THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 173, July 17, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WILL WASHINGTON BETRAY ANTI-REGIME IRANIANS?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
ANTI-REGIME IRANIANS & UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY: WHY THE U.S.A. SHOULD CONTINUE TO PROTECT THE
MUJAHEDEEN-E KHALQ & ITS MEMBERS -- AMERICA'S NEED FOR ALLIES IN ITS CONFLICT WITH THE ISLAMIST REGIME IN
IRAN -- THE OBLIGATION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO STICK BY & PROTECT SUCH ALLIES
FULL STORY:
As the United Nations mandate that legitimizes the presence of U.S forces in Iraq expires on December 31, 2008, a
humanitarian and strategic disaster is coming into view. The fate of about 3,500 anti-regime Iranians will be decided in the
course of status-of-forces negotiations between Washington and Baghdad.
They are members of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK; it is also called the People's Mojahedin of Iran, or PMOI), the
leading Iranian opposition group. Based at Camp Ashraf in central Iraq, where they are recognized as "protected persons"
under the Fourth Geneva Convention, they have, since 2004, been under the protection of U.S. military forces. According
to the Convention Against Torture of 1984, to which the U.S. government is a party, expiration of the UN mandate does
not end the American obligation to continue to protect MEK members in Iraq.
Further, the MEK's network of supporters inside Iran have provided invaluable intelligence. For example, it exposed
Tehran's nuclear ambitions and its shipments of roadside bombs to Iraq. Recognizing this assistance, a "Memorandum for
the Record" by Lt. Col. Julie S. Norman dated August 24, 2006, noted:
"The PMOI has always warned against the Iranian regime's
meddling and played a positive role in exposing the threats
and dangers of such interventions; their intelligence has
been very helpful in this regard and, in some circumstances,
has helped save the lives of [U.S.] soldiers."
Although the U.S. State Department still lists the MEK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), that will likely end in
October, for it no longer meets the terrorism criteria, having renounced terrorism, not conducted operations for many years,
lacking the capability to conduct future operations, and not threatening the security of the United States. Gen. Raymond
Odierno, soon to be the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, already, in May, 2003, questioned the MEK's designation as
an FTO:
"I would say that any organization that has given up their
equipment to the Coalition clearly is cooperating with us,
and I believe that that should lead to a review of whether
they are still a terrorist organization or not."
Since then, an interagency group of the U.S. government, led by the FBI, has exonerated the Iranians at Ashraf of terrorism.
After a British court ruled that the group was not "concerned in terrorism," the U.K. government in June, 2008, removed the
group from its terrorist list.
Naturally, the expulsion of the MEK from Iraq ranks as Tehran's top demand of both Baghdad and Washington. The Iranian
regime is determined to destroy its main opponent and, with some success, has pressured the Iraqi government to disband
Camp Ashraf and turn MEK members over to Iran. Iraqi politicians sympathetic to Tehran have joined in this call, including
leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Then, on July 9, 2008, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that the Iraqi government had decided to expel members of the
MEK. The Iranian Ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kezemi-Qomi, specified that the Iraqi Cabinet had agreed quickly to expel the
MEK from Iraq. Iran's Jame Jam television channel reported, on July 6, that "American military forces have
announced their readiness to hand over" Camp Ashraf to Baghdad, which gave the MEK six months to leave its territory.
Should these reports be true (and it bears noting that prior such statements had little operational effect), they imply either
the handover of unarmed Ashraf residents to Iraqi forces or their expulsion to Iran. In either case, a full-scale slaughter,
whether by Tehran's proxies in Iraq or by Tehran itself, appears likely. Inspired by such a success, Tehran's ambitions in
Iraq would undoubtedly grow further.
The Bush administration has stayed silent about these developments, but it has the duty and the interest – based on its
humanitarian commitments, its international law obligations, and its need for allies against Tehran – to insist in its
status-of-forces negotiations with Baghdad that MEK members at Camp Ashraf remain under the protection of the U.S.
military and that they be free to leave Camp Ashraf.
After delisting the Mujahedeen-e Khalq as an FTO, Washington should use the Tehran regime's near-pathological fears
by threatening to meet with the MEK and help its public relations efforts. This is the easiest, most effective way to
intimidate the Islamic Republic of Iran.
© Daniel Pipes 2008
Originally Published in the Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2008
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, July 16, 2008
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5761
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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