Did you know we have US soldiers protecting a terrorist organization in Iraq?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/10/news/ML-Iraq.php

US amb: Iraqi govt won't forcibly evict Iranians

10 January 2009

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi government has promised it won't forcibly evict an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's era, the U.S. ambassador said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.

The People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, fears Iran is pressuring Iraq to expel its members and force them back to Iran.

Iraq's government has taken over national security from the Americans under a new agreement. But the U.S. Embassy has said American forces remain at the group's base known as Camp Ashraf.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out the Americans have designated the People's Mujahedeen as a terrorist organization, and he understands the Iraqi government wants the group removed from its territory.

But he said the Iraqis have promised to respect the human rights of the group's members.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. All the pretty little chessmen changing color as the state department

wills it this way and that.

[Vinca]

2. Nothing surprises me anymore. However, it's odd more hasn't been made

of al-Maliki calling on Arab countries and Muslims to cut off any ties to Israel.http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/43009/refid/RSS-latest-09-01-2009

[machI]

3. Whose interests are being served?

Combat operations results in worn-out, damaged, and destroyed military equipment.

Neocons running the Defense industry get to ride the gravy train selling the Army more equipment.

The war will go on and on.

Defense contractors make big bucks.

Bush legacy

[NNN0LHI]

4. Bush: If you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorists who commit murder.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060123-4.html

President Discusses Global War on Terror at Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 23, 2006

11:51 A.M. CST

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for inviting me here to give the Landon Lecture. For those students who are here, I want you to know I can remember what it was like to sit through lectures. (Laughter.) I didn't particularly like it then. (Laughter.) Some will take a little different approach. I'm here to tell you how I see the world and how I've made some of the decisions I've made and why I made them. snip

The doctrine still stands: If you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorists who commit murder.

Thirdly --and this is very important for the students to understand, and others -- because oceans no longer protect us, the United States of America must confront threats before they cause us harm. In other words, in the old days we could see a threat and say, well, maybe it will cause harm, maybe it won't. Those days changed, as far as I'm concerned. Threats must be taken seriously now, because geography doesn't protect us and there's an enemy that still lurks. And so early in my first term, I looked at the world and saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. And let me tell you why I saw the threat.

First of all, there was an immediate threat because he was shooting at our airplanes. There was what's called no-fly zones; that meant the Iraqis couldn't fly in the zones, and we were patrolling with British pilots. And he was firing at us, which was a threat -- a threat to the life and limb of the troops to whom I'm the Commander-in-Chief. He was a state sponsor of terror. In other words, the government had declared, you are a state sponsor of terror. And, remember, we're dealing with terrorist networks that would like to do us harm.

[NNN0LHI]

5. This group has no qualms about killing American civillians

http://www.kentimmerman.com/2006_01_19fp-mek.htm

<snip>According to the definitive 1993 Department of State report that led to the banning of the organization's activities in the United States, the MEK not only killed Americans, but provided hit teams during the 1979 revolution against the Shah that allegedly assassinated thousands of senior Iranian military officers.

Members of Congress worried by the Islamic Republic of Iran's terrorist record and its nuclear weapons programs in August 1993 (yes, 1993) petitioned then Secretary of State Warren Christopher to open an official U.S. dialogue with the main MEK front organization, the National Council of Resistance.

Christopher's September 20, 1993 reply was devastating.

"Concerning contacts with Iranian opposition groups, there are numerous such groups in the United States and abroad that do not espouse violence and whose political aims range from supporting a return of the monarchy to establishing a constitutional democracy. Many focus their efforts on Iranian human rights abuses, and work closely with the UN. Human Rights Committee and private human rights groups. We do meet with representatives of such groups at their request, and believe these contacts are useful as an informational exchange.

"However, the National Council of Resistance is closely linked to the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Both groups are led by Masud Rajavi. The Administration maintains a policy of no contacts with the PMOI and, by extension, the NCR. This decision is based on our opposition to the PMOI's use of terrorism."

Operating under a number of fronts following the Christopher letter, Mujahedin supporters bundled more than $204,000 in campaign contributions to U.S. Representatives Robert Torricelli (D, NJ) Gary Ackerman (D, NY) and others in Congress, in a failed effort to lift the State Department designation of the group as an international terrorist organization.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/showdown/themes/mek.html

One of Iran's key demands to the U.S. concerns this Iraqi-based Iranian opposition group that has conducted terrorist attacks in Iran and elsewhere, but also is accused of supplying intelligence to the U.S.

Since the '60s, MEK has carried out terror attacks and assassinations in Iran, including one in 1981 that killed 70, among them, Iran's president and premier. In the '80s, MEK forces moved to Iraq and were essentially part of Saddam's military -- Iranians who fought against their own country in the Iran-Iraq war. Self-styled "Islamic-Marxists," the MEK also targeted Americans in the '70s and the State Department considers it a terrorist group.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the MEK was disarmed, but it remains under the protection of U.S. forces at its base north of Baghdad. Iran says the MEK is supplying intelligence to the U.S. on Iran's covert nuclear program and Iranian operations in Iraq. Here are the comments of Americans and Iranians -- including a former spokesman of the National Council of Resistance, a group affiliated with the MEK.


http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/23311.htm

Designation of National Council of Resistance and National Council of Resistance of Iran under Executive Order 13224
The Secretary of State has amended the designation, under Executive Order 13224 on terrorist financing, of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, known as the MEK, to add its aliases National Council of Resistance (NCR) and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). That Executive Order blocks the assets of organizations and individuals linked to terrorism. The decision also clarifies that the designation includes the U.S. representative office of NCRI and all its other offices worldwide, and that the designation of the People's Mujahedin of Iran ("PMOI") as an alias of the MEK includes the PMOI's U.S. representative office and all other offices worldwide.

The Secretary of State designated the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. That order (as amended) authorizes the Secretary to designate foreign entities and individuals that he determines - in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security - to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

The action to amend the Executive Order 13224 designation of the MEK to include NCR and NCRI is based on information from a variety of sources that those entities functioned as part of the MEK and have supported the MEK's acts of terrorism.


Released on August 15, 2003