Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for the formation of a commission of inquiry, consisting of a group of prominent former US politicians and law enforcement officials, to visit Camp Liberty, Iraq, where some 400 Iranian dissidents are living, after they were relocated from Camp Ashraf, their home of 25 years.

“I would suggest that we ask …the House of Representatives to pass a resolution that would appoint a commission…that would immediately go to Iraq and examine Camp Liberty, and report back within…two or three days what they see,” Giuliani said. “Is Camp Liberty really a suitable place? Should it be a relocation center? Is it really a prison, or a concentration camp?”

“This is a scandal.  This is a fraud; a fraud not involving money, but a fraud involving threats to human life. What we need immediately is a commission of inquiry to determine how this fraud was perpetrated. Who certified, who approved that hell hole, that garbage dump?  Who said that it met United Nation’s standards?

Somebody is responsible for perpetrating that fraud and for getting 400 innocent people to risk their lives and their health to be exposed to that kind of trash and that kind of hazard to their health.  We have to get to the bottom of this,” Harvard Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz emphasized.

At issue is the fate of 400 Iranian dissidents, members of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (“MEK”) who are currently housed at Camp Liberty. These individuals, like some 3,000 other Iranian dissidents, had been based at Camp Ashraf. Despite the United Nations certification that the infrastructure and facilities at Camp Liberty meets “international standards,” the camp lacks even the most basic conditions, providing only intermittent electricity and insufficient supplies of running water.

The Iraqi government does not allow international monitors or visitors to Camp Liberty. Concerns about those in Camp Liberty are heightened by the fact that Camp Ashraf has twice been attacked by Iraqi military forces, resulting in 47 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries, since the Iraqi government took control of the camp from the US military in 2009.

Giuliani told the conference, that the US should be prepared to accept the dissidents living at Camp Ashraf and at Camp Liberty. He joined other panelists, former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats on the National Intelligence Council, Glenn Carle, to call for the U.S. State Department to remove the MEK from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Other speakers at the conference included former Chicago Mayor, Richard Daley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Philip Lader and former Policy Advisor at the Treasury Department’s office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Avi Jorisch.

“In 2012, there is no reason, no justification, under any of the guidelines under the law that this group deserves to be treated as a terrorist organization,” Ridge said. “From October 8 ^th of 2001 until the day I walked out as Secretary of Homeland Security, I used to get a threat matrix every day.  I must tell you, I don’t recall ever seeing a reference to the MEK as an organization or a terrorist who allegedly belonged to MEK threatening the United States (or) its citizens. They do not belong on the list. They’re not a terrorist organization. Take them off the list.”

Governor Dean added, “The United States of America has the ultimate responsibility for the safety of the people in Ashraf, and each one of the people in Ashraf has that in writing, signed by the Senior Commander of the United States Armed Forces,” Dean said. “This is not simply a battle to save the lives of 3,400 unarmed civilians who find themselves stuck in an increasingly less democratic Iraq. This is a battle about what kind of country the United States is.”

Regarding the correct policy to counter the threats posed by the Iranian regime, Mr. Carle emphasized, “Tactically, the field intelligence work I did for over two decades argues in favor of de-listing the MEK from its now outdated and wrong designation as a terrorist organization.  Strategically, it argues working in favor with the MEK as a means of pressuring a regime which is a destabilizing influence in the entire region.”

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A humanitarian tragedy unfolds as the Iraqi military and police harass and threaten 397 Iranian dissidents relocated to Camp Hurriya, a former American military base. They are the first of 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf. How Iraq, UN, EU, and the United States act is a litmus test for whether the rest of the residents of Camp Ashraf relocate.

Professor Raymond Tanter, former member of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush White House and President of the Iran Policy Committee, stated, “The UN shares with Washington responsibility to protect Iranian dissidents from being harmed by Iraqi authorities. At the UN World Summit, September 2005, over 150 countries adopted ’responsibility to protect’ populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.”

Professor Tanter said, “The United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) formally recognized on 13 September 2011, and reiterated on 1 February 2012 residents of Ashraf as ‘asylum seekers,’ with rights and protections based on international humanitarian standards. According UNHCR, “International law requires that asylum-seekers must be able to benefit from basic protection of their security and well being. This includes protection against any expulsion or return to the frontiers of territories where their lives or freedom would be threatened.”

Professor Tanter added, “But the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) works at cross purposes with UNHCR. While UNHCR stands ready to conduct Refugee Status Determination to resettle the dissidents in other countries, UNAMI colludes with Iraqi authorities, providing a pretext for Baghdad to harm them, contrary to international humanitarian standards.”

UNHCR emphasizes protecting Iranian dissidents stating, “Any relocation outside Camp New Iraq [Ashraf] [should] proceed on a voluntary basis, with freedom of movement the most desirable state at the site of relocation.” But according to reports, Iranian dissidents are barred from taking their personal belongings, even items like wheelchairs, microwave ovens, and satellite dishes for Internet access.

Contrary to UNHCR, the dissidents have no freedom of movement. Journalists are kept away, and neither lawyers nor families can observe or visit Camp Hurriya; in disregard of dissidents’ rights, UNAMI paid no attention to Iraqi harassment, intimidation, and insult to them upon arrival to Hurriya.

Washington is also accountable for failure to provide effective diplomatic pressure on Iraq to ensure safe relocation, often called the “American plan” because it stems from a Christmas Day statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We are encouraged by the Iraqi government’s willingness to commit to this plan, and expect it to fulfill all its responsibilities, especially [to] provide for the safety and security of Ashraf’s residents.”

Because of the Clinton statement, the dissidents accepted the relocation plan, which is now being violated by Iraqi authorities. A subsequent announcement by the Department of State “commends the decision by the Ashraf residents to begin to relocate to Hurriya, where the United Nations will begin a process aimed at facilitating their eventual departure from Iraq,” a commendation that enhances U.S. stake in the plan and responsibility to protect the dissidents.

By praising the former residents of Ashraf for the first time, the pronouncement also implicitly commends their leadership in Paris for its constructive role in averting human tragedy.

The Way Forward
In a statement of 7 February this year, 23 former senior officials of the U.S. Government expressed concern about relocation, “We are very troubled by the official position of the Iraqi Government that the residents of Ashraf will have no freedom of movement while in Camp Liberty.”

First, the IPC concurs with a recommendation of our former colleagues in the U.S. Government for American Embassy Baghdad to obtain assurances for security of dissidents now relocated in Camp Hurriya and as incentive for the 3,000 who remain in Camp Ashraf to relocate: “We believe an operational protocol must be developed through dialogue among all relevant parties, including the representatives of Camp Ashraf and the Iraqi Government.”

Second, the UN might inform dissidents of rights as asylum seekers. The IPC is dismayed to learn that Iranian dissidents in Camp Hurriya have no minimum assurances from either the UN or Washington about their security or rights under international human rights law.

Third, the Secretary General needs to bring operational practices of UNAMI in accord with humanitarian standards of asylum seeker status provided by UNHCR. If the Iraqi police were outside Camp Hurriya and UNAMI monitors inside, UNHCR humanitarian standards are more likely to be followed.

Without such steps, a calamity is likely, spilled blood of the Iranian asylum seekers will be on the hands of those with responsibility to protect, and appropriate legal action against accountable parties is likely in international and national tribunals.

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On Friday, February 17, 2012, as a goodwill gesture, 400 Iranian dissidents residing in Camp Ashraf in Iraq since 1986, many with families and relatives in the United States, began their relocation from Camp Ashraf, their home of 25 years, to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad international airport, even though minimum guarantees for their safety and security have not been provided by the Iraqi Government or the United Nations.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has formally recognized the residents of Ashraf as “asylum seekers” and “persons of concern,” which entitles them to fundamental protections and security based on humanitarian standards.

Nevertheless, the Iraqi Government, with the tacit approval of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, Martin Kobler, has relocated our loved ones to Camp Liberty which, contrary to its name, is, by all indications, more like a prison than a transitional facility for “asylum seekers”.

The Iraqi-imposed inhumane and humiliating conditions under which 400 residents were inspected and then transferred to Camp Liberty, as well as the atrociously sub-humane living conditions of the camp amply reveal the nefarious intentions of the Iraqi Government.

Equally appalling is the fact that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which is expected to be playing a humanitarian role, has increasingly acted to accommodate the Iraqi Government in exerting pressure against the residents.

Not surprising, emboldened by the UNAMI chief’s repeatedly one-sided actions and positions to the detriment of Ashraf residents, the Iraqi Government has heightened it’s blatant and repeated violations of the residents’ human rights and the December 25 Memorandum of Understating.

The US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR), representing thousands of Iranian-Americans whose loved-ones reside in Camp Ashraf, urges Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to uphold the United States’ long-standing moral and legal obligations to ensure safety and security of the residents of Ashraf, particularly those 400 who are now at the mercy of Iraqi Government in Camp Liberty.

Specifically, Secretary Clinton, in line with her assurances provided on February 15, should ensure that the Iraqi Government removes its draconian restrictions on the 400 Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty, guarantee the withdrawal of the Iraqi police from inside the camp and the freedom of movement of the residents – as stipulated by the UNHCR, as well as the unhindered access of the residents to their lawyers and their families.

Absent these guarantees, the stage would be set by the Iraqi Government to seriously jeopardize the safety and security of our loved ones in Camp Liberty. USCCAR urges the United States to address the serious concerns regarding this camp, otherwise, the relocation of the rest of Ashraf residents will be rendered moot.

A stellar roster of former senior US officials and a bi-partisan group of members of US Congress have declared their readiness to visit Camp Liberty and confirm its suitability to accommodate the Iranian asylum seekers. Such a visit and unfettered access of journalists to the camp and its residents will help to assuage the widespread anxiety of US families of the residents over their safety. To this end, Secretary Clinton should use her good offices to facilitate such a visit.

Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of Iran’s principal opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) and their families, who were recognized by the United States as “Protected Persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention in 2004.

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