The US State Department has once again indicated the Mojahedin-e Khalq will not be taken off the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations unless it leaves Ashraf, although no one has explained the link between its terrorist status and its presence at Ashraf.
The Mojahedin, on the other hand, say they won’t send more members from Ashraf to Camp Hurriya in Baghdad unless its “humanitarian needs” are taken care of, with humanitarian defined to include 300 air conditioners, 50 passenger cars, six forklifts and a mass of other materials.
The conversation between the State Department and the Mojahedin does not sound much like a conversation. The two appear to be talking passed each other.
A few months ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the group’s willingness to leave Ashraf would be central in her decision whether to remove the group from the terrorism list. Friday, that was repeated by Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counter-terrorism, who told reporters the group’s “cooperation in a successful and peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf will be a key factor” in determining whether the Mojahedin remain on the terrorist list.
Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the group, said the issue of relocating from Ashraf “has nothing to do” with the terrorist listing.
Benjamin did not explain how the State Department could link the two logically or legally. He said only that “this is the moment to show that [the Mojahedin] has taken on a fundamentally different character.”
He said the group’s “relocation will assist the secretary in determining whether the organization remains invested in its violent past or is committed to leaving that past behind.”
More than 2,000 Mojahedin members moved from Ashraf to Hurriya earlier this year. But the Mojahedin have complained of uncomfortable conditions at Camp Hurriya, which used to be the US Army’s Camp Liberty near Baghdad Airport.
No Mojahedin members have moved from Ashraf since May 5, leaving about 1,200 still at Ashraf with the Iraqi government demanding that the camp be totally vacated by July 20.