[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 23, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E957-E958]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





     RUDY GIULIANI COMMENTS REGARDING THE IRANIAN REGIME OF TERROR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PAUL A. GOSAR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 23, 2019

  Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to include in the Record 
comments about the situation in Iran that I believe are relevant and 
should be widely shared. The comments, from former New York City Mayor 
and attorney to the U.S. President Rudy Giuliani, address peaceful 
regime change in Iran and the work of the Iranian Resistance. Giuliani 
delivered this speech at the International Gathering at Ashraf-3, 
Tirana, Albania, which is home to members of the Iranian opposition, 
the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK). More than 350 bipartisan dignitaries 
and parliamentarians from 47 countries attended the conference. I offer 
these comments for thoughtful discussion as follows:

       Giuliani: ``Thanks to you and particularly to the people 
     who live here in Ashraf 3. You'll be the ones who lead your 
     people to freedom and you'll be honored forever in Iranian 
     history and in the history of those who love and are willing 
     to die for freedom. God bless you.
       This organization has grown and grown and grown and I feel 
     in this room today a kind of optimism that I don't remember 
     feeling before when we were in Paris. I feel an optimism 
     maybe because you've done a miracle here in Ashraf. If we 
     were to build this in New York City, it would take 15 years 
     and 14 corruption investigations. I was here a year and a 
     half ago, this wasn't here.
       And of course, all of this is possible because of the 
     leadership of Madame Maryam Rajavi, a truly exceptional 
     leader. Just like her husband Massoud Rajavi, who began this 
     movement in one very brave act. He refused to swear 
     allegiance to the Supreme Leader Khomeini to his face. He 
     said, ``No, I will not swear allegiance to you. I will not 
     deliver my nation to a tyrant.''
       I'm here to say three things. First, I accuse the Ayatollah 
     and Rouhani and all of their sycophants and followers of mass 
     murder, crimes against humanity. We should be embarrassed for 
     our countries if they haven't stood up against this. There's 
     no middle ground here. These people have killed at least 
     120,000 members and associates of this great organization. 
     You see the book. You go through the sad, tragic, but heroic 
     exhibit they have of the martyrs to freedom. Look at the 
     photograph of the people in the infirmary being treated for 
     illness, slaughtered just a few years ago. Killed 52 of them 
     of the last 100 people who stayed at Ashraf, they tried to 
     wipe them all out. In 1988, in two months they slaughtered 
     30,000 people. These are not numbers, these are human lives.
       So there are three things that we have to do. Number one, 
     we have to get the governments of Europe to stand up, to wake 
     up, to reclaim their dignity and their honor. These are the 
     countries that gave us democracy. Greece, Rome, Italy, 
     France, United Kingdom, Germany, all places in which freedom 
     was born, democracy was born, democracy emerged. Democracy 
     for my nation came out of Europe and the experience of 
     Europe. So how can the leaders of those countries turn their 
     back on mass murder? How can they do it and live with 
     themselves? It's time to end that shameful disregard.
       There's no statute of limitations on murder. I prosecuted 
     two Nazis 40 years after their horrible deeds. One killed 
     20,000 people, the other killed 12,000 people and we found 
     them and it took years and we brought them to justice. The 
     people who slaughtered 30,000 people in 1988 should be 
     identified, they should be prosecuted, and they should either 
     be imprisoned for life or executed. They're criminals. 
     They're murderers. They're not leaders of countries. They are 
     no better than the murderer in the street except they're 
     worse because they're mass murderers.
       I am so proud of my government because we have stood up. We 
     looked at that agreement that would make Iran a nuclear power 
     and we said tear it up. We're not going to put nuclear 
     weapons in the hands of a maniac. Well, I say to the leaders 
     of Europe, you can be liberators too. You can go down in 
     history as fighters for freedom.
       Isn't that better than just running a government and making 
     money and giving blood money to Iran? How can you do commerce 
     with them? We all know they're the largest sponsor of 
     terrorism in the world. What does that mean? That means they 
     fund and they supply murderers not only in their own country 
     but all over the world. And when you give them money, when 
     you relieve them of a debt, which my government did in the 
     prior administration, and put over a billion dollars back in 
     their hands, you are supporting murder. What do they use it 
     for? Their people know, their people know that when they get 
     money, when a French company or a German company does 
     business with them, that money, that profit is going to be 
     used to kill people in Syria or to kill people somewhere else 
     or to send people to Albania to kill us or to send people to 
     France like they did last year to kill Madame Rajavi and us. 
     That's what they're funding, don't you realize it? That makes 
     you complicit in murder.
       Number two, let's make it clear, there is an alternative to 
     this horrible regime of terror. This isn't one of those 
     situations in which we have the choice of deposing a horrible 
     dictator and we don't know if a more horrible one will come 
     along. Right? And when we saw that happen, we saw it happen 
     in Egypt, in some ways we saw it happen in Libya.
       But here we don't have that problem. We've got the worst 
     regime in the world by far, the biggest sponsor of terrorism 
     in the world. And then we have the National Council, the 
     NCRI, led by the president-elect, Madame Rajavi. Coalition of 
     resistance organizations respected throughout the world. 
     There are representatives of most of the major countries in 
     the world here. They've gotten to know her. They've gotten to 
     respect her. In my country, she's thoroughly respected.
       We know there's a group of people who have been fighting 
     for freedom all their lives, who have lost the closest people 
     to them in the fight for freedom, who are dedicated to it.
       People here at Ashraf, let's make it clear. I spent a lot 
     of time with them. These are people who are dedicated to 
     freedom. And if you think that's a cult, then there's 
     something wrong with you. There's something missing in your 
     soul.
       But we know that there is a government in exile, it 
     negotiates with the whole world, and it's written down plain 
     as can be what it stands for. And it looks just like our Bill 
     of Rights, just like the universal declarations of freedom 
     and decency and human rights enshrined in the great documents 
     of the world. Free elections within six months is the 
     promise, and I believe it will be fulfilled. They're for 
     gender equality. They're for human rights. They're for a 
     system of law. They're for we don't imprison someone unless 
     they have a fair trial. And because of their history, they 
     oppose capital punishment, because there's been too much of 
     it. And it isn't just capital punishment, it's murder in 
     their country. This is a good organization. And it's an 
     organization that is ready, willing and able not to take over 
     Iran but to guide Iran to elections as quickly as possible 
     and hopefully they will be part of the coalition governing 
     Iran like they're part of the coalition that is trying to 
     guide Iran to freedom. This is a group that we can support. 
     It's a group that we should stop maligning and it's a group 
     that should make us comfortable having regime change in the 
     worst regime in the world.
       Here's what you can do. You can be a witness like in the 
     Biblical sense of a witness. You know something that a lot of 
     people don't know. You know really how bad it is in Iran. And 
     you know about MEK. And you know about Madame Rajavi. And you 
     know the truth, not the lies, ``the cult, they don't have 
     support in Iran.'' Why has the Ayatollah been murdering them 
     for 40 years if they don't have support in Iran? The 
     Ayatollah, Rouhani, have said that this organization is the 
     only one that's really a danger to them.
       You now have a responsibility because of your knowledge. 
     Don't be euphemistic about it. Don't hide your eyes. You've 
     got to get the leaders of your country to stand up so you can 
     all be proud of your country and its heritage.
       I get attacked and my colleagues who will be here in a 
     moment get attacked all the time in America. Why we're doing 
     this? We're doing it really very simply because we love 
     freedom and we can't turn our back on people who are being 
     treated this way and we can't turn our back on a situation 
     that could be catastrophic for them and catastrophic for the 
     world. You know what I say to them? Keep doing it. Keep doing 
     it. I wear it as a badge of honor. I support freedom, you 
     support oppression. I support democracy, you support a 
     dictatorship. I support decent people who share the values of 
     decent governments, and you support mass murderers. Now who's 
     right and who's wrong?
       But I know and I feel as I've told you, and I know why 
     there's an optimism in this room. Because we're going to be 
     in Tehran much sooner than all those cynics believe. You know 
     why? [Because we are Hazer, Hazer, Hazer. (We're ready).''

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