BBC: Iran opposition accused of abuses

The armed Iranian opposition group, the Peoples' Mujahideen, has been accused of mistreating its own members by an American human rights group.

Former members of the group, also known as Mujahideen-e Khalq, told Human Rights Watch of abuses of dissident members and of those wanting to leave. They included detention, solitary confinement, beatings and torture. (...)

The organisation is designated as a terrorist organisation in the US and Europe.

But Human Rights Watch says its political wing - the National Council of Resistance of Iran - continues to lobby Western legislators to get that designation lifted and is presenting itself as a democratic alternative to the Iranian government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4561789.stm

Iran's Iraqi National Congress? History does indeed repeat itself.

As you’ve probably seen already, The Washington Post today has a piece about how Richard Perle gave a speech last weekend to a group that US law enforcement and intelligence suspects is actually a front for a terrorist group, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). According to the Post, US law enforcement had debated whether they had the authority to shut the fundraiser down. And on Monday the Treasury Department froze the assets of the event's main sponsor, Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia. (...)

Since the war there’s been an-going battle within the administration over whether to root out the MEK or, if not quite sponsor them, then at least tolerate their continued battle against the mullahs of Iran.

Perle and his faction, not surprisingly, have been on the side pushing for sorta-kinda sponsorship.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_01_25.php#002503

those fellas. How wonderful that the foreign policy of the United States is in the hands of these morons.

The 28-page report, “No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps,” details how dissident members of the shadowy Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) were tortured, beaten and held in solitary confinement for years at military camps in Iraq after they criticized the group’s policies and undemocratic practices, or indicated that they planned to leave the organization. The report is based on the direct testimonies of a dozen former MKO members, including five who were turned over to Iraqi security forces and held in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein’s government.

Meanwhile the MKO’s political wing, the National Council of Resistance, which is based in France, continues to lobby the U.S. government and EU countries to remove this designation and lift the restrictions that have ensued. From Washington to Brussels, the group is presenting itself as a “democratic alternative” to Iran’s government. The MKO’s political wing has presented itself as the Iranian “government in exile” and has called on the international community for recognition. (...)

On April 14, several members of the U.S. Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, attended the National Convention for a Democratic, Secular Republic in Iran, an event that an MKO-backed organization held in Washington. Among other members of Congress, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R., Colo.) has called for removal of the MKO from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. On February 10, a think-tank co-chaired by retired U.S. military officers, the Iran Policy Committee, called for the removal of the designation and for the U.S. government to actively support the group against the Iranian government.

“The Iranian government has a dreadful record on human rights,” said Stork (Washington director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division). “But it would be a huge mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses.”

More:
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=67787&src=0

Direct link to the report:

No Exit, Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin Khalq Camps
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/

Iran: Exiled Armed Group Abuses Dissident Members
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/18/iran10967.htm

Paris, May 19 – Iran’s main opposition group, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MeK) rejected a report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch on alleged human rights abuses in MeK camps in Iraq as “a rehash of trite accusations” by agents of Iran’s secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. (...)

The group pointed out that seven agencies of the United States government had “screened” all MeK members in Iraq over a 16-month period and exonerated all of them. A senior U.S. official told the New York Times last July, “extensive interviews by officials of the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had not come up with any basis to bring charges against any members of the group.”

U.S. officials at MeK’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq were not immediately available to comment on the allegations. But in an earlier report from Camp Ashraf, the U.S. news service Knight Ridder quoted an American military official in Iraq as saying that inquiries into accusations of prisons or detention centers in the camp proved them to be unsubstantiated.

More:
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2130

In reply to Stork, Professor Raymond Tanter of Georgetown University, a former White House aide and IPC co-chair said, "It is a humongous mistake for a human rights organization to promote the agenda of a rogue regime by taking at face value the claims of its intelligence agents." "All of the individuals cited in the Human Rights Watch report are agents of the Iranian regime's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), including Mohammad- Hossein Sobhani, and Farhad Javaheri-Yar." Tanter added that, "Tehran sent most of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch from Iran to Europe for the purpose of demonizing its main opposition, the MEK." Tanter, author of Rogue Regimes, helped manage U.S. policy toward Iran while on the National Security Council staff. Tanter conducts research at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on options for Iran in light of its sponsorship of terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and dreadful record on human rights.

Bruce McColm, a co-founder of IPC, former executive director of Freedom House, and former president of the International Republican Institute said: "The message of this report discredits the messenger-Human Rights Watch-more than its intended target-the MEK." McColm also said that, "Unfortunately, Human Rights Watch appears to have fallen for Tehran's disinformation campaign. Over the past several months, Iran has been aggressively peddling these sources to many groups in Europe, hoping someone would bite." McColm concluded that "The Human Rights Watch report lacks validity and is solely a compilation of allegations by former associates of an organization most feared by Tehran, who have long-served in an intelligence capacity for the regime by spreading its propaganda."

IPC research has determined that Iran's disinformation goes out to a variety of western organizations, including Amnesty International, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as International Committee of the Red Cross. What further discredits the report is that there is no counter evidence, such as responses by the MEK to allegations, in the Human Rights Watch report.

Clare Lopez, executive director of the IPC called the Human Rights Watch report a "counterattack and disinformation campaign by the Iranian regime." "The methodology used to prepare this report is stunningly uncharacteristic of any investigation, for its lack of balance, corroboration, and face-to-face interviews," Lopez added.

More of that crap:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=47636

:rofl: