Iran:Successful Completion of the Resettlement of Camp Liberty residents from Iraq to Europe

Iran:Successful Completion of the Resettlement of Camp Liberty residents from Iraq to Europe

This afternoon, September 9, 2016, the final group of Camp Liberty residents (more than 280) departed Baghdad, Iraq, for Albania. This final round of departures marks the successful conclusion to the process of relocating members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) outside of Iraq despite the Iranian regime’s conspiracies, obstruction and threats, which continued until the very last day.

During the four-and-a-half-year-long resettlement process, the residents of Liberty were relocated to European countries, including Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and Spain. Close to 2,000 residents left Iraq since the beginning of 2016.

In this process, the religious dictatorship ruling Iran provided red notices to Interpol and used fake arrest warrants issued by the Iraqi Judiciary in a bid to prevent the departure of 1,000 PMOI members, and arrest officials and other well-known figures.

Exploiting the post-invasion atmosphere in Iraq, the ruling clerical regime did its utmost to destroy the PMOI/MEK. Three massacres at Camp Ashraf, five missile attacks on Camp Liberty, two cases of abduction of residents, and the imposition of a full-fledged eight-year siege, which left 177 residents dead, constituted parts of this inhumane, albeit futile, plan.

Iran: Warnings of another attack on Camp Liberty, Iraq

Camp Liberty

London, 26 Aug - A letter addressing the US President Barack Obama and General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary, received on August 19, warns against another attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq where Iranian political dissidents are claiming shelter.

According to a guest column in Augusta Free Press by Prof. Raymond Tanter (former member of the U.S. National Security Council Staff) and Col. (Ret.) Wes Marten (former antiterrorism/force protection for coalition forces in Iraq), the letter was signed by “a bipartisan group of 36 former national security officials.”

Prominent figures of the U.S. politics, including Ed Rendell and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, were among those who had signed the letter. The letter expressed fear of another attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq, organised by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Despite the extreme danger that the dissidents of Iran’s ruling regime are facing at Camp Liberty, it will not be the first time that they come under such a threat. Following the July 9 rally, hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris, which attracted a following of 100,000 supporters, the media in Iran reported that “Camp Liberty must be targeted once again with a number of missiles,” according to Otagh-e-Khabar.

Iran:Ex-US Ambassador: Iranian regime intends to incorporate Iraq, Syria and Lebanon

mark-ginsberg

Ambassador Ginsberg argues that Iran’s regime has become more immoderate following the nuclear agreement last July: "The record of meddlesome, terror-laden interference throughout the Middle East by Tehran is growing longer by the day." In addition, he argues, the regime’s current President Hassan Rouhani is hanging more people than the "notorious Ahmadinejad."

The list of Iranian threats to international security is long: increased funding of Hezbollah and Hamas; a proxy war in Yemen against the U.S. and Saudi-backed government; ballistic missile tests in violation of existing Security Council resolutions; and "massively" deploying the Revolutionary Guard inside Syria to defend Assad. However, for Ginsberg, the focus of his main concern is Iranian action in Iraq.

IRAN:How hypocritical the trip to Tehran is from the perspective of a dissident

How hypocritical the trip to Tehran is from the perspective of a dissident

The parade of Western leaders, with their shared weaknesses.

The young Zanjani speaks: “The mullahs haven’t changed”

Il Foglio - April 14, 2016

By Cynthia Martens

Paris. Elham Zanjani has never been to Iran. Her parents left their home country in the 70s, and she was born in Montreal in 1978 and raised in Toronto. Though Zanjani speaks fondly of Canada, as a young girl she was troubled by the knowledge that far away, cousins whom she had never met were living a totally different sort of life.

“You always have in the back of your mind,” she says in an interview with Il Foglio. “How is it possible that I could grow up in a place where I could do sports, I could swim, I could think freely, go to the mall, listen to music, eat what I want and start building the future that I want – but my cousins, the same age as I was, didn’t have the same rights,” she says, noting that the girls had to wear full black chadors. Contact with loved ones in Iran was limited, due to the regime’s aggressive monitoring of phone calls.

The scar of Camp Ashraf

Zanjani’s concern for her relatives eventually blossomed into a desire to work with the Iranian resistance. As a college student in Canada, she was interested in physiotherapy, but instead of finishing her studies, left everything for Camp Ashraf, a city in Iraq near the border with Iran that was home to many political refugees and former prisoners of the Iranian regime. Though she initially expected her stay to be brief, Zanjani stayed for well over a decade, working at the local hospital and putting her language skills – in addition to English, she speaks French, Farsi and a bit of Arabic – to use as an interpreter.

“I got to improve my Farsi, and got to really understand my background much more,” she recalls.

A relatively peaceful life in Ashraf took a turn for the worse after U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq, and residents of the camp experienced several attacks from Iraqi forces guided by a prime minister, al-Maliki, who was sympathetic to the Iranian regime. Zanjani was directly hit by a grenade. Getting proper care for her extensive arm and leg injuries was complicated, and Zanjani eventually returned to Canada, where she recovered.

Brussels Attacks: Iranian State Television claims Europeans ‘only have themselves to blame’ for terror attacks

Iran State TV - 22 March 2016 “ The boomerang return of Daesh”

A Brussels-based NGO has condemned Iran’s regime for broadcasting “sarcastic” reports on its state television about the deadly terrorist attacks in the Belgian capital on 22 March.

The Alliance to Renew Cooperation among Humankind (ARCHumankind) said in statement that it remains “outraged that Iranian State television would make a mockery of the High Representative Vice President Federica Mogherini on the basis of her human reaction to those who had lost their lives and were targeted by ISIL acclaimed terrorists.”

“The channel continued their ridicule by insinuating that Europe ‘only had themselves to blame’ and that perhaps now Europe might ‘feel close-up the fear and horror that the Syrian people have endured over the past 5 years, created by the interferences of their (European) politicians’,” the March 30 statement by ARCHumankind added.

 “These acts committed by Jihadist militants are acts of heinous violence and the Iranian State television implying that ‘European decision-makers are supporting terrorist acts’ can only be seen as an incitement for the continuation of the Jihadi aggression against Europe.”

فروردین  -تلویزیون رژیم 

“Whereas the European institutions have unduly decided to forget the well-documented co-operation of the Iranian authorities with the creation of an Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq in 2001 and the Syrian regime logistical support to this organisation from 2003 up to 2011 – in the vain hope this memory erasing exercise would make the theocracy to behave better – the insulting attitude of the Iranian authorities vindicates the point of view of all those who warned against this kind of appeasement attitude.”

Maryam Rajavi speaks in Women's Role in War against Fundamentalism conference Conference in the European

Maryam Rajavi speaks in Women's Role in War against Fundamentalism

 conference Conference in the European

Below is excerpts of the speech by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance at Conference entitled Women's Role in War against Fundamentalism held on 2 March 2016 in the European Parliament and chaired by Beatriz Becerra, member of EP’s Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality:

Maryam Rajavi:

Extremism under the banner of Islam is a fatal epidemic expanding throughout the world because it has not been confronted. To defeat this epidemic, a comprehensive approach is vital.

Since the 1990s we have been warning that Islamic fundamentalism is the new global threat.

Today, there is a real concern about Daesh, but it should be noted that its expansion is a product of two developments in the region:

The Iranian regime's occupation of Iraq after the war in 2003 and the brutal crackdown on Sunnis by the mullahs' puppet government in Iraq.

Suppression of Syrian people and dissidents by Bashar Assad's government, backed and led by the mullahs' regime.

Therefore, if it was not for the Iranian regime's domination over Iraq and Syria, if the Sunnis were not suppressed in Iraq, if Bashar Assad's dictatorship did not exist, Daesh would not have emerged as a threat.

With the inception of the mullahs' rule in 1979, a concrete, practical model was created for all fundamentalist groups. The history of the past 37 years proves that no other factor has been as effective as a ruling government acting as a role-model for the expansion of fundamentalist groups. Particularly that the mullahs actively try to create these groups and guide them ideologically.

Iraq: West Must Learn the Bitter Lessons of Ramadi in Mosul

Struan Stevenson

Press release by the President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA), Struan Stevenson, 12 February 2016

The European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) calls upon the UN, US and EU to learn the lessons of Ramadi and not allow the wanton slaughter of the Sunni population of Mosul in the looming battle to liberate that city. Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has conducted an international tour to bolster support for the impending battle for Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which was captured by ISIS (Daesh) in June 2014. Abadi visited Washington DC, pleading with Obama for more US airstrikes and for US military personnel to train Iraqi forces. He also wants military equipment and cash. Abadi also visited Erbil in Northern Iraq, where he asked Kurdish President Masoud Barzani to pledge assistance from the Peshmerga in the forthcoming battle to liberate Mosul.

Mosul is in Nineveh Province, Northern Iraq; it is home to over two and a half million people. Strict restrictions have been placed on the local population with only trusted traders being allowed to leave and return to the city. The remaining, largely Sunni population has been held hostage. Daesh captured vast quantities of modern American weaponry when the Iraqi army fled and the city has become an almost impregnable fortress. US military commanders who are advising the Iraqis estimate that it may take another year before Mosul can be recaptured.

Iran:rouhani in unison with Khamenei in support of IRGC atrocities in Syia and Iraq and backing of Assad.

khamenei-rouhani

Hassan Rouhani : If revolutionary gurds - IRGC-were  not present  in Iraq and Syria .

We would have  had no security and would not have  reached the  nuclear accord.

Threatening regional countries Shamkhani noted that if we did not fight in Syria, then Tehran, Ahvaz and Hamadan would have been insecure

Maryam Rajavi welcomes French mayors to solidarity feast with Iranian Resistance

Maryam Rajavi welcomes French mayors to solidarity feast with Iranian Resistance

Rouhani is travelling to Europe to cover up the regime's weakness and isolation. He is trying to put up a moderate face to cover up the executions in Iran and the mullahs' role in the massacre of Syrians

Dear friends,

Happy New Year! I hope the New Year would be a year of progress and relief for France, a year of peace and tolerance for the world, and a year of overcoming religious dictatorship for the Middle East and Iran.

In the start of the year, let us remember all those who lost their lives as a result of extremist crimes in 2015, including the political prisoners executed in Iran, Camp Liberty martyrs, and victims of terrorist attacks in January and November in France.

Let us pay tribute to them by observing one minute of silence.

I am very pleased to see you, ladies and gentlemen, the mayors and elected representatives of France, here at the headquarters of the Iranian Resistance.  Mayors and elected officials of France are representatives of the most significant institutions of democracy in this country. They have always stood beside the Iranian Resistance and this has been really admirable.

You have protested against violations of human rights and suppression of women in Iran. You have supported Ashraf and Camp Liberty when they were attacked by the Iranian regime's operatives in Iraq. You were at the forefront of the campaign of justice for the Iranian Resistance both in the case of June 17th attack which was terminated last year and the cases of terrorist designations which were reversed in all countries.

The declarations signed by 14,000 mayors and elected representatives of France in support of the Iranian Resistance, are very precious documents. They express the great values of France.

At this point, let us remember the friends who are not among us any more: Adrian Zeller, Mourice Bouscavert and also Abbe Pierre who we commemorate his first anniversary today. They played a valuable role in our struggle.

Also your political stances over the years have been admirable. Time and again, you warned against a number of threats: the mullahs' nuclear weapons; Islamic fundamentalism; violations of human rights in Iran and the mullahs' domination of the region.

Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping probe: U.S. sources

Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping probe: U.S. sources

U.S. intelligence agencies investigating the kidnapping of three Americans in Baghdad, Iraq last week are focusing their probe on three groups closely affiliated with the Iranian regime, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are the principle focus of the investigation into the armed kidnapping of the three Americans in the Dora neighborhood, south of Baghdad, the sources said.

The three men are employed by a still-unidentified small company doing work for General Dynamics under a larger contract with the U.S. Army.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are Shi’ite militia groups that are part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Front, a group closely tied to Iran, according to the Counter Terrorism Project, a New York-based advocacy group.

Iran political prisoner denounces demagoguery in Christmas message

Ali Moezzi, an Iranian political prisoner in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison,

Ali Moezzi, an Iranian political prisoner in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, has sent a message on the occasion of Christmas, denouncing the Iranian mullahs’ reactionary interpretation of religion.

Two of Mr. Moezzi daughters are members of the main Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Camp Liberty, Iraq. Mr. Moezzi is held in Ward 8 of the dreaded Evin Prison.

His message reads in part: “Greetings to my Christian and Muslim compatriots on the occasion of the birth of Jesus Christ. The birth of Christ which coincided this year with the birth of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad is a cause for double celebration. These prophets were harbingers of mercy and emancipation and equality and unity. Being reactionary is incompatible with the path of the prophets who are the pioneers of historical progress. The mullahs ruling Iran and Salafist and blood thirsty fundamentalists do not know Christ or Mohammad or Abraham. They foster despicable and ugly qualities in people and promote demagoguery. In anticipation of these festive days, we ask God to eradicate this scourge of the era and help us to establish friendship, co-existence, peace and cooperation between human societies."

Mr. Moezzi who suffers greatly due to obstruction of the intestines was prevented last month by the regime’s henchmen from being transferred to hospital. Following protests by political prisoners in Evin, he was taken to the prison infirmary, but was returned to the ward shortly afterwards without receiving any treatment.

Mr. Moezzi who is a political prisoner of the 1980s suffers from various diseases, including cancer and acute kidney disease, due to years of torture and imprisonment in the Iranian regime’s dungeons. Nonetheless, along with a number of other political prisoners, he staged a hunger strike last month to protest the suppression and the arrest of families of political prisoners and their supporters.

Fmr Jordanian ambassador to Iran condemns missile attack on Camp Liberty

Dr. Bassam al-Omoush, a former Jordanian minister 

Dr. Bassam al-Omoush, a former Jordanian minister of administrative development and former Ambassador to Tehran, has called for Iraq’s National Security Advisor Faleh Fayyad to be replaced and international protection be provided to members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) in Camp Liberty in Iraq.

Dr. al-Omoush issued a statement regarding the October 29 missile attack on Camp Liberty and reminded the international community of its responsibility to secure the wellbeing and protection of the camp’s residents.

Excerpts of his statement:

On October 29, 2015, a deadly attack on Camp Liberty by elements of Iranian regime in the government and security forces of Iraq led to hundreds of casualties among the camp’s residents, including 24 dead, and the destruction of large sections of the camp. Located in one of the most protected areas of Baghdad and near the Baghdad International Airport and place of deployment of U.S. forces, this attack on the camp would have been impossible without the collaboration of part of the Iraqi state and security apparatuses.

A year and a half after the removal of Nuri Maliki from power in Iraq, the file of Camp Liberty remains in the hands of Faleh Fayyad, a well-known element of the Iranian regime who has been directly involved in the massacres of the residents over the past seven years.

Despite many international calls, the government of Iraq continues to dodge its responsibilities in protecting the camp and has not initiated any investigations into the October 29 massacre.

Moreover, Iraqi forces are barring attempts to normalize the conditions in the camp devastated by the missile attack and are also hampering delivery of food, fuel and basic needs to the residents.

We are thus calling on our own government, the United Nations, the U.S. government and the European Union to compel the government of Iraq to live up to its commitments to the residents, and in particular:

1. Camp Liberty should be designated a refugee camp under UNHCR supervision to ensure residents’ security by the UN.

2. Immediate needs of Camp Liberty should be provided following the missile attack to normalize the condition of the camp.

3. Camp Liberty’s file should be removed from the hands of Faleh Fayyad, and those managing the camp ought to be replaced with individuals not associated with the Iranian regime.

4. The residents should be allowed to sell their property in [Camp] Ashraf or be reimbursed for it to be able to provide for their expenses.

Message by Maryam Rajavi -Conference at the United States Senate

Maryam Rajavi

Dear Friends,

I offer my greetings and extend my gratitude for your attention to the issue of Iran and the Iranian people’s resistance movement.

I thank you for supporting the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and human rights.

It is inspiring to see a significant group of distinguished personalities demonstrating admirable realism, believing that the solution to the vital crisis in the Middle East is to confront Islamic extremism, especially the religious dictatorship ruling Iran as the epicenter of fundamentalism and terrorism, and also to stand with the struggle of the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance.

This Resistance is committed to liberate Iran from tyranny and barbarism, to restore that nation’s great civilization, to cultivate peace and coexistence, and to end the reign of fear and terror under the name of Islam.

Our world, from Asia, the Middle East and Africa to France, Belgium, Denmark and the United States, has been targeted by a common enemy: extremism under the name of Islam.

Its followers may have different faces – Shiite or Sunni – yet their ideological pillars and their plan of action are essentially one and the same.

Moreover, all of them, from inception to expansion, have relied on the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran.

Without the fundamentalist regime in Iran, the idea of an Islamic Caliphate, or the desire to erase national borders or the massacres under the banner of Jihad would not have existed or happened.

The horrific acts perpetrated by the likes of DAESH or Boko Haram today are all inspired by the mullahs of Iran, who have carried out the same type of crimes against the Iranian people for decades.

The regime is carrying out the same sort of atrocities through its terrorist Qods Force, Hezbollah and so-called Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

The mindset that motivated Khomeini’s fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie (in the 1980s) is the same outlook that led to the massacre at Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The mindset that motivated Khomeini’s fatwa to murder 30,000 Iranian political prisoners (in 1988) also inspired the cleansing of Sunnis in Iraq and the slaughter of people in Paris and health workers in California recently.

This is the same evil spirit that led to assaults on female political prisoners in Iran or Yazidi women in Iraq.

But beyond its ideological impact, let’s consider its practical policies.

If it were not for the massacre of the people in Syria by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is working to keep Assad in power, Syria would not have become the breeding ground for DAESH.

If it were not for the harmful meddling of the mullahs and the horrific suppression carried out by the Iranian regime’s puppet in Iraq, former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, DAESH would not have found the opportunity to occupy swathes of that country’s territory.

The formation of the US-led international coalition in 2014 to confront DAESH was a positive step. But the coalition’s strategy lacked a decisive policy vis-à-vis the mullahs’ regime in Iran, which is the source of the regional crisis.

Destroying DAESH depends on ousting Assad in Syria and on evicting the Iranian regime and its affiliated militias from Iraq.

Despite some differences with Assad and the clerical regime in Iran, DAESH is, in practice, on their side. The prime targets of DAESH have been moderate Syrian forces.

Let me be clear, the ultimate solution to fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism under the name of Islam is the overthrow of the religious fascism ruling Iran at the hands of the Iranian people and Resistance.

For this reason, the mullahs spare no opportunity to commit crimes meant to destroy this Resistance, including missile attacks on its defenseless members in Camp Liberty in Iraq. This is because the mullahs view the Iranian Resistance as an existential threat.

Allow me here to express my gratitude for the decisive positions adopted by Senators McCain, Schumer, Menendez, Blunt, Shaheen and Tillis in condemning the recent missile attack against Liberty.

On behalf of the Iranian people and the residents of Camp Liberty, I would of course like to especially thank Senator McCain and Senator Jack Reed for their initiative concerning the residents of Liberty, which became part of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

Today, the residents of Camp Liberty are in an extremely vulnerable and risky situation and they remain under siege.

The United States had made a commitment to protect them officially and in writing, but it has failed to uphold that commitment.

On October 29, 24 residents lost their lives in the missile attack that was directed by the mullahs.

To date, a total of 141 innocent refugees have been killed in seven attacks and 27 have lost their lives as a result of the inhumane siege.

I call upon lawmakers to urge the U.S. government to put Camp Liberty under the aerial protection of the U.S. Air Force.

The prevention of another humanitarian catastrophe at Camp Liberty and providing protection for the Iranian freedom fighters transcends the interests of the Iranian people alone.

Such measures are vital to confronting the evil of Islamic fundamentalism orchestrated by the mullahs of Iran, who in order to prevent their overthrow in Iran, are setting the whole region on fire. 

The overthrow of the mullahs in Iran will guarantee peace and security in the region and the world.

I thank you all very much.