Up to date No. 65 - March 2014

8/12/2019 Up to date No. 65 - March 2014

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By Christina Wilkie

WASHINGTON -- In what has become an all-too-familiar

sight on Capitol Hill, at least a half-dozen members of

the exiled Iranian group Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK,

arrived at Thursday's hearing of the House Foreign

Affairs Committee, all dressed in their trademark yellow

shirts.

For most of the past 15 years, the group had been

designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.

government. But in September 2012, as the U.S.

prepared to pull troops out of Iraq, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revoked the terrorist designation,1 part of a

diplomatic effort to persuade MEK leadership to begin moving their 3,000-plus members out of Iraq. Ever since the

American pullout, the MEK has found itself under threat from Iraqis who vividly recall its decade-long alliance with Sad-

dam Hussein.

MEK members attended Thursday's hearing to advance a bold proposition: that the thousands of their adherents still

living in Iraq should be granted asylum and moved to the United States.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) emerged Thursday as

the most vocal proponent of this plan, which was also

championed at the hearing by Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas)

and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). Rohrabacher aimed his

questions at the only witness testifying that day, Secre-

tary of State John Kerry.

"I've introduced legislation, H.R. 3707, which would grant

asylum to these people in Camp Ashraf, who are obvi-

ously in danger," Rohrabacher said. "Is the administra-

tion supporting this concept?"

Kerry sidestepped the question in his typically diplomaticway. "There's one solution to the problem [of the MEK],

and that is that we need to relocate those folks," he said.

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P U B L I C A T I O N O F A A W A - A S S O C I A T I O N

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/john-kerry-mek_n_4960059.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

John Kerry Gets Pressed To Grant

Asylum To Former Terrorist Group

MEK

Huffingtonpost.com, March 13, 2014

continues on page 3






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By Mark Karlin

In Manufactured Crisis , investigative journalist Gareth Por-

ter details the manipulation and fabrications that have ac-

companied the current Iranian nuclear situation. The main

difference between this and the Iraq war conspiracy, the

author says, was that the neoconservatives who were carry-

ing it out never got the war on Iran they wanted.

Have we narrowly averted a war with Iran, and were the

Neocons again behind the bellicose threats against Te-

hran? Investigative journalist Gareth Porter offers his per-

spective, as detailed in Manufactured Crisis in this inter-

view with Truthout.

MARK KARLIN: You use the phrase Manufactured risis as

the title of your book about the Iran nuclear scare. Were you

thinking about Dick Cheney and George W. Bush s manufac-

tured crisis to justify the Iraq War as precedent?

GARETH PORTER: No, I wasn’t thinking of the direct parallel

with the "manufactured crisis" that preceded and paved the

way to the invasion and occupation of Iraq when I first came

up with the title. But the more I have uncovered about the

details of manipulation and fabrications that have accom-

panied the Iranian crisis, the clearer it has become that the

parallel between the two "manufactured crises" is extremely

close.

In fact, the book shows that the Bush administration was

laying the groundwork for creating a false WMD case

against Iran in much the same way that it did in the run-upto the war in Iraq. Readers will be shocked to find that the

information that the Bush administration exploited politi-

cally most effectively in making the case for a covert nu-

clear weapons program in Iran came from a German intelli-

gence agency source - a member of the same MEK terrorist

organization - just as the source of the famous Iraqi "mobile

bioweapons labs" story told by Colin Powell in a UN speech

had been the source that the BND [German federal intelli-

gence service] had code-named "Curveball."

But the parallels between the two conspiracies are evenstronger: In both cases the BND warned the US government

not to rely on the information from its source, which had

been passed on the CIA, because they had concluded it was

not trustworthy. And equally startling, in both cases, the

Bush administration officials pressured top CIA officials to

use the information anyway, while keeping poor Colin Pow-

ell ignorant of the BND warning!

I show that the "manufactured crisis" over Iran's nuclear

program was part of a war conspiracy every bit as heinous

as the Iraq war conspiracy. The main difference was that

the neoconservatives who were carrying it out never got the

war on Iran they wanted.

MARK KARLIN: You describe three primary stages to the

Iranian nuclear crisis diplomatic narrative. Can you briefly

describe them?

GARETH PORTER: The first stage was triggered by the dis-

covery of the Natanz enrichment facility in 2002 by the Mu-

jahedin-e-Khalq, a terrorist organization that was working

hand in hand with Israel. The Bush administration, in coor-

dination with Israel, used that event to launch an

[International Atomic Energy Agency] investigation that was

intended by the two allies to put Iran on trial for deceiving

the IAEA for two decades in order to cover up a nuclear

weapons program. That would in turn make it possible to

haul Iran before the UN Security Council, giving the Bush

administration a basis for a potential military option.

But the IAEA investigation fizzled out, but the Bush neocon-

servative-Israel alliance had a secret weapon - a set of

documents that was said to have come straight from a Ira-

nian nuclear weapons research project. In 2008, the IAEA,

cooperating closely with the Bush administration, began

pushing those documents as evidence for Iran’s nuclear

weapons intentions, thus beginning the second phase of

the crisis.

The third phase of the crisis began with an IAEA report in

November 2011 that was based almost entirely on intelli-

gence coming from Israel. It was the signal for the phase of

punishing sanctions against Iran’s oil exports and Central

Bank, which followed immediately.

… Read the whole Interview here:

http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/22571-current-

iran-crisis-began-with-overthrow-of-democratically-elected-

government-in-1953

Current Iran "Crisis" Began With Overthrow of Democ-

ratically Elected Government in 1953Truth-org.org, March 23, 2014

http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/22571-current-iran-crisis-began-with-overthrow-of-democratically-elected-government-

in-1953

http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/22571-current-iran-crisis-began-with-overthrow-of-democratically-elected-government-in-1953














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"Can't we relocate them here? Why not?" Rohrabacher shot

back.

"That's one of the things we're looking at," Kerry replied.

Kerry went on to describe a new position he had created

within the State Department, that of senior advisor for Mu-

jahedin-e Khalq resettlement. In October of last year, he

appointed, a longtime Kerry adviser and an expert in inter-

national law, to the position.

Rohrabacher's bill is co-sponsored by many of the samelawmakers who initially backed delisting the MEK from the

terrorist roll. As of Thursday, there were 46 co-sponsors.2

But administration officials privately suggest that Rohra-

bacher's bill, and any other efforts to grant asylum to the

MEK in the United States, face nearly insurmountable

odds.

"It's one thing to unfreeze their assets [by removing the

terrorist designation], but asylum is a whole different ball-

game," an administration official said, speaking on back-

ground to The Huffington Post. To illustrate how limited

U.S. asylum policy is in practice, the official noted that out

of the more than 135,000 applications received from indi-

viduals fleeing Syria's bloody civil war, only 31 were admit-

ted3 in the last fiscal year.

"The policy concern with asylum is what kind of precedent

that might set for the future. By those standards, the MEK

isn't looking very good," said the official.

So far, Winer has managed to secure visas from the Alba-

nian government4 for more than two dozen MEK members.

Other than that, however, it's been an uphill climb to con-

vince other countries to accept MEK members, due to their

cult-like characteristics and near-religious devotion to the

Paris-based Maryam Rajavi and her husband, Massoud

Rajavi.5 Under the Rajavis, MEK members have instituted

forced celibacy, mandatory divorce and gender segregation,

according to a 2009 report from the nonpartisan Rand Cor-

poration.6 The MEK is also still widely viewed as a militant

organization with a "cultic focus on suicide," wrote the Rand

authors, despite the group's having formally renounced vio-

lence in 2003.

But long odds don't mean the MEK won't keep trying to gain

asylum in the United States. No longer restricted by the ter-

rorist designation, they are now free to spend their millions

of dollars -- the source of which remains murky -- without

fear of Treasury Department scrutiny. In 2013, they opened

a formal office in a high-rent building on Pennsylvania Ave-

nue and set about expanding their already large cadre of

prominent Washington lobbyists.

Around Washington, the MEK is known for having spent

millions of dollars7 on a highly visible advocacy campaign to

help secure their delisting as a terrorist organization. To

plead their case, the group hired dozens of former admini-

stration officials turned government affairs consultants,8

including Andrew Card, onetime chief of staff to President

George W. Bush, and James Jones, former national security

advisor to President Barack Obama.

References:

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/world/

middleeast/iranian-opposition-group-mek-wins-removal-

from-us-terrorist-list.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[2] https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/

hr3707#overview

[3] http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-syria-

crisis-usa-refugees-idUSBREA141ZQ20140205

[4] http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/

ps/2013/06/210208.htm

[5] http://www.cfr.org/iran/mujahadeen-e-khalq-mek-aka-

peoples-mujahedin-iran-pmoi/p9158#p3

[6] http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG871.html

[7] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/08/mek-

lobbying_n_913233.html

[8] http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Speakers_0.pdf

continued from page 1 „John Kerry...“

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/world/middleeast/iranian-opposition-group-mek-wins-removal-from-us-terrorist-list.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0




https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr3707#overview



http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-syria-crisis-usa-refugees-idUSBREA141ZQ20140205



http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/06/210208.htm



http://www.cfr.org/iran/mujahadeen-e-khalq-mek-aka-peoples-mujahedin-iran-pmoi/p9158#p3



http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG871.html


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/08/mek-lobbying_n_913233.html



http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Speakers_0.pdf



















Tehran (AFP) - Iran is ready to pardon hundreds of members of an exiled Iranian opposition group based at a former

military camp near Baghdad, Iran's ambassador to Iraq told the Mehr news agency on Wednesday.

"After conducting investigations, 423 members (of the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran - PMOI) who do not have

any legal problems can return to Iran," Hassan Danaeifar was quoted as saying.

The number represents about 14 percent of the estimated 3,000 members of the PMOI who are living in exile at Camp

Liberty, near Baghdad airport.

"Iran is ready to pardon those members who did not kill anyone or do not have complaints against them," he said, without

elaborating.

Danaeifar added that a bid by "a considerable number of this group who wish to come back to Iran was blocked by their

leaders".

The leftwing PMOI was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah it took up arms against Iran's clerical rulers and Tehran holds it

responsible for murdering thousands of Iranian civilians and officials.

The group set up camp in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s, but was disarmed after the US-led

invasion of Iraq in 2003 toppled Saddam.

Today's Shiite-majority and Iran-friendly government in Baghdad is eager to see it move elsewhere.

In 2012, the United State removed the group from its terror blacklist. The move was strongly condemned by Iran.

Scores of PMOI members have been killed in more than a dozen attacks on their camps since US troops withdrew from

Iraq at the end of 2011.

Mehr meanwhile also quoted Danaeifar as saying that Iranian Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi will travel to Iraq

later this month to sign several memoranda of understanding, including the extradition of criminals.

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www.aawa-association.de

Publication of Association AAWA e.V.

Responsable:

Dipl.-Ing. Ali-A. Rastgou

Postfach 90 31 73

D-51124 Köln

E-mail: [email protected]

.

http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-ready-pardon-hundreds-exiled-dissidents-155756781.html

Iran says ready to pardon hundreds of exiled

dissidents AFP, March 19, 2014

Members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) shout

slogans while holding pictures of victims




Up to date No. 65 - March 2014

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