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“PEACEFUL REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN IS A MUST FOR PEACE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E84 on Jan. 24, 2017.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PEACEFUL REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN IS A MUST FOR PEACE
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HON. TED POE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in a little over two weeks, we will mark the 38th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. The 1979 revolution in Iran was supposed to herald a better future for the Iranian people. Instead, the revolution ushered in an age of repression, tyranny, and persecution.
For 38 years, the Iranian people have been living under one of the most brutal regimes in the world. This regime is a maniacal theocracy that wields an iron grip over its people.
The regime has been described by Human Rights Watch consistently as a
``regional leader in executions.'' In 2015 alone, Iran executed approximately one thousand people with virtually no due process.
Iranian authorities announced in August 2016 that they had executed 20 prisoners found guilty of ``enmity against God'' which carries the death penalty.
Other crimes that can get you killed in Iran are ``attempts against the security of the state,'' ``outrage against high ranking officials,'' and insulting the Supreme Leader.
The Iranian regime routinely jails journalists, human rights defenders, and anyone who speaks out against the deplorable practices of the regime.
Once in jail, prisoners can expect to be tortured and abused. The State Department's Human Rights report claims that Iranian prisoners are commonly subjected to threats of rape, sexual humiliation, threats of execution, electroshocks, and severe beatings.
This is a sick tyrannical government that imposes its will on its people through brute force. The Iranian people have suffered immensely since 1979.
Unfortunately, since its founding the regime has also sought to
``export the revolution,'' code for wreaking havoc abroad.
Iran's awful human rights record rivals only its long record of sponsoring terrorism throughout the world.
Iran remains the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism. In fact, Iran has only increased its support to terrorist groups in the past two years.
The regime uses its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to implement its foreign policy goals and create instability throughout the Middle East. The IRGC cultivates and supports terrorists abroad in service of Tehran.
It provides financial assistance, weapons, and training to groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian terrorists Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Shia militants in Bahrain, and terrorist militias in Iraq.
Its support for these groups has helped Tehran's ally in Syria Bashar al Assad butcher over half a million of his own citizens.
But it doesn't just end there. Iran has a tacit agreement with al-
Qaeda, allowing the terrorist group to move money, arms, and fighters through Iran since at least 2009.
On February 11 the clerics in Tehran will celebrate 38 years of oppressing the people of Iran.
On that day we should remember the many victims of this evil regime, both in Iran and across the world.
The Iranian people deserve better.
They deserve a democratic government whose priority is not to keep themselves in power no matter the cost but to improve the lives of the Iranian people.
And that's just the way it is.
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