Meanwhile, in Iraq.... US Protecting Terrorists?
Tue Jul 27, 2004 at 12:39:45 PM PDT
This story was all over the BBC Radio last night but I can't seem to find much coverage in the US media. In Iraq, over 3,000 members of an Iranian opposition group - designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department - have been granted protection under the Geneva Convention. This group, based in Iraq, had been supported by Saddam Hussein, but apparently has been given a dispensation by the US since it has (only) been committing acts of terrorism against Iran.
There's a number of articles in the diary that follows, but please note the New York Times piece at the end, in which a "senior American official" declares, "A member of a terrorist organization is not necessarily a terrorist."
Here's some information from the State Department on the MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq):
Description: -snip- Following a philosophy that mixes Marxism and Islam, has developed into the largest and most active armed Iranian dissident group. Its history is studded with anti-Western activity, and, most recently, attacks on the interests of the clerical regime in Iran and abroad.
Activities: Worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorist violence. During the 1970s the MEK staged terrorist attacks inside Iran and killed several US military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. Supported the takeover in 1979 of the US Embassy in Tehran.
Here's an excerpt from BBC News:
US 'protects' Iran rebels in Iraq
The People's Mujahideen is on the US terror list
The US has granted "protected status" under the Geneva Conventions to 3,800 members of an Iranian opposition group interned in Iraq.
This meant that People's Mujahideen's fighters were not considered belligerents during the Iraq war, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
But the new status did not affect the US view that the group was a terrorist organisation, Mr Ereli said.
And here's Reuters:
U.S. Grants Protection for Anti-Tehran Group in Iraq
The U.S. head of detainee operations in Iraq, Major-General Geoffrey Miller, told the People's Mujahideen Organization (MKO) its members held at a base in eastern Iraq had been recognized as "protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention."
"(This is a) triumph for the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people," Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said in a statement.
The United States confirmed it gave 3,800 Iranian rebels at the Ashraf base in Iraq protected status because Washington believed they had not been combatants in the war when U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq.
A CIA analyst who spoke on the BBC theorized that the neocons' influence was in large part responsible for this decision, since their next goal was to move on to Tehran and destabilize the Iranian regime.
Interestingly, last year - according to Al-Jazeera - the interim government of Iraq (before the handover of sovereignty) had attempted to throw this group out of the country:
Iraq to expel People's Mujahidin
Wednesday 10 December 2003
Iraq's interim Governing Council has decided to expel several thousand members of the People's Mujahidin, branding the Iranian opposition force a "terrorist organisation".
An official council statement on Tuesday said they would be expelled by the end of the year because of their "dark history".
-snip-
The council statement did not say where MKO members would be sent when they are expelled, but said its offices would be closed and its arms and financial resources confiscated.
The money would "be given to the compensation fund for victims of the former fascist regime" of Saddam Hussein.
"Iraqi individuals and bodies have the right to bring complaints against this organisation for its crimes and ask to be compensated by the funds this organisation has both inside and outside the country," the council said.
-snip-
The group was a well-armed fighting force that, with backing from Saddam, had continued a guerrilla insurgency against the Islamic government in Tehran since 1988.
Both the United States and Iran consider it a terror organisation because its attacks have often killed civilians.
And finally - aha! - a piece from the New York Times, detailing how we came to sign an agreement with this organization. Note the headline, in which the term terror has suddenly acquired a set of scare quotes:
U.S. Sees No Basis to Prosecute Iranian Opposition 'Terror' Group Being Held in Iraq
About 3,800 members of the group are being held in de facto American custody in Camp Ashraf, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. The group remains on the United States terrorist list, though it is not known to have directed any terrorist acts toward the United States for 25 years. But it does stage attacks against Iran, which has demanded that the Iraqi government either prosecute its members or deport them to Iran.
-snip-
The American approach appears to reflect the limits of the government's counterterrorism policy. In the case of the People's Mujahedeen, the United States does not appear to have evidence to charge individual members of the group with acts of terrorism, but it also appears unwilling to surrender its members to their enemy, Iran.
-snip-
The formal American determination came after members of the group signed an agreement rejecting violence and terrorism, General Miller said in his July 21 letter, addressed to the "people of Ashraf." That agreement "sends a strong signal and is a powerful first step on the road to your final individual disposition," the general's letter said, according to a copy that was made available to The New York Times.
The State Department said Monday that the determination of the status of the group in Iraq did not affect its designation as a terrorist organization. The 3,800 members at Camp Ashraf are still being vetted to determine whether any took part in terrorist activities, said Adam Ereli, the department's deputy spokesman.
But in the memorandum, General Miller struck a warm tone, saying he was "writing to congratulate each individual living in Camp Ashraf" on their status. Senior American officials said it that was still possible that some members of the group might be charged with crimes in European countries, but that they did not expect any of them to be charged in American courts.
"A member of a terrorist organization is not necessarily a terrorist," a senior American official said. "To take action against somebody, you have to demonstrate that they have done something."
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