- Trying to trump Goebbels by demonizing the victims of three previous bloodshed and inviting the Iraqi regime to carry out the fourth massacre
- Judicial action continues against Martin Kobler by the Iranian Resistance and families of the victims for his criminal role in bloodshed;
- Iranian Resistance emphatically urges the EP to dispatch a humanitarian fact-finding mission to Liberty and Ashraf and publish the result of the investigation before another bloodshed.
NCRI – The scheme to invite Martin Kobler, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Iraq, to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, and his chain of brazen lies against the defenseless refugees on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 29, 2013, could not escape the stench of blood. Kobler appeared at the European Parliament before the mandatory end of his mission to Iraq, in order to circumvent the urgent issue of security at Camp Liberty, overshadow his collaboration with the Iraqi regime and the religious fascism ruling Iran, blame the victims and the leadership of the Camp, and kiss and whitewash Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s blood-stained hands in the most revolting manner possible.
His testimony at the European Parliament rivaled Josef Goebbels’s tactics, as he demonized and churned out lies against the victims and, at the same time, sought vengeance against the advocates of the human and refugee rights of the residents of Ashraf and Liberty at the European Parliament (EP), the head of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq, and, President of the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) and the Friends of Free Iran at the EP.
Kobler, whose wife is the German ambassador to Iraq, had previously underscored the need for Germany’s manufacturing sector to invest in Iraq, which is shockingly inconsistent with his mandate as the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative. He said, “German businessmen are fully encouraged to keep Iraq in mind.” (Iraqi-German Dialogue magazine, September 3, 2012).
On March 27, 2013, Tahar Boumedra, former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Ashraf and in charge of the Human Rights Section of UNAMI, revealed in an EP session that the main objective behind the relocation of the residents of Ashraf to Liberty by Kobler was “very cynical which as a former colleague of mine was well aware of it. The real objective was to put the residents of Camp Ashraf in a prison called Camp Liberty which we made it look great by providing false information” Prior to that, Mr. Boumedra had testified under oath at the US Congress where he provided shocking details on Kobler’s lies and deception. At the EP meeting, Jim Higgins said: “Is that an under stepping to say that he is guilty of treachery. Anybody who is concerting with Iranian authorities is somebody who has another agenda and we know what that agenda is.”
And Tunne Kelam added that the revelations made by Boumedra and Col. Wesley Clark, a former U.S. commander of protection at Camp Ashraf, ” is a disgrace for the United Nations and for the high principles it represents. The credibility of the UN has been seriously damaged. As usual we need to face realpolitik, where political calculations tent to dominate over human fates and values… realpolitik which have excited some people and some states so much to have a shear in Iraqi oil and gas business and so to look aside from the real tragedies to avoid any trouble with the Iraqi regime that is connected to Iranian regime”
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has in two opinions issued in the past year declared that Camp Liberty is a prison. Following the missile attack on Liberty, which left eight residents dead and more than 100 wounded, President Obama’s former National Security Advisor James Jones told CNN on March 12, 2013, “I have said this before, and I stand by it now, that the residents of Camp Liberty are in a worse situation than those in Guantanamo.”
The objective of Kobler’s chain of lies against the residents of Liberty and the Camp’s Leadership uttered at the EP Foreign Affairs Committee was precisely to conceal this very fact. This was an utterly desperate pre-emptive move and of course an “incredibly hypocritical” one.
In order to provide Kobler with the best opportunity to launch his one-sided assault, the scheme designed to slander and demonize the residents deprived the residents’ representative, lawyers or legal advisors of a chance to respond. Of course, Kobler’s lies were nothing new and have already been exposed in detail in dozens of statements issued by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, including the April 14, 2013 statement on “seven major lies by Kobler and the need for US and UNHCR representative to accompany Kobler’s men to Liberty.”
What is new is Kobler’s extremely brazen invitation of the Iraqi regime to carry out a fourth massacre at Ashraf. He said, “there will be a court order in the next days to evict the remaining 100 because the conflict is going too long and also to nominate a committee who evaluate the property, to do an inventory of the property, and Ashraf residents are also requested to nominate their lawyers and to send them to this committee.”
This is while Kobler is fully aware of the May 18, 2013 letter by Senator Robert Torricelli, the legal representative of the residents, addressed to the 100 residents who are protecting property at Camp Ashraf. In this letter, copies of which have been sent to Jeffrey Feltman, UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, Amb. Robert Beecroft, Amb. Brett McGurk, Mr. Walker Turk, UNHCR International Protection officer, and George Bakus, an advisor to Maliki and in charge of the Liberty and Ashraf files, Senator Torricelli states, “I was informed on May 11, 2013 by Ambassador Kobler that the Government of Iraq “is in possession of an eviction order issued by a court.” You are, hereby, advised that if at any time you are approached with such legal process, it should be referred to me as your Legal Counsel. Both the Government of Iraq and UNAMI were informed in January, 2013 that Steven Schneebaum and I have been retained for purposes of legal representation of the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty. They have also been informed that local Counsel has been retained to help us and I have been awaiting written confirmation from the Government of Iraq of the terms of engagement.
As guardians of the property you have no authority to accept process or engage in negotiations on behalf of the rightful owners of the property at Camp Ashraf. As Counsel, Mr. Schneebaum and I have offered to meet and discuss resolution of all real and personal property issues with the Government of Iraq. Our offer to meet remains outstanding and properties lies with Counsel”.
Engaging in fallacious arguments, lies, and deceitful bluffs, putting the blame on the victims, and taking credit for the work of others (including the discussions between Secretary Clinton, Barbara Leaf, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Iranian Resistance’s representatives with the Albanian Government) are building blocks of Kobler’s notorious modus operandi. He has learned well that the bigger the lie, the more believable it will be. His trouble, though, is that no one believes his bold-faced lies, which have included claims like: the residents sanding their fingers to remove their finger prints, scattering garbage throughout the Camp, puncturing sewage tanks and breaking down the T-walls, among others.
The Iranian Resistance has over a one-year period until the February 9, 2013 missile attack, exposed each and every one of Kobler’s lies in over 1,000 letters, emails, statements and daily reports from Ashraf and Liberty, which could be presented as evidence to any court of law.
The judicial action against Kobler, on account of his criminal role in bloodshed, will continue by the Iranian Resistance and the victims’ families. His extremely suspicious role in stripping the residents of their property rights is indicative of his collusion in pilfering the residents’ belongings.
In a statement on May 16, 2013, the Iranian Resistance drew “the attention of State Department spokespersons to the letter of representative of the Ashraf and Liberty residents to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, on May 5 regarding the details of relocation, MEK cooperation, and the immediate need of security at Liberty, as well as Kobler’s lies and the role of his special agents in the persecution and harassment of the residents. The Iranian Resistance urges Secretary Kerry to dispatch a fact finding delegation to Camp Liberty, with the participation of US dignitaries and Generals who had previously requested to visit the Camp, and to publish their report for public knowledge.”
On May 27, some 18 European and American political figures, who had visited Ashraf in previous years, declared, “Actions taken by Mr. Kobler and his staff in Liberty are criminal and need to be investigated in a competent court so that such crimes would not be repeated in Liberty or Ashraf or any other place under the name of United Nations. Considering our knowledge about the PMOI, Ashraf and Liberty residents, Mr. Kobler’s deeds, the situation of Iraqi and Iranian governments, we are ready to testify before any international legal authority…. We ask for an international investigative delegation, by common consent, to look into the actions of Mr. Martin Kobler and his staff against the residents of Ashraf and Liberty. Their investigations should be made public.”
The Iranian Resistance emphatically calls on the European Parliament’s Presidency and the Head of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq to dispatch an EP humanitarian fact-finding mission, along with the representative of the residents and two of their lawyers, to Liberty and Ashraf and publish the result of their inquiry for the benefit of the public, before another bloodshed takes place. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is committed to extend maximum cooperation with this fact-finding mission. But, if anyone opposes this trip and is intent on covering up the facts so as to allow the chain of Kobler’s lies against the defenseless residents to continue, the European Parliament must announce, without any political reservations, who opposes this humanitarian mission and what the reasons are for their opposition.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 30, 2013