Speaking at a conference held at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Headquarters on March 1, former FBI Director Louis Freeh delivered a blistering critique of the Iranian regime’s actions, stressing resilience in the face of challenges.
He addressed the attempted assassination of Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, former Vice President of the European Parliament in 2023, expressing solidarity and resolve against the regime’s intimidation tactics. Freeh commended Vidal Quadras for reigniting determination in the pursuit of justice and liberty.
The ex-FBI Director pointed out the regime’s efforts to manipulate the Interpol system by issuing politically motivated red notices against activists and dissidents. He denounced the regime’s judicial proceedings as a mockery, designed to suppress the Iranian Resistance.
Freeh praised the steadfastness of individuals within the Resistance Units, heralding the dawn of a “Persian Spring” marked by freedom and resilience. Concluding his address, he applauded the moral guidance of Mrs. Rajavi and the unwavering commitment of activists like Vidal Quadras, expressing hope for Iran’s future rooted in freedom and fairness.
The full text of Director Louis Freeh’s speech follows:
Thank you very much, and I’m very, very honored and very delighted to be here, but privileged is the word that I would probably use best.
Alejo, first of all, to follow you on the podium here is a distinct honor, and all of us send you our support our love, and our deep respect to you and Amparo. Thank you so much for your leadership. Your speech was eloquent.
Had Thomas More survived his assassination attempt, he could not have been more eloquent and more brave, and forthright as your remarks here with us today. You know, I come from a community of law enforcement and also military, little time I spent in the military, and, you know, when one of our colleagues is killed, we have somebody who falls in action, sometimes it’s accidental, most of the time it’s a deliberate killing.
You know, the community reacts exactly like you’re reacting and how we reacted in November when Alejo was killed, was almost killed. We’re angry, we’re frustrated, we’re resolute to do something, but we’re not afraid, we’re not intimidated, and we’re not going to stand down. If anything, our work and our energy is going to be redoubled, and you’ve redoubled our energy, Alejo, so thank you very much for that.
I just wanted to make a couple of remarks. Isn’t it ironic that we’re here on March 1st, and I understand there are no long lines at the voting booths in Iran today. In fact, the polling is showing at best maybe 5% will vote, and maybe it’s up to 20, 30% in some areas. That’s what we call resistance.
That is probably the best graphic evidence of resistance to the regime and resistance to tyranny. It was like an article that I read a couple of days ago on the BBC. You may have seen it. It profiled three young Iranian women, gave them names, of course, that were not their true names, and each day they would leave the house, one as a student, two were workers, without the headdress, walking out of their house in the morning without the headdress, knowing what that would create in terms of retaliation, severe consequences, repercussions for them and their family. But it’s an eloquent story, which again provokes the same emotions, not fear, immense respect for them, for their courage and their bravery, and also the willingness to double down on our own efforts to make sure that we can support them in every way possible.
The attempt against Alejo’s life was not a new event by the terrorist regime. It was right out of their playbook. Back in January of 2023, there was a similar attack, which was again frustrated by the FBI in Brooklyn, New York. You may have read about it. In that case, three Eastern European organized crime figures, people who probably don’t have the political beliefs or the character that we would think of for this job, were hired to assassinate a person who was an outspoken critic of the regime.
When the U.S. attorney indicted the case, U.S. v. Amaroff was the name, he made some tremendous remarks. He said that an organized crime group was hired to assassinate in New York City a citizen of Iranian origin who has been central to the regime’s, central opposing the regime’s autocracy and its disregard for human rights.
He said this was the second time in two years that the FBI had disrupted a plan in the United States to either murder or kidnap someone who was speaking out against the mullahs and against the tyranny and violence perpetuated by that regime. It brings us back to the rule of law, which we talk about in our meetings all the time.
One of the other abuses that we’ve seen by the regime is its attempt to exploit the Interpol system. The Interpol system, which you know was established to make sure that the rule of law was enforced no matter where a subject or a defendant might run or hide or seek refuge. And we know that the Iranian regime, together with some other governments, has listed or tried to get Interpol to put red notices on many of our friends, many of our colleagues, some in Ashraf 3, and some other places. Interpol has resisted this to a large degree.
They have a central committee that reviews these political charges or political allocations, as they call them, and luckily, to date, we have been able to make sure that Interpol has enforced its own code and its own conduct. But the rule of law means nothing to this regime in Tehran.
The sham trial, Mrs. Rajavi, you spoke about is a highlight of it. You would think most people involved in that process, whether they were pretending to be a judge or a prosecutor or a lawyer, would be embarrassed and humiliated just going through this ridiculous ritual of having a trial, which is totally a sham, kangaroo court, you couldn’t have called it by a better name, and designed again.
Alejo, for the three reasons that you outlined, to strike fear into the hearts of the resistance. But the resistance goes on. Sorry, it wasn’t me. The regime is not able to maintain all of these different corrupt processes at the same time. It takes energy. It takes resources. It’s completely annihilated their credibility in the world opinion of governments, and of people who practice the rule of law, and it’s not likely to prevail.
You know, in 2022, when Mahsa Amini was killed, we have so many parallels in our history to brave people resisting, sometimes peacefully, sometimes by other means, tyranny, autocracy, and the rule of violence, which replaces the rule of law.
We look at the case of Alexei Navalny just within a few days ago, and we see example after example of brave, outspoken resistors like you, Alejo, and the attempts to silence them, to kill them, to undermine them, and to strike terror into their colleagues.
It doesn’t work. It has a reverse effect, at least for people who have the character of their beliefs and the willingness to take risks, as you all take risks every day, to make sure that the rule of law and freedom for the next generations of Iranian people are guaranteed.
Just concluding and finishing a little bit about resistance. From time immemorial, monarchs, kings, despots, and corrupt political leaders have branded their opposition as rebels, as terrorists, as people who are extremists, in an attempt to dehumanize them and to put them into a category where other people will denounce them and not listen to them.
We look at our own Declaration of Independence in the United States, when the people who wrote it assembled on July 4th, 1776, and they said when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve their political bonds, which have connected them to another, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to the ends of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish and establish a new form of that government.
That’s a principle that is thousands of years old, which we all hold very dear to us, which many of our friends and colleagues and people that we don’t even know have died for, Alejo, which you were almost killed for, and that’s what we need to keep fighting.
In December of 2010, there was what the historians are now calling the Arab Spring. So we saw what happened in many, many countries, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, and even Oman, with mixed results and sometimes not permanent results. But if you remember, it started with the self-immolation of a shopkeeper, Mohammed Bouazizi, who refused to give in to the tyranny, to give in to the corruptness of the leadership that was trying to undermine his simple right to make a living.
That is what’s happened, and I think what we’ve been seeing, and we saw this last summer, Madam Rajavi, with the remarkable young men and women from the Resistance Units, the Persian Spring has already begun, and the Persian Spring is going to come forth and flower and have the strength and the resilience and the endurance that we all want it to have.
And your efforts, your Ten-Point Plan, and more importantly, your moral courage and your moral leadership, and Alejo, your physical courage beyond your moral courage, that’s what’s going to create and finish the Persian Spring into a country that will know liberty, happiness, and good times. Thank you very much. Thank you.
