BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE
DOUG HENWOOD IS GETTING SLAMMED FOR HIS NEW BOOK ON CRANKY CLINTON ENTITLED "MY TURN" -- OR RATHER FOR THE COVER OF THE BOOK WHICH HAS LED SUCH WELL KNOWN NIT-WITS AS JOAN WALSH TO DECRY THE COVER ILLUSTRATION AS SEXIST.
NEVER ONE TO LET WIT INTERFERE WITH HER NIT, JOAN DIDN'T BOTHER TO LEARN THAT THE COVER WAS (A) A PIECE OF ART CREATED BY A WOMAN, SARAH SOLE, OR THAT (B) SOLE IS A LONG TIME HILLARY SUPPORTER WHO LOOKS FORWARD TO VOTING FOR HILLARY.
REACHED FOR COMMENT, JOAN WALSH REPLIED, "HUH? WHAT? WRITING IS HARD. WHEN I WAS AT SALON I COULD MAKE UP ANYTHING I WANTED. IT'S NOT FAIR TO EXPECT ME TO WRITE AND TO BE FACTUAL!"
In Iraq, there's been another attack on Iranian dissidents.
UNHCR issued the following statement:
UNHCR issued the following statement:
UNHCR statement on today's attack on vicinity of Baghdad International Airport, including Camp Liberty, in Iraq
News Stories, 29 October 2015
UNHCR strongly condemns today's rocket attacks in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport, which have also hit adjacent Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), reportedly causing injuries to dozens of people of concern and some 20 deaths.Camp Liberty is home to around 2,200 people of concern to the Office. The authorities have evacuated the injured to Baghdad hospitals. The full extent of the casualties and damage to the camp is still being ascertained.
"This is a most deplorable act, and I am greatly concerned at the harm that has been inflicted on those living at Camp Liberty," said High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. "Every effort must continue to be made for the injured and to identify and bring to account those responsible."
The residents of Camp Liberty previously lived at Camp Ashraf.
- For more information on this topic, please contact:
- Adrian Edward in Geneva, on mobile +41 79 557 9120
- Ariane Rummery in Geneva, on mobile +41 79 200 7617
This attack was on the Ashraf community. Background: As of September 2013, Camp Ashraf in Iraq is empty. All remaining members of the community have been moved to Camp Hurriya (also known as Camp Liberty). Camp Ashraf housed a group of Iranian dissidents who were welcomed to Iraq by Saddam Hussein in 1986 and he gave them Camp Ashraf and six other parcels that they could utilize. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq.The US government had the US military lead negotiations with the residents of Camp Ashraf. The US government wanted the residents to disarm and the US promised protections to the point that US actions turned the residents of Camp Ashraf into protected person under the Geneva Conventions. This is key and demands the US defend the Ashraf community in Iraq from attacks. The Bully Boy Bush administration grasped that -- they were ignorant of every other law on the books but they grasped that one. As 2008 drew to a close, the Bush administration was given assurances from the Iraqi government that they would protect the residents. Yet Nouri al-Maliki ordered the camp repeatedly attacked after Barack Obama was sworn in as US President. July 28, 2009 Nouri launched an attack (while then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was on the ground in Iraq). In a report released this summer entitled "Iraqi government must respect and protect rights of Camp Ashraf residents," Amnesty International described this assault, "Barely a month later, on 28-29 July 2009, Iraqi security forces stormed into the camp; at least nine residents were killed and many more were injured. Thirty-six residents who were detained were allegedly tortured and beaten. They were eventually released on 7 October 2009; by then they were in poor health after going on hunger strike." April 8, 2011, Nouri again ordered an assault on Camp Ashraf (then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was again on the ground in Iraq when the assault took place). Amnesty International described the assault this way, "Earlier this year, on 8 April, Iraqi troops took up positions within the camp using excessive, including lethal, force against residents who tried to resist them. Troops used live ammunition and by the end of the operation some 36 residents, including eight women, were dead and more than 300 others had been wounded. Following international and other protests, the Iraqi government announced that it had appointed a committee to investigate the attack and the killings; however, as on other occasions when the government has announced investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations by its forces, the authorities have yet to disclose the outcome, prompting questions whether any investigation was, in fact, carried out." Those weren't the last attacks. They were the last attacks while the residents were labeled as terrorists by the US State Dept. (September 28, 2012, the designation was changed.) In spite of this labeling, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed that "since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf 'noncombatants' and 'protected persons' under the Geneva Conventions." So the US has an obligation to protect the residents. 3,300 are no longer at Camp Ashraf. They have moved to Camp Hurriyah for the most part. A tiny number has received asylum in other countries. Approximately 100 were still at Camp Ashraf when it was attacked. That was the second attack of 2013. February 9th of 2013, the Ashraf residents were again attacked, this time the ones who had been relocated to Camp Hurriyah. Trend News Agency counted 10 dead and over one hundred injured. Prensa Latina reported, " A rain of self-propelled Katyusha missiles hit a provisional camp of Iraqi opposition Mujahedin-e Khalk, an organization Tehran calls terrorists, causing seven fatalities plus 50 wounded, according to an Iraqi official release." They were attacked again September 1, 2013 -- two years ago. Adam Schreck (AP) reported back then that the United Nations was able to confirm the deaths of 52 Ashraf residents.
This is a travesty, the latest attack.
The State Dept did respond with something more than their usual 'we call on both sides' b.s. They issued the following:
Press Statement
John Kerry
Washington, DC
October 29, 2015
The United States strongly condemns today’s brutal, senseless terrorist attack on Camp Hurriya that killed and injured camp residents. Our condolences go out to the families of the victims, and we hope for the swift recovery of those injured.
We have been in touch with senior Iraqi officials to ensure that the Government of Iraq renders all possible medical and emergency assistance to the victims. We also urge the Government of Iraq to provide additional security for the camp’s residents and to find the perpetrators and hold them accountable for the attack, consistent with its obligations under the December 25, 2011 agreement with the United Nations.
We are consulting with the Government of Iraq to ascertain the full extent of this unprovoked attack.
No matter the circumstances, on this point we remain absolute: the United States remains committed to assisting the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the relocation of all Camp Hurriya residents to a permanent and safe location outside of Iraq. We call on more countries to assist in responding to this urgent humanitarian situation by welcoming camp residents for relocation and by contributing to the fund established by the United Nations to support their resettlement. The Department, through its Senior Advisor for MEK Resettlement, will remain actively engaged in the international effort to relocate the residents of Camp Hurriya to safe, permanent locations as soon as possible.
We have been in touch with senior Iraqi officials to ensure that the Government of Iraq renders all possible medical and emergency assistance to the victims. We also urge the Government of Iraq to provide additional security for the camp’s residents and to find the perpetrators and hold them accountable for the attack, consistent with its obligations under the December 25, 2011 agreement with the United Nations.
We are consulting with the Government of Iraq to ascertain the full extent of this unprovoked attack.
No matter the circumstances, on this point we remain absolute: the United States remains committed to assisting the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the relocation of all Camp Hurriya residents to a permanent and safe location outside of Iraq. We call on more countries to assist in responding to this urgent humanitarian situation by welcoming camp residents for relocation and by contributing to the fund established by the United Nations to support their resettlement. The Department, through its Senior Advisor for MEK Resettlement, will remain actively engaged in the international effort to relocate the residents of Camp Hurriya to safe, permanent locations as soon as possible.
The US government needed to make that statement and they need to do a great deal more. This was addressed in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing of October 7th (covered in the October 10th snapshot). We'll note this exchange:
Senator Angus King: Several times you gentlemen used the term "the US made assurances," the term "solemn promise,""guarantee," and Col Martin, you mentioned a card. What did that card say? I'd like to know specifically: what assurances were delivered, by whom and when?
Colonel Wesley Martin [Retired]: Yes, sir. This was the protected persons status under the Geneva Convention. And I have a copy of it. If you give me a second, I can find it real quick.
Senator Angus King: Well I'd like to know what is says.
Colonel Wesley Martin: Okay.
Senator Angus King: What I'm searching for here is what are the assurances specifically and who delivered them and when. I think that's a fair question given that seems to be the premise of this discussion.
Colonel Wesley Martin: "This card holder is protected person under the agreement of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Should the assigned person" uh, it's a little blurry "should an incident occur, we request that the person contact the [US] military police brigade." And then it goes on the agreement that they made: "You are being offered your release from control and protection in exchange for your promise to comply with certain regulations." And it clearly states they are protected, they will not be -- they will not be arrested, they will not be harmed.
Senator Angus King: What did they have to do?
Colonel Wesley Martin: And what they had to do, sir, is go ahead and sign an agreement --
Senator Angus King: That's when they were moved from Ashraf to Liberty?
Colonel Wesley Martin: No, sir. That was a whole set of different promises. If I may, sir, Senator McCain, [holding clipped stack of papers], if I could, I'd like to make this submitted for the record.
Senator Angus King: Well you can make it for the record but I want to know who made assurances --
Colonel Wesley Martin: Yes, sir.
Senator Angus King (Con't): -- and what those assurances were. And saying they were protected person under the Geneva Convention isn't a promise that the US will take you in. I just want to understand what the promise is that we're being urged to honor.
Colonel Wesley Martin: Yes, sir. I understand. The first one is they would be protected and they would remain at Camp Ashraf. That was 2004. That was with the US State Dept in agreement with the United States Dept of Defense and [then-Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld was the person that finally approved it -- but working with the State Dept. The person that issued those cards, working with the Embassy, was US Brigadier General David Phillips [. . .]
The US government made a promise and it has refused to honor it.
The Ashraf community could be resettled from Camp Liberty to outside Iraq in the blink of an eye.
At one point, John Kerry had tasked his friend with this assignment.
Despite holding the post for over a year, his friend didn't do anything but sit on his ass and collect a check.
Resettling less than 4,000 people does not require a year or even six months.
If the White House had the will, the desire, to resettle the Ashraf community, they would have been re-settled some time ago.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
