US-MKO deal a breach of Bush's anti-terrorism campaign: daily

US-MKO deal a breach of Bush's anti-terrorism campaign: daily
Payvand News
April 26, 2003
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/apr/1126.html

’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, IRNA reported from Tehran.

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.

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 cease-fire 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.

Documented reports released by American and European sources say it that the MKO cooperated with Saddam's elite Republican Guards and his Fedayeen paramilitary forces to suppress the Iraqi people.

American media and politicians have time and again underscored the terrorist nature of the group and have recently said it is among American targets in Iraq.

However, "it seems America now wants to protect the MKO by allowing it to keep the weapons given by Saddam to fight the Iraqis, it noted.

"Those adequately familiar with MKO characteristics are certainly not surprised about America's deal with the group," suggested the daily.

Washington's "scandalous" deal with the group now raises questions as to "whether Washington, like Saddam's regime, intends to use the banned group to confront the Iraqis who have legitimate demands about their rights of sovereignty?" said the daily.

It said America will have to answer to the Iraqi people, especially the Kurds in the north, who have been victims of MKO atrocities for so many years."

Undoubtedly, the US might use the terrorist MKO, Iran's main rebel group to pressure Iran into preventing it to do anything in favor of the Iraqi Shiites in the war-torn nation.

However, "if America looks deeper into the issue, it will realize that the group cannot be used as a threat against Iran's national security," pointed out the paper.

No wonder the despotic ruler of Baghdad so generously used the MKO elements for terrorist missions inside Iraq, it said.

Clearly, a deal with one of the most vicious groups which waged a bloody campaign in the early 1980s to topple the newly-born Islamic Republic with wave after wave of assassinations of the country's top officials in addition to helping Saddam murder his own people questions Washington's sincerity in its anti-terror campaign, blasted the daily.

It said the US will pay directly for the costs of keeping and protecting MKO agents inside Iraq which it knows to be a terrorist group.

What remains to be seen is what reaction the European Union, especially the UK will adopt towards this scandalous and destabilizing move, the daily concluded.