[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 55 (Monday, May 8, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H2634-H2635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THIRTEEN JEWS HELD IN SHIRAZ, IRAN ON CHARGES OF ESPIONAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise to address this House on the issue 
of the 13 Jews being held in the city of Shiraz in Iran and on trial on 
charges of espionage. Let me first provide a bit of background. The 
Jewish community of Iran has been there since the Babylonia captivity 
over 2,500 years ago. It is the oldest Jewish community anywhere in the 
world except for Israel itself. For 2,500 years, Jews have lived in 
peace and in loyalty to whichever regime has governed Persia, now Iran.

                              {time}  2000

  In 1979, the Iranian revolution created the Islamic Republic. Since 
then, that Islamic Republic has found it necessary or appropriate for 
some reason to oppress its religious minorities. Its treatment of those 
of the Bahai faith is known to many of us and is deplorable. And as to 
those who practice the Jewish faith, some 17 have been killed in the 
last 21 years, roughly one a year, always after some sort of show 
trial, always absurd charges followed by execution.
  In February of 1979, the government of Iran, perhaps dissatisfied 
with the idea of only one trumped-up execution a year of the Jewish 
community, instead decided to arrest some 13 Jews on absurd charges. 
They were charged with spying for the United States and spying for 
Israel.
  Now, why can I brand these charges so absurd? Well, Madam Speaker, 
here in the United States we live in a multiethnic, multicultural 
society. People of all races, religions, and ethnicities are found in 
the National Security Administration, the CIA, the FBI, and other 
positions of importance to our national security. And so no matter what 
a person's ethnic background, every boy and

[[Page H2635]]

girl in America could find themselves in a position where they could be 
tempted to become a spy. And in fact we have Anglo American spies in 
our history and Chinese American spies. Perhaps there have even been 
Jewish American spies.
  But Iran is a very different country. No one of the Jewish faith is 
allowed anywhere near anything of national security significance in 
Iran. And so to think that the CIA would reach out to this one small 
community and from there hire its spies is absolutely absurd. We could 
not be the world's only superpower if we hired as our spies those very 
few individuals in Iran absolutely precluded from getting the 
information that a spy might want.
  These charges are not only absurd, but at the beginning of this month 
the trials began. The trials are modeled after those of Joseph Stalin; 
show trials in which there is no evidence except confession, and the 
confessions so devoid of information that they are evidence not of 
guilt but of the fear of the defendant. No information is given as to 
what the espionage sought to discover, what information was passed, to 
whom it was passed, or how it was passed. No information at all comes 
out in this trial except the fear of the defendants. Their confessions 
are evidence perhaps of torture, but not of guilt. Not since the days 
of Joseph Stalin have we seen such trials.
  The question is what will the world do about it? The key is to have 
not only the American representative at the World Bank but the 
representatives of Germany and Japan stand up and say human rights does 
matter and to vote to delay any World Bank loan to this Islamic regime, 
the Islamic Republic of Iran. Until these 13 innocents are released, 
the World Bank should not hide behind profestations that somehow its 
loans are only being used for a particular purpose, because loans are 
money that is fungible and that money will go to construction companies 
in Iran selected by and authorized by the Iranian government.
  We must stand up for human rights. The World Bank is where this trial 
will be on trial.

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