Thousands of classified documents were released last week by WikiLeaks about developments in Iraq since 2003. But they don't just underscore serious shortcomings in Iraq, they also amplify the urgency to revisit the US policy on Iran. This is made chillingly clear when a glance at the nearly 400,000 military files proves that the Iranian regime meddles extensively in Iraqi affairs to the point of controlling the government and using death squads to unleash a wave of terror and crimes throughout the country.
But the documents also leave a more troubling impression: Washington exercised a deafening silence even as it knew about Iran's destructive role.
Indeed, even before the recent revelations, for seven years, the main Iranian opposition group in exile Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) disclosed thousands of documents about the Iranian regime's meddling, including a detailed list of 32,000 agents on Tehran's payroll, leaving no excuses for inaction.
Now the revealed field reports point to the intimate US knowledge of the heinous and systematic human rights violations carried out by some Iraqi forces led by outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Those responsible for such crimes owe their reprehensible gains and survival almost exclusively to their patrons in Iran.
As evidence piled up and a pattern emerged about the Iranian regime's increasing control of the Iraqi government, training of Shiite militias, and smuggling of caches of weapons across the Iran-Iraq frontier, Washington chose silence almost as if deliberately turning a blind eye.
One document describes how the American military had confirmed in 2009 that mortar attacks against the Green Zone were carried out by an Iran-backed militant group. Again, such cases were kept in the dark or feebly responded to.
All this explains why the mullahs in Tehran continue to perceive Washington as weak and indecisive. A false-hope-turned-policy has lingered for years among US officials that the more the Iranian theocracy is placated the more it will be tamed. But, in reality, a string of attempts to appease the mullahs, including a controversial 1997 decision by the State Department to blacklist the MEK, only emboldened them, something made abundantly clear in a post-2003 Iraq.
Even after President Barack Obama entered the Oval Office with an invitation for unconditional talks, the regime and its proxies in Iraq intensified their illicit and deadly conduct, which should have served as a serious wake up call for the administration.
Historically, the regime views the domination of Iraq as a do-or-die part of its strategy to export fundamentalism throughout the region. And it has learnt a valuable lesson: advance the agenda forcefully enough and Washington will concede.
The US has not yet, but should really soon, learn its lesson, too: appeasing a medieval theocracy in Iran will only translate into a devastated Iraq controlled by a nuclear-armed Iranian regime.
Silence is no longer an option. The Iranian regime and its proxies in Iraq, starting with Maliki, should be held to account in an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.
The Obama administration should also turn its attention to the moral and legal obligations it has thus far forsaken in the context of the failed policy of placating Tehran.
One of the most serious examples where a recalibration of the moral compass is urgently needed concerns the 3,400 Iranian dissidents residing in Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad.
In 2009, in a flagrant contravention of the Geneva Conventions, the protection of Camp Ashraf was transferred to the Maliki government, whose forces - not surprisingly in light of the WikiLeaks evidence -brutally attacked the residents, killing 11 and injuring hundreds, at the behest of Tehran.
As the Iranian regime and Maliki keenly await another opportunity to perpetrate more crimes against Ashraf residents, the US is duty-bound to reassume their protection in line with its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In the same vein, the State Department should act promptly to remove the MEK off the terror list, in accordance with US law. A federal appeals court ruling in June strongly suggested that the designation should be revoked, pointing to a clear lack of credible evidence and violation of the group's due process rights. Secretary Hillary Clinton should listen to the courts and dozens of Congressmen who are calling for the MEK's delisting, and not to the Iranian tyrants.
It is indeed ironic that a group, whose disclosures have led to the saving of Iraqi and American lives in Iraq according to former and present US officers, continues to be unjustly restricted in the US at the request of a terrorist regime.
Washington's Iran policy should be two-pronged: standing firm against the regime and complying with its moral and legal responsibilities vis-Ã -vis the Iranian opposition. These should be regarded as mutually exclusive. That means any hesitation to stand firm against the regime - possibly due to the regime's agreement to participate in more nuclear talks with the West to buy more time for its program - should absolutely not delay or stop a responsible US decision to observe its legal and moral obligations and resume the protection of Camp Ashraf residents.
Washington's decision to turn a blind eye has made it an unwitting accomplice to Tehran's destructive policies. A firm policy, including comprehensive sanctions, is obviously needed, but this must not conjure up the false dilemma that without direct negotiations, the US will inevitably head towards a military conflict. We've seen how Iran acted in Iraq in response to Washington's overtures for direct negotiations.
There is a third option, which includes supporting the Iranian people and unshackling their organized opposition. Sadly, that option has remained to be deliberately hampered in Washington; but it is an undeniable imperative for a peaceful resolution of both the Iran and Iraq crises, and that is why President Obama should recognize it. Time to act is now.
It is quite obvious that the mullahs are doomed to go down the drain in the HISTORY GARBAGE and that worries these "foot soldiers". Well somehow I can understand these supporters of the mullahs' dictatorship; they are concerned about the big money which the mullahs are paying for their "services"!
Like I said, they can keep calling themselves "the main opposition", but that doesn't make it so. The people who comment on such articles are NOT upset because "the articles advocate supporting an opposition group".
We are upset because MKO is terrorist, undemocratic, traitor organization which has betrayed Iran, killed Iranians (and Iraqis for Saddam) and wants to be the slave to Iran's enemy with the sole purpose of getting to power.
But if you don't get it, well, you don't get it.
I hope those who have the brain, would be able to get it. If there is no brain available then they are not able to get it!
It only shows how much of a slave MKO is to the US and once again proves that they rather count on big powers with bombs and guns rather than counting on the people in Iran. But that’s not a surprise because MKO has no popular support in Iran.
Is it anything but that? You supporters of MKO must open your eyes and stop believing words like "third option", "main opposition", "120,000 martyrs", "popular support in Iran and abroad". Lies don't become true by simply being repeated.
Both the Iranian and American governments categorize the MEK as a terrorist group. Two for two - so what's there to discuss?
It is a terrible group. Every so often they pop up with new mentors on Capitol Hill, until the clueless congressmen are duly advised by our intelligence community or State Dep't about the nefarious nature of the MEK. Then they disappear from the scene for a while, until a new batch of naive politicians come onto the scene.
Like them or not, the fact is that they are completely irrelevant because they have zero credibility or support within Iran. What's the point of supporting an "opposition group" without any popular base?
Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, who is also president of the International Committee in Search of Justice, said the actions of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his subordinates, as well as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Qods terrorist group are "considered as crimes against humanity and those responsible for them should be held accountable by the international community."
WikiLeaks released 400,000 pages of documents related to the Iraq war Friday.
Quadras' remarks were directed at the treatment of prisoners at Camp Ashraf, including allegations of torture and other mistreatment of detainees.
"The exposed documents reveal that the U.S. government knew in detail about the political, military and terrorist interventions of the Iranian regime in Iraq," Quadras charged, citing Saturday's New York Times story that said the U.S. military had warned Iran was "gaining control of Iraq at many levels."
In 2008, the International Committee in Search of Justice had asked the United States not to turn over control of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqis, fearing a "humanitarian catastrophe."
Speakers specifically pointed to Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where thousands of ‎Iranian dissidents reside, citing threats faced by the political activists in the face ‎of the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq and the gross human rights violations ‎committed by the current Iraqi government.‎
In light of the threats against the residents of Ashraf, the speakers especially ‎called on American forces to reassume control of the camp, saying that the ‎mullahs’ meddling in Iraq leaves no excuse to abandon such a responsibility by ‎Washington.‎
SUPPORT THE MULLAHS, GIVE THEM THE WAR. By using the SCAPEGOAT (THE WAR) they would be able to crush any movement for freedom & democracy.
'nuff said. You are working against your own countrymen and will not defeat the regime this way, but only hinder our progress in the world. We have a legal right to enrichment, that besides for apparently you, is almost agreed upon by a unanimity of Iranians. Get with the program -- they're honestly doing nothing wrong.
I agree with the author of this article. The US should change its outlook towards Iran and support the plight of the Iranian people. Genuine democratic activists in Iran, espcially the MEK, do not deserve to be sidelined. They need to take comfort in the fact that Washington is standing on their side against a brutal regime.
The MEK, and the residents of Camp Ashraf, are Iran's best hope for genuine democracy. And, a democratic Iran is the best hope for peace in the region.
I admire and respect the MEK's 45-year-old struggle for democracy in Iran. They are dedicated and admirable men and women. This organization has lost 120,000 of its supporters to the Iranian regimes brutality, yet it is still the biggest threat to this regime. Just look at this message board to see how inflamed regime supporters and those whose interests will be harmed by a democratic Iran get upon encountering the mere suggestion that the US should stop hampering the MEK's peaceful and democratic struggle.
Fortunately, others are blessed with more wisdoms.
I am an expatriate myself and would love to see probably more changes in Iran than most. However, the rational behind a practical approach to this forces me to shut up since I am not currently making any contributions, such as being present in Iran and taking a front line towards the paths those changes requires regardless of any lethal outcome might await for me,.
But my disappointment here are the space allocated by the Huffington Post to a group who have never been relevant.
Faramarz Fathi
MEK cooperated with Saddam during Iran/Iraq war and therefore are hated by majority Shia population in Iraq. Also kurds dislike them as well becasue of their cooperation with Saddam.
Now Iraq is forming a government from Kurds and majority Shia population. The tide has already turned and there is no way MEK can stay in Iraq.
MEK is not that important of a political force in Iran any more and I do not think US can pay the political price for keeping their training camp open in Iraq.
MEK should leave Iraq at the same time that American soldiers are leaving.
People inside the camp are totally isolated. They do not know many of them rumoured to be executed are currently living a normal life in Iran.
MEK is affraid that by leting these people coming to west they will discover the truth and go back to Iran.
Back in early 80s when this group preformed hundreds deadly terrorist attacks, the Iranian goverment had responded very harshly to these attacks and it was not unusual to have daily public executions sometime multiple daily execution. Most of the people in Camp Ashraf think that the situation is still the same in Iran. Most of them will go back to their families and a few who actually have murdered anybody will come to west for asylum, becasue Iran amnesty will not include murder cases.
Anyway keeping the camp in Iraq causes a lot of tensions.
The world should be considering the danger of nuclear armed Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
I also agree, that many US policies in Iran have backfired.