Presidential Visit

Floor Speech

PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

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Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I want to talk on two issues with my colleagues. One is about Iran. The President of Iran is now in the United States. Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad is in the United States enjoying liberties here that are not enjoyed in his home country by his fellow citizens. I want to make a point of that. I want to talk about what he has said and what he has done. I think there is a substantial difference. I want to point out that we should pass the Lieberman-Kyl amendment regarding the designation of terrorist organization by--that the IRGC be designated as a terrorist organization. Finally, I will wrap up with a discussion about the Biden-Brownback amendment on federalism in Iraq, which I think would be very important.

President Ahmadi-Nejad took advantage of the freedoms we enjoy to spread lies in the United States. I believe his appearance was disgraceful. I think the things he is saying are outright lies--what he is saying versus what he has done. He looked his audience in the eye and he lied. He knew he was telling lies, and the audience knew it.

Let's talk about the real truth inside Iran. I want to speak about what is taking place there.

I have chaired the Middle East subcommittee in the past. I have worked on issues regarding Iran. We have worked to secure and have secured funding for civil society development inside Iran. I worked with a number of Iranian dissidents who have been forced out of that country. We have seen it taking place on the news.

President Ahmadi-Nejad is enjoying liberties now in this country that are not available to his people. It would be easier to spend time in his own country developing these same civil liberties for individuals and renouncing terrorism rather than trying to go to the World Trade Center site where terrorists killed so many of our citizens.

President Ahmadi-Nejad and Ayatollah Khamenei are not trustworthy leaders. The Iranian people do not enjoy freedom of speech. Their people do not have a free press. The Iranian Government represses women and minorities. They do not tolerate religions other than their own extreme version of Shia Islam.

For example, consider the Baha'is of Iran. Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has blocked the Baha'is' access to higher education, refused them entry into universities and expelled them when they are discovered to be Baha'is.

Recently, a 70-year-old man was sentenced to 70 lashes and a year in prison for ``propagating and spreading Bahaism and the defamation of the pure Imams''--a 70-year-old man, 70 lashes, a year in prison.

We must stand with the teachers who are getting purged from academic institutions in Iran for speaking their minds, with the Iranian-American scholars who are being arrested on trumped-up charges, and with newspaper editors who refuse to censor according to Government demands.

Isn't it amazing that President Ahmadi-Nejad would see that taking place in his country and yet come here to enjoy our civil liberties of freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, to speak his mind when he cannot do it in his country? We should be reaching out to the students, the labor activists, and the brave leaders of Iran's fledgling civil society and offer our support for their views and for an open society in Iran. It is not only a moral imperative, but I believe it is also in the strategic interest of the United States and of people of civil societies in the West and throughout the world.

This context is important as we consider the amendment offered by Senator Lieberman and Senator Kyl. Yesterday Ahmadi-Nejad claimed that Iran is a free country, where women are respected and life is good for the Iranian people. We know this is not true.

Yesterday, we also heard from Ahmadi-Nejad that Iran does not want to attack Israel, that it is not meddling in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it does not want a nuclear weapon. We know this is not true. They are meddling in Iraq, attacking our troops with weapons developed in Iran. They have held conferences stating a world without Israel, a world without the United States.

Iran's leaders would say the IRGC is not a threat, but we have no reason to believe them. In fact, we know the IRGC is killing our soldiers in Iraq. It is working with Hezbollah in Lebanon and it is present in other countries around the world advancing the agenda of the Supreme Leader in Iran.

The IRGC is the very definition of a terrorist organization, and Iran as a nation is the lead sponsor of terrorism around the world. The IRGC should be designated formally as a terrorist organization so that the full power of the American Government can be applied to combating its activities. The IRGC is not a normal military arm of a sovereign government. It is the operational division of the world's most dangerous state sponsor of terrorism. If we think of terrorism as a threat, we must designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

I hope the President of Iran will renounce terrorism and the support for terrorism today, although I know he will not.

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