MORGAN: Governor Ridge — sorry. I was going to ask you specifically, Governor Ridge, about Camp Ashram, which I now you’re both concerned about. This is effectively a kind of ghettoized area in Iraq that is full of Iranians who are supporting the opposition party in Iran and are being severely mistreated. What can you tell me about that?
RIDGE: Well, there are 3,400 men and women at Camp Ashram, which is about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, surrendered their means of self-protection to the United States Army in 2003 and 2004. When I mean they surrendered their means of self-protection, they are a Democrat resistance group. They’ve been a thorn in the mullah and Ahmadinejad’s side for a long, long time.
They surrender tanks and anti-aircraft and artillery pieces, thousands and thousands weapons, small weapons to defend themselves. We made, Piers — the United States government — the United States government promised individually, every one of them, after they were vetted, after we determined they were not terrorists — and, by the way, since that time, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and a court in Washington, D.C., concluded they were not terrorists.
We promised to provide for their protection, their security and their safety. It was fine until we withdrew. Since that time, the Iraqi government, under the direction of the prime minister, Maliki, with a strong, vocal, public support of the Iranian regime, has attacked that camp twice, have killed over 40 people, wounded hundreds.
And they’ve set a date that they’re going to close that camp at the end of this month, ironically or coincidentally the date our last soldier’s to be withdrawn. And then they’re going to relocate them.
Let me tell you this. I think Howard and I agree, this is a precursor to — relocation is a precursor to a human rights genocide the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. They will relocate them either to Iran, because a third of them are dissidents, and already in Iranian prisons
Twenty five percent of them are women. And it’s just a — this administration unfortunately, for whatever reason, has chosen to ignore that plight. It’s our integrity. It’s our word. It’s our bond. It’s our credibility. And we ignore it.
DEAN: Let me just add to that. The FBI screened all of these people. The FBI counterterrorist folks screened all of these people in 2006. Not one of them is a terrorist, according to our FBI.
This is your outrageous what is going on. It’s outrageous behavior by the State Department, and frankly, the administration has direct responsibility form making sure that the promises were kept.
We kept one promise. That is we kept George Bush’s promise to get out by the end of 2011. We need to keep the promise of the people at Ashram. We ought not to be complicit in human rights massacres.
MORGAN: Governor Dean, just — just to finish off here. There is a sense that the president is being not weak, but certainly not that strong with Iran, holding back a bit. We’ve seen the incident with the drones. We see what’s happening with this camp.
DEAN: Well, I think that’s unfair. We don’t know. You Know, it’s also possible that we might have had something to do with blowing up the solid fuel facility. So we don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes in Iran. I’m willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt.
I’m not willing to give anybody the benefit of the doubt if 3,400 people are murdered, who are unarmed, who we promised to defend and then welched on our commitment. That I will not forgive.
MORGAN: Governor Ridge, let me just give you the final word on Iran. In simple terms, how should the president deal with Iran?
RIDGE: Well, I mean, every time we go to the U.N. to try to get a sanction, we — they end up building a couple more centrifuges. This is the single greatest terrorist organization in the world. They support Hamas, Hezbollah.
They’re responsible for killing our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. You need to delist. These men and women at Camp Ashram have — are on our foreign terrorist organization list. The president, by picking up the phone, calling Secretary Clinton, take them off that list, go to the U.N., get blue helmets to protect them, and tell Maliki you’re not closing the camp until the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has a chance to review them all.
They’ve all — they’re all protected under the Geneva Convention. They’re all looking to be resettled outside of Camp Ashram. The president has to make it happen.
MORGAN: Stop you there, governor. I think we’ve gotten the point loud and clear. Thank you both very much. Governor Dean, Governor Ridge, pleasure talking to both of you. Thank you.
