The head of the Senate Armed Services Committee says the U.S. is not doing enough to help relocate from Iraq members of Iranian dissident group that has a record of providing Washington with “useful intelligence” on Iran’s clandestine nuclear activities, Washington Times reported October 7, 2015.
During a committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. John McCain said successive U.S. administrations have broken their promise to protect members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran — known in U.S. national security circles as Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or “MEK.”
The group has been left particularly in the lurch since the Obama administration pulled U.S. troops from the Iraq in 2011, according to Mr. McCain, who accused Iranian government-backed militias of carrying out atrocities against the dissidents at a facility near Baghdad known as “Camp Liberty” — where they are being kept in semi-captivity by Iraqi authorities.
Initially, the dissidents were protected by U.S. forces, who occupied Iraq from 2003.
“The U.S. government and military made a commitment to protect thousands of people [in the group] who surrendered their weapons and came under our protection as a result,” said Mr. McCain. “Clearly this commitment has not been sustained.”
“This is not just a matter of our ideals, but also our interests,” the Arizona Republican said. “The group to which the residents of Camp Liberty belong has provided some very useful intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program, specifically revealing the existence of covert Iranian nuclear activities.”
The stakes of protecting the MEK have increased in light of the recent pushing through by the Obama administration of a major international nuclear deal with Tehran, Mr. McCain added, because “we need the best information on whether Iran is meeting its commitments” under  the accord.
He made the assertion during a hearing focused on the Iranian government’s growing influence in Iraq and how it will impact Washington’s long and tumultuous relationship with the so-called “MEK” — some 2,800 members of which are said to be residing at Camp Liberty near Baghdad.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, who served as President Obama’s national security advisor in 2009 and 2010, testified at Wednesday’s hearing that Washington should treat the MEK members in Iraq as “refugees.”
Instead, he said, the administration has been “slow, ineffective, and even reluctant in responding to our humanitarian obligation to facilitate” their relocation out of Iraq.
Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut also testified, lamenting that U.S. officials have “broken their promise” to protect the group.