[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 14, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H959-H960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ELIMINATION ON BAN ON IMPORTING TO UNITED STATES IRANIAN CAVIAR, 
                        CARPETS, AND PISTACHIOS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for this opportunity, 
because I was not on the list to address the House today and did not 
expect to do so. My remarks may be intemperate because I come here in 
anger. I speak here not with any prepared text, but

[[Page H960]]

from a few roughly thrown together notes. I know those who prepare the 
Congressional Record like a prepared text to follow afterwards, but 
they will, unfortunately, have to rely upon our outstanding court 
reporter.
  Mr. Speaker, 20 minutes ago, I became aware of a horrifying news 
report, a report that filled me with anger at a proposed administration 
policy, a policy that may be taken by an administration that I have 
supported time and time again with my vote and with my voice.
  Today, news reports indicate that this Friday the State Department 
plans to announce an elimination on the ban on importing to the United 
States of Iranian caviar, carpets, and pistachios. We will be told that 
these three exports are insignificant to a Nation with so much oil. But 
Iran is able to export its oil on the world market and obtain the world 
price. Nothing America does influences that price or the total demand 
for Iranian oil.

                              {time}  1945

  In contrast, Iran stands to benefit substantially if its three major 
non-energy exports are allowed into the United States. Nothing we do 
could have a greater impact in the area of importing goods from Iran 
than to allow carpets, pistachios, and caviar into our markets.
  Mr. Speaker, do we really need Iranian caviar? The Russian caviar 
somehow does not satisfy the palates of the most discriminating? I do 
not think so. I think the greater thirst, the greater craving than for 
Iranian caviar is the thirst, the craving in the State Department to 
make concessions of a tangible nature to Iran before we get more than 
the first wisp of improved Iranian behavior.
  Mr. Speaker, about a year ago, 13 Jews were arrested in Shiraz, Iran; 
and they were charged with espionage for the United States. Ten of 
those 13 remain in prison. All 13 go to trial next month. All of them 
face the death penalty. Why would America liberalize our export rules 
while these 13 face the death penalty for allegedly spying for us?
  Mr. Speaker, since the Iranian revolution, 17 members of the Jewish 
community have been executed at roughly the rate of one per year in a 
constant and bloody effort at community repression, and yet our State 
Department wants to let in the caviar, the carpets. Mr. Speaker, that 
caviar will not taste good. There is blood in the caviar; the carpets 
wrap human bodies. And we have got to stand firm for once.
  Mr. Speaker, the Vice President of the United States has said that 
Iran's treatment of the 13 Jews held in Shiraz would be a test for the 
Iranian government. But what test proctor is so wimpish as to award an 
A to the student before that student even turns in a paper? The test is 
still outstanding. Can Iran stop its repression of the oldest Jewish 
community outside of Israel? Can they let go of the desire of some of 
the hard-liners in Iran to oppress this small remaining community of 
30,000 people?
  Mr. Speaker, we have to understand how stupid and outrageous these 
espionage charges are. Here in the United States we are a multiethnic 
society. Anyone can grow up to be a spy. We can have Jewish-American 
spies, Chinese-American spies, or English-American spies, because 
everyone participates in our society. In Iran, no Jew is allowed 
anywhere near anything of strategic significance, and America would not 
be the world's only superpower if we made a practice of hiring as our 
spies those in a small community prohibited from getting anywhere close 
to any of the information we might find significant.
  Mr. Speaker, these 13 are not held out of a genuine belief that they 
might be guilty of espionage, but rather as an effort to torture a 
community and perhaps execute 13 of its members.
  Mr. Speaker, there is blood in the caviar, bodies have been wrapped 
in the carpets, and it is time for America to say no until the 13 Jews 
of Shiraz are liberated and until the Iranian government takes other 
important actions as well.

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