FAMILY SECURIYY MATTERS – Lt Gen Thomas McInerney, USAF (Ret), Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, US Army (Ret), Captain Charles “Chuck” Nash, USN (Ret)
Bodies of some of the 35 Camp Ashraf victims murdered by Iraqi Forces at the behest of Iranian regime on April 8, 2011.
Some of the earliest discussions on government and morality sought to determine where ultimate power resides when it comes to protecting ordinary people. If there were guards assigned to their protection, what will protect those citizens against the guards; who will watch the watchmen? Plato’s answer was that protectors will guard themselves because it was their duty.
For the past two years, those in Iraq in charge of protecting several thousand Iranian dissidents in Camp Ashraf, near Baghdad, have violated this ancient Greek principle.
Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of a principal Iranian opposition, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK). After the Iraq War of 2003, the United States provided protection to the unarmed civilians at the camp. In January 2009, after the signing of bilateral strategic security agreements, Washington transferred control of the camp to Iraq. The U.S. military, until July 2010, remained next door in a facility to protect Ashraf, before abandoning it to the Iraqi military. According to American officials, the transfer occurred after the Iraqi government offered written pledges and assurances it would treat the Iranian dissidents humanely and in accordance with international law. It is clearly evident that the Iraqi Government is not as good as its word.
The government of Iraq has close ties with the Iranian regime which considers the residents of Ashraf a threat to their theocracy. So instead of protecting Ashraf – in keeping with its obligations – Iraq instead launched bloody assaults on unarmed Ashraf residents in July 2009 and again in the first week of April this year.
On the latest attacks, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, “Most [Ashraf residents who died] were shot, and some appear to have been crushed to death, presumably by vehicles.” There is no excuse for this barbaric action by Iraqi Forces. The UN confirmed 34 Ashraf residents, including 8 women, were killed and over 300 were injured.
General James Jones, former National Security Advisor to President Obama, said he mourned “the horrific loss of life in Camp Ashraf to yet another unprovoked attack on unarmed civilians by Iraqi forces.” Calling for a UN investigation, General Jones stated, “Those who planned and executed this attack should be held accountable for their actions.” As retired U.S. military officers, we share the outrage expressed by General Jones about the massacre in Ashraf and also call for a US and UN inquiry and an internationally backed presence to both prevent future occurrences and also to hold the Iraqi government responsible for its actions.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said, “What is happening in Ashraf is a human rights tragedy and political disgrace for the United States because it occurred after U.S. troops withdrew [from their monitoring posts] and while the U.S. Secretary of Defense was himself in Iraq.” More importantly, Judge Mukasey added, “What has enabled this [attack], what has allowed it to happen, and whether it is going…to happen again unless we do something about it, is the continued listing of the MEK as a terrorist organization on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.” We certainly agree with Mr. Mukasey.
The unprovoked assaults, persistent psychological pressures, and restrictions on residents of Ashraf happen under the pretext that the MEK is tagged a terrorist organization by Washington.
Tehran, too, relies on the label to justify jailing and execution of Ashraf residents, families, and friends inside Iran. The listing is the most significant factor linking Washington with Tehran, as the State Department and the Iranian regime both consider the MEK a terrorist organization. The European Union and the UK have both cleared the group of such charges.
In a statement reported by the state-affiliated Fars News Agency in Iran, Supreme Leader Khamenei’s Advisor for Military Affairs, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, “praised the Iraqi Army for its recent attack on the strongholds of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization.”
He asked Baghdad to “continue attacking the terrorist base until it is destroyed.” We are appalled that a high-ranking officer in Tehran calls for massacre of unarmed civilians in Iraq, who, in 2001, voluntarily turned their weapons over to U.S. forces in return for protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers said, “Delisting the MEK is surely the right thing to do and it’s way past time to do that.” Over the past several months, more than a dozen Democratic and Republican former Administration officials, former senior military leaders, and a host of other national opinion makers have all said the same.
Given the failure of Washington and Baghdad to prevent the massacre of unarmed people, the urgency level must be raised not only to address the Iraqi Government’s failure to abide by international law and human decency but more importantly, to find a sanctuary for the Ashraf residents where they are not in peril of their lives. If the U.S. fails to honor its security commitment to Camp Ashraf residents, then the matter should be referred to the UN Security Council for action so that a UN protection area can be established at Ashraf until a more permanent solution can be arranged.
Because of its significant animosity towards the Iranian regime and its firm commitment to regime change in Tehran, residents of Ashraf are pawns in a deadly political game. Viciously attacked while being held confined in a remote area of Iraq, branded by the U.S. government as terrorists, their movements restricted and their options few. It is inhumane and as former Presidential candidate General Wesley Clark called it, “deplorable and inexplicable.”
Far from being the perfect society of Plato, today’s Iraq, which many of our sons and daughters sacrificed their lives to ensure it would respect human rights, is instead a perfect storm of Tehran-friendly Iraqi security forces using American-supplied weapons and U.S. economic assistance to perpetrate massacres. Iraq has shown itself untrustworthy to protect innocent and unarmed Iranian residents in Ashraf.
If there were ever a time for the UN to quickly stand up and step up to the humanitarian plate, it is now. If not now, when?
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Paul E. Vallely, Major General (USA/Ret.) is an author, military strategist and Chairman of Stand Up America and Save Our Democracy Projects. Thomas McInerney is a retired Lieutenant General from the United States Air Force, with experience of more than 4,100 flying hours. He flew 407 combat missions in Vietnam and is now a contributor on Fox News. He is also a member of the Iran Policy Committee. Captain Charles “Chuck” Nash, USN (Ret) served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, accumulating over 4,300 hours of flight time and 965 carrier landings on nine different aircraft carriers as a Naval Aviator. He is currently a Fox News Channel Military Analyst, and frequently appears on the network to discuss military, terrorism and aviation issues.
