Distinguished guests, friends and most importantly, those at Camp Liberty are right now, who I hope get to see the film of this event here.  I’ve known people of Iranian Resistance since they were first detained 12 years ago. Unfortunately several hundreds of those individuals are no longer alive, due to utter failure of fulfilling promises this nation made to them, to each and every one of them to protect them. They believed us. They believed we would protect them from harm, like we promised to. Unlike the current fundamentalist regime controlling Iran, those imprisoned at Camp Liberty believe in freedom and justice. They believe in democracy. Yet our administration continues to attempt to negotiate with Iranian mullahs. Numerous allegations are used to justify why the people of the resistance in Camp Liberty are languishing in horrible conditions and they are tormented day and night by their Iraqi guards, under their evil Iranian puppeteers. We turned our backs on the members of the Resistance as we moved them from their homes of many years in Camp Ashraf, to a prison camp in western Baghdad. Ambassador “Dan Fried”, representing the State Department, and “Martin Kobler” of United Nations promised that the members of Resistance would only remain in Camp Liberty for few short months, as a way station while they were processed to safe havens outside Iraq. I was on a conference call, and listened to many distinguished American leaders, while “Dan Fried” stated: “There will be a robust US Embassy present at Camp Liberty, and a plan to evacuate the members of the Resistance if danger arises.” Yet, there is a near none existent US Embassy presence, only on rare occasions do they even set foot in Camp Liberty, just 5 times over past 2 years. Though they have to drive pass Camp Liberty every day between Baghdad International Airport and the US Embassy complex.  I guess our embassy personnel believe what you don’t see, you cannot be accountable for.
Yet, we as a nation are accountable for the conditions and treatments that the people of Camp Liberty are suffering, the man and woman there. We forced them there, under the threat of imminent attack if they remain in Ashraf. Well, I’ve met them; I’ve lived in their camp. I’ve shared meals with them. I’ve provided them protection in the early years of their captivity. I’ve walked among them, and I have firsthand experience with the members of the Resistance, and they are not a cult. They are not a terrorist organization, nor are they enemies of the Unites States. They are the determined Resistance of highly educated men and women, who’ve dedicated their lives to oppose a sadistic regime controlling Iran. I’ve personally have been accused of going native, a victim of Stockholm syndrome, of not understanding the strategic picture. Well, I haven’t gone native, I am not suffering any syndrome, and I have a clear understanding of tactical, operational, and strategic picture of the situation. And the people of Camp Liberty have been vilified, tormented and murdered in order to play cakes the mullahs of Iran. They are really the pawns in this entire life and death struggle with the fundamentalists in Iran.
United Sates administration wants to close Guantanamo bay. I’ve been there. There are fewer than 120 detainees there. Yet, our same administration, our same nation were complacent in inhumane conditions and imprisonment of over 2500 men and women of the Resistance in Camp Liberty.
Interestingly, the people who are suffering in camp Liberty are there in order to appease Iranian mullahs. And they are the same people who have a political platform of none nuclear Iran.
In June 2004, I took a senior American commander to the camp Ashraf. We did this very quietly. He went around and was stunned with what he saw. He asked me:” why are we keeping them detained, explain that to me, I don’t get it?” I didn’t have a morally justifiable answer. I didn’t have an answer to that question 2004, I don’t have one now. Why we keeping them detained. Why aren’t we fulfilling our promise to protect them? We wouldn’t be able to justify our inaction in the days, months and years to come, by stating had we only known there was this danger. But we do know that there is a danger to these people. We need to act now. If we are not going to protect the people of Liberty, give them the means to protect themselves.
Thank you!