[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22709]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  AMERICAN POSITION AGAINST TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I stood on this floor about 3 
years ago and called upon the United States to clearly define its 
position toward what is now the world's largest state sponsor of 
terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
  I then called upon the IAEA to refer Iran to the Security Council 
because I believed then that what Western intelligence has long 
suspected about Iran and what it seems that President Obama is now just 
beginning to realize, Iran is systematically and relentlessly pursuing 
the development of nuclear weapons.
  Today's revelation that they have a second uranium facility at Qom 
should remove all doubt in any reasonable person's mind about their 
inevitable intentions. Yet today's announcement at the G-20 summit by 
the leaders of Britain, France and the United States reveal that Iran 
has been covertly operating and developing a new underground uranium 
enrichment facility at Qom.
  It is disgracefully ironic that today's announcement comes only a 
week after announcing our abandonment of the European missile defense 
site which could have protected the homeland of the United States 
against Iranian long-range missiles, and only one day after President 
Obama chaired a United Nations Security Council specifically addressing 
the need to halt the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the world. 
Unbelievably, the resolution passed by the Security Council, under 
President Obama's leadership, omitted any mention whatsoever of either 
North Korea or Iran.
  But regardless of the Security Council's failure to explicitly 
address the real and present danger that the peace-loving world faces 
because of Iran's nuclear ambitions, the fact is that Iran has already 
disregarded three previous rounds of Security Council sanctions and has 
continued to aggressively pursue a nuclear weapons capability, 
including building this underground facility and testing the long-range 
ballistic missiles that could be used to deliver a nuclear payload.

                              {time}  1215

  We have reached a crossroads with Iran, Mr. Speaker, that will result 
in one of two outcomes: either Iran transforms the geopolitical 
landscape by becoming a nuclear power that proliferates nuclear and 
missile technology to terrorists throughout the world and then 
threatens the very existence of countries like Israel; or, by the 
world's inaction, we place the tiny country of Israel in the 
unavoidable position of having to act unilaterally with military force 
to protect themselves and humanity from the threat a nuclear Iran would 
represent to the entire civilized world. We must not place Israel in 
that position, Mr. Speaker.
  President Obama's announcement today also offered no assurance and, 
in fact, was a weaker statement than the statement given by Prime 
Minister Brown and President Sarkozy, who rightly said that we live in 
the real world, not the virtual world, and that the real world requires 
leaders to make decisions to act.
  With its languishing economy and literally centuries' worth of 
natural gas reserves, Iran's claim that it seeks nuclear capability 
solely for peaceful purposes is ridiculous beyond my ability to 
express.
  It is now open knowledge that for years North Korea gave false 
overtures that it would engage in negotiations over its nuclear program 
while holding every deliberate intention to continue its covert 
development of its nuclear program. We are lying to ourselves and to 
the world that similar overtures, if made from Iran, will be any less 
disingenuous. And the implications for our children and our future 
generations are profoundly significant, Mr. Speaker.
  The world must act. As one former Israeli Ambassador put it, ``The 
game is over.'' Iran is no longer progressing but has now reached the 
endgame of diplomatic relations.
  Mr. Speaker, I am in favor of every sanction and diplomatic effort 
possible to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities. However, 
ultimately I am convinced the only two things that will stop Iran from 
becoming a nuclear armed nation and proliferating nuclear terrorism 
globally in the future will either be a direct military intervention 
from America or other nations, or the absolute conviction in the minds 
of the Iranian regime that that will occur if their march toward 
gaining nuclear weapons continues.
  The world must act, Mr. Speaker. For the sake of freedom and for all 
that free people love, Iran must not be allowed to progress one step 
further in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

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