“One of the things that after I was out for a while, I decided I really want to do spend more time on, because I always been focused for a long time on the Iran and the treats that represents to the world. But I want to work more closely with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and so called MEK. I am very pleased to be able to do that. This is not a case of enemy of my enemy is my friend, the people in Iranian and American community and global Iranian community who are fighting the regime in Tehran, are our friends. And I am very glad that all of you are here today. I want to say how much pleased I am to be with the Iranian Americans who are here, and frankly to note presence the number of the Senate staff members perhaps some from the House. Something that I could never acknowledge during the 24 years I was in the Senate, the staff is actually quite important, and help the senators and congressmen to make a lot of important decisions about what is the priorities, so the fact that you are here, means a lot. Happy Nowruz to everyone
“I have been in this room STG50 at least 100 times for hearings over the years or may be 200, and I will tell you flat out, I have never seen it looking better and more beautiful than it does today. So my compliments to anyone responsible for that “Haft Sin” is really magnificent, and reminds us, as others have said, about the history and proud culture of Iran, and the fact that this great country and this great people educated, civilized people are essentially being held captive by a tyrannical despotic regime.
“Because of the importance of stopping radical extremists regime in Iran from getting nuclear weapons, we all been naturally focused on the negotiations between the P5 + 1 and Iran. The president has said, president Obama said no deal is better than a bad deal, and we ought to make sure that congress has power through Corker/Menendez to reject that bad deal.
“They have masterfully manipulated the United States and the other members of P5 + 1, to a point where I think they have concluded, Iranian regime has concluded that we want the agreement much more than they do. And has anybody ever been involved in a negotiations of any kind, knows that is bad place to be. Why are we so fearful of the Islamic Republic of Iran getting nuclear weapon? That is what I really want to focus on. Today obviously is bad in itself, when nuclear weapons perforated in the world, but I want to focus on the government that is involved in the most horrific and also aggressive to the human rights violations in the Middle East stifling democracy and fueling the sectarian conflict throughout region. And that of course is Islamic Republic of Iran.
“Let me talk about the human rights first. Today there are at least 900 political prisoners in jails in Iran, people who are there for no other reason than to express their political opinion. The UN report said at least 753 individuals were executed by the current Iranian government in 2014; last year. That is the highest total in last 12 years. And as many of you know executions have occurred at a for more rapid pace since the self-proclaim moderate Hassan Rouhani became president, than they did under his predecessor Ahmadi Nejad.
“What about gender equality? Well Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has called gender equality and I quote “one of the biggest mistakes of western thought”. I guess he is not too happy about the National Council of Resistance, the MEK because it happens to be led by a great woman; Mrs. Rajavi. So Iran treats women as second class citizens. They can’t enter public stadiums, they must adhere the dress codes, they face restricted access to employment, and they can be forced in marriage as children, this is an extraordinary gifted group of people, who are pushed out of the mainstream of society and one recent high profile case of just extreme abuse the Tehran government executed a 26 year old woman for killing a man who was attempting to rape her. This is prime evil. “What about the internet? Internet in just plain blocked. Google is blocked, Wikipedia is blocked, Amazon is blocked, you can go on and on. U-tube. A group called reporters without borders that monitors this kind of behavior called Iran “an enemy of Internet” and in 2013 said that they were the worst country in the world in freedom of the internet. Why they do this? These are not acts of strengthening their security by the government; these are acts of weakness and insecurity by the regime that currently governs a great country of Iran. They are afraid of the people, their people, they are afraid of their people talking to each other. They are afraid of their people going on the internet and finding out what is happening in the rest of the world.
“Let me just say a few words that you note so well, I am going to be brief on this. Iran obviously remains the leading state responsible of global terrorism, and that global terrorism has been its number one instrument for extending its power. I mean, hegemony is a phrase that people don’t like to use anymore, but this is a country that wants to become an empire, a caliphate, and a hegemonic power. Iran supports Hezbollah, the Lebanon based terrorist organization that has killed more Americans than any terror group except Al-Qaida. During Iraq war, Iran’s trained, armed, supported Iraqi Shiite militias that killed hundreds of Americans, often with a type Iranian manufactured IED’s that are far deadlier that anything the militias could have built themselves.
“Iran’s finger print can be found on terror plots across the world, as you know even in the Washington D.C, were sought to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the 2011 at the Coffee Milano here in which we had thought until that time was a sanctuary, but apparently not so.
“Notwithstanding their alleged Sunny-Shiite theological difference, Iran has provided support and shelter to elements of Al-Qaida. Listen to a 9-11 commission report “the relationship between Al-Qaida and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shiite divisions did not necessary pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations.” Of course Iran’s regional ambitions go far beyond terror plots. You’ve seen perhaps one of the greatest atrocities, genocides go on the rest of the world essentially standing by passively in Syria since March 2011 fueled primarily by the Iranian government.
“We know what is happening with Islamic State in Iraq now, provides Iran with an opportunity to pursue its own agenda there and there and elsewhere in the region lately. Ghasem Solaimani the head of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is publicly on the battle field, directing those troops in Syria, in Iraq. Don’t be surprised if he turns up in Yemen or Afghanistan soon. Already theses militias have committed atrocities in fighting against Sunni majority areas once held by ISIS, that is why Retired Gen. David Petraeus has said that the foremost threat to Iraq’s long term instability is not the Islamic State, rather it is Shiite militias, many backed by, and some directly guided by Iran.
“Now, I know that you agree with me that is an abysmal record for human rights violations and terrorist killings sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran. How could we, with our eyes open and our heads working, think that we can negotiate an agreement for them to stop their nuclear weapons program that we can rely on? Just look at who we are negotiating with. Just today in the paper Mr. Youkio Amano, who is the head of International Atomic Energy Agency, a unit of United Nations not part of a west or part of the America, the UN, Amano said today in 12 areas where he was commissioned to ask questions on Iran’s nuclear programs, the government has only given him answers on one, and therefore he can no certify or guarantee or even encourage any belief that they would keep an agreement with the United States. Now, to me one of the most perverse arguments being made now, is that if there is an agreement on nuclear weapons with Iran that would pave the way to a broader strategic reorientation by Tehran, which ideally will include an abandonment of its hegemonic ambitions in the region, and abandonment of its terrorist proxies and an end to its human rights abuses. Does anyone really does believe that? I have a trouble asking the question.
“And here I just want to take a moment to talk about Camp Liberty. Starting in 1986 this organization was headquartered in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, until 2012 when it was relocated to a small section of Camp Liberty, which is directly East of Baghdad International airport. Camp Liberty had been built and maintained by the US army until the departure of most of our forces in 2011. Shortly after the coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, all the residents of Ashraf again Iranian dissidents, I would say freedom fighters, were provided written insurances of protected persons’ status under 4th Geneva Convention, if certain action would take on the part of the residents, and all of them, were taken. They met every expectations that we; the United States government placed on them. Unfortunately in 2009 the protected persons’ status was revoked summarily, arbitrary without a cause. And the residents’ security was turned over to the Iraqi government at the time which was heavily influenced by Tehran which would like nothing better than to take violent action against these enemies of theirs, because they are fighters for freedom in Ashraf.
“There is a lot more I can say about that, but let me just say as we work hard here in Capitol Hill, and elsewhere to liberate the people who are trapped in Camp Liberty. We owe them. And I promise you that I would do everything I can, to make sure that the United States does everything it can, to keep its word.
“So let me say in summary, and speak to you directly, those of you who fight and work so hard in this movement. You may occasionally ask yourselves: how can the movements of events going in such a terrible direction in a country that means so much to you and should mean so much to everybody who fights for freedom and cares about it, be stopped?
“And the answer I think it can be stopped by good and courageous people who are prepared to fight to stop it. The people of Iran, typified and represented in many ways in National Council of Resistance of Iran, are really the answer. As much as I know you believe in your cause, even you must sometimes ask yourself: “Is it possible, can the regime in Iran, with all its weapons and all its money and the control it has over its people internally, really be stopped and overthrown?” And I say to you today, based not just on the faith, but on the history Yes! the regime in Iran can be overthrown and I believe that will be soon.
“Margaret Mead, the great anthropologist once said: ’Never underestimate the capacity of a small group of devoted ordinary citizens to change the world.’ In fact she said: ’indeed it is the only way that has ever happened.’
“I go back to the American history when Thomas Pain, was the great patriots, a leader of the revolution, said to his fellow revolutionaries, probably at the moment when they themselves were doubting that they could overturn the British Empire, it was unthinkable. In the words that echo right down on us today, Thomas peen said: “we have it in our power to begin the world over again”. And against all odds, as we know, thanks God, they did. The independent nation of America was created. The world did begin all over again on July 4th of 1776, committed its government to securing the rights of life liberty and the pursued of happiness that didn’t come from the government, but came from the creator.
“I was greatly influenced probably in some ways catalyzed in to public service by President John F Kennedy. For most of you here probably were not even born or even in your parents’ minds, but it was the great time, 1960, that Kennedy inaugural address is worth reading. It is a call to a generation that is not what your country would do for you, but what you can do for your country. I code “the same revolutionary believes for which are forbears fought, are still an issue, and of course they still are and nowhere more than Iran. are still issue around the globe the belief that rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God”, and then he went on to say:” to commit our country and tell our friends and foes”, which I wish we do again right now that the United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the success and survival of liberty”. In his time, I am giving you this historic example to tell you that when I say that regime in Iran is going to collapse, I am not just, sort of blowing smokes, as we used to say up here in Capitol Hills. I say to you today that the Evil Empire of Islamic Republic of Iran, will be vanquished in our time, and the world will begin anew.
“And part of why that will happen is because of the principle, the devotion, the steadfastness, the courage, the intellectual energy, the remarkable intelligence works done in Iran by the National Council of Resistance led, that as I mentioned earlier by Mrs. Rajavi who is a remarkable figure in her own array, a powerful figure, strong, gifted, modern, religious and clearly tolerant, and what a massage to the Ayatollah and other Mullahs. She happens to be a woman. And what a change would be!
“I want to close by repeating something I said on that occasion. It was an honor to speak to that group. Histories and heroes “in this room”, and I add to this room too, tell me that the future does not belong to despots and dictators. It belongs to activists from Tehran, journalists from Moscow, bloggers from Cairo, human rights advocates from North Korea, to countless others whose names are not yet known, but which will someday be inscribed alongside those of Hovel and Scheranscki, in the kingdom of conscious and courage, in which all freedom fighters belonged.
“Dear friends I wish you a happy Nowruz. I know Nowruz means new day. With you I pray that this is the year in which, and I pray with faith, that this is the year when we will see, not just a new day in Iran, but a new government that will reflect and represent and protect the people of this great country.”.