Madame Rajavi, distinguished guests, one and all members of the dais, ladies and gentlemen, and especially those who are watching us from Camp Liberty, Salam aleikom. It is indeed a pleasure for me today to join you in honoring those 52 who were killed in Camp Ashraf in a massacre and remind all that their sacrifice was not in vein. They are true patriots, true heroes, true heroines, and they provided an example for all of us in the room today and those who are watching to follow. However, I must also admit it is also painful for me and others, you just heard from Secretary Ridge that the whole US delegation as we witness the inaptness of President Obama’s administration and our feckless and cowardly State Department in dealing with Camp Ashraf, and now the ongoing crisis, humanitarian crisis developing at Camp Liberty.
It is astonishing to me to see the actions the US just took to protect a small religious sect in northern Iraq while 3,000 Iranians that were promised protection by the US and whose their safety was supposed to be guaranteed, continue to face imminent disaster at Camp Liberty. That is just not right.
What about the US promise to protect the residents? Why is the Ambassador and his team even afraid to visit? It’s been almost 5 months since a US Ambassador visited the camp. That is shabby even compared to the one visit just recently made by the UN delegation in the last 2 ½ months. Why is it that they are not going out to Camp Liberty? Is it because they are afraid to witness the appalling conditions that those in Camp Liberty have to endure? Is it because they don’t want to see what the Iraqis are imposing upon them like the fuel siege, being denied the right to remove the sewage or the opportunity to attend a funeral or the fact that the food and medical supplies are being denied?
All of those were promised by Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Dan Freed, which were part of President Obama’s administration. So we need to hold President Obama personally responsible for this lack of activity that’s taking place at Camp Liberty.
I cannot even imagine a cowardly US Ambassador hiding behind the walls of his embassy while 3,000 residents at Camp Liberty have to fend for themselves. Again, it’s just not right.
Between President Obama’s lack of leadership and the US Embassy’s lack of anything in Iraq, it’s almost enough to make you ill. However, it appears the Obama administration has recognized what many of us had been telling him and his administration for months, if not years, that Maliki was an Iranian regime puppet and now that this has been proven true and we have witnessed him depart under less than favorable conditions, he has left Iraq in a shambles. And now we are facing, and Iraq is facing and the entire Middle East is facing an even greater crisis from ISIS. We all welcome the arrival of the new Prime Minister al-Abadi in Iraq. However, it’s now time to see if he is going to continue in the footsteps of Maliki or if he’s going to recognize the humanitarian crisis that’s ongoing at Camp Liberty and step forward and provide leadership.
I think as Secretary Ridge said it is absolutely disgraceful that the US has asked the MEK their membership in order to enter into the US. That is a flawed policy and the MEK should not tolerate such a disgraceful policy by the Obama administration. You can rest assured that those of us here today will stand by that to the last man and we speak for those other 30 or so prominent individuals in America that will speak on behalf of the MEK.
So what should the Obama administration do? Let me cover that very briefly.
– First and foremost, Mr. President, you need to acknowledge that we guarantee the safety of the MEK and start acting like it, and we need to say that an attack on the residents of Camp Liberty now constitutes an attack on America itself.
– Secondly, declare Camp Liberty a protected zone, insert a special operations team, they are not afraid to go to Camp Liberty, insert a special ops team to provide whatever is needed, including airpower to protect the residents of Camp Liberty. And at the same time it sends a strong signal that Camp Liberty is a protected area.
– Third, quit cooperating with an Iranian government, who has killed our soldiers in Iraq, under the pretext for fighting for terrorism. The real terrorists are in Tehran and the solution is to hold the Iranian mullahs responsible and accountable. The incumbent Iranian regime is not part of any solution, it is the problem, not only in Iraq but throughout the Middle East. Quit accepting their meddling in Iraq, let alone their cooperation with it. We need to say that those are a red line, no cooperation, no coordination and no sharing of information with Iran. That constitutes a red line that must not be crossed. Any attempt to cooperate in any way with Iran is betraying these 52 individuals at Camp Ashraf, in addition to the hundreds and thousands of soldiers that were killed in Iraq tying to carry out the mission that President Obama and President Bush set them on.
– Fourth, it is almost an imperative to regain the trust and cooperation of the Sunnis, and the Obama administration needs to use the airpower that we are currently using against ISIS to assist the Sunnis and the Iraqi tribes, without whose support the ISIS will not be repealed.
– Fifth, they need to help regain the trust of the Iraqi tribes and the Sunnis. In order to do that the Shiite militia groups that are fighting in Iraq today must be disbanded. Basically the Shiite militia groups are similar to the ISIS and they must be dealt with in the same manner.
– And finally, President Obama, your administration needs to wake up and look whose strategic goals in Iraq and throughout the region are best allied with the goals of the US and the rest of Europe. And if you do that you will see that unquestionably the Iranian regime must be gone, they must be displaced, they must be taken out. If you want to be on the side of victory, you must align yourself with the MEK. The mullahs’ see the alignment of Mrs. Rajavi’s 10-point program with the democratic systems of Europe and the US, which is one reason why they are so fearful of the MEK. Making their fears come true should be the goal of the Obama administration. This is the greatest thing we can do to honor the US soldiers who fought and died in Iraq and simultaneously honor the memory of those brave souls who were massacred in Camp Ashraf.