'US training Iran-bound MKO spies'
July 8, 2010
presstv.ir

The US military forces in Iraq are training 150 members of a terrorist organization at a military base in the war-ravaged country, informed sources say.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Press TV that the select group of terrorists, all longtime members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), has been moved from their base in Camp Ashraf near Baghdad to a US base in central Iraq.

The trainings are taking place at Camp Taji, a military installation used by the coalition forces. The base is located near the central town of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province.

The US plans to dispatch the trained MKO members as secret agents across the border and into Iran, with plans to carry out terror acts, according to the sources.

The Iraq-based group is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and aside from conducting numerous acts of terror in Iran, is also known for its full-fledged support for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 Shia uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

MKO leader Maryam Rajavi

Washington has reportedly called on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants to allow members of an anti-Iran terrorist group into mountainous area along Iran's northwestern border.

"On Saturday, White House officials sent a message to the PKK's Leadership Council, asking it to permit members of the [terrorist] Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) to set up a base in the Qandil mountain range on the Iranian border," Fars News Agency quoted an informed source with the council as saying on Tuesday.

The Qandil mountain range, where Israeli firms operate, is the stronghold of the PKK militants and their sister terrorist group PEJAK.

The International Strategic Research Organization, a Turkish think tank, warned last month that agents with the Israeli spy agency Mossad as well as the Israeli military's retirees had been sighted providing training to PKK gunmen in the Iraqi Kurdistan.

Washington's proposal comes as the deadline for complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq draws near and Baghdad is set to hunt down and expel MKO terrorists.

The US is reportedly seeking to relocate the MKO terrorist before leaving Iraq, the source told the new agency in the Iraqi city of Erbil.

"They (US officials) promised that they would put an end to Turkish military strikes against us (the PKK), should we accept their condition," the senior PKK official told Fars News.

"The offer is being studied at the moment," he added.

The MKO is regarded as a terrorist organization by much of the international community including the United States.

An informed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Press TV last month that a group of 150 longtime MKO terrorists has been moved from their base in Camp Ashraf near Baghdad to a US base in central Iraq to be trained as spies.

The US plans to dispatch the trained MKO members as secret agents across the border and into Iran, with plans to carry out terror acts, according to the source.

PKK militants in northern Iraq, AFP photo

The director of a Turkish think tank says Israel trains the armed men with the anti-Ankara militant group, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

The head of the International Strategic Research Organization, Sedat Laciner, said the Israeli Spy Agency's (Mossad) operatives and the Israeli military's retirees had been sighted providing training to PKK militants in Iraq's Kurdistan, Turkey-based English-language newspaper Today's Zaman said on Sunday.

The Turkish academic held that PKK's major operations in big cities bear the hallmark of Israel and said, "These terrorist were trained by Israeli intelligence officers on how to best penetrate cities."

Laciner said Tel Aviv does not have a positive perception of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party — led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and thus tries to paint a radical picture of it. "The PKK is a mere contractor for Israel to serve that purpose," he explained.

Laciner said some Israeli groups work with PKK, using its offshoot, Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK). The latter terrorist group has carried out several deadly attacks against Iranian nationals and security forces inside Iran.

More than 40,000 people have lost their lives since the militant group launched its armed campaign against Ankara in 1984, as part of a quest to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.

Raising serious concerns among the Turkish authorities was the PKK's slaughter of seven Turkish soldiers in a rocket attack on a naval base in the southern province of Hatay on May 31.

Turkey's intelligence organizations are also looking to see whether the attack was linked to the Israeli military's onslaught on a Turkish-backed relief mission which had set out to break Tel Aviv's siege of the Gaza Strip. The assault in international waters killed at least 20 people, including eight Turks and a US national of Turkish origin.

The leader of Turkey's Felicity Party, Numan Kurtulmus said "...I hope it was a coincidence that Israel began to attack the ship after a brutal attack on a Turkish Naval Forces base in Iskenderun..."

US President Barack Obama

The United States has secretly given a "written guarantee" to Israel that obliges Washington to sell Israel nuclear fission materials, Israeli sources say.

The materials will be used to "produce electricity," Israeli Army radio, which is an official Israeli news source, reported.

Washington has also vowed to "publicly announce" that Israel is a responsible entity and can "contain its capabilities."

Former US President Jimmy Carter has said Israel has between 200 and 300 nuclear warheads. A former Israeli scientist at Israel's Dimona nuclear site, Mordechai Vanunu, as well as aerial footage and decades of recurrent reporting have reaffirmed the possession.

The US has always supported Israel's policy of "nuclear ambiguity," in line with which Tel Aviv would neither confirm nor deny having the firepower.

Israel sensed a breach in the partnership two months ago when Washington supported an Egyptian proposal to hold a regional conference in 2012 on a nuclear-free Middle East.

The White House, however, said on Wednesday that US President Barack Obama had vowed to shield Israel from being "singled out" at neither the Egyptian-proposed meeting nor a September gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where the issue of Israel's nuclear weapons is expected to be top on the agenda, Reuters reported.

"We strongly believe that, given its size, its history, the region that it's in, and the threats that are leveled against us — against it, that Israel has unique security requirements," Obama as well noted.