"Clinton said Iraq had given assurances that camp residents would be treated humanely.... US officials are deeply concerned about the reports of violence and have been monitoring the situation using camera-equipped unmanned aircraft since Tuesday.... they feel obligated to the MEK because its members have provided information about Iran’s nuclear program and because US officials vowed to protect them"
"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." -- George W. Bush, September 20, 2001
Turns out we are the terrorists.
Related:
"There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel's Mossad --source--"
The Differing Degrees of Torture
"Iraqi raid at Iranians’ camp poses test as US pulls back; Clinton asks that Maliki’s troops ‘show restraint’" by Ernesto Londono, Washington Post | July 30, 2009
Residents of Camp Ashraf clashed with Iraqi forces yesterday for a second day. Eight Iranians have been killed and 400 wounded since Tuesday, when Iraqi soldiers invaded the camp. (National Council of Resistance From Iran/ Via Reuters)
BAGHDAD - Violent clashes continued for a second day yesterday between Iraqi troops and members of an Iranian opposition group whose camp the Iraqis stormed Tuesday. The combat presented the first major dilemma for the US government since Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for urban patrols a month ago.
Harboring terrorists is a dilemma.
At least eight Iranians have been killed and 400 wounded since Tuesday, when hundreds of Iraqi police and soldiers in riot gear plowed into Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad, using Humvees donated by the US military, according to group leaders and Abdul Nasir al-Mahdawi, the governor of Diyala province. Camp residents described the day’s events as a massacre and the aftermath as a tense stalemate.
Behzad Saffari, a leader of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, said that Iraqi troops were preventing gravely injured people from being taken to hospitals outside the group’s camp and that residents feared soldiers would storm their living quarters.
“We have 1,000 women,’’ he said. About 3,000 people altogether reside in the camp.
The raid, ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, coincided with an unannounced visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who left Iraq yesterday.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described the raid as a legitimate act by a sovereign nation. “Although the US government remains engaged and concerned about this issue, it is a matter for the government of Iraq to resolve in accordance with its laws,’’ she said.
Clinton said Iraq had given assurances that camp residents would be treated humanely and would not be relocated anywhere they would have a well-founded fear of persecution. She urged the Iraqis to “show restraint.’’
Unreal.
US officials are deeply concerned about the reports of violence and have been monitoring the situation using camera-equipped unmanned aircraft since Tuesday, said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We’re asking the Iraqis questions,’’ the official said. “Sometimes they answer, sometimes they don’t.’’
A contingent of US soldiers based outside Ashraf has been monitoring the situation but has declined to intervene, residents said. The raid and its aftermath represent a conundrum for US officials. Some say they feel obligated to the MEK because its members have provided information about Iran’s nuclear program and because US officials vowed to protect them after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But condemning this week’s events could be seen as an affront to Maliki’s government just as US officials are talking up Iraq’s sovereignty.
Tehran officials have pressured the Baghdad government for years to expel the MEK, which seeks to overthrow Iran’s Islamic regime. But Iraq has held off because of US opposition.
What more is there to say, really?
"Bombings kill 12 in Iraq, reflect depths of political, ethnic gulfs" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press | July 31, 2009
BAGHDAD - Diyala experienced violence earlier this week when Iraqi security forces and an Iranian opposition group living in a camp in the province engaged in two days of clashes that left seven people dead.
Now it's seven dead? Jesus Christ resurrected someone, did he, MSM? pfft!
Ali al-Dabbagh, government spokesman, confirmed yesterday that the seven were killed when Iraqi forces seized control of the Iranian group’s camp. The news followed two days of denials that anyone had been killed.....
The heightened tensions in Camp Ashraf, where Iranian exiles belonging to the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran clashed with Iraqi police earlier this week. The group said hundreds of exiles were wounded and at least seven killed in the clashes. That claim was initially denied by the Iraqi government, but Dabbagh confirmed the death toll yesterday.
“We came to know . . . that seven people from Ashraf Camp have been killed. We have around 30 people from our police, they have been injured, some of them are in critical situation,’’ Dabbagh said. The raid raised fears that Iraq’s government is readying to deport the thousands of camp residents as a friendly gesture to close ally Iran, which considers the exiles part of a terrorist organization.
So does the U.S., don't they? Or if they don't?
And WHOSE FEARS would those be, s***ters?
About 3,500 former Iranian fighters and relatives live in the camp, first set up in 1986 when they helped Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, American troops disarmed the fighters and confined them to the camp.
Translation: They have ALWAYS BEEN OUR ASSETS!!!!!
The Americans handed over responsibility for the camp to the Iraqis to comply with a security agreement this year, but said they would maintain a force nearby to ensure humane treatment of the Iranians....
Have you had enough shit, readers, because I have.
A move to set up a police station inside the camp sparked riots by the exiles on Tuesday that police fought with water canon and batons. The clashes continued into Wednesday.
Dabbagh denied excessive force was used and said an investigation was under way into how the seven Iranians died. He said the Iraqis found the bodies of two men shot in the back when they entered the camp. He said they had the word “traitor’’ in Iran’s Farsi language written on their bodies, suggesting they had been killed by members of the group.
Dabbagh said the situation at Camp Ashraf was now stable and the police station has been set up inside the camp. There was no word yesterday from camp residents that the tension had died down. Journalists have been refused entry to the camp, making it difficult to independently verify casualty numbers.
Yeah, but we couldn't do without you because we have no clout. Pfft!
I'm just TIRED of the DOUBLE STANDARDS, SELECTIVITY, and OUT RIGHT AGENDA-PUSHING, folks! This is taking up way too much time to refute lie after lie after lie after lie of the AmeriKan newspapers.
"Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs struggle to defuse tensions; Conflict could imperil US withdrawal" by Yahya Barzanji, Associated Press | August 3, 2009
DOKAN, Iraq - North of Baghdad, Iraqi authorities detained 35 residents from a camp holding an Iranian opposition group, the latest move in a standoff that began Tuesday when a government police raid on the camp turned violent.
The Iraqi government has said it wants the Iranian exiles to leave the country and the police action last week raised concerns from human rights groups who say it is a step toward repatriating the exiles, who helped Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war and could face punishment or even death if they are sent back to Iran.
They are terrorists. Why the concern?
--more--"
