On a vast desolate desert plain about 140 kilometers northeast of Baghdad is one of the veteran "liberation" movements around the world. And it is only 130 kilometers from the border of the land it wants to "liberate" - Iran.
The sprawling 600-square-kilometre base of Mujahedeen-e Khalq (People's Warriors), the main Iranian opposition group which traces its origins to 1964, is a statelet of its own: It has its own roads and traffic rules-including speed limits and one-way lanes-power and water supply systems, prefabricated houses, barracks, operation rooms, training fields with tanks, missile launchers, armoured personnel carriers and an assortment of hundreds of different types of well-maintained vehicles and communication equipment...."