of State Department employees assembled outside at the entrance at the intersection of 23rd and C streets.

"No formal State Department evacuation was called -- diplomacy must go on -- but some employees did evacuate voluntarily and temporarily. The building and annexes are being checked now for damage," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told The Cable. " (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

Sometimes you just have to exercise some leadership and common sense and not wait too long for someone to tell you (and the employees you're responsible for) to move to a place of safety.

"(S)everal embassies around Washington did actually evacuate. Many of these embassies have strict contingency plans for emergencies, and those plans were implemented because it wasn't immediately clear why the ground shook in Washington.

Embassies in Washington are often clustered together, so the result of the evacuations was that several impromptu gatherings of diplomats from different countries broke out on the streets of Washington, with chance interactions between envoys representing countries that probably wouldn't talk to each other much in regular circumstances.

For example, in the Van Ness neighborhood, there was a meeting on the street between diplomats evacuated from the embassies of Israel, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as they all waited for the all-clear sign. "

8/23