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Iraqi terrorists protected us soldiers { September 23 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://newsobserver.com/iraq/82nd_embed/story/2890195p-2662664c.htmlhttp://newsobserver.com/iraq/82nd_embed/story/2890195p-2662664c.html
Tuesday, September 23, 2003 7:39AM EDT
'Terrorist' group under U.S. protection
By JAY PRICE, Staff Writer
NASIR AL WA SALAM, Iraq -- Soldiers from Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division are providing security for several members of an Iranian paramilitary group that the U.S. State Department lists as a terrorist organization.
The paratroopers are guarding a compound at Nasir Al Wa Salam that U.S. officers said is the home of a handful of members of the Mujahedin-E Khalq or MEK -- also known as the People's Mujahedeen. Members are free to come and go.
The MEK is dedicated to overthrowing the Iranian government and conducted attacks on Iran during the 1980s and 1990s. The group was nurtured by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose country fought a war with Iran in the 1980s. Now, with Saddam gone, the MEK's 4,000 to 5,000 fighters are in a strange limbo.
They are stuck in Iraq without support and cannot return to Iran. Many were educated in the United States and Britain, but if America took them in, the country probably would face charges of hypocrisy, given its war on terrorism.
Indeed, Iran already leveled that charge after coalition forces struck a disarmament deal with the MEK. The group in May agreed to submit to U.S. control and gather its fighters at a camp in northeastern Iraq.
As part of the deal, the United States agreed to provide security at the camp where the fighters would live and at another camp, where coalition forces stored more than 2,100 tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery pieces, antiaircraft guns and other vehicles that belong to the Iranians.
The camp being guarded by the paratroopers at Nasir Al Wa Salam apparently isn't the one with the MEK vehicles, and soldiers said they had been told that only six to nine Iranians lived there.
The compound where the Iranians live is a walled-off collection of low buildings across the road from the town. The Iranians have little contact with the soldiers guarding them or with local Iraqis.
Given two days to explain the situation, the media relations office for U.S. Central Command in Baghdad still had no answer.
After the disarmament deal this spring, Gen. Ray Odierno , commander of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, said the MEK apparently wanted to bring democracy to Iran, which with North Korea and Saddam's Iraq is part of President Bush's "axis of evil." Odierno said that the MEK's cooperation in disarming should lead to a review of whether it deserved the "terrorist" label.
Agence France-Press quoted Odierno as saying: "They were involved in the hostage-taking of the American Embassy [in Tehran in 1979 ], but they broke with the Iranian government ." He said they disagreed with the role of the Ayatollah Khomeini , the Iranian revolutionary leader.
The United States has had sour relations with Iran since the hostage crisis, despite occasional overtures to moderates there. Recently, the United States has become increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear program.
Odierno said the MEK would not get its armor and other vehicles back unless the coalition agreed.
Nasir Al Wa Salam is west of Baghdad near Fallujah. Before the 82nd Airborne arrived in the area Sept. 11, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment guarded the Iranians.
Members of the Iranian group there declined to comment.
The security arrangement is widely known among locals, who sometimes have civic meetings in the Iranian camp. After walking past the heavy armor and U.S. troops to reach a luncheon meeting there with U.S. officers, the mayor of Nasir Al Wa Salam, Abbas Hussein Al Kenani , casually broached the topic.
"I must ask," he said, between bites of lamb and spiced rice, "your country says the mujahedeen are terrorists."
Nods all around the table.
"So why do you protect them?"
Half a dozen U.S. soldiers were in the room. They looked at one another, and a couple laughed. One said they had asked higher officers several times but got no answer.
"I guess the answer is that we're soldiers and we were told to do it," joked Capt. James Dayhoff, the liaison between the 3rd Armored Cavalry and the town officials.
Staff writer Jay Price can be reached at 829-4526 or jprice@newsobserver.com.
News researcher Becky Ogburn contributed to this report.
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