[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16051-16053]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        IRAN AND DEVELOPMENTS FOLLOWING THE JOINT PLAN OF ACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Franks) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor tonight 
because I know that in a short period of time it appears that the 
President of the United States will issue an executive order related to 
immigration that could very well be outside the constitutional limits 
of his authority.
  And I believe that is going to create a great reaction in this 
country, Mr. Speaker. As important as it may be, it is also going to 
coincide with the date of November 24, when the interim agreement that 
this President signed with the nation of Iran will essentially expire. 
Then it will either be renewed or some type of agreement will be 
reached--or the effort will be abandoned.
  I am deeply concerned that the importance of this event could be 
obscured by the media frenzy that potentially will follow this 
President's executive order on immigration.
  So I come to the floor tonight to speak to that issue, Mr. Speaker, 
because the pursuit of nuclear weapons by the nation of Iran is an 
issue of the most profound significance to the national security of 
this country and to the peace and security of the entire world.
  It seems very important to me that we do not let that issue be 
obscured by others, as important as they may be.
  Mr. Speaker, those of us in this body are all too familiar with the 
endless parade of terror groups that have seemingly come onto the world 
stage in recent years.
  But if we are startled by the rapid rise of ISIS and its subsequent 
march across the Middle East, during which it has beheaded, raped, 
crucified, and sold into sex slavery scores of men, women, and children 
alike; if we are concerned about the crushing video of the innocent 
woman whose hands and feet were

[[Page 16052]]

tied to two cars that subsequently drove in opposite directions and 
ripped her in half, or the Christians who were beheaded and whose 
decapitated heads were used as soccer balls;
  If we are outraged at the activities of Boko Haram and its brutal 
displays of violence against any group that doesn't stand alongside its 
inhuman ideology, including its raids and its bombings across Nigeria, 
its systematic abduction of young schoolgirls, as young as 12, who are 
said to be raped every day in their months of captivity;
  If we are shocked at the activities of al Shabaab, whose attacks have 
killed hundreds upon hundreds of civilians, including teenage girls 
lined up before firing squads as well as the numerous suicide bombings 
and other such horrific methods;
  If we recoil at the thought of groups such as the Taliban, whose 
atrocious violations of basic human rights, roadside bombings, and 
suicide attacks marked so much of the United States' early struggle in 
Afghanistan;
  If we recall, as so many of us do, precisely where we were when we 
learned of al Qaeda's attack on September 11 that claimed thousands of 
innocent American lives, just one of those senseless attacks by that 
group;
  Mr. Speaker, if we are stunned and outraged at this rise of militant 
Islam in the world, then, sir, how will we feel if we allow President 
Barack Obama to stand idly by and watch the world's largest state 
sponsor of terrorism, this deranged Islamist regime in Iran, lay hold 
upon nuclear weapons?
  Mr. Speaker, shortly before the midterm elections earlier this month, 
President Obama penned a so-called letter of collaboration to Iran's 
Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
  This is the same Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who just a couple of days ago 
released his detailed, nine-step plan on how to wipe Israel off of the 
map.
  Mr. Obama's incredibly naive attempt at collaboration is with a man 
whose sermons have included such edifying lines as ``The Zionist cancer 
is gnawing into the lives of Islamic nations.''
  This is just one of the recent very telling glimpses at just how out 
of touch with reality this President truly is as Iran continues its 
sprint toward a nuclear weapons capability.
  The Obama State Department was recently confronted by the somehow 
shocking revelation that Iran was now defying the interim agreement by 
feeding uranium into the IR5, the most technologically advanced 
centrifuge currently available in the world.
  Inexplicably, Mr. Speaker, the administration responded with the sort 
of naivete that has become so characteristic of Obama foreign policy, 
stating: ``We raised that issue with Iran as soon as the International 
Atomic Energy Agency reported it. The Iranians have confirmed that they 
will not continue that activity as cited in the IAEA report, so it's 
been resolved.''
  To rephrase that, upon learning that the world's largest state 
sponsor of terrorism had defied an agreement on which the safety of the 
free world ostensibly rests and that indeed Iran was still conducting 
activities that could help it obtain nuclear weapons with which to 
carry out its threats to destroy the United States, the Obama 
Administration, so sophisticated is their ``understanding'' of what is 
presumably a tragically misunderstood Iranian regime, was assured by a 
pinky promise that the Iranians won't do it again.
  Mr. Speaker, such naivete would be heartwarming on an elementary 
school playground, but on the world stage, when this President seems 
poised to personally usher in an age of nuclear terrorism, it becomes a 
very grave thing indeed.
  Mr. Speaker, this administration's attempted punitive measures have 
been so halfhearted and demonstrably ineffective that they have at 
times actually benefited the world's largest state sponsor of 
terrorism.
  For instance, last week, the organization United Against Nuclear Iran 
released its updated analysis of the joint plan of action. That is the 
plan agreed upon by this administration and the Iranian regime. The 
Iranian government reported a 4.6 percent increase in their gross 
domestic product for the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar 
year compared to that same period last year.
  According to the Central Bank of Iran, this is the first time the 
Iranian economy has experienced positive growth in more than 2 years.

                              {time}  1830

  Meanwhile, Iran's inflation is down 24 percent since July 2013, from 
an estimated 45 percent to 21.1 percent at the end of September. In 
fact, Mr. Speaker, the entire Iranian Stock Exchange has seen a 57 
percent increase since roughly this time last year.
  Mr. Speaker, how bitterly ironic that this President has done more to 
benefit the Tehran Stock Exchange than he has done to benefit the New 
York Stock Exchange.
  These statistics directly controvert assertions made by 
administration officials that, despite the sanctions relief provided 
under the joint plan of action, Iran would still find itself even 
deeper in the economic hole. That is what they told us, Mr. Speaker.
  Let us not forget that Iran's economic bounce, which is occurring in 
the midst of what are supposedly sanctions designed to punish its 
economy, follows an agreement, the meaning of which neither party can 
even agree upon.
  The Iranian regime has publicly stated its belief that the 
agreement--which specifically references an ``inalienable right'' to 
use nuclear energy--guarantees Iran's right to continue enriching 
uranium. That is contrary to all of the U.N. Council resolutions saying 
that they had to dismantle such capability. The White House, meanwhile, 
has stated that it doesn't understand the agreement to mean that.
  From Iran's perspective, Mr. Speaker, they have signed on to an 
agreement that gives them a guaranteed right to ongoing uranium 
enrichment, giving them a breakout capability that--for a nuclear 
weapons capability not within years but rather within months, and then, 
as a reward for signing that agreement, which gives them nearly 
everything they have ever wanted, the Obama administration has also 
agreed to lift sanctions, providing a further boon to the Iranian 
economy.
  Mr. Speaker, what part of this approach is supposed to convince the 
jihadist Iranian leadership that they should reconsider their current 
course? Is it our concession to their nuclear rights? Is it our help in 
facilitating an economic windfall for them?
  Just last week, a Wall Street Journal op-ed revealed that an upcoming 
London forum will bring together Iranian firms with a range of 
international counterparts--ranging from law offices, telecom 
operations, business consultancies, and even art auction houses--to 
explore how capital might be moved into Iran as the country transitions 
into a ``post-sanctions'' environment.
  This is hardly the face of an Iran that fears the effect Mr. Obama's 
sanctions will have on what looks to be a very lucrative future.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps we could see some method to this madness if, for 
example, the President had managed to secure other concessions from the 
Iranian Government, a commitment perhaps to address its atrocious human 
rights record; instead, the election of Hassan Rouhani--again, a man 
heralded by many on the left as a harbinger of a more reasonable era in 
Iran--what has transpired has been described by some as an ``execution 
binge,'' with nearly two executions occurring every day, often 
performed as a public spectacle as a punishment for such times as 
refusing to convert to Islam.
  In fact, since Rouhani's election last year, over 900 such executions 
have taken place. Meanwhile, Mr. Rouhani's promise to ease Internet 
restrictions remains unfulfilled. An American pastor and a citizen of 
the United States of America remains in prison in Iran, where he has 
been tortured for his Christian faith.
  Mr. Speaker, no matter how one may try to give this President the 
benefit of the doubt, there is simply no way to

[[Page 16053]]

make the Obama approach make any reasonable sense.
  If the goal has been to keep Iran from being able to obtain a nuclear 
weapon, then Mr. Obama has failed. If the goal has been to punish the 
Iranian economy for the regime's radical pursuit of nuclear weapons, 
then Mr. Obama has failed.
  If the goal has been to have an impact on Iran's human rights record, 
then Mr. Obama has failed. If the goal was to reduce the chances of the 
world's children stepping into the shadow of nuclear terrorism, then 
Mr. Obama has failed.
  This President's only conceivable victory lies in his hope that, like 
a would-be modern Richard Nixon opening the doors to China, history 
will somehow consider Mr. Obama a hero for blazing new trails into Iran 
and for his mindless refusal to take the Iranian regime at its word, no 
matter how many times they have expressed that their real goal is the 
destruction of America and Israel.
  Mr. Speaker, very simply, the Obama foreign policy is a gutless 
political correctness on the global stage. It is the cynical pursuit of 
legacy without regard for the cause of human freedom. It is the belief 
that tepid appeals to some hollow concept of tolerance are all that are 
necessary to tame the most savage of beasts.
  The entire Obama legacy, Mr. Speaker, rests on the desperate hope 
that history will hand out an award for blind trust in the promises of 
jihadists.
  Mr. Speaker, former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton once 
said:

       Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance 
     U.S. interests.

  This President's take on that principle seems to be:

       U.S. interests be damned, so long as everyone considers me 
     diplomatic.

  It is for all of the above reasons that I am pleased to join my 
colleague in the Senate, Senator Ted Cruz, in introducing H.R. 5709, 
the Sanction Iran, Safeguard America Act of 2014.
  The bill would eliminate many of Mr. Obama's waiver authorities over 
sanctions and would oppose severe sanctions on Iran once again. 
Included in the legislation are sanctions on Iranian crude oil, oil 
transportation, financial institutions, petroleum--including sanctions 
on the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, and marketing of 
petroleum products--and the Iranian automotive sector, among others.
  The bill also includes a prohibition on funding for any additional 
negotiations with Iran until a joint resolution of approval by Congress 
is passed, certifying that all Iranian-held American prisoners of 
conscience are released; the IAEA has determined Iran has dismantled 
its nuclear program, ceased enrichment activities, and released all 
stockpiles of enriched uranium; the Central Bank of Iran is no longer 
considered a primary money laundering concern under the PATRIOT Act; 
and Iran has renounced their state sponsorship of terrorism designation 
by admitting to participation in terrorist acts.
  Mr. Speaker, I would adjure this body that we must legislatively 
fill, insofar as it is possible, this vacuum of leadership left by a 
President who is asleep at the wheel while radical terrorists move 
toward placing their fingers on the nuclear trigger under his paralyzed 
stare.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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