Word: ashraf
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...Despite its position on the U.S. terrorist list since 1997, and reports by former members of abusive and cultlike practices at Ashraf, the MEK has gathered support from some surprising places abroad - especially since the U.S. invasion - by pitching itself as a viable opposition to the mullahs in Tehran. "They have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda and lobbying of members of Congress," says Gary Sick, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University's Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran. "They get all sorts of people...
...shah in the 1979 Islamic revolution, and assisted in the ensuing U.S. embassy hostage crisis. But they clashed with Khomeini in the years that followed, leading to the killing, imprisonment and exile of thousands of the group's members. In 1986 the MEK set up a base at Camp Ashraf, located in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, and began receiving funding and protection from Saddam to launch attacks over the border into Iran...
...former spokesmen, Alireza Jafarzadeh, now serves as a Fox News foreign affairs analyst. From Paris, the group's leader, Maryam Rajavi, has waged an effective p.r. campaign, gathering a following of European MPs to support removal of the group from the E.U.'s terrorist list and to oppose Ashraf's closure...
...anticipated, but the promise not to deport them to Iran was a welcome relief for the group's supporters and human rights organizations. For months, the National Council of Resistance of Iran has led demonstrations in New York, Paris, Geneva and Washington to protest the possible transfer of Camp Ashraf's residents to Iran. Al-Maliki's decision not to hand them over may indicate a small U.S. victory...
...While the U.S. government has remained relatively quiet on the Ashraf issue lately, Washington's approach isn't entirely passive. In a Jan. 1 press release, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said an unspecified number of U.S. troops have remained at the camp since the formal handover of control to Iraq. "U.S. forces will maintain a presence at Camp Ashraf and will continue to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf," the release stated. The Iraqi government provided written assurances that the group would be treated in accordance...