U.S. Troops Watch As Iraqi Soldiers Kill Iranian Exiles
U.S. troops watch as Iraqi soldiers kill Iranian exiles
Kim Gabel
Associated Press
Quote:
The women formed a human chain while the men chanted, confronting Iraqi troops moving into their compound. Gunfire rang out, and the soldiers waded in with batons, wooden bats and automatic weapons.
By the end, officials said, 11 Iranian exiles were dead - shot, beaten or run over by military vehicles.
Throughout the July 28 confrontation, American soldiers who once protected the Iranian opposition group stood by. According to U.S. officials, they had no legal authority to intervene. One video taken by the exiles even shows soldiers get into a white sport utility vehicle and roll up their windows as the bloodied men plead for help.
The deadly melee at Camp Ashraf, the base of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, provides a glaring example of what can go wrong as the U.S. military scales back and the Shiite-led Iraqi government flexes its muscles.
Not sure what to think about this report. Thoughts?
v/r
Mike
Iraqis will be Iraqis ....
and Iraqi governance will be Iraqi governance - not US governance.
It is now their show and the SOFA spells out their sovereignty. The Iraqis will take a different view of the Geneva Conventions (at a minimum, Common Article 3 applies and, for civilians, GC IV) than the US, the UK or Germany.
Regards
Mike
Google up Mujahedeen e Khalq...
and you will know why a shiite (and probably pro Iranian) iraqi govt does everything to get rid of them.
OTOH as stalwart opponents of the religious iranian regime they were mostly pro US. Probably until know.
My question is why, knowing what was going to happen
any US Troops were even in the vicinity? I agree that it is now Iraqi business and not ours so perhaps the troops were left in a witness mode in an effort to get the Iraqis to play nice. If so that was dumb, as the Iraqis were more likely to increase rather than decrease their use of force just to get one on the Mrekai. Regardless of whether it was a local or a DC decision it wasn't smart and wasn't fair to the troops.
Bottling up the MeK initially made sense but we had six years to figure out that they were not a bargaining chip with Iran, they were not going to overthrow the Mullahs and they were going to be a problem. We've had over a year to figure out that the Iraqis were not going to be nice..:rolleyes:
Legal analysis of "legal authority" ....
depends on whether the ROEs for that unit were this...
Quote:
.... our ROE included the right to intervene in a situation to defend the life of a noncombatant.
or something else. The applicable ROEs (and other command guidance) are most likely classified; in which case, armchair analysis is not possible.
In cases like this, I apply the presumption of innocence re: US troops, until proved otherwise.
Schmedlap, I really admire ...
your dogged persistence[*]; but, after re-reading the article (twice), it simply is not a basis for a reliable legal analysis (which it doesn't do - merely stating a few legal conclusions based on unidentified "agreements" and "orders").
The general rule in the SOFA is that detainees are turned over to the Iraqis. In effect, the MEK folks were in an Iraqi detention center under Iraqi authority. That's as far as I'm ready to go without access to original records.
[*] You must have been one hell of a bulldog as an infantry officer. :)
As I told a personal client, ...
and old friend, recently ...
"I haven't the foggiest f***ing idea."
Broke him up cuz he's used to getting polished "answers" from the high-priced corporate lawyers who represent his high-priced corp.
Same here. :eek: