Jane Holl Lute
A HOUSING TRAILER BURNS IN CAMP LIBERTY AFTER DECEMBER 26 ATTACK
UNITED NATIONS
(Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named former Deputy U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute as his special adviser to help with the relocation of a group of Iranian dissidents in Iraq to new countries, the U.N. said on Sunday.
"Ms. Holl Lute will work with a wide range of stakeholders, in particular Member States, with a view to facilitating the relocation of residents of Camp Hurriya outside of Iraq," the U.N. press office said in a statement.
The appointment of Holl Lute, who was a senior U.N. official from 2003 to 2009, comes after a series of attacks on the dissident Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) group in Iraq.
More than 50 people were killed at Camp Ashraf, the MEK's previous camp in Iraq, in September in an attack the United Nations described as "an atrocious crime" and which drew condemnation from the United States and Britain. Assailants took time to conduct execution-style killings and plant bombs.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly denied involvement in the September attack, during which seven camp residents vanished. MEK says they were taken hostage by Iraqi forces and flown to Amara province to be extradited to Iran. A U.N. expert group has urged Baghdad to swiftly investigate the disappearances.
The MEK, which has accused Iraqi security forces of being behind the attack, is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite Muslim-led government that came to power after U.S.-led forces toppled former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The last residents moved out of Ashraf to a new base, Camp Hurriya, in September. Camp Ashraf had housed around 100 MEK members at the time of the September attack.
There was also a deadly rocket attack on Camp Hurriya on December 26, which the MEK says killed four residents and injured around 70 more. The MEK blames the Iraqi and Iranian governments for the December 26 assault.
The MEK, which the U.S. State Department removed from its list of terrorist organizations last year, wants Iran's clerical leaders overthrown and fought on the side of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s.
Maryam Rajavi, president of the MEK's political wing, the National Council of Resistance ofIran (NCRI), called for an independent U.N. investigation of the attacks on the Iranians in Iraq, as well as U.S., European Union and U.N. intervention to protect the Iranian dissidents, the NCRI said on Sunday.
Who is Jane Holl Lute (wikipedia)
Jane Holl Lute served as the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 through 2013, after having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 3, 2009.[1] Previously, Lute was the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. Before that she was Assistant Secretary-General for Mission Support in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations since August 2003.[2] Currently, Lute is the President and CEO of the Arlington based Council on CyberSecurity. [3]
Lute graduated from Montclair State University in 1978 and received her commission as a U.S. Army second lieutenant through Seton Hall University's ROTC program. In addition, she earned an M.A. from the University of Southern California in 1985, a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 1989, and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 2000. She is a member of the Virginia Bar.
From 1991 to 1994, she served as director of European Affairs in the National Security Council staff at the White House. Between 1994 and 1999, Lute headed up the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict and was a senior public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars.
Prior to joining the UN Secretariat, Lute served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund, which is established to administer Ted Turner’s $1 billion contribution to support the goals of the United Nations. Before that, she served as Executive Director of the Association of the United States Army’s project on the role of American Military Power in 2000.
On January 23, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Jane Holl Lute as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.[4] She was confirmed April 3.[1] She left the department on April 9, 2013.[5] The Undersecretary for National Protection and Programs Directorate Rand Beers was named as her acting replacement.[6]
Jane Holl Lute is married to Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, who was appointed in 2007 as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan.
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