[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2446-H2449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE DANGER OF IRAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. You know, Mr. Speaker, it is sad that the 
chains of bondage are often too light to be felt until they are too 
strong to be broken. History has shown humanity to be susceptible to 
malignant dangers that approach inaudibly and nestle among us until the 
day of sudden calamity comes and finds us empty-handed, brokenhearted, 
and without excuse. The ominous intersection of jihadist terrorism and 
nuclear proliferation has been inextricably and relentlessly rolling 
toward America and the free world for decades. Mr. Speaker, this menace 
is now nearly upon us, and it represents the gravest short-term threat 
to the peace and security of the human family in the world today.
  The Islamic Republic of Iran, due to the jihadist ideology of its 
leaders, represents a particularly significant danger to America and 
her allies. It was 31 years ago that the Iranian Revolution occurred, 
and that nation's relentless march to jihad was born. Shortly 
thereafter, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a few other Islamic revolutionaries 
led a student revolt that shocked and defied the world when they 
kidnapped and held 53 American hostages for 444 days. Then during the 
Iraq-Iran war, Mr. Speaker, the Iranian regime again shocked the entire 
world with its brazen barbarity when reports surfaced that Iran was 
clearing the way for its tanks by using a force they referred to as the 
Basij. This was a phalanx formation of child soldiers and old men that 
they would recruit from the streets with promises of glorious rewards 
for their self-sacrifice. This was signified by plastic keys that were 
given to the children to wear around their necks in order for them to 
unlock the gates of heaven as they marched to their own bloody deaths.
  Between 1980 and 1988, Mr. Speaker, Iran's radical leaders sacrificed 
an estimated 100,000 innocent Iranian children in this gruesome 
process. Row upon row would be marched into battle, falling under the 
rapid fire of the enemy's machine guns and clearing minefields with 
their own bodies to make way for Iranian tanks. This, Mr. Speaker, is 
the ideology that gives rise to Iran's now-President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad. Those radicalized, brainwashed, Basij forces have now come 
of age and are among Mr. Ahmadinejad's strongest supporters. And today 
the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran has now led his Nation to 
become the world's largest sponsor of terrorism.
  President Ahmadinejad was speaking to the whole world when he said, 
``And you for your part, if you would like to have good relations with 
the Iranian nation in the future, recognize the Iranian nation's 
greatness and bow down before the greatness of the Iranian nation and 
surrender. If you don't accept to do this, the Iranian nation will 
later force you to surrender and bow down.''
  How can we possibly trust such a man to have his finger on a button 
that could launch nuclear missiles aimed at our families? And how would 
we negotiate with a nuclear Iran when their jihadist ideology considers 
Armageddon a good thing and believes that it is God's will for them to 
annihilate America and Israel? Despite claiming to desire peace, 
Ahmadinejad has consistently undermined every advancement toward peace 
in the Middle East by supporting terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, 
Hamas, and Shiite insurgents, and militias in Iraq responsible for 
killing and maiming U.S. and coalition forces and countless innocent 
citizens.
  What possesses us, Mr. Speaker, to believe that they would not do the 
very same with nuclear weapons? Mr. Speaker, Iran has recently begun to 
enrich uranium to beyond 20 percent, which is four times the amount 
necessary for peaceful domestic energy production. It also means that 
they are 70 percent of the way to weapons-grade uranium capable of 
fueling nuclear warheads. Iran's leaders still claim that they're just 
enriching uranium for solely peaceful intentions, Mr. Speaker. But the 
IAEA put it this way: ``We are being asked to believe that Iran is 
building uranium enrichment capacity to make fuel for reactors that do 
not exist.''
  Over the last several years, Iran has shifted its stories with each 
well-documented discovery about its enrichment efforts by the IAEA. 
First it claimed it had no centrifuge program whatsoever. Then it 
claimed it had only done a limited amount of centrifuge testing. And 
now we know, in fact, that Iran possesses not a few but thousands of 
centrifuges. Mr. Speaker, if the Iranian enrichment program is only for 
producing nuclear power plants for fuel, why have they continuously 
deceived the world and hidden it for three decades?
  With its languishing economy and literally centuries worth of natural 
gas reserves, Iran's claim that it seeks nuclear capability solely for 
peaceful purpose is ridiculous beyond my ability to express, Mr. 
Speaker. Iran has disregarded three previous rounds of security council 
sanctions and has repeatedly misled the IAEA.

                              {time}  2200

  They have built underground enrichment facilities at that Natanz and 
the newly discovered underground facility at Qom, and they've continued 
to test the long-range ballistic missiles that could be used to deliver 
a nuclear payload.
  Mr. Speaker, back in 2005, I stood on this floor and called for Iran 
to be referred to the United Nations Security Council. At that time 
Iran had fewer than 150 centrifuges. Today the Iranian program now 
includes over 8,000 centrifuges. And only a total of maybe 3,000, Mr. 
Speaker, is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment 
program that can be used as a platform for a full scale industrial 
program capable of churning out enough enriched uranium for dozens of 
nuclear war heads.
  The IAEA reports that Iran has already manufactured enough uranium 
hexafluoride to ultimately manufacture at least 20 nuclear warheads.
  It's also been reported that Iran has experimented with polonium, Mr. 
Speaker. Now, Mr. Speaker, polonium is a radioactive isotope with only 
one known purpose on this entire Earth, and that is to trigger a 
nuclear explosion.
  Iran has a multiple medium-range ballistic missile program. Based on 
the success of their medium range Shahab III, Iran is now attempting to 
develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Shahab IV, the Shahab 
V and the Shahab VI, and the Simorgh two-stage rocket.
  The regime only last year successfully launched its first satellite. 
Mr. Speaker, this is the same technology necessary to integrate a 
nuclear warhead and an intercontinental ballistic missile.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, this brings me to something even more ominous. 
There

[[Page H2447]]

is growing evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear high altitude 
electromagnetic pulse weapon, or an EMP, capability. An EMP attack on 
America, Mr. Speaker, would consist of a nuclear blast detonated at 
high altitude which would instantaneously generate an electromagnetic 
pulse that would be spread out over our homeland at the speed of light 
with devastating effect. In evidence of this, Iran has practiced 
launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. 
It has also tested high altitude explosions using the Shahab III, a 
test mode consistent with an EMP attack and described the tests as 
successful. Experts have no other explanation for this type of test 
than that it was an effort to develop an EMP capability.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, it would only take one such weapon properly 
designed and delivered to critically damage our country's electrical 
grid. According to some experts in such a scenario, an estimated 
percentage of 70 to 90 percent of the population of the United States 
would become unsustainable.
  Mr. Speaker, it is impossible for me to even wrap my mind around that 
figure or that scenario. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with the 
high altitude electromagnetic pulse threat, let me extensively quote 
for a moment Dr. William Graham, the chairman of the EMP Commission who 
testified before the House Armed Services Committee on the threat to 
the United States from an EMP attack. He states: ``EMP is one of a 
small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of 
catastrophic consequences. The electromagnetic fields produced by EMP 
weapons deployed with the intent to produce EMP have a high likelihood 
of damaging electrical power systems, electronics and information 
systems upon which American society depends. Their effects on critical 
infrastructures could be sufficient to qualify as catastrophic to the 
Nation.
  A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack without really 
having a high level of sophistication. For example, an adversary would 
not have to have long-range ballistic missiles to conduct an EMP attack 
against the United States. Such an attack could be launched from a 
freighter off the U.S. coast using a short- or medium-range missile to 
loft a nuclear warhead to high altitude.
  Mr. Speaker, I just don't know how to put it any clearer. Terrorists 
sponsored by a rogue state could potentially execute such an attack, 
and they could do so without even revealing their identity.
  Mr. Speaker, an effective EMP attack on America would send this 
Nation back to the horse and buggy era without the horse and buggy. For 
terrorists, this is their ultimate goal. An EMP, I am afraid, could be 
the ultimate asymmetric weapon.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, there are two things in history that have 
supercharged worldwide recruitment and incitement for jihad. First was 
the taking of our hostages in Iran. And second was the tragedy that 
occurred on 9/11.
  A nuclear attack on Israel or America would activate and accelerate 
jihad worldwide in ways that we can only begin to imagine. If Iran is 
allowed to develop nuclear weapons, our entire world reality changes, 
Mr. Speaker.
  First, containing nuclear proliferation becomes almost hopeless. 
President Obama's idyllic vision of working toward a nuclear-free world 
would be absolutely dead. Iran is a threshold state, and its nuclear 
program is already on the brink of catalyzing nuclear proliferation 
throughout the entire Middle East. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey all have 
signaled their interest or intent to become a nuclear power if Iran 
does. Ahmadinejad is in fact quoted as saying, ``Iran is ready to 
transfer nuclear know-how to other Islamic nations due to their need.''
  A nuclear Iran also means the Arab-Israeli peace process would be 
dead. Our security assurances to our allies in the region would be 
drastically weakened, and America might well be forced to extend its 
nuclear umbrella, Mr. Speaker.
  Moreover, any leverage over the Iranian dictatorship that we might 
once have possessed will now be completely lost.
  Mr. Speaker, if Iran attains nuclear weapons capability despite our 
demands that its nuclear program be dismantled, what reason will that 
regime ever have again to believe America's word actually means 
anything?
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, there is more. Iran is the world's 
largest state sponsor of terrorism, and it continues to brazenly 
provide support, whether finances, weapons or warfighters, to its 
proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and other jihadist terror groups.
  It should send a chill down our spines to consider that the same 
willingness Iran has demonstrated to proliferate missile technology to 
its terrorist proxies would undoubtedly also become a willingness to 
proliferate nuclear weapons technology to those same terrorists.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1988, Osama bin Laden called it a religious duty for 
al Qaeda to acquire nuclear weapons. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, ``My worst nightmare is 
terrorists with nuclear weapons. Not only do I know they are trying to 
get them, but I know they will use them.''
  This is the greatest danger of all, Mr. Speaker. If Iran does step 
over that nuclear threshold, rogue regimes and terrorists world over 
will then have the access to these monstrous weapons. No wonder the 
State of Israel is concerned.
  Mr. Speaker, Israel remains the truest friend America has in this 
world. And yet, in recent days, Israel has received more open rebuke 
from the Obama administration for plans to build houses in Jerusalem 
than Iran has received for building a secret uranium enrichment 
facility to build nuclear weapons that would threaten the entire world. 
It astonishes me, Mr. Speaker. And may I remind this administration 
that Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the capital of the nation of 
Israel founded and built by the ancient people of Israel 3,000 years 
ago. And when this administration criticizes Israel, do they not 
understand that Israel's enemies and ours see it as weakening of the 
Israeli-American alliance and an opportunity to boldly advance violence 
against Israel and the hegemony of our common enemies in the Middle 
East.

  Israel and America need each other now as much as we ever have, Mr. 
Speaker, because nuclear Iran presents a threat to the paradigm of 
freedom for the entire world, and it truly represents a fundamental 
existential threat to the State of Israel.
  A Jewish author, Primo Levi, was once asked what he had learned from 
the Holocaust. He replied, When a man with a gun says he's going to 
kill you, believe him.
  At this moment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who, in 
the same breath, both denies the Holocaust ever occurred and then 
threatens to make it happen again, is arrogantly holding a gun with 
which he vows to wipe the State of Israel off the map.
  In June of 2008, Ahmadinejad again made clear where he stands. 
``Israel,'' he declared, ``is about to die and will soon be erased from 
the geographical scene.''

                              {time}  2210

  Ahmadinejad has also said, ``Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn 
in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury.''
  Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said, ``We have 
discovered how to hit the Jews, where they are most vulnerable. The 
Jews love life, so that is what we will take away from them. We are 
going to win because they love life and we love death.''
  Mr. Speaker, indeed it seems that Hitler's ghost still walks through 
the streets of Tehran.
  In December 2001, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani was 
commenting on the possibility of an Israeli retaliation after an 
Iranian nuclear strike. He said, ``The use of an atomic bomb against 
Israel would destroy Israel completely while the same against the 
Islamic world would only cause damages. Such a scenario is not 
inconceivable.''
  Mr. Speaker, the small nation of Israel could fit geographically into 
my congressional district almost three times. An Iranian Shahab III 
missile can reach Israel in 12 minutes. If Iran can develop and attach 
a medium-size nuclear warhead to that missile, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem 
could be ashes within 15 minutes after the missile was launched from 
Iran. If the warhead was detonated above the atmosphere over Israel in 
an EMP attack, the entire Jewish nation could be completely 
incapacitated. Israel missile defenses

[[Page H2448]]

would only have about a 50-50 chance of knocking down even just the 
first of such missiles.
  Mr. Speaker, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said many years ago: 
``In our long war with the Arabs, Israel has always had a secret 
weapon: no alternative.''
  Mr. Speaker, Israel has very few options and no margin for error.
  Israel understands that Iran is currently ruled by a regime whose 
present leaders embrace an evil, poisonous ideology that causes mothers 
to leap for joy when their children blow themselves to pieces so they 
can kill other innocent human beings. And a responsible Israeli leader 
facing a mortal threat from a nuclear armed terrorist state will do 
whatever is necessary to defend his people.
  Mr. Speaker, Israel will not be made to walk silently into the gas 
chambers again.
  And when the day comes when the head of Israeli intelligence tells 
the prime minister that Iran is on the brink of an operational nuclear 
weapons capability, Israel will act, and in their own self-defense, and 
no one will have any right to blame them.
  So let me say this, Mr. Speaker: If and when the people of Israel 
find themselves with no time left and no choice but to defend 
themselves by taking preemptive military action to prevent Iran from 
gaining nuclear weapons, the Obama administration will owe an apology 
to the whole world for failing to act, but especially to Israel for 
leaving them with no choice but to act on behalf of all of us.
  America and the western world will then have a moral responsibility 
to stand with Israel in whatever follows.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a moment in the life of every problem when it 
is big enough to be seen by a reasonable person and still small enough 
to be solved. Almost 5 years ago, I stood at this podium and called 
upon the United States to recognize that Iran was pursuing nuclear 
weapons and should be referred to the Security Council. Soon 
thereafter, Iran announced it had enriched uranium using an array of 
164 centrifuges. Today, Iran has over 8,000 centrifuges.
  Mr. Speaker, our predictive timetables have also often been wrong 
altogether. Both North Korea and Iran stunned the international 
community with the extent and rapidity of their development of missile 
capabilities. In 1998, the intelligence community said North Korea was 
years away from developing long range missiles. And then on August 31 
of that same year, North Korea launched a Taepodong-1 missile that 
landed between Japan and Hawaii. And of course, Mr. Speaker, North 
Korea now has nuclear weapons.
  Today it is also clear that the 2007 NIE report on Iran woefully 
underestimated the urgency of the Iranian nuclear threat. My point, Mr. 
Speaker, is so very simple. We are running out of time to prevent Iran 
from gaining nuclear weapons.
  But where is the Obama administration? While some of the greatest 
security threats in a generation are rushing upon this one, the Obama 
administration has been busy insulting our friends and emboldening our 
enemies, all the while taxing and borrowing and spending our economy 
into such a place of vulnerability that our capacity to respond to 
these threats in the future will be demonstrably diminished. And when 
it comes to the growing incontrovertible danger of a nuclear armed 
Iran, this administration has been asleep at the wheel, Mr. Speaker.
  During Mr. Obama's entire tenure, the administration's policy toward 
Iran has been appeasement, denial, broken deadlines, and talk of 
sanctions. And now just today--just today--the Wall Street Journal 
reports that the administration actually plans to soften its position 
on sanctions toward Iran.
  Mr. Speaker, it is becoming very clear that the Obama administration 
has now embraced an unspoken policy of allowing Iran to develop nuclear 
weapons and is even now preparing to embrace a policy of containment 
afterwards. This administration's refusal to make the hard choices now 
translates into capitulation and acquiescence to Iran's fanatical goal. 
What an inexplicably naive and inexpressibly dangerous policy.
  Whatever challenges there are in dealing with Iran today, Mr. 
Speaker, they will pale in comparison to the dangers of dealing with 
them after they have gained nuclear weapons. Because once that 
threshold is crossed, Mr. Speaker, Iran will be able to pass that 
technology and those weapons on to the most dangerous terrorists in the 
world. And this administration and so many to come will face the 
horrifying reality of nuclear jihad. And those of us who have been 
blessed to walk in the sunlight of freedom in this day will be 
consigning our children to walk in the minefield of nuclear terrorism 
tomorrow. If the Obama administration allows this to happen, Mr. 
Speaker, future generations will remember it as a treacherous betrayal 
of the entire human family.
  Seven decades ago, a murderous ideology arose in the world. The dark 
shadow of the Nazi swastika fell first upon the Jewish people of 
Germany. And because the world did not respond in time to such an evil, 
it began to spread across Europe until it lit the fires of World War II 
and the hell on earth that followed. It saw atomic bombs fall on cities 
and over 50 million people dead worldwide. All because, Mr. Speaker, 
the world's free people did not respond in time.
  History has taught us that evil ideologies must ultimately be 
defeated in the minds of human beings, but in the meantime they must 
often be defeated upon the battlefield.
  Mr. Speaker, our choice with Iran is no longer a choice between the 
way the world is now and the way the world might be after a military 
strike to prevent them from gaining nuclear weapons. No, our ultimate 
choice now is between what the world will be like after a preemptive 
strike on Iran or what the world will be like after Iran gains nuclear 
weapons.
  Mr. Speaker, we are out of time. America must absolutely make the 
necessary decision to impede Iran's nuclear program through the 
immediate imposition of comprehensive, coordinated and crippling 
economic sanctions, both unilaterally and in concert with our allies, 
to strike at Iran's petroleum trade and its finances. These actions 
must be taken regardless of our success or failure within the United 
Nations Security Council.

  We must also actively work to support Iran's courageous and noble 
dissidents and assure them that America stands with them in their quest 
for democracy and freedom. Their protests represent what may be one of 
the very last remaining hopes for peacefully destabilizing the regime 
and sending it toppling into the dust of history once and for all.
  But finally, Mr. Speaker, let there be no mistake. It must be 
unequivocally clear to the radical leaders of Iran that military action 
will occur if they continue in their maniacal pursuit of nuclear 
weapons.
  For these reasons, I have introduced a bill called the Peace Through 
Strength Act which would express support for the Iranian dissidents and 
would significantly expand economic sanctions against Iran and those 
nations that continue to do business with Iran including in banking and 
in oil. My bill would also require that the Secretary of Defense would 
be required to develop and maintain viable military options to prevent 
the successful development or deployment of a nuclear weapons 
capability by the Government of Iran.

                              {time}  2220

  So in closing, Mr. Speaker, may I remind us all that we face an enemy 
in jihad that's even more insidious than Soviet communism and we live 
in a time when a terrorist state is on the brink of developing nuclear 
weapons. I think Brink Lindsey said it best. He said, ``Here is the 
grim truth. We are only one act of madness away from a social cataclysm 
unlike anything our country has ever known. After a handful of such 
acts, who knows what kind of civilizational breakdown might be in 
store?''
  Mr. Speaker, I am afraid that the last window we will ever have to 
stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons is very rapidly closing.
  So I end my comments tonight with Winston Churchill's prescient 
warning to the leaders of his day. He said, ``If you will not fight for 
the right when you can easily win without blood shed, if you will not 
fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come 
to a moment when you have to fight, with all the odds against and

[[Page H2449]]

only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse moment. You 
may have to fight when there is no hope of victory because it is still 
better to perish than to live as slaves.''
  Mr. Speaker, let us resolve for the sake of our children and for 
future generations that we of this generation will do all within our 
power to prevent a dark chapter in history being written on our watch 
and to hasten a day when Iran and its proxies will no longer be able to 
threaten the world with nuclear jihad, and when the persecuted and 
repressed and noble citizens of Iran can walk together with free 
peoples across this world in the sunlight of human liberty. God let it 
be, Mr. Speaker.

                          ____________________