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Iran-Iraq Alliance?
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Yesterday, Iraqi troops stormed a camp of Iranian exiles. The Daily Beast’s Reza Aslan on why the raid could signal Iraq’s shift away from the U.S.—and toward its former enemy.
Reports out of Iraq say government troops have raided the camp of an Iranian exile group, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq. Though the MEK has long been recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, its members housed in Camp Ashraf just north of Baghdad had been placed under U.S. protection since the Iraq invasion in 2003.
U.S. military officials, including Gen. Ray Odierno, commanding general of the U.S.-led Multi-National Force in Iraq, insist the raid was carried out without their knowledge. Considering that the Iranian government has been clamoring for years to have the camp disbanded and the MEK members extradited to Iran to stand trial on terrorism charges, the action by the Iraqi government may indicate a shift in Iraqi policy away from Washington and toward friendlier relations with Tehran.
The MEK’s support for Saddam Hussein during the horrific eight-year war with Iran has made it perhaps the only group Iranians detest more than their own repressive regime.
A Marxist paramilitary organization formed in Iran in the 1960s, the MEK was an integral part of the anti-imperialist coalition that overthrew the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah in 1979. Its guerrilla tactics, which killed dozens of the shah’s supporters as well as a number of American soldiers and civilian contractors working in Iran at the time, were instrumental to the revolution’s success. After the formation of the Islamic republic, however, the MEK lost favor with the clerical regime and was promptly outlawed. Its members were forced to flee to Iraq, where they were provided protection from Saddam Hussein in exchange for their assistance during the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq.
After the American invasion of Iraq, members of the MEK were rounded up at Camp Ashraf and detained, as negotiators in Iran and the United States began mulling over a prisoner exchange. The Iranians had dozens of captured Taliban and al Qaeda fighters that they were willing to hand over to the U.S. in return for members of the MEK who had been charged with terrorist activities in Iran.
The interim Iraqi government encouraged the prisoner exchange. Indeed, it wanted all of the MEK members expelled from Iraq and prosecuted for the active role they took in assisting with Hussein’s massacre of the Kurds and Shiites after the first Gulf War.
But as negotiations were under way, the Bush administration suddenly changed course and granted the MEK protected status under the Geneva Conventions—something it had yet to grant Iraqi prisoners of the war. There was, at the time, a simple reason for the shift in policy, as the conservative commentator (and professional Islamophobe) Daniel Pipes wrote in 2003. The MEK, Pipes claimed, offered the Bush Administration “an excellent way to intimidate and gain leverage over Tehran.”
Put another way, the MEK may have been a terrorist organization with what the State Department insists is “the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and beyond.” But with the proper assistance it could become our terrorist organization.
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Reza Aslan, a contributor to the Daily Beast, is assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside and senior fellow at the Orfalea Center on Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He is the author of the bestseller No god but God and How to Win a Cosmic War.
I am no fan of the MEK. They are indeed a deranged organization. However, Mr. Aslan fails to talk about what would happen to the residents of the camp if they are returned to Iran "to stand trial on terrorism charges." Regardless of the crimes some of them may have committed, any such scenario is repugnant to those who take human rights seriously. The Islamic Republic has a terrible history of dealing with its real and imagined enemies and it has been most murderous when dealing with the MEK.
While rightly criticizing one religiously fanatic organization from Iran. Mr. Aslan completely fails to mention that in both 1981 and (more significantly) in 1988, the other religiously fanatical organization in Iran--its clerical regime--summarily executed thousands of MEK members including teenagers.
I find that a bit irresponsible.
hello dear Reza,
i am an iranian, and as a refugee from Abadan, because of 8 years war, i have no sempety toward Mojahedeens, yes they are human, but my family were human too, and other 2 milion iranian who got killed or displaced, or lost family member.....
these ppl idea of anti regime, is killing,same as Shah, and other dectator.
I sont say they have to be killed or tortured, no, but I realy dont have any emotion when i have heard about the camp Ashraf.You can call me what ever you want, but they attaced my home, they killed my friends, and why, because we were living in iran under the IRI regime. What goes around, come around.
this is in farsi
EY KOSHTEH KE RA KOSHTI TA KOSHTEH SHODI ZAR.
reza !
Mojahedin forced the mullahs regim to end 8 years meaningless war.
Mojahedin fought against shah and this clerical regim.
Mojahedin are the iranian peoples hero because of all their sacrifice for peace and freedom. 120000 martyr, freedom fighters, and creat national council resistance of Iran, NCRI, as a democtrative alternative to the mullas regim
You do need to read more , please stop using the mullahs regims propaganda.
The mulahs regim will be finished very soon by the heroic Iranian people.
Long live mojahed and freedom
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
You got that right !
"the raid could signal Iraq's shift away from the U.S.-and toward its former enemy.
Is it possible the Iraqi government troops
might insist these Iranian exiles are puppets of America,
thus keeping the U.S. part of the focus.
The best course would be to let the Iranian s work on develpong a democracy on thier own, even if it takes time. We have seen that this regime in Iran is very corrupt, repressive and unpopular, although we probably have no real way of speeding its demise without danaging the pro-democracy movement there.
I vote we send a couple hundred Predator and Reaper drones along with hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missles to smoke out Iranian radar.
Then send in B-1B Lancers and B-2 stealth bombers with F-22 Raptors as fighter cover, throw in some FA-18 Super Hornets and F-15C's along with the Raptors, and finiish this nonsense once and for all.
Deal with the political ramifications afterward.
With the trouble China has had lately with it's restive western province,and Chechnyan rebels acting up again, assaulting Russian and its allies patrols, i'm pretty sure they would raise a fuss, but with a wink and a nod.
Your truly,
Curtis LeMay (just kidding about LeMay)
Reza,
You can assume that in America we don't know all the facts and include your opinions in your reporting but we are not as misinformed:
1. The raid on camp Ashraf has long been requested by Iran's criminal rulers.
2. MEK was put on the State Department's black list to appease the Mullahs and it has no substantial basis.
3. MEK had nothing to do Saddam's regime and they were just against the Iran-Iraq war because they deemed it to be against Iranian people's interests which it was.
4. "Marxist" is a tag that is put on any movement in that part of the world that is simply fighting for the same basic rights that we enjoy (you included) in the west.
5. MEK never assisted with Saddam in any massacres. MEK members are devout Shiites.
6. NCRI is comprised of many Iranian exile opposition groups and it does happen to be the most organized.
7. You, I am sorry to say, are an absolute liar by propagating that MEK has provided Israel with intelligence. I challenge you to show proof or apologize for freely lying to American people. Israel's intelligence is a lot more sophisticated than that. They do not need MEK.
8. The fact that you have talked to people in high places is worrisome because you seem to be biased and running someone's agenda.
9. Your comparing the MEK to a religious cult is the same the Mullahs propaganda machine. Are you connected?
10. French authorities sham arrest of Maryam Rajavi was a ploy and based on deals the French government had shamefully made with Mullahs in return for lucrative oil and gas projects.
11. Filner is right 100%. We should support NCRI. That is the best option.
12. As for the Iraqi government, it is sad that thousands of American soldiers died to put the friends of Iranian Mullahs in power.
13. And as the choice of the Iraqis between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, they better stick to United States because the Mullahs are going to hell very soon.
Reza always tends to be pretty even-handed in his remarks. Are you a member of this MEK cult?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQTafSGxfE
MKO or MEK was helping saddam during the Iraq/Iran war , no doubt about that. They are known terorist group in Iran and out.
Surely any organization in which 10 members commit suicide as a form of protest against the mere arrest of its leader will draw comparisons to a religious cult. Surely the whole enemy-of-my-enemy thing is what contributed towards so many of these problems in the first place (Saddam, the Shah, Al Queda)? Although you've got admire their hunger for power -- from being anti-american anti-imperialists to fighting with American provided weapons within a decade -- they could certainly be used.
For those of you who do not know what NCRI is, it stands for "National Council of Resistance of Iran" and their website is: http://ncr-iran.org/
I don't see anything cultist, marxist, or any other...ist that Reza is propagating !!!
Meghanisgreat: I don't think Iran needs any kind of help from one group or another solve their problems( don't need another. Movement will create leaders not the other way around.
Either you are part of the MKO organization or don't know much about them -They are the worst. Period. and I say this as an Iranian atheist so you wouldn't assume there is a connection to the Mullahs propaganda machine as you put it.
This statement is interesting -> "The Iranians had dozens of captured Taliban and al Qaeda fighters that they were willing to hand over to the U.S. in return for members of the MEK who had been charged with terrorist activities in Iran."
Since the Iranians have plenty of their own reasons to such people prisoner and even execute them.
Regarding the statement -> "It is difficult to know how to read the sudden decision by the Iraqi government to raid and disband the MEK camp. Does the move imply increased tensions between the Iraqi and U.S. military? Is Iraq betting that, with American troops soon departing, warmer relations with Iran-which, after all, is not going anywhere-may serve its interests better than relations with the U.S.?"
Yes, it is difficult to figure what is going on. It always is. The most knowledgeable people still can't know everything or even close to everything, and there are many currents and competing interests in Iraq, and violence generally seems to be a way of raising one's hand for attention over there.
And let up not forget Iran and Iraqi have common interests (surrounded by Sunni dominated nations that really don't like them), common views (those Sunnis again, oil revenues, local terrorists of their own) and a religious-military dictatorship emerging in Iraq in about five or ten years or less would surprise which readers of TDB?
And cozying up to their neighbors to the east doesn't mean that Iraq can't be in a strategic relationship with their American semi-occupiers. The brother of my friend is my acquaintance.
Who knows, it might even lead to better relations between America and Iran. Or at least a state of controlled tension.
We should pick sides with this group. After all this country has always sided with the right groups in the Middle East (being sarcastic).
Let's avoid all of them.
There is one possibility that Reza does not consider in this article. Given that, as he mentions, the MEK has increasingly been view the most viable alternative to Iran's clerical regime, weakening them might very well be aligned with the US's best interest.
As tensions escalate in Iran with no sign of government compromise, more and more are calling for regime change. Just last Thursday, 7-30-09, people protest chants had evolved to "Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic" as opposed to "Islamic Republic". This is a clear testament of people within Iran marching towards regime change.
Still, as Reza mentioned, many Iranians dislike the MEK and fear the possibility of their take-over in a power vacuum. Weakening this group to the point of dismantlement eliminates this fear which ultimately assists in march of the people of Iran toward regime change.
Thank you.
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