Sponsored by MEHR Iran (Mission for the Establishment of Human Rights in Iran)
May 22, 2000 - Glenmont, California
For nearly three years, many Iranians and many here in the West have looked to President Khatami as the vehicle of change. They forgot one crucial thing: he remains a mullah.
Today, the situation inside Iran is even worse than it was when Khatami came to power in August 1997. Instead of tracking down dissidents around the world, the regime now feels empowered to kill them on Iranian soil..
You are all aware of the events of recent months: the closure of most reformist newspapers and the jailing of investigative reporters such as Akbar Ganji; the show trial of Iranian Jews in Shiraz; the absurd interference - once again! - by the Council of Guardians in the Majlis elections. Haven't we been here before? Haven't we seen all of this before many, many times?
I believe the lesson is clear: there can be no meaningful change until the people of Iran break the yoke of the clerical dictatorship!
As many of you know, I ran for the United States Senate in the state of Maryland in the Republican primary earlier this year. Although I was unsuccessful, I made a point of raising the issue of human rights in Iran - and in China, I might add - during the campaign. I believe it is important to tell the truth, and to call a spade a spade.
America should NOT be providing succor and support to the clerical dictatorship in Iran. Period.
We should not allow U.S. oil companies to build oil and gas pipelines across Iran, as some people would like to see.
We must enforce the D'Amato bill, which seeks to deter foreign companies from investing in Iran's oil and gas industry but is aimed ultimately at preventing the U.S. oil industry from becoming the mullah's Washington lobbyist.
But even more important, I believe: We must provide moral, political, and financial support to democrats inside Iran who are trying to change the regime. Yes: we should do what the mullahs accuse us of doing. And we should do it well, because the people of Iran want freedom.
Just as President Reagan knew we could roll back communism in the 1980s, I tell you today, I know we can roll back the darkness of radical Islamic fundamentalism at the dawn of this new century.
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Some people in this country, including many Iranian-Americans, want to turn the page and let bygones be bygones.
I believe that is a dangerous misreading of history. You cannot just sweep under the rug 21 years of human rights abuses, torture, murder, war, and devastation. Young Iranians, like their parents, yearn to be free!
Iran Asset Recovery Act
During my United States Senate campaign, I pledged that if elected I would introduce legislation that will require the government of Iran to assist Iranians in recovering property that was illegally siezed during the Revolution, before there can be any resumption of diplomatic ties between the United States and the Islamic Republic. Just as Cuban-Americans have the Helms-Burton law to give them hope, Iranian-Americans will have the Timmerman law to give them hope - hope that one day they will be able to return freely to their home country, without fear and without compromise.
You can accomplish this. Together, we can accomplish this. And so I urge you to get involved in the American political process, and to support candidates who embrace freedom and make the respect for human rights a sacred cause, candidates who make America's voice heard as the beacon of hope it used to be, not the siren song of trade and instant riches and wantonness. If we stand for nothing we will fall, collapsing like an empty skeleton into so much dust.
God bless you. And God bless this America which has given us all the opportunity to be together in peace.
Thank-you.