[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 143 (Tuesday, September 25, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S12019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I want to talk on two issues with my 
colleagues. One is about Iran. The President of Iran is now in the 
United States. Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad is in the United States enjoying 
liberties here that are not enjoyed in his home country by his fellow 
citizens. I want to make a point of that. I want to talk about what he 
has said and what he has done. I think there is a substantial 
difference. I want to point out that we should pass the Lieberman-Kyl 
amendment regarding the designation of terrorist organization by--that 
the IRGC be designated as a terrorist organization. Finally, I will 
wrap up with a discussion about the Biden-Brownback amendment on 
federalism in Iraq, which I think would be very important.
  President Ahmadi-Nejad took advantage of the freedoms we enjoy to 
spread lies in the United States. I believe his appearance was 
disgraceful. I think the things he is saying are outright lies--what he 
is saying versus what he has done. He looked his audience in the eye 
and he lied. He knew he was telling lies, and the audience knew it.
  Let's talk about the real truth inside Iran. I want to speak about 
what is taking place there.
  I have chaired the Middle East subcommittee in the past. I have 
worked on issues regarding Iran. We have worked to secure and have 
secured funding for civil society development inside Iran. I worked 
with a number of Iranian dissidents who have been forced out of that 
country. We have seen it taking place on the news.
  President Ahmadi-Nejad is enjoying liberties now in this country that 
are not available to his people. It would be easier to spend time in 
his own country developing these same civil liberties for individuals 
and renouncing terrorism rather than trying to go to the World Trade 
Center site where terrorists killed so many of our citizens.
  President Ahmadi-Nejad and Ayatollah Khamenei are not trustworthy 
leaders. The Iranian people do not enjoy freedom of speech. Their 
people do not have a free press. The Iranian Government represses women 
and minorities. They do not tolerate religions other than their own 
extreme version of Shia Islam.
  For example, consider the Baha'is of Iran. Since 1979, the Islamic 
Republic of Iran has blocked the Baha'is' access to higher education, 
refused them entry into universities and expelled them when they are 
discovered to be Baha'is.
  Recently, a 70-year-old man was sentenced to 70 lashes and a year in 
prison for ``propagating and spreading Bahaism and the defamation of 
the pure Imams''--a 70-year-old man, 70 lashes, a year in prison.
  We must stand with the teachers who are getting purged from academic 
institutions in Iran for speaking their minds, with the Iranian-
American scholars who are being arrested on trumped-up charges, and 
with newspaper editors who refuse to censor according to Government 
demands.
  Isn't it amazing that President Ahmadi-Nejad would see that taking 
place in his country and yet come here to enjoy our civil liberties of 
freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, to speak his mind when he 
cannot do it in his country? We should be reaching out to the students, 
the labor activists, and the brave leaders of Iran's fledgling civil 
society and offer our support for their views and for an open society 
in Iran. It is not only a moral imperative, but I believe it is also in 
the strategic interest of the United States and of people of civil 
societies in the West and throughout the world.
  This context is important as we consider the amendment offered by 
Senator Lieberman and Senator Kyl. Yesterday Ahmadi-Nejad claimed that 
Iran is a free country, where women are respected and life is good for 
the Iranian people. We know this is not true.
  Yesterday, we also heard from Ahmadi-Nejad that Iran does not want to 
attack Israel, that it is not meddling in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it 
does not want a nuclear weapon. We know this is not true. They are 
meddling in Iraq, attacking our troops with weapons developed in Iran. 
They have held conferences stating a world without Israel, a world 
without the United States.
  Iran's leaders would say the IRGC is not a threat, but we have no 
reason to believe them. In fact, we know the IRGC is killing our 
soldiers in Iraq. It is working with Hezbollah in Lebanon and it is 
present in other countries around the world advancing the agenda of the 
Supreme Leader in Iran.
  The IRGC is the very definition of a terrorist organization, and Iran 
as a nation is the lead sponsor of terrorism around the world. The IRGC 
should be designated formally as a terrorist organization so that the 
full power of the American Government can be applied to combating its 
activities. The IRGC is not a normal military arm of a sovereign 
government. It is the operational division of the world's most 
dangerous state sponsor of terrorism. If we think of terrorism as a 
threat, we must designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
  I hope the President of Iran will renounce terrorism and the support 
for terrorism today, although I know he will not.

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