On Saturday 13 july 2019, a large crowd gathered in Ashraf 3, Albania, home to Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), to hold the annual Free Iran rally of the Iranian resistance. The event was the fourth installment in a series of events held at Ashraf 3. Ted Poegave a speech in this gathering.
Ted Poe– Former Member of Congress
Ted Poe: Thank you very much. I am Ted Poe from the state of Texas and a former member of the United States Congress. I am here with my friends, Dana Rohrbacher and Lance Gooden from the United States. Dana Rohrbacher from California, and Lance from the state of Texas. A few years ago, when I was serving on the foreign affairs committee, Dana Rohrbacher was chairman of the European subcommittee, we went to Iraq. And the reason we went to Iraq was to go to Camp Ashraf and see the atrocities that were taking place.
Because the Iraqi government and the Iranian government had denied those atrocities war taking place. We came to visit you. And when we got to Iraq and we talked to Maliki, he got irate. He said, “You cannot go to Camp Ashraf. You are forbidden to go to Camp Ashraf.”
In fact, he got so mad that he ordered us out of his country. We couldn’t believe it. We were evicted from Iraq because we wanted to see you. But now, we are here. And we do get to see you, you folks in Camp Ashraf. Thank you for letting us visit with you and thank you for your endurance over all of these years.
You know, the cynics, the critics, always have been criticizing you.
Ted Poe added: The Ayatollah, the mullahs, they said you would never last in Camp Ashraf 1, but you did, and you made that a paradise in the desert for freedom. And then they said you would not last in Camp Liberty, which was a dungeon, but you made it another parasite for freedom.
And they said you would never be able to leave and yet because of our Albanian friends you were allowed to come to Camp Ashraf 3 and make it a paradise in the desert. Well, there’s going to be a Camp Ashraf 4, and I hope that will be the last one. Because it’s going to be in Tehran where all of us will be together.
The cynics and the critics criticized members of Congress that supported the freedom fighters, supported Madame Rajavi. And when I was chairman of the terrorism committee, I wanted to have Madame Rajavi testify. All the bureaucrats were jumping out the windows. “You can’t have Madame Rajavi testify. It’s not proper.
It’s not appropriate. She cannot come to the United States and testify.” Well, we worked out some of the details. And it’s true, she did not go to the United States. She didn’t have to. Because her testimony was on satellite and she did testify before the terrorism subcommittee. And thank you for that. They said it couldn’t be done but she made the case, the case for freedom. The case for the MEK. The case for delisting the MEK.
And of course, the State Department, our State Department, oh they were so upset. “We cannot delist the MEK.” First of all, it was a mistake for the United States to ever put the MEK on the terrorist list. But I filed legislation, House Resolution 60, to delist the MEK, joined by Democrats and Republicans on the Foreign Affairs committee. It was filed. Not long after, because of a lawsuit filed by the MEK, a federal judge in the United States ordered the State Department to delist the MEK and the MEK is delisted, as it should be. It’s not a terrorist organization. And how ironic is it that the MEK now is not on the terrorist list but the Iranian government and the IRGC, they are both terrorist organizations, both of them. Thank you.
Ted Poe continued: And let me say this about Madame Rajavi. When she testified and made the case for freedom for Iran, I was impressed and others were impressed. And she reminded me of something my grandmother told me when I was a little kid.
My grandmother tried to make things simple for me to understand. You know, I’m from Texas, it’s got to be simple. And she said, “Remember this: there is nothing more powerful than a woman that has made up her mind.” And that woman is Madame Rajavi. She has made up her mind for freedom for all y’all.
Yesterday—they limited my time so I gotta keep going. Yesterday, Tom Ridge spoke about the fact that all of us in the world and in all of history are given by God with certain rights. We get them from God, not from government. And he mentioned those in the Declaration of Independence, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Those are three rights but there is another right that is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence that all peoples have. Thomas Jefferson further wrote that governments are instituted among people to secure those rights of life, liberty an the pursuit of happiness.
And if governments don’t do that, the people have the right to alter or abolish that government. It is the right of the people to abolish a tyrannical government like the mullahs have in Iran. I used to be a judge long time ago. And when the mullahs are all captured and tried for war crimes, I want Rudy Giuliani to be the prosecutor in my court to try the mullahs.
But what’s the evidence? What’s the evidence that they have forfeited the right to govern the people of Iran? Well, how about 120,000 murders of Iranian people? How about the attacks in Camp Ashraf and Ashraf 2. How about the attacks that they wanted to have on you here in Albania? How about the assassination attempts? How about the fact that this terrorist organization is operating every where there is trouble in the world there you will see a terrorist organization, the IRGC, whether it’s in Yemen, whether it’s in Lebanon, whether it’s in Syria, whether it’s in South America, whether it’s ships at sea in international waters being attacked, whether it’s aircraft in international airspace being attacked, you will see the mullahs and the IRGC.
They have forfeited the right to rule the people of Iran. They are guilty of high crimes. They are guilty of murder on the high seas and against their people.
So, the mullahs. Don’t fear the mullahs. Don’t let them cause you to not be able to sleep at night. It is important that the mullahs fear you and you keep them awake at night. And I think that is what is taking place now; you keep them awake.
Ted Poe indicated: You speak, you speak for the voices that have been silenced by the murders that have taken place against them. And their voices cry out through you for justice, for justice. And justice demands that the people of Iran, the people that are there and the people that are listening in Iran, they rule their own country. And that the illegitimate regime of the mullahs, it must go.
Some of you know, and personal note and I’m through, just a personal note and I’m through. Not long ago, I was diagnosed with leukemia. And tough battle occurred. Thanks to the prayers of many of you here the Almighty has taken care of that and I am here to continue to fight for you. But leukemia’s a cancer. Many of you have had cancer before, your families have had cancer. You cannot ignore cancer. It doesn’t just go away. The regime in Tehran is a cancer. It is not going to go away on its own. You must fight it. We must all fight it. The world will be safer, the people of Iran will be safer.
And as Madame Rajavi has said in the past, when you have a serpent, a snake, you must cut off the head of the snake. And I’m here to tell you that the lion with the sword is going to but off the head of the serpent so that there will be freedom in Tehran.
At the end Ted Poe emphasized: Some things are worth living for and some things are worth dying for and I can think of no greater cause for any of us than to live and die, if necessary, for freedom. And make sure that we sing the song that the mullahs must go Freedom, freedom. Thank you very much. God bless you.
