Wednesday the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East
and North Africa held a hearing on Iraq. US House Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the Subcommittee Chair and US House
Rep Ted Deutch is the Ranking Member and the witness appearing before the Subcomittee was Brett McGurk, the State Dept's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iraq and Iran Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Wednesday we covered the Jewish archives from that hearing, Thursday we covered Camp Ashraf and religious minorities. We'll cover it later in tonight's snapshot again. However, the US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents issued the following on the hearing and we'll note it in full:
During a hearing on November 13, 2013 by the House Subcommittee on
the Middle East and North Africa, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for Iraq and Iran, Brett McGurk, when faced with repeated questions by
several subcommittee members over the breach of commitments by the US
Government and Iraq to protect thousands of Iranian dissidents in Iraq,
resulting in the murder of 112 defenseless residents of Camp Ashraf,
attempted to exonerate the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of any
role in the execution-style murder of 52 residents of Camp Ashraf and
the abduction of seven more on September 1st.
Mr. McGurk, to the astonishment of
Members of Congress, downplayed the seriousness of this massacre and the
daily deadly violence in Iraq, as being ordinary and inevitable. Mr.
McGurk did nothing to allay the concerns of anxious families and
relatives of the residents, in attendance at the hearing. Nor did he
highlight the detrimental sectarian policies and incompetence of the
Iraqi Prime Minister as the main causes of the carnage in the country.
Instead, Mr. McGurk suggested to the Iraqi people that the only way to
stay safe is to leave Iraq.
McGurk minimized the Iraqi government's role in the September 1
massacre. A plethora of evidence and expert testimony, however, make it
clear that highest levels of the Iraqi government, including the Prime
Minister, were involved in the planning, execution and cover-up of this
crime against humanity.
Camp Ashraf is sealed off from the outside by chain-lined fence with
barbed wire on top, leaving only two entry gates for the Camp, guarded
by an Iraqi army brigade at the west gate and by a Rapid Deployment Unit
on the east gate.
Camp Ashraf is under 24/7 guard of 1,200 Iraqi forces in the midst of
a highly militarized zone, with hundreds of units of Iraqi army within a
20 mile radius. There are dozens of check points on the only highway
that leads from Camp Ashraf to Baghdad to the south and to Kirkuk to the
north. As such, U.S. military officers who served in Iraq have stated
unequivocally that it is absolutely inconceivable that more than 100
heavily-armed men with a large load of explosives to have carried out
this murder without the approval of the highest authorities in Iraq.
These officers who trained the Iraqi forces have stated that the assault
force employed US tactics and equipment in the attack.
According
to statements by European Ministers, as well as past and present United
Nations officials and eyewitnesses, the seven hostages, including six
women, have been detained and interrogated by the Iraqi army's Golden
(dirty) Division in Baghdad. On September 12, Kamel Amin, Spokesman of
the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry, told Radio Free Iraq, "Security forces
arrested these individuals [seven hostages] for attacking them [security
forces]."
Hundreds of Camp Liberty residents in Iraq as well as their relatives
and friends in Europe, Canada and Australia have been on hunger strike
for the past 77 days. Many are at a critical physical stage and may not
survive if the hostages are not released immediately.
The US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR) calls on
President Obama to intervene personally and demand that the Iraqi
government release the hostages at once and return them to Camp Liberty.
Only in this way, can the US Government atone for betraying its
promises and commitments to protect the residents of camps Ashraf and
Liberty.
iraq
