Remarks by Senator Robert Torricelli at Worldwide Internet Conference Focusing on the Mullahs’ Support for Terrorism

Remarks by Senator Robert Torricelli
The vitriol against The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI /MEK Iran), Maryam Rajavi in particular, all the rest of us and all of you, is the evidence we needed that we are on track, that the MEK is on their minds and a growing looming threat to the regime.

Remarks by Senator Robert Torricelli

Transcript of remarks by Senator Robert Torricelli at worldwide internet conference focusing on the mullahs’ support for terrorism and shutting down its embassies- July 20, 2020.Thank you so much for having me. And after being, Mrs. Rajavi, in your home so many times, and the people of Ashraf having taken me in your home so, so many times, it’s an honor to welcome you here even if only electronically for the moment to my home in New Jersey.

Friday was an extraordinary event as tens of thousands of people around the world gathered online for a conference on the future of Iran. The reaction from Tehran told us all we really needed to know. The vitriol against The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI /MEK Iran), Maryam Rajavi in particular, all the rest of us and all of you, is the evidence we needed that we are on track, that the MEK is on their minds and a growing looming threat to the regime. To me, it was a confirmation of everything that we’ve been fighting for and evidence that this final chapter, the freeing of Iran, is at hand.

Today, we are reminded of how difficult that road has been. Not simply for the tens of thousands of martyrs who have lost their lives in Tehran, but what might have been if the terrorist plots of Tehran had come to pass. First, to the people at Ashraf, whose New Year’s attempt at bombing would have taken your lives, Maryam Rajavi’s (Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI)), my friend Rudy Giuliani’s, and a host of others, but for the leadership, the courage, and the skill of the Albanian government. A government and a people to which every Iranian, indeed all free people, will always, always be grateful for the role they have played in these many years and continue to play.

But look at the history of these years. If not just the attack that would have happened on Ashraf, the attack in Paris.

from my country, a former prime minister of Canada and foreign minister, a former foreign minister of France, members of the cabinet and Parliament from Great Britain, members of the Bundestag, members of the government of Italy, and a host of other nations. In another time in another place, an attempt on that magnitude, on that number of people consciously would be seen as an act of war.

My country has responded by putting the Quds Force on a terrorist list, and the individuals involved and took decisive action against its leader, Soleimani. It is time that other nations consider their own positions. How can the governments of Western Europe not take similar actions knowing that an attempt was made on the lives of their highest-ranking officials and a peaceful democratic assembly in the heart of France? This pattern continues and nothing is going to change. The murder of hundreds of people in Argentina in an anti-Semitic attack organized in the embassy. These embassies are no longer diplomatic outposts. As the embassy in Austria was used, presumably Belgium and Germany, likely France, certainly Tirana, certainly Buenos Aires, they are outposts for organizing and covering terrorist activity. We also know that many have been used for covers for the creation and operations of businesses to steal or buy nuclear technology. Right under our noses.

It is extraordinary that the skill of the Austrian and German police and of course the Albanian police prevented the loss of so many lives. It is unlikely all these attacks will be prevented, as they were not in Buenos Aires, as they were not in Saudi Arabia. More lives will be lost. Do these governments really want the responsibility, legally or morally, that embassies in their countries were used to organize attacks to take the lives of their own people? It is time to close the embassies, close the consulates, put the Quds Force on a terrorist list, and pursue legal proceedings against those who would lead it and take these lives.

And finally, a word to our friends in journalism. We all respect mightily what you do and we know how hard it is. A free press is vital to the maintenance of all of our free (governments). But you must come to understand that all governments with which you are communicating when you research stories are not London or Berlin or Paris or Washington. The rules are different. There are across the globe a shadow of public relations firms, operatives, and companies that are disseminating false information.

Only yesterday, one of the most respected journalists in America, Jake Tapper of CNN, wrote a report, published a tweet, and later withdrew it after receiving false information from a regime operative. This is happening every day. The humiliation of Der Spiegel, one of the world’s great publications, citing information patently false, directly from Tehran, and having to have been ordered by a German court to remove it. And I’m embarrassed to tell you the same would have happened with the New York Times, but for the fact that our laws and constitution are different and the courts cannot as readily undertake such action.

We are not suggesting what you write or how or who you deal with. It is not our concern. Only that you recognize without naivete who you are dealing with. These regimes will use means to manipulate you and get false stories in print. It is happening again and again. Not simply to the embarrassment of Der Spiegel or the New York Times, their own humiliations, that’s not the price. The price is that it prevents the proper international coalition of individuals, gathering of thoughts, the building of momentum, pressure on the regime. In the end, it means lives. It means lost time in the freedom of the Iranian people. Please, please exercise the highest standards and real caution.

I leave you then with this thought. I know that for those who were victims in Buenos Aires, or the tower’s destruction in Saudi Arabia, those who have been victims of assassination and lost members of their families, it seems like so long and so little accountability. Our ultimate obligation to all those who have died in these terrorist acts, and may yet be victims in these final days or months of the regime before it falls, is there will be accountability. There will be. I know in Tehran many think that their acts, their criminal acts are beyond reproach. They can hide behind the Revolutionary Guards and the long arm of justice will never find you. That’s what Saddam Hussein thought. That’s what Qadafi thought. That’s what the Nazis thought. That’s what they thought in Czechoslovakia and Poland and East Germany. That’s what they thought in Argentina. That’s what they always think. The precedents are on our side. The history of accountability of these regimes supports my argument, not their confidence. Justice is coming.

All that I can tell you as you hear my words today, if you’re a prison guard, if you’re a judge, if you’re a lawyer, if you’re running a security force in Tehran, think carefully about those who once took your place in Baghdad or Berlin or Moscow. Think about the accountability of history even to the jungles of Cambodia. The long arm of justice reaches far and the memory is very, very long. And most of us will not rest in this life until it reaches you.

To the Albanian people and your government, God bless you. We’ll be grateful to you every day. To the law enforcement officials in Germany and Austria and Albania and a host of other countries that have thwarted these terrorist acts, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To those of you who are administering the great governments and the extraordinary nations of Western Europe, think again about your position. Your history is too great, your culture too strong, your commitment to the law too profound to allow embassies that hide terrorists and take lives and subvert your free press be allowed to operate in these great capitals. Think again about your position. Mrs. Rajavi, to all of you around the globe, thank you. Hazer, hazer, hazer.