![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/02\/john-sano.jpg\" "\\"john-sano\\"")
NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-Monarchial Revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by a number of prominent European and American dignitaries, reminded that a major development is on the way in Iran and a democratic change, as a solution to avoid an unprecedented regional and international crisis, is at hand.<\/p>\n
John SANO<\/strong>, former National Clandestine Service\u2019s Deputy President and member of directorate of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency: Thank you very much.\u00a0 Madame President, thank you for the opportunity again to be here with all of you.\u00a0 I was a spy for 28 years.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a little bit unnerving for me to be in front of large crowds, but you\u2019re a friendly crowd, so I can get used to it.\u00a0 You know we have\u2014first to the people of Camp Ashraf, and I know you\u2019re watching this, thank you for your continued sacrifices and your bravery.\u00a0 It will not be in vain.\u00a0 While we continue to witness the incredible results and the perils that the Arab Spring have brought upon us over the past year, there remains one major event that still needs to transpire before we can call the Arab Spring a success.\u00a0 And that is the resolution over the plight of the 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Arab Spring will not, should not be considered complete until such time as this situation is resolved and the residents are fully protected and their safety ensured.\u00a0 The Arab Spring has reaped considerable gains throughout the Middle East, from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya, and we see it occurring on a daily basis in Syria.\u00a0 The removal of repressive regimes and the start of what we can only hope will be true, democratic and open societies where the people themselves can decide the course of their own destiny, where there is no fear of reprisal when you voice an opinion that is contrary to your government.\u00a0 The U.S. has supported these movements.\u00a0 Some, as in the case of Libya, quickly and with considerable focus.\u00a0 Others, like in Egypt and Syria, with an initial degree of caution.\u00a0 Because you look at it in the international environment and those relationships we have in that part of the world.\u00a0 But one thing has remained constant throughout the Arab Spring is that people throughout the region have finally taken the opportunity to make decisions for themselves.\u00a0 It is the same basic right hat should be afforded to the people of Camp Ashraf.\u00a0 These 3,400 people who have already been attacked by Iraqi military forces with the full knowledge and the direction of the Iraqi leadership are facing yet an even greater threat as the Iraqi government under the direction of Iran forces them into an unbearable and clearly life-threatening situation as they are being forced into what is by any standard an uninhabitable and hostile environment at Camp Liberty.\u00a0 As the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Ros-Lehitinen has already stated, \u201cinternational humanitarian standards must be upheld.\u00a0 Human rights must be respected.\u201d\u00a0 And as Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI has stated, and again I quote, \u201cThis is a looming genocide and our goal is to make sure this does not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n In October of last year when President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of last year, no one applauded this more than Iran\u2019s leadership.\u00a0 Ahmadinejad himself stated, and again I quote, that \u201cIran has deepened their ties with Iraq day by day.\u201d\u00a0 This will create an extremely dangerous situation for a number of reasons, primarily because now Ahmadinejad and the mullahs will be able to exponentially expand their influence in Iraq.\u00a0 And the ally that Iran has in this, as you all very well know, is President Maliki.\u00a0 He\u2019s looking more like a dictator in his own right than the leader of a democratic Iraq.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear that through Iran\u2019s manipulation and direction that they\u2019re looking for the systematic eradication of the residents of Camp Ashraf.\u00a0 This cannot happen.\u00a0 He\u2019s already stated that he has arrest warrants for over 121 residents of the camp, and he has been so bold as to state that, quote again, \u201cIraq is dealing with the residents of the camp as individuals in accordance with the human rights principle and rules of international law enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international conventions on civil and political rights.\u201d\u00a0 This is a blatant lie, especially when you look at it in the context of the massacre of 43 innocent civilians to include women, and the wounding of over 1,000 just last year in Camp Ashraf and the recent rocket attacks against the camp.\u00a0 All of which demonstrate very clearly to the international community the lengths to which Maliki will go to justify their current and future actions against the residents.\u00a0 His statements are an indication of what his true intents are.<\/p>\n If you look at Camp Liberty and you compare it to most prisons in the world there are better conditions in prisons, as some of the members of the panel have already stated.\u00a0 You have access to lawyers, you have access to medical care.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have that in Camp Liberty.\u00a0 Yet what crimes have these innocent residents committed?\u00a0 Is it their desire for a normal life, one that for the past 25 years plus has been devoid of the same basic human rights we all enjoy?\u00a0 Is it their efforts to see a pluralistic society in their home country, one where their freedom of speech and assembly exist and where there is gender equality and a separation of church and state?\u00a0 Is it a crime to want these most basic of human rights?\u00a0 If it is, then we are all criminals.<\/p>\n Since Maliki has come to power he\u2019s established a number of mechanisms inside Iraq that echo some of the tools that Saddam Hussein himself used to maintain his grip on power.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll give you just one example.\u00a0 He established an organization called the Baghdad Brigade, which reports only to him.\u00a0 And just last year his own human rights ministry discovered a secret prison where 400 Sunnis are being held without charges.\u00a0 And this is inside what we refer to as the Green Zone.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not far from where Camp Liberty is.\u00a0 So if he could do this while there was a sizable U.S. presence in the country, imagine what he can do now that that presence is gone.<\/p>\n Tehran views the presence of the MEK in Iraq as a threat.\u00a0 So it\u2019s no surprise that the regime not only publicly supports the idea of displacement inside Iraq for the residents, but actively lobbies for it in Baghdad and elsewhere.\u00a0 Now, much of this so-called lobbying is orchestrated by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the MOIS.\u00a0 Now in my 28 years working as a spy overseas I\u2019ve had exposure to the MOIS.\u00a0 They\u2019re well trained and they\u2019re very capable.\u00a0 They could very well be in the audience today.\u00a0 They provide misleading, actually completely erroneous information\u2014we called it disinformation\u2014in a very feeble attempt to convince the United States and the international community that the residents of Camp Ashraf should be displaced, and further that the MEK should remain on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list.\u00a0 Why are the mullahs in Iran so worried about the MEK?\u00a0 And why are they committed, along with their puppet regime in Iraq, to eradicate the MEK?\u00a0 It\u2019s because the MEK represents the single most serious threat to their autocratic and dictatorial regime.\u00a0 They are afraid of you.<\/p>\n We included the MEK on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list initially to placate the Iranian regime in the misplaced hope that by such an action the U.S. might reach an understanding with the ruling regime.\u00a0 Clearly, this effort has not proven successful.\u00a0 Iran\u2019s actions over the past several years have clearly indicated that their intent is not to reach any accommodation with the U.S. but rather to exploit what they believe are American weaknesses.\u00a0 Because the mullahs believe the U.S. is afraid of Iran, and that is because the mullahs believe this that they interpret American and Western acts of kindness as weakness.\u00a0 We must not let this stand.\u00a0 We must show the mullahs in Tehran that the U.S. will stand up for its friends, that we will not let the innocent residents of Camp Ashraf stand another day in the face of repression, that we are indeed resolute in rectifying what has been an exceptionally egregious situation, and that we will do the right thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now if you look at the current list of\u2014the current FTO list, it\u2019s about 44 organizations around the world, and they include such notoriously well-known groups as Al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, (Abinodal), (Abusaya) to name just a few.\u00a0 But one of the most serious terrorist organizations on the planet is not listed.\u00a0 The MOIS.\u00a0 They are terrorists.\u00a0 [applause] I have seen firsthand what they have done to not just their own people but to other peoples of the world.\u00a0 They don\u2019t abide by any international standards.\u00a0 They are ruthless.\u00a0 And I\u2019m probably preaching to the choir, you\u2019ve probably witnessed these types of atrocities as well.<\/p>\n The residents in Camp Ashraf have called it home for well over a quarter of a century, but they still have been massacred and abused.\u00a0 Iraq repeatedly has called for their forcible dispersal, and again creating situations that could not possibly be construed as, as the UNHCR memo has stated, and I quote, \u201crespecting the human rights of the camp residents.\u201d\u00a0 Less than a square kilometer to live in.\u00a0 The inability to enjoy any sense of privacy.\u00a0 The refusal to allow the residents to take with them their personal property.\u00a0 And most worrisome, the inability of the residents to move freely within and in or out of the camp, not to mention the placement of cameras, other security monitoring devices inside the camp, in all likelihood done by the Iranian intelligence service.\u00a0 How can anyone classify these measures as quote, \u201crespecting human rights\u201d?<\/p>\n NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-Monarchial Revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by a number of prominent European and American dignitaries, reminded that a major development is on the way in Iran and a democratic change, as a solution to avoid an unprecedented regional and international crisis, is at hand.<\/p>\n When the U.S. took over the camp in 2003, as General David Phillips\u00a0 has already mentioned, they did an extensive investigation.\u00a0 There were no ties to terrorism.\u00a0 I looked at the earlier intelligence that the State Department had, once it was unclassified, that had established some very nefarious links to terrorism.\u00a0 I looked at that intelligence.\u00a0 I could find nothing, based on my nearly 30 years of experience in the field of intelligence, that linked anyone form the MEK to any acts of terrorism.\u00a0 On the contrary, in recent years it has been the MEK that has helped the U.S. intelligence community in better understanding the growing threat of Iran\u2019s nuclear program.\u00a0 [applause] And just yesterday there was a news report out that said that the MEK was behind the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.\u00a0 You may have seen it, it\u2019s been on several Web sites.\u00a0 Nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 And they quote in this report that it was according to unnamed U.S. intelligence officials.\u00a0 How convenient.\u00a0 Unnamed.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be honest with you, I\u2019ve done the same thing when I put together false reports about other intelligence services.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just say unnamed foreign.\u00a0 Impossible to prove and almost always, as in this case, completely erroneous.\u00a0 It is an act of desperation.<\/p>\n Now, a few months ago Secretary of State Clinton traveled to Tripoli to reassure the National Transition Council and their leadership of U.S. support.\u00a0 She announced new programs fostering closer U.S.-Libyan ties, a student exchange program, gave them an additional $40 million to help track down Khadafy-era weapons.\u00a0 Now the residents of Camp Ashraf are not asking for this type of assistance.\u00a0 They\u2019re not asking for outright political support.\u00a0 Just the right to live in peace.\u00a0 [applause] Thank you.<\/p>\n In the coming months, and as Madame President has already pointed out, the economic situation in Iran continues to worsen.\u00a0 In the coming months this is going to get incredibly worse.\u00a0 The country faces internal political dissension, economic threats, military threats.\u00a0 President Ahmadinejad is scheduled to appear before his own Parliament to answer questions about what appear to be his less than hardline policies.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n What Ahmadinejad and the ruling mullahs want to present to the rest of the world is that there is slight dissention in their ranks, and that maybe Ahmadinejad is a moderate.\u00a0 He\u2019s not.\u00a0 He never has been, he never will be.\u00a0 This is a ploy.\u00a0 If we can distract the Western world, if we can distract the United States and other countries from focusing on the problem at Camp Ashraf, then we can deal with it quietly.\u00a0 So all of the saber rattling, threatening to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, nuclear weapons, situation in Syria, (Kutz) forces being deployed elsewhere, this is an attempt to throw off the rest of the world and to disguise or rather to hide their plans in terms of how they\u2019re going to deal with the residents of camp Ashraf.\u00a0 We must not let this subterfuge continue.\u00a0 The mullahs in all likelihood believe that by their saber rattling and that their increased efforts to develop a nuclear weapon that the U.S. and the Western world will become preoccupied with these issues, and conveniently for them overlook the problem of Camp Ashraf.\u00a0 We must remain focused on the camp.\u00a0 We must ensure that despite any of Iran\u2019s efforts to mask their intentions that the issue of the plight of the residents of the camp remains in the international spotlight.\u00a0 [applause]<\/p>\n And finally, when Secretary Clinton traveled to Kabul last year, late last year, for what she described as quote, \u201ca reality check,\u201d she discussed the recent assassination of the former Afghan president Rabbani.\u00a0 And in referring to him, she said, again I quote Secretary Clinton, \u201cHe was trying to do the right thing.\u201d\u00a0 Secretary Clinton it is time for you to do the right thing.\u00a0 [applause] Delist the MEK from the FTO, and the time for further review, as Secretary Clinton told the Voice of America a few months ago, that time is over.\u00a0 Delist them now and ensure that the residents of Camp Ashraf are protected.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-Monarchial Revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-11703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ashraf-liberty","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n