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War Story: Female-driven army on Iraq/Iran border gets bombed by the Bush Administration, snubbed by anti-war activists Last updated May 27, 2007 ost in the debate over Iraq troop pullouts and the carnage of civilians in that country is the murky status of a little known army that has been con- Lfined to base ever since the United States invaded in 2003. The soldiers represent an Iranian opposition group called the Mujahedeen Khalq, or MEK, which has battled the Islamic re- gime across the border for the past 27 years. In what may be a first for modern warfare, about a third of the MEK’s combatants, and some Calm Between the Desert Storms. British author of The Olive Readers Christine 70 percent of its commanders, are Aziz (right) met with members of the Iranian opposition army and their tanks in Iraq in female. Those demographics are 2004. probably not so incredible when you consider that Iranian women With several camps set up along Camp Ashraf, as the compound is have suffered the brunt of perse- the Iran/Iraq border, the opposi- known. Filmed sometime before cution under Sharia Law. That’s tion army’s 300 tanks and experi- the start of the second Gulf War in the draconian penal code imposed ence battling Islamic militants 2003, the video shows platoons of on the nation in 1979 when Islamic could have been deployed to stop young women marching alongside fundamentalists took over in the Al-Qaida and other foreign jihad- their male counterparts in a large chaotic aftermath of a national ists from infiltrating Iraq after the square, with a huge statue of a rebellion that deposed Shah Reza American invasion. lion in the background. Pahlavi. Instead, the Pentagon autho- The CNN segment then cuts to the Even though the MEK helped rized U.S. and British jets to bomb desert to follow the tanks on field overthrow Pahlavi, the group sup- the main MEK compound outside maneuvers. After that, we see ports a return of secular govern- of Baghdad, killing or injuring female recruits performing routine ment to Iran. As a political party, about 50 soldiers out of a force of maintenance on armored vehicles. it opposed the adoption of the 3,800. They’re dressed in khaki trousers Islamic constitution, which led The situation there has been and shirts, combat boots, and the Ayatollah Khomeini to outlaw touch and go ever since. (being Muslims) matching Khaki its members from politics. The headscarves. MEK says tens of thousands of Welcome to Camp Ashraf Through an underground its supporters were executed or network operating within Iran, imprisoned during the years that In April of this year, CNN broad- the MEK first reported the in- followed. cast some exclusive footage of continued stallation of nuclear centrifuges Like the CNN video, the strange discuss arrangements for using in the country a few years ago. scenario that unfolded before the compound. The Iranians sur- The International Atomic Energy Aziz’s eyes seemed like something prised the Americans by serving Agency verified the claim during out of Alice in Wonderland. a chicken dinner. The resistance a surprise inspection, prompting “Ashraf is 14 square miles of movement seemed prepared to ac- the U.N. Security Council to adopt impeccable tidiness,” Aziz re- cept the Americans, but made the sanctions. ported. “The first impression is point it was their compound and Before that, the MEK briefly of a holiday camp rather than a that they eventually expected to grabbed headlines within the military base. Eucalyptus trees line get it back.” Islamic state when it attacked the long driveways, men and women heavily fortified headquarters of tend gardens, and there’s the smell Terrorists or Bargaining Chips the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, of bread from the bakery.” a special military wing controlled The article continued: “Several Since the Iran-Contra scan- by the ayatollahs. weeks after the fall of Saddam, dal in the mid 1980s, successive By early 2003, the opposition the U.S. General Ray Odierno of American administrations have army had consolidated its person- the 4th Infantry division entered either shunned the MEK or acted nel into its two largest camps in Ashraf camp to negotiate the to criminalize it as part of secret Ashraf City. Althought it notified disarming of the NLA [National deals with the Islamic regime the Pentagon of the locations prior Liberation Army - the MEK’s which later became public. to the March 20th invasion, the air armed forces]. He found himself The U.S. State Department went strikes proceeded, and sometime in a room lined with cream Re- so far as to declare the opposition later, the Army’s 4th Infantry ar- gency furniture and Persian rugs, group a “foreign terrorist organi- rived to negotiate a “ceasefire”. drinking coffee from white and zation” in 1997. Officials within The U.S. commanders on scene gold china cups and eating home- the Clinton Administration said noted in their reports that MEK made sweetmeats with a group of the designation was meant to re- soldiers never fired a shot at any female army commanders consid- ward Iran for electing a moderate, Coalition forces. ered to be terrorists by his govern- Mohammad Khatami, as president A year later, British author and ment.” that year. journalist Christine Aziz visited Michael Gordon of the New York Yet Tehran had been implicated the camp to interview the women Times related a similarly cordial just the year before in directing soldiers there. Her article “Tank meeting in June of 2003. “The and financing a group of Hesbol- Girls: The Frontline Feminists”, Spartan Brigade’s commander, lah fighters who bombed Khobar was subsequently published in The Col. David Perkins, met with a Towers in Saudi Arabia. The Independent, a British news journal. woman who is one of the Iranian attack killed 19 U.S. air men and group’s military commanders to injured 400. It seemed an inauspicious time to let bygones be bygones. In 1999, the geopolitics turned positively bizarre when the State Department designated a second Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization. This time it was the National Council of Re- sistance of Iran (NCRI), a broad- based coalition of Iranian expatri- ate groups who formed an Iranian Parliament in exile in 1985. NCRI President Maryam Rajavi presides over a council of 530 members, not all of whom support the armed resistance at Camp Ashraf. Mrs. Rajavi, who is married to An MEK soldier services an armored vehicle at Camp Ashraf, Iraq. continued MEK leader Massoud Rajavi, says that in the event the MEK were to dislodge the Islamic dictatorship from Iran, she will serve a six- month interim term, followed by Democratic elections. Her hus- band, however, has not been seen since the U.S. invasion. Questioned about the addition of the NCRI to the terrorist list, former Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk told Reuters, “The Iranian Government had brought this to our attention. We looked into it and saw that there were good reasons for designating the Photo: NCRI NCR[I] as an alias for the MEK.” President Maryam Rajavi of the National Council of Resisance for Iran (center) arriving The admission that a hostile at the Council of Europe in April of 2006. foreign government long associ- incident, suddenly found herself ated with terrorism itself was now or People’s Mujahhedin, a major shackled and led away along shaping American policy prompt- group opposing the Iranian gov- with 167 other Iranian dissidents. ed U.S. Congress people on both ernment.” In return, it’s alleged Among those detained, Moham- sides of the aisle to scratch their that Iran agreed to secure the bor- mad Mohaddessin, the group’s heads in amazement. Nearly 200 der and turn over any Iraqi troops foreign affairs spokesman, de- representatives have signed onto attempting to flee the jurisdiction. scribed the raid afterwards as a petitions asking for the terrorist Relations between Tehran and gigantic publicity stunt aimed at designation of both the MEK and Washington cooled in 2004. Af- helping French corporations get NCRI to be revoked. ter an 18-month review by the contracts in Iran. However, it wasn’t until Ameri- F.B.I. and other federal agencies There were enough police, he can legal and human rights or- found no links to terrorism among told the Wall Street Journal, “for a ganizations that interact with the any MEK soldier living at Camp coup in an African country.” NCRI filed a lawsuit that a judge Ashraf, the U.S. Central Com- A search of the group’s head- revoked its terror tag. mand announced that it would quarters did not turn up any Secretary of State Colin Pow- comply with a determination by evidence to support the CIA’s ell ignored that ruling two years the International Committee of claim of imminent terrorist attacks later when he ordered the arrest the Red Cross that the MEK was a in Europe or anywhere else, and a of the group’s representatives legitimate party to a civil war. The judge ordered Mrs. Rajavi released in Washington and Los Ange- ICRC - and more recently, the U.N. from jail. (The other detainees les, along with the freezing of its High Commissioner on Refugees were freed shortly after the raid.) assets. While subsequent litiga- – has stipulated that the Geneva At this point, American news tion reversed those actions, seven Conventions preclude the expul- organizations began investigating Iranian American fundraisers are sion of the MEK from Iraq or its the phenomenon of a War on Ter- currently in jail awaiting trial on forcible repatriation back to Iran.

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