Up to date No. 57 - July 2013

7/27/2019 Up to date No. 57 - July 2013

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By Louis Charbonneau

(Reuters) - The outgoing U.N. special

envoy to Iraq on Tuesday accused the

leaders of an Iranian dissident group at

a camp in Iraq of human rights abuses,

an allegation the movement dismissed

as baseless.

Members of the Iranian dissident groupMujahadin-e-Khalq living in Camp

Hurriya near Baghdad have been

transferred there from Camp Ashraf

north of the Iraqi capital, where they

had lived for nearly a decade until last

year.

The group and its political wing, the

National Council of Resistance of Iran,

have complained repeatedly about the

conditions at Camp Hurriya, formerlyknown as Camp Liberty, and security problems.

U.N. envoy Martin Kobler, who will take up a similar position in the Democratic Republic of Congo next month, told the

Security Council that the United Nations had received complaints about the Iranian group's leadership at the camp.

"Of increasing concern are the human rights abuses in Camp Hurriya itself by the camp leadership," Kobler said.

"Hundreds of daily monitoring reports suggest that the lives of Camp Hurriya members are tightly controlled."

"A significant number of residents have reported to U.N. monitors that they are not free to leave the camp, to participate

in the resettlement process offered by UNHCR, to contact family members outside Iraq, or to have contact with other

relatives even within the camp itself," he said, referring to the U.N. refugee agency.

Some Hurriya residents reported being denied access to medical treatment by camp leaders, while others spoke of verbal and other forms of abuse for disagreeing with camp leaders or voicing the desire to leave, Kobler said.

The Mujahadin-e-Khalq, taken off the U.S. list of terrorist organizations last year, calls for

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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.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-iran-iraq-dissidents-

idUSBRE96F1CT20130716

U.N. envoy accuses Iran group's

leaders in Iraq of rights abuses reuters.com, July 16, 2013

continues on page 5...

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Martin Kobler Credit: Reuters/Mohammed Ameen

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-iran-iraq-dissidents-idUSBRE96F1CT20130716





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By Kent Cooper

A June Sunday in Paris can be lovely, especially if it’s on a

free trip for members of Congress. But this trip was a little

short on comfort and involved providing a congressional

presence at an international meeting.

Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, Ted Poe, R-Texas,

and William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., were given a free trip to Ville-

pinte, France, on June 21-23. Villepinte is a northeastern

suburb of Paris. The trip was sponsored by the Organization

of Iranian American Communities and 17 other groups.

Clay’s travel report lists the other sponsors.

The stated purpose was to meet with opposition figures,

domestic and international leaders seeking democratic

Weekend Trip to Paris for

Members of Congress

Rollcall.com, July 12. 2013

http://blogs.rollcall.com/moneyline/weekend-trip-to-paris-for-members-of-congress/

change in Iran. Poe is on the House Foreign Affairs Commit-

tee and is chairman of its Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-

proliferation and Trade.

The event was also the 10th Annual Conference for Democ-

ratic Change in Iran, coordinated by the National Council of

Resistance of Iran. The NCRI, which includes groups such

as the People’s Mujahideen of Iran, appeared on the U.S.

list of terrorist organizations until last year. Speakers at the

meeting included former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and

former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., among others. A re-

port on the meeting appears on the website of Maryam Ra-

javi, president-elect of NCRI. It provides a long list of former

U.S. officials and military leaders attending.

The working session was scheduled for four hours on Satur-

day. That left Sunday free before a 4:30 p.m. flight back

from Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Time shedule from Jackson Lees´s travel report

List of sponsors from Clay´s travel report




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Jackson Lee’s trip cost the organization $15,255.

Clay reported the group paid $12,446 for his trip. He ex-

tended his trip one day at personal expense.

Poe’s trip cost $10,999.

Thirty-six members of Congress were invited, but only these

three have indicated they went and filed travel reports due

15 days after their return.

—————————————————————————————————————

Watch the full travel report at:

http://clerk.house.gov/public_disc/giftTravel.aspx

William Lacy Clay:

http://clerk.house.gov/GTImages/MT/2013/500010134.pdf

Sheila Jackson Lee:


Ted Poe:














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By Cole Stangler

MeK-backed lobbyists have been increasingly successful in

engaging with members of Congress, many of whom are

attracted by the National Council of Resistance’s self -described democratic and secular opposition to the un-

popular Iranian regime.

Last month, in a Paris suburb, a bipartisan group of Ameri-

can politicians attended a massive conference and political

rally held by an organization calling for the overthrow of the

Iranian government. With wealthy donors spread across

Europe and the Middle East, the group is beating the war

drums for American intervention in Iran.

The conference was the tenth such event organized by the

National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is thepolitical wing of the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (MeK), a

group that was classified as a terrorist organization by the

State Department as recently as September 2012. The

MeK and its supporters have increased their clout in Wash-

ington, as highlighted by the fact that three sitting represen-

tatives attended June’s annual conference—Rep. Sheila

Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Rep.

Lacy Clay (D-Mo.). Last Friday, Roll Call reported that the

representatives' trips each cost more than $10,000 for the

weekend.

In addition to those sitting representatives, this year’s event

featured a collection of high-profile American political fig-

ures spanning the political spectrum. Republican confer-

ence participants featured former New York City Mayor

Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former

Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and former At-

torney General Michael Mukasey. Democratic conference-

goers included former Rhode Island congressman Patrick

Kennedy, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and

former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. More than

thirty other current House members were invited to the con-

ference but did not attend.

As the political face of the MeK, the National Council of Re-

U.S. Politicians Seduced by Iran’s

Shadow GovernmentA group of wealthy, hawkish Iranians-in-exile has premier access

to U.S. Congress members.

intheesetimes.com, July 17, 2013

http://inthesetimes.com/article/15315/congress_members_attend_mek_iranian_confab/

sistance is a shadow Iranian government that was founded

in Tehran in 1981 in the aftermath of Khomeini’s rise to

power. The MeK’s political agenda has undergone multiple

transformations—at various points since its founding in

1965 it has been Marxist, Islamist, secular—but its opposi-

tion to Iran’s post-Shah Shi’a regime has remained a con-

stant. The organization, which moved its main headquarters

to Iraq in the 1980s, was first listed as a terrorist organiza-

tion by the State Department in 1997 for its killings of

American civilians in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted

bombing of the Iranian UN Mission in 1992. A now infa-

mous 2009 Rand study, commissioned by the Defense De-

partment characterized the MeK as ―dissident cult

group‖ (noting its practice of mandatory divorce for mem-

bers) and remarked on its ―deceptive recruitment and pub-lic relations strategies.‖

While the organization has little actual presence in Iran, it

has boosted its international profile as of late. The group

reportedly offers handsome speaking fees at its confer-

ences, according to the BBC, roughly $20,000 for a 10-

minute speech.

―This is a group that is extremely dangerous,‖ says Jamal

Abdi, senior policy advisor at the National Iranian American

Council, an organization that lobbies against U.S. sanctions

on Iran and for peace talks between the two nations.

A senior Democratic staffer tells In These Times that the

MeK-backed lobbyists have been increasingly successful in

engaging with members of Congress, many of whom are

attracted by the National Council of Resistance’s self -

described democratic and secular opposition to the un-

popular Iranian regime. These lobbyists often work for

groups with innocuous-sounding names, such as the Ira-

nian-American Community of North Texas or the Iranian-

American Community of Northern California. The name of

the trip’s sponsor this year was the Organization of Iranian-American Communities.

―Part of what’s scary from a progressive perspective is that




7/27/2019 Up to date No. 57 - July 2013



they’re very much pushing for war with Iran,‖ the staffer

says, referencing the group’s leaking of alleged intelligence

about Iran’s nuclear program to members of Congress.

―They’re always here. I see them [on Capitol Hill] almostevery day. Clearly they’re constantly meeting with people

and pushing this agenda.‖

The staffer compares the group’s tactics to those used by

Iraq War supporters in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. At

that time, many war hawks championed the cause of Ah-

med Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress. That marginal

group of Iraqi exiles, financed by the CIA, endorsed by the

Bush Administration and promoted by the New York Times’

Judith Miller managed to earn a degree of international sup-

port by branding itself as a democratic alternative to theSaddam Hussein regime. Chalabi, whose organization

leaked documents to the press and high-ranking politicians

in the hopes of justifying American military intervention,

eventually earned the title of ―the George Washington of

Iraq.‖ Chalabi is now a member of the Iraqi Parliament.

The MeK equivalent is Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of

the government-in-exile. Her husband used to lead the MeK

but has been in hiding for the last 10 years. The couple

maintains a cultish allure among their supporters.

At the rally last month outside of Paris, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) presented the beaming president-in-waiting with a

gift. ―On behalf of the U.S. Congress, I want to give you a

plate that is sealed in glass, and when Iran is free and you

are the President we will break this glass and break bread

in Tehran together.‖

the overthrow of Iran's Shi'ite Muslim clerical leadership. It

fought alongside the forces of Iraq's late Sunni Muslim

dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The group is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite

Muslim-led government that came to power after U.S.-led

forces invaded and toppled Saddam in 2003. Some exiles

say they suspect that Baghdad might be ready to send

them back to Iran.

There have been two rocket attacks on Camp Hurriya this

year, one in February and another last month. Some 10

residents were killed and 71 wounded.

'PERSONALIZED ATTACKS'

Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the National Council of

Resistance of Iran, denied the allegations of Kobler, whom

the Iranian dissidents have long accused of lying and

covering up facts about what they say are substandard

conditions at Hurriya.

"These allegations are so baseless that the Iranian

resistance has on 50 occasions called for an independent

fact-finding mission to investigate all these claims and all

other lies that Kobler has disseminated," he said.

"But neither Kobler nor the government of Iraq has agreed

to any independent investigation."

The United Nations has defended Kobler and denied the

allegations about a cover-up.

"We regret that MeK and its supporters continue to focus

on public distortions of the U.N.'s efforts to promote a

peaceful, humanitarian solution on Camp Ashraf and, in

particular, its highly personalized attacks on the U.N. envoy

for Iraq," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

There are around 100 Iranians remaining at Camp Ashraf

who refuse to leave, Kobler said. He described the situation

at Ashraf as tense.

Last week lawyers for the families at Camp Hurriya held a

news conference in New York to present a petition to the

United Nations calling for an immediate return to Camp

Ashraf.

The Mujahadin-e-Khalq insists that the United States,

whose forces initially helped them settle in Ashraf after the

2003 invasion, still bears responsibility for their safety.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

continued from page 1 - „U.N. envoy...“

7/27/2019 Up to date No. 57 - July 2013



By Trent Seibert

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner on June 28 met with reporters

who were curious to know, among other things, who paid for

his trip to France earlier that week.

He declined to say.

―The group that ran the rally has a nonprofit arm and

they’re giving me the full rundown in the next day or two,‖

Filner said. ―I’d give you a name but it might be a word or

two off so I want to wait until I see it in writing.‖

U-T Watchdog has followed up with repeated requests for

the name of the nonprofit, and nothing has been forthcom-

ing.

Filner said his flight, meals and lodging were paid by the

unnamed 501(c)(3) tied to the National Council of Resis-

tance of Iran, which organized the group rally where Filner

gave a speech in Villepinte, near Paris.While in France, Filner also visited the city of Lille to discuss

the city’s work in the area of climate control and renewable

energy. Filner said the government of Lille paid for the

travel inside France to and from that city.

His fiancée, who has since announced the couple’s

breakup, accompanied him and paid her own way, Filner

said during the news conference.

Questions are also still swirling around the City Council

about Filner’s trip.

―This is about transparency,‖ Councilman Kevin Faulconersaid Tuesday. ―San Diegans deserve to know who paid for

Mayor Filner's trip to France, what he was doing there and

how it actually benefitted San Diegans.‖

Filner said this was the third time he’s attended the annual

event and his acceptance of the travel gift was permissible

under the law.

Filner was accompanied by a San Diego police security de-

tail. Police Chief William Lansdowne said he insisted on the

security presence to protect the mayor. The chief said the

trip cost more than $10,000 and would be paid for out of

the police budget -- but would not say exactly how muchmore than $10,000 it was.

Filner has previously accepted travel from groups that are

part of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. He went

Filner hasn't identified Paris

trip funding

Utsandiego.com, .July 9, 2013

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Jul/09/bob-filner-trip-paris-france-who-paid/?#article-copy

to Paris in June 2011, as a member of Congress. He also

took a similar trip in June of 2007, federal records show.

His 2011 trip cost $6,589 and was paid for by Colorado’s

Iranian American Community, a group tied to the Muja-

hideen-e Khalq or MEK, the militant — and largest — arm of

the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The U.S. StateDepartment removed the MEK from the foreign terrorist

organizations list last year.

Filner’s 2011 trip included a first class flight and a stay at a

Marriott. Legistorm, a nonpartisan Washington DC-based

organization that compiles information about Congress,

including Congressional travel, noted, ―This trip included

unusually expensive hotel charges.‖

The 2007 trip to France, also paid for by Colorado’s Iranian

American Community, cost $7,949. The plane ticket in that

case was business class.

Colorado’s Iranian American Community is not listed as anonprofit by the Internal Revenue Service and officials with

the organization said they did not pay for Filner’s trip this

time.

During the mayoral campaign last year, Filner was criticized

for accepting 16 free trips as a congressman, totaling

$40,000. U-T Watchdog determined his travel was at the

median for the county’s congressional delegation, that is,

third highest out of five legislators.

He said at the time, ―I plead guilty to doing my job as a con-

gressman, informing myself about world issues, building

relationships with world leaders and fighting for humanrights.‖

Filner is not alone in accepting travel from the Iranian

groups. Others who have gone include former New York

Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy of

Rhode Island.

In large part, the trips were part of a lobbying campaign to

remove the MEK from the U.S. State Department’s foreign

terrorist organizations list. In a speech to the group, Filner

compared their plight to the U.S. civil rights movement.

―This will happen,‖ Filner said in a speech to the group in2011. ―This will happen. The laws, the facts, are on our

side.‖




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- UPDATE 6 -

Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf) residents

and the processing of their cases for solutions *

UNHCR has expressed continued deep concern for

the safety and security of the residents in the Hurriya

Temporary Transit Location (TTL), following the sec-

ond deadly attack on 15 June. UNHCR reiterated the

urgent need for enhanced physical protection, asking

the Government of Iraq to do everything in its power

to guarantee the security of the residents.

Invoking their security concerns following the two

attacks on Camp Hurriya, a number of residents have

decided not to attend interviews scheduled for them

with UNHCR to process their cases. Nevertheless,

pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding be-

tween the United Nations and the Government of

Iraq of 25 December 2011 on the situation of the

residents of Camp New Iraq, UNHCR continues to

process the applications of the residents who have

been transferred, on a voluntary basis, to Camp Hur-

riya and who engage with UNHCR.

Camp residents who have submitted requests for

international protection are formally asylum-seekers

under international law. In the absence of a national

system of adjudication in Iraq, UNHCR is considering

these requests on an individual basis in an appropri-

ate procedure. Individual interviews are taking place

– with those who engage – in a safe and neutral lo-

Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf)

residents and the processing of theircases for solutions

- Update 6 -

UNHCR.org, .July 19, 2013

http://www.unhcr.org/4f2a54a16.html

cation, and in full confidentiality. Transmittal to

States of the cases of those with determined interna-tional protection needs is ongoing. Pending their re-

location outside Iraq, the residents are in transit in

Camp Hurriya, while their claims are being proc-

essed, as provided for in the above-noted Memoran-

dum of Understanding.

International law requires that asylum-seekers must

be able to benefit from basic protection of their secu-

rity and well-being. This includes protection against

any expulsion or return to the frontiers of territories

where their lives or freedom would be threatened(the non-refoulement principle) as well as treatment

in accordance with basic humanitarian standards –

including, most importantly, their security. The pri-

mary responsibility for ensuring respect for these

standards lies with the Government of Iraq. Freedom

of movement is the most desirable state while proc-

essing takes place.

UNHCR, together with the Government of Iraq,

UNAMI and other concerned actors, including impor-

tantly the international community, remains commit-ted to doing its part in finding peaceful solutions to

this long-standing problem. Accordingly, UNHCR and

UNAMI are continuing their combined efforts to find

solutions, including relocation opportunities, for the

residents who wish to depart Iraq. To date a total of

135 residents have departed to other countries.

UNHCR, 19 July 2013

————————————————————————————————————-—-

* This document will be updated as needed.




7/27/2019 Up to date No. 57 - July 2013


By Michael Rubin

Back in the 1990s, when I was working on language study and then

dissertation research in Iran, it was apparent that the vast majority of

Iranians did not care for their government. While many Iranians readily

acknowledged their own participation in the revolution against the

dictatorial shah, they also realized that Ayatollah Khomeini played them for

fools when he had promised them ―Islamic democracy.‖ Within six months,

they recognized that what they got was neither, but it was too late as

Khomeini consolidated control.

Iranians are politically engaged—even if not within the system—and did not

hesitate to talk. Many spoke of their desire for alternatives. Some asked

about the son of the late shah, living in exile in the United States. Others

would speak more theoretically about a desire for a republic, a

parliamentary democracy, or other alternative. The only thing on which

Iranians agreed was their dislike of the Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization(MKO). Several years ago, I wrote a piece outlining their history and

ideological evolution. Long story short, the group’s involvement in terrorism

that killed not only regime officials but ordinary Iranian citizens, as well as their willingness to accept aid and shelter from

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the years after Iraq’s invasion of Iran, delegitimized the group in the face of the public they claim

to represent.

The Clinton administration designated the MKO to be a terrorist group, but after years of lobbying —and buying support by

paying huge honoraria to a bipartisan array of senior officials —the MKO was delisted in 2012. No longer being considered

a terrorist group does not make the MKO democratic, however, as anyone who has ever studied their internal workers can


U P T O D A T E

N O . 5 7

J U L Y 2 0 1 3

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://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/07/07/yes-mujahedin-al-khalq-is-a-dishonest-cult/

Yes, Mujahedin al-Khalq

is a Dishonest CultCommentarymagazine.com, July 7, 2013

attest. It is against this backdrop that this diary, written by a

Kyrgyz student recruited to attend an MKO rally in Paris, is so

interesting. It seems that the MKO leaders must now not only pay

speakers to sing their praises at their rallies, but also the

audience members. The MKO is not only a creepy cult, and

willing to say anything to buy support regardless of the group’s

record, but an empty shell as well. Let us hope that one day their

remaining congressional supporters will recognize that if they

truly want to bring change to Iran’s odious regime, they would

best reach out to the Iranian people and not associate with

groups which repel them.

Michael Rubin




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Up to date No. 57 - July 2013