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US-MKO deal a breach of Bush's anti-terrorism campaign
IRNA -- `Iran Daily' on Saturday expressed shock at Washington's shocking deal with the shunned Iraq-based terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO), saying it is a breach of President Bush's anti-terrorism campaign. In a move that has shocked world public opinion and has raised questions for both Iran and Iraq, the US commander of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" reportedly struck a deal with the MKO allowing them to retain their military camps in the war-town nation and assuring them security by American troops.
| If that's true as stated, which I'd guess it isn't quite, then the U.S. has made a mistake, one that should be corrected. But I suspect there's more to it than that... |
It is to be noted that the US-led forces bombed MKO bases, which had initially declared its neutrality in the war but later agreed to a ceasefire with the rebels, allowing them to move into war areas in a "non-combat formation." The MKO has been blacklisted by the US and the UK as a "terrorist"group. It set up bases in Iraq in the mid-1980s and fought with the Baghdad regime against Iran during the eight-year imposed war. Since then it has been openly armed, backed and funded by Saddam Hussein until his ouster. The outfit served the Iraqi regime in return for financial assistance and weapons. Its agents were trained by the Iraqi intelligence service and the army. The MKO has not only been launching terrorist operations inside Iran but has also helped Saddam's regime quell the rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq and the Shiites in the south during the 1991 uprising of these Iraqi groups, the paper noted.
| A "non-combat formation" would seem to imply that they've been disarmed. Putting them where they were could simply be a measure to avoid having to find someplace else to put them. I've no doubt the Kurds have all sorts of information on these guys, and that they have some ideas of how to dispose of them. |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-26 |
