Col. Wes Martin: Iranian Dissidents at Iraqi Camp Need Protection

There is a growing outcry for President Barack Obama to help the 2,500 Iranian exiles stranded in Iraq inside a former U.S. military air base that could become their graveyard if the White House doesn’t act, retired U.S. Army Col. Wes Martin said Tuesday on Newsmax TV’s “America’s Forum.”

The base, Camp Liberty, is “an extermination camp in waiting” where Iranian dissidents who were promised protection by the U.S. military, were languish in cramped conditions without medical care and under threat of Iraqi rocket attacks, said Iraq war veteran Martin.

But the U.S. is leaving them in limbo, said Martin, who as commander of a forward operating base in Iraq worked with Iranian dissidents known as the Mojahedin.

“Every time something bad happens to Camp Liberty, the first thing the State Department says [is], there is no evidence the Iraqi government was involved,” said Martin, an advocate for the Camp Liberty residents whose plight has drawn the attention of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The administration should be pressuring Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to safeguard the Iranians at Camp Liberty, said Martin.