Reuters: The campaign to prevent another massacre at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to the 3,400 Iranian dissidents, at the hands of the Iraqi forces took a major step today with the launch of a television ad campaign running in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in the days leading up to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s December 12th visit to the White House.
Reuters
BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The campaign to prevent another massacre at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to the 3,400 Iranian dissidents, at the hands of the Iraqi forces took a major step today with the launch of a television ad campaign running in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in the days leading up to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s December 12th visit to the White House.
The advertising campaign hopes to make the public aware about the imminent danger facing unarmed men, women and children in Ashraf and to make sure that President Obama and Secretary Clinton intervene to resolve the situation peacefully and protect the residents.
The ad, titled People of Ashraf, contains images from the attacks on Camp Ashraf in both 2009 and in April of 2011 and urges President Obama to honor America’s promise to protect the people of Ashraf.
In 2004, the U.S. signed an agreement with each and every resident, promising to protect them until their final disposition. In breach of that written commitment, however, the administration handed over the protection of Ashraf to the Iraqi Government, which at the behest of the Iranian regime, has imposed a siege on the Camp, denying the residents fuel, medicine, and visits by family and friends. In two deadly attacks in July 2009 and April 2011, Iraqi forces killed 47 unarmed residents, including eight women, and wounded about 1,000.
The ad, produced and paid for by the Iranian-American Community of Northern California (www.iacnorcal.com) also invites the public to attend a White House rally for the protection of Ashraf residents on December 12 beginning at 10 a.m.
The use of the graphic video is not for shock value. The imagery in the ads demonstrates to viewers that the gravity of the situation of the people at Camp Ashraf is not hypothetical: Iraqi forces have killed unarmed Camp Ashraf residents before and all indications are that they will do so again if Maliki is allowed to follow through with his plans to block U.N. access and close Camp Ashraf by the end of 2011. Despite appeals by the international community and the U.N. for an extension of the deadline, Maliki insists on closing down Ashraf as planned.
The ad will air extensively in the days leading up to Maliki’s visit on all major networks and cable channels. Click hear: http://www.usccar.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/CampAshrafAd_0002.wmv
SOURCE Iranian-American Community of Northern California
