[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 4677-4678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARIO DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2012

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I have great admiration for Mayor Rudy 
Giuliani. He is a courageous American leader who speaks with authority 
when it comes to the safety and security of the American people. On 
Saturday, March 24, 2012, on the occasion of the Iranian New Year, 
Nowrouz, Mayor Giuliani addressed a conference in Paris attended by 
nearly 1,000 people to discuss ways to counter the Iranian threat and 
standing with the people of Iran and their organized opposition.
  His remarks are crucial since they were preceded just a few days 
before by a campaign by unidentified U.S. Government officials who 
wanted to silence him and other senior former U.S. Government officials 
who had called for regime change in Iran and support for the Iranian 
opposition. Mayor Giuliani was flanked by other former officials 
including Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Homeland Security Secretary 
Tom Ridge, Ambassador John Bolton, Congressman Patrick Kennedy and 
others who called for the removal of the main Iranian opposition 
movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), from the list of Foreign 
Terrorist Organizations.
  They also called for the U.S. Government to uphold its written 
commitment to the safety and security of the 3,400 Iranian dissident 
residents of Camp Ashraf as well as those who relocated to Camp 
Liberty.
  Mayor Giuliani and his colleagues have extensive support in the U.S. 
Congress who commend their work. In this respect, nearly 100 of my 
colleagues have co-sponsored H. Res. 60, which calls on the Secretary 
of State to remove the MEK from the terrorist list. I am pleased to 
submit Mayor Giuliani's remarks in Paris.

       Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank 
     you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. 
     Thank you. I want to begin by joining Madam Rajavi in 
     expressing my deep sympathy and empathy and prayers for the 
     families of the victims of excessive fundamentalism here in 
     France. As mayor of a city that suffered that fate over ten 
     years ago, I think I have particular understanding of how 
     much pain and suffering that causes. I also want to join 
     Madam Rajavi in her pointing out that this is an example not 
     of Islam or the Islamic religion, but an example of how any 
     religion or ideology can be taken to excess by people who 
     misuse it. And I think the people of France understand that 
     as the people of America did.
       I also want to assure you, speaking for myself and so many 
     of my colleagues, that anonymous, cowardly sources in the 
     State Department or elsewhere who unknowingly are doing the 
     bidding of the mullahs don't frighten me, won't stop me, 
     won't stop any of us, ever.
       It would seem--thank you. It would seem to me that the 
     resources of my government could be better used to try to 
     figure out who these anonymous leakers are in the State 
     Department who seem to be doing the bidding of the Iranian 
     regime, rather than fighting for freedom and democracy and 
     decency in Iran. But if anything, this will just make us more 
     determined. I also want to congratulate all my colleagues who 
     have shown great courage in dealing with this, as I knew they 
     would. And really, it doesn't take a great deal of courage. 
     It just takes doing the right thing. We believe we are right. 
     We are aware of the pressures. And I'm going to tell you what 
     I believe and I'm also going to tell you how I think this can 
     be easily resolved in sort of a common sense, sensible way.
       First of all, I believe that, I believe that Camp Liberty 
     is an inhumane and indecent place. I don't believe it's a 
     detention facility at all. I think it's a prison camp. The 
     amount of space that's being given to the people there is a 
     couple of feet per person, well below the minimums for 
     American prisons, significantly below what's given to accused 
     terrorists at Guantanamo, for example. I believe it's a place 
     in which there are prison guards and police that menace the 
     people who now are at Camp Liberty.
       I believe that they are in danger, the people of Camp 
     Liberty are in danger of possibly having the same fate as the 
     people at Ashraf, of whom some 47 have already been killed, 
     11 in 2009 and 36 in 2011. And I believe that there is no 
     facility in Camp Liberty for processing these people the way 
     you would process people if, in fact, in good faith, America 
     and the UN were living up to their promise.
       Now, I believe all these things in my heart. I've seen 
     proof of it. I've seen indications of it. I've seen evidence 
     of it. But I guess I could be wrong. Here's the way to find 
     out. If the anonymous sources in the State Department are so 
     convinced of the validity of what they're saying, and I say 
     this with greatest respect also for the Secretary of State, 
     Mrs. Clinton, for whom I have a great deal of respect; send 
     me there. Let me go there. Let me see it with my own eyes. I 
     have eyes. I have a brain. I have senses. If you bring me 
     back, you can put me under oath and ask me to tell the truth 
     about it. I can bring a camera with me so that we don't have 
     to dispute whether I'm right or you're right. Let's see how 
     much space they have. Let's see how decent or indecent these 
     facilities are. Let's see if there are provisions being made 
     to relocate people or there are not. In other words, let's 
     see if my country that I love, the United States of America, 
     is living up to the promise that it made to the people of 
     Ashraf to protect them and to treat them decently or it's 
     breaking that promise. I promise you, I will tell the truth 
     about it if you let me go there.
       And if you don't want to send me, you can send Judge 
     Mukasey or Tom Ridge or Patrick Kennedy or four or five of us 
     and then you can put us before Congress and put us under oath 
     and I assure you, we'll tell the truth about it and we'll get 
     this resolved. Are we being misled or is the State Department 
     breaking its promise to the people of Ashraf? Let's get an 
     answer to it once and for all.
       I hope they take us seriously. And I hope they want to get 
     this resolved because this is truly a humanitarian issue of 
     gravest importance, above and beyond all of the other 
     political issues. Twelve hundred people have now been moved 
     to Camp Liberty. We are aware of what happened to the people 
     in Camp Ashraf in 2009 and in 2011, where Maliki, doing the 
     bidding of the Iranian government, had them killed. We have 
     grave fears that somehow that may happen again and we have 
     grave fears that this is not a decent, legitimate attempt to 
     relocate people.
       This has to be resolved. This is beyond all of the other 
     issues that are involved. Delisting, how to deal with the 
     Iranian regime. This is just a matter of common decency and I 
     am so disappointed. I can't express to you how disappointed I 
     am in my government and the way they've acted here. They made 
     a promise to protect these people and they are unwilling to 
     live up to that promise. And we are going to fight very, very 
     hard to make sure that they do.
       The second point that I would like to make is that I fear 
     that this is all part of a dangerous and misguided approach 
     that will yield many, many more problems beyond this. I 
     believe that my president and my country, at least with 
     regard to this policy, has a serious and dangerous 
     misconception that you can negotiate with the mullahs, that 
     you can negotiate with Ahmadinejad.
       I believe the President still is attempting to do that. 
     He's still writing letters to the Ayatollah. I can't imagine 
     what's in those

[[Page 4678]]

     letters. I don't even know how you begin a letter to an 
     ayatollah. Dear Ayatollah, your eminence, your holiness, or I 
     don't know what you call them, but in any event, President--
     Somehow I don't think letters are going to persuade him to 
     become humane, decent, to embrace democracy, and to stop 
     trying to develop nuclear weapons. I have a feeling that the 
     only thing that will stop him and the only thing that will 
     stop Ahmadinejad is if they see strength, if they see power, 
     if they see determination, if they see an America that is 
     willing to support the people that want to overthrow the 
     regime of Iran.
       We are for--America is and has participated and has been 
     for regime change in Egypt, regime change in Libya. We now 
     talk of regime change in Syria. All of which is fine, 
     particularly Syria. But much worse than all three combined is 
     the regime in Iran for the last 20 or 30 years. So how can we 
     possibly be for regime change in these three places, but 
     we're not for regime change in the worst actor in the region, 
     the biggest supporter of state sponsored terrorism in the 
     world, and the biggest opponent of the United States of 
     America, at least since 1980? So, how about we now are for 
     regime change in Iran and we side with the people like you 
     who hopefully can bring that about?
       There are people that say that you have no influence inside 
     Iran. The same anonymous sources from the State Department 
     then say that you're responsible for identifying Iranian 
     nuclear scientists that the Israeli agents are killing. Well, 
     you deny that. The Israelis deny that. But somehow I can't 
     figure out if these anonymous sources are talking to each 
     other. Either you have no influence inside Iran, in which 
     case you couldn't possibly be responsible for fingering and 
     identifying these scientists, or you have a lot of influence 
     inside Iran, which is something, you know, we should take 
     into consideration. So, these sources are so contradictory 
     that I don't know how anybody can rely on them.
       Here's what I know. You, Madam Rajavi and all of you, stand 
     for democracy. That's an American value. You stand for 
     freedom of religion. That's an American value. You stand for 
     a secular government. That's an American value. You stand for 
     due process of law. You stand for a non-nuclear Iran. You 
     stand for the rights of women. And these place that hates you 
     the most is the Iranian government. The EU has delisted you. 
     The United Kingdom has delisted you. I can't find any other 
     place that lists you as a terrorist group but two. Iran, and 
     they are executing people in Iran who they believe are 
     members of the PMOI. One is up for execution right now. That 
     shows how dangerous Iran thinks you are. I kind of get 
     encouraged by groups that Iran finds dangerous.
       So, I think it's about time that the Secretary of State 
     make a decision. Almost a year ago, she was ordered to make 
     that decision. It's supposed to be made in 180 days. Again, 
     from what I see, from the facts that I see--I don't have 
     possession of all the secret facts--but so far every single 
     fact that I've seen is that this organization stands for 
     everything that gives us hope of a decent life and a decent 
     future in Iran. And if there are any facts to the contrary, 
     then why is it taking so darn long to make this decision that 
     should have been made eight or nine or ten months ago? If you 
     have facts that are contrary to that, it's really easy to 
     write them and it's really easy to put it out there and it's 
     really easy to file the decision.
       So, I hope that over the course of the next several months, 
     we can accomplish two things. We can protect the people in 
     Ashraf who are moving to Camp Liberty. We can get there. We 
     can get to see it and we can allow them to make the changes 
     that might be necessary to make it a decent and livable 
     place. We can get them relocated to places where they can be 
     safe.
       And we can finally see a delisting of a decision that was 
     the wrong decision in the first place. It was a decision that 
     was intended to placate. It was a decision that was intended 
     to appease. It was a decision that was intended to try to set 
     up a dialogue years ago that never worked. And right now, the 
     enemy, the enemy of stopping a nuclear Iran is appeasement. 
     That's the enemy. That's the false notion that has made Iran 
     bolder, stronger, and more determined to become nuclear. 
     Let's stop the appeasement. Let's stop trying to negotiate. 
     Let's stop writing letters to the ayatollah. And let's stand 
     up, united as Americans in saying we are for regime change in 
     Iran and we will take any step necessary to stop Iran from 
     becoming nuclear. Thank you.

                          ____________________