Gen. Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the U.S. Army Joint Chiefs of Staff (1997-2001) said: It is indeed a great pleasure to be with you here today and I can tell you the pain that I have suffered from a recent back operation which pales in comparison to the pain that those at Liberty and Ashraf are suffering today.
As a former United States Army officer, I am embarrassed standing here in view of my country’s broken promises. US Army on behalf of the US government made a solemn vow, a pledge, a commitment, a promise to protect the residents of Ashraf. United States has failed to keep its commitment.
Later, as you all heard today, Ambassador Dan Freed came out to the Camp Liberty and made all types of promises regarding safety and resettlement of those in Camp Liberty. Every one of those has been disavowed. It is an absolute disgrace that the current administration, the Obama administration had turned its head to those at Camp Liberty and failed to keep its commitments.
Instead, the administration has continued to work to work with Maliki, even as it has become obvious that he is doing the bidding of the Iranian regime. United States state department has made numerous commitments to protect and resettle the residents of Liberty, all of which have turned out to be broker promises. This is an absolute disgrace. And it is also disgraceful that the US is asking the residents of Liberty to renounce the MEK in order to be admitted to the United States.
The court has ruled that the MEK is not a terrorist organization, and the State department was forced to remove the MEK from the foreign terrorist organization list, and now our state department and the justice department continue to act as if they are still on it.
What part of that don’t you get Washington?
The MEK would not and should not tolerate such a disgraceful policy by the current administration. This must be changed. And I can assure you that myself and my colleagues today would continue to fight until it is changed as a policy. Because this also dishonors the United States Army, it dishonors our nation.
It is very clear that this approach is part of a broader misguided foreign policy on Iran. This administration wants to go operates with those who killed or badly maimed our soldiers on the pretext of fighting terrorism. And how disgraceful can it get when the United States government turns to the terrorist regime of Tehran to help deal with the crisis that they are facing in Iraq.
Washington, Wake UP!!!!
The real solution is to cut off the Mullahs’ hands in Iran, end Maliki’s rule in Iraq and allow for a national unity government.
My commitment, and the commitment of my colleagues here today is to resettle the residents of Liberty, to change the United States misguided policy and adopt a policy that supports the MEK and Mrs. Rajavi in her quest for regime change in Tehran and for democracy Iraq.
Thank you very much