Conference in Washington, August 30, 2014, commemorating 52 martyrs of 1 September 2013 massacre in Camp Ashraf
It’s a pleasure and an honor to be with you, and I was deeply moved by the testimony of our previous speakers and participants. Ladies and gentlemen, I identify with everything that has been said and I’m sure what will be said in the rest of the program.
I’d like to take just a couple of minutes to tell you why I’m here today and why I will be here for as many tomorrows as it takes. I always felt like I was on the right side of a morality issue and the human value issue, and that my country stood as a beacon for that freedom and those values. But something has changed and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
For the United States to define a terrorist as anyone who has ever taken up arms against the government is mystifying to me. By that definition George Washington would be a terrorist. How can Washington and Tehran agree on who is a terrorist? How can that be? You can’t have it both ways. The MEK as you know was also listed a terrorist organization. This is an organization that voluntarily disarmed itself in 2003 because they trusted us. They trusted our word, they trusted our military and they have been disappointed at every turn. So in recent years from 2009 to 2013, 116 residents in Camp Liberty and Ashraf have been murdered by Iraqi security forces and rocket assaults spread over 6 major attacks. 20 addition residents have lost their lives during this period due to the lack of proper medical care for existing conditions. In 2 days we’ll mark the 1st anniversary of the September 1, 2013, massacre at Ashraf in which 52 residents were shot execution-style, many with their hands tied behind their backs, including 6 women. This heinous crime was perpetrated without a doubt by Iraqi Special Forces and there has still been no subsequent investigation into the attack and no suspects have been arrested. In fact, the people who perpetrated that attack, some of their military leaders continue to be at the forefront of any relationship between Baghdad and the residents of Camp Liberty. Perhaps the most striking evidence of former Prime Minister Maliki’s dependence on Iran was in fact his treatment of these residents, or we should say honestly, the captives at the camps. And going forward the litmus tests of the new prime minister’s independence from Iran should likewise be his treatment of the residents at Camp Liberty. Residents who have been deprived of fuel for two weeks, fuel needed to run the camp’s generators, water pumps and the like, and without which every single resident has been exposed to further hardship and suffering. I recently spoke to CNN about the importance of upholding the United States’ commitment to the protection of the residents and I’d like to reiterate that commitment and that belief today.
When we talk about minorities who require our protection, the captives at Camp Liberty are a minority who are in dire need of our protection, though not as much from ISIS, as from the triple threat possessed posed by the Iranian regime, the Iraqi government and Tehran’s proxies in the form of Shiite militias.
So today I’m proud to stand with you again, and I will stand with you as long as it takes. I will hopefully stand before you with my colleagues one day when we have solved this problem, the immediate tactical problem and the strategic problem of a free and democratic Iran.
So I have a couple of messages that I’d like to give:
One, to the United States Congress, please show leadership, please show that the US values are unchanged and act in a bipartisan way and change any laws that prevent us from doing what is right and what is just. If those laws exist you should change them and you should change them quickly.
To the executive branch and especially my former workplace and colleagues who are still there. If you don’t have a strategy, please get one, and please get one quickly, and make sure it includes the people of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, the Kurds, the Yazidis, and anyone in Iraq who is oppressed.
And to the new government in Baghdad, this is a moment of truth. You can say what you want, you can postulate all of your noble ideals, but unless and until it includes all of the elements that we are talking about today, especially the oppressed people who are in prison at Camp Liberty, your words will be hollow unless your actions means something and deliver some concrete results.