This is interesting. Or maybe I should say sobering.
A broad spectrum of former senior U.S. government officials is strongly condemning the Iraqi military’s April 8 deadly assault on Camp Ashraf, an enclave north of Baghdad consisting of Iranian refugees. The military assault left 34 residents dead, including 8 women, and more than 300 wounded.
These officials are condemning Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki and demanding that the Obama administration remove an Iranian group that fled to Camp Ashraf from its list of terrorist groups.
What’s happening here? U.S. foreign policy experts are siding with Iranians against the Iraqi government?
Well, according to news reports, during the attack defenseless civilians were shot or run over by armored vehicles. Unarmed refugees, especially women, were targeted and fired upon deliberately.
The water supply has been cut off and not restored yet. The food and medicine supplies were destroyed and taken away. Buildings and residences were looted and razed. Obama administration critics say that since the attack, and as a result of U.S. inaction, emboldened Maliki forces have reportedly destroyed the cemetery inside the camp, preventing burial of the victims.
At a conference this past week sponsored by the Near East Human Rights Initiative, those condemning the Iraqis and calling for an investigation of the slaughter of Iranians included: Gen. Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander for Europe; Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under president George W. Bush; former attorney general Michael Mukasey, also a Bush administration alum; Admiral Dennis Blair, former Director of National Intelligence; Porter Goss, one of Bush’s Central Intelligence Agency directors; former senators Evan Bayh and Bill Bradley; former White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino; and Col. Wes Martin, former commander of counterterrorism for the coalition forces in Iraq.
They called for the Iranian opposition group known as the MEK, which was apparently used by Iraqi forces as a straw man in the attack, to be removed from the State Department’s terrorism list.
At the same time, the Iraqi government is reportedly demanding that the 3,400 people living at the camp leave the country by the end of the year.
One of the harshest criticisms came from Gen. James Jones, former national security adviser to Obama.
“I cannot be with you today to join with you in the mourning of the horrific loss of life in Camp Ashraf to yet another unprovoked attack on unarmed civilians by Iraqi forces,” Jones said in a message relayed to the conference crowd.
“This most recent attack … should never have happened. It certainly should never happen again. I hope that the United Nations will also conduct a full investigation … as well. Those who planned and executed this attack should be held accountable for their actions and we should lead the international effort to do everything possible to ensure that a similar tragedy is not repeated.”
According to the human rights group, that extraordinarily tough talk was joined in by Mukasey, a former judge, who said: “What is happening in Ashraf is a human rights tragedy and a political disgrace for the United States because it occurred after U.S. troops withdrew and while the United States secretary of defense was himself in Iraq visiting.
“Human rights organizations (and) the United States must be given access to Ashraf and a report made public on what happened and why it happened. Make no mistake about it — what has enabled this, what has allowed it to happen and whether it is going to continue to allow it to happen again unless we do something about it, is the continued listing of the MEK as a terrorist organization on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.”
In a bipartisan show of resolve, former Democratic senator Evan Bayh emphasized that the MEK is an ally in U.S. efforts to promote reform and democracy in Iran.
“It is simply unacceptable,” Bayh said, “that the (Iraqi) regime allied with us would engage in such crimes against humanity. The cynical attack upon Ashraf should cause us to very clearly communicate with the Maliki regime that this sort of thing is intolerable and if continued will result in a rupture in relations with the United States of America.”
Also referring to “the senseless violence” in Camp Ashraf, former Democratic senator Bill Bradley remarked: “I want to say to those at Camp Ashraf that I’m with you and I want to say that the real terrorists are not the innocents at Camp Ashraf but the Iraqi soldiers who drove the Humvees and pulled the triggers.”
Bradley then took a controversial shot at U.S. policy in Iraq: “You look at the horrible events that we saw today at Camp Ashraf and you think, well, in a way it kind of flows out of the policy of the last 10 years. If you ask who is the main beneficiary of U.S. policy in the last ten years? It’s been Iran.”
For more on the controversy click here.
