[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 50 (Thursday, March 27, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING A GREAT HERO FOR IRAN'S FREEDOM, AND WORLD PEACE AND SECURITY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 27, 2003

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use this opportunity to ask 
my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to observe a moment 
of silence for a great man who is no longer among us, Ebrahim Zakeri. 
The late Mr. Zakeri was a great champion of freedom that not only 
helped the Resistance Movement to establish freedom and democracy in 
Iran, but he also fought for human dignity, global peace, and security.
  As the Chairman of the Security and Counter-terrorism Committee of 
the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Ebrahim Zakeri was truly a 
resistance hero and a symbol of devotion, struggle and selflessness for 
the cause of Iran's freedom, as well as global peace and security. His 
mother was also executed at the age of 70 after suffering extreme 
torture in Evin Prison.
  My colleagues in the House remember, that last August, I circulated 
information about the Iranian regime's nuclear program and the two new 
nuclear sites that Iran was using to threaten world peace and security. 
The information was made available by the committee that Ebrahim Zakeri 
chaired.
  Ebrahim Zakeri was an assistant professor in the Department of 
Communications at Tehran University. He was imprisoned by the Shah from 
1972 to 1975. About one year after his release from prison, he was 
rearrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was among the last 
group of prisoners to be freed by the people at the time of the 
Revolution in 1979. He was a candidate for parliamentary elections in 
Abadan after the revolution that overthrew the monarchy. Despite a 
strong propaganda campaign against the Mojahedin and ballot rigging, 
the regime was forced to announce that he received the second highest 
number of votes in the election.
  He then served in different posts at the National Liberation Army of 
Iran (NLA). Ebrahim Zakeri was a member of the General Command of the 
NLA and became a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran 
in November of 1992. In 1993, he was appointed Chairman of the Security 
and Counter-terrorism Committee of the NCRI. Since then, his committee 
has exposed many of the Intelligence Ministry's terrorist plots, as 
well as Tehran's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
  In a word, his 31 years of struggle serve as a lesson and a guide for 
the young people of his country, and will always be honored by our 
nation and certainly by my colleagues in the U.S. Congress. I express 
my condolences to the Iranian people and to the Resistance's President- 
elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.

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