Former top U.S. officials denounced the State Department, the United Nations and Iraq for failing to protect unarmed Iranian dissidents in a camp near Baghdad and blamed Iran for a weekend rocket attack that killed six refugees and wounded 50.
“Shame on the United Nations, and shame on the United States Department of State,” said Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was mayor of New York during the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Addressing a Washington conference of 1,500 Iranian-Americans on Saturday, Mr. Giuliani called the attack “cold-blooded murder.”
Mr. Giuliani was joined by Andrew H. Card Jr., chief of staff to President George W. Bush; former Rep. Lee Hamilton, Indiana Democrat and former co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission; former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas Republican; retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, a former national security adviser to President Obama; former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island Democrat; Michael B. Mukasey, attorney general under Mr. Bush; former Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican; and Frances Fragos Townsend, a homeland security adviser to Mr. Bush.
They are among dozens of current and former U.S. officials who campaigned to have the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its affiliated groups removed from the U.S. terrorist list. President Clinton placed the dissidents on the list in 1997 to placate Iran’s chief demand in bilateral talks.
The weekend convention of Iranian-Americans from 37 states originally was called to recognize those who helped get the resistance off the blacklist and to discuss relocation of about 3,100 dissidents in the ironically named “Camp Liberty” near Baghdad’s international airport.
The attack on Camp Liberty came Saturday morning in Baghdad, just hours before the conference opened in Washington.
Mr. Giuliani also called for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to fire Martin Kobler, the U.N. special envoy to Iraq who pressured the resistance to relocate to Camp Liberty from Camp Ashraf, a much larger and more secure fortification north of Baghdad.
Mr. Giuliani noted that he and Mr. Mukasey met with Mr. Kobler in July to express concerns about inadequate conditions at Camp Liberty, which the feisty New Yorker called a “concentration camp.”
“Well, Martin Kobler, it is not only a concentration camp. It’s a killing field, and you permitted it to become a killing field,” Mr. Giulani said.
Diplomatic Traffic
Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:
Monday
Fawzia Koofi, vice president of the Afghan parliament. She briefs the Women’s Foreign Policy Group on the future of democracy and women’s rights after the U.S. troop withdrawal.
Wednesday
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party and a former vice chancellor and foreign minister. He addresses the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Thursday
Finance Minister Simeon Djankov of Bulgaria, who speaks at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Sergio DellaPergola of the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew University, who addresses the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on the demographic threats to Israel as a Jewish state.
Friday
President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy, who meets with President Obama.
Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 or email jmorrison@washingtontimes.com. The column is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
• James Morrison can be reached at jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.
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