We, the American Delegation to the 2018 annual rally for a Free Iran joined by fellow citizens who are
unable to attend, are proud to stand with colleagues from all over the world and the many friends of the
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), whose members have firmly stood for decades against
religious dictatorship, enduring heavy personal costs.
At a time when partisanship is shaping American politics, we are united in bipartisan solidarity, speaking
with one voice and reflecting our common American values and principles as we join the call for liberty,
justice and an end to repression for the people of Iran. As our Delegation prepares for this annual rally in
France, we extend our appreciation for President Macron’s statesmanship in seeking a coordinated
position on Iran among the European Union countries and the United States, and particularly his emphasis
on human rights issues in Iran.
We believe that our elected leaders and representatives in the United States can unite behind a bipartisan
Iran policy that reflects honor and strategic wisdom. Here is our vision for an American policy toward
Iran.
1. Sovereignty belongs to the people, who possess rights that no government can take away. There
is no norm, law or religious obligation that entitles any government to repress, imprison unjustly,
torture or execute its people, or that requires citizens to submit willingly to tyranny. For too long,
the world has turned its back on the Tehran regime’s brutal denial of the Iranian people’s basic
rights. We stand with Iran’s citizens in calling for legitimate, accountable and honest government
that serves the people.
2. The clerical regime in Iran will never respect the interests of other countries or support a stable
international order. The Tehran regime has cynically used the pretense of moderation as a
smokescreen for its 39-year effort to maintain power under the guise of religious “revolution”.
Iran’s lack of sincerity with the world has damaged the reputation of a great people. We stand for
a policy that says “no more” to Iran’s terrorism, sectarian war, ballistic missile threats,
unconventional weapons development, meddling in other countries and egregious human rights
abuses at home.
3. The protests that arose across 142 cities and towns in Iran beginning in December 2017 and have
continued since then are a plea for freedom from a captive nation. Normal citizens lacking
wealth and privilege – farmers, workers, pensioners and teachers – are demanding a government
that respects them and serves their needs. We stand with the 80 million citizens of Iran in their
call for dignity and freedom, and fully understand why protesters all across the country have
given up hope that any part of this regime will produce positive change – a sentiment reflected in
their viral chant of “hardliners, reformers, the game is now over”.
4. A five thousand-year-old Persian culture that brought mankind great advances in medicine,
mathematics, algebra, chemistry and philosophy has been left behind in the modern world, and
Iran today is plagued by poverty, unemployment and a crisis of mismanaged water resources.
Our country supports the people of Iran, not their morally bankrupt regime, whose only legacy is
a police state at home and proxy terrorist militias abroad.
5. The Iranian regime insults the modern world by staging undemocratic elections in which every
candidate on the ballot for President is hand-picked by the Supreme Leader’s office. No
opposition figure – no supporter of government by and for the people – has ever participated in
the “elections” in post-revolutionary Iran. To participate, a candidate must prove his/her
unflagging allegiance to the Supreme Leader. Nevertheless, at no time in the last quarter-century
have even two percent of legally-registered candidates for president been permitted on the ballot,
despite all of them professing loyalty to the Supreme Leader; and we share the skepticism of
many in the Iranian-American community over the level of voter participation touted by the
regime. We urge all Americans, notably media correspondents, to be vigilant and not let the
regime’s claims of democratic legitimacy go unchallenged.
6. The abuses of power by Iran’s rulers that most concern the world are its destabilizing use of
military force, weapons transfers to non-state actors, support for terrorism, financial support to
illegitimate regimes and sectarian militias, hostile intelligence operations worldwide, control over
the information domain, and its barbaric judiciary with prolific executions and lack of due
process. Whether or not President Rouhani personally controls these activities is irrelevant:
Rouhani has demonstrated his steadfast support for these and other regime policies at every turn.
We do not accept the view that the President and Foreign Minister are seeking to moderate the
regime’s behavior; there is no evidence of moderation. Their role has been to mollify the outside
world and shield the Supreme Leader from accountability. No longer should we accommodate
Iran’s flagrant pattern of aggression accompanied by diplomatic campaigns raising hopes that
Iran’s role will evolve in a direction more compatible with international norms. All regime
representatives must be considered responsible for all regime actions.
7. For years many of us have attended the annual rally, and some of us stay in frequent contact with
the NCRI, a relationship that has drawn criticism from some in the US. With this experience and
exposure to the NCRI, we can clearly see that much of the American press and foreign policy
community, in downplaying the NCRI’s true agenda, popularity, level of organization, and
support among Iranians, are either uninformed or coloring their reporting to avoid incurring the
regime’s disfavor. Repeated statements this year by the Supreme Leader and other regime figures
clearly affirm the NCRI’s role inside Iran enabling the people to communicate, organize and
remain informed despite regime efforts to police the information domain and suppress dissent.
We call upon the media and foreign policy expert community to report accurately on the
popularity, size, organization and above all, the political agenda of the NCRI, summarized in
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan for the future of Iran.
8. We believe that much of the commentary in the US about “regime change” obscures the right, the
potential, and the capacity of the Iranian people to resist tyranny and to govern themselves well if
given the chance. We see no need for, nor do we recommend consideration of, foreign military
intervention; indeed, no one is calling for this. The Iranian opposition NCRI has rejected the idea
of foreign intervention, stressing that ending this regime’s repressive reign is the task of the
Iranian people. We do not assume that change in Iran would lead to war or chaos, given the
national pride and aspirations of this population. On the contrary, we believe that democratic
change in Iran would do more than any other single event to enable stability and calm the fires of
extremism in the region.
9. The people of Iran, with their rich history and civilization, are capable of organizing themselves
for legitimate participatory government determined by the ballot box. Indeed, this aspiration has
been expressed, if not accommodated, for over a century – first in 1906, again in the late 1940s
and early 1950s, and yet again in 1979-1981 before Ayatollah Khomeini imposed his strict new
constitution by force. We believe the lessons from this complex history fully justify American
support in 2018 for Iranian citizens seeking democratic change.
10. Our delegation is going to Paris this year to support the NCRI, firmly believing that the current
regime is vulnerable to the popular movement seeking an end to tyranny and corruption. The
NCRI and its principal constituent, the MEK, have long embraced democratic values. The
resistance movement has demonstrated its widespread roots within Iranian society, its resilience
in the face of unimaginably difficult circumstances, its impressive organizational prowess, and its
ability to expose secrets that Tehran is determined to keep from the Iranian people and the world
at large. This organization has spent years preparing for a calm and genuinely democratic
transition of power to the elected representatives of the Iranian people – whoever the people may
choose in the fullest exercise of their long-deferred freedom.
In sum, this is a time when the dark intentions and transgressions of Iran’s clerical dictators are being
exposed, and the frustrated, outraged voices of the Iranian people are being heard. Let this also be a time
when long-lived falsehoods are dispelled and the true nature of Iran’s organized opposition is more
accurately reported and understood. As Gandhi said, “An error does not become truth by reason of
multiple propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” Our vision for a bipartisan
US policy – one that stands for the basic rights of all Iranians, demands an end to Iran’s threats to peace
and security, and respects the people’s capacity to govern themselves competently as a free people – will
only strengthen as these truths are finally brought to light.
Amb. J. Kenneth Blackwell –
Former U.S. Representative,
United Nations Human Rights
Commission
Hon. Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr. –
Former Special Envoy and Asst
Sec State
Hon. Rudy Giuliani – Former NYC
Mayor, Presidential Candidate
General (Ret.) James L. Jones – Former
USMC Commandant, NATO
Commander, National Security Advisor
to the President
Hon. Mitchell B. Reiss – Former
Ambassador, Special Envoy to the
Northern Ireland Peace Process
Hon. Edward Rendell – Former PA
Governor, DNC Chairman
Colonel (Ret.) Thomas V. Cantwell
– Former US Military Commander
for Camp Ashraf
Hon. Glenn Carle – Former Deputy
National Intelligence Officer for
Transnational Threats, National
Intelligence Council
Hon. Robert Joseph –
Former Under Secretary of State for
Arms Control and International Security
Hon. Patrick Kennedy – Former Rhode
Island Congressman
Hon. Bill Richardson – Former NM
Governor, Secretary of Energy, UN
Ambassador, Presidential Candidate
Hon. Tom Ridge – Former PA Governor,
Secretary Homeland Security
General George Casey (Ret.)-
Former U.S. Army Chief of Staff
and Commander of Multi-National
Forces – Iraq
Hon. Joseph I. Lieberman – Former
Connecticut Senator
Hon. John Sano – Former Deputy Director
CIA National Clandestine Service
Hon. Linda Chavez -Former
Assistant to the President For
Public Liaison; Chairman of the
Center for Equal Opportunity
Gen. (Ret.) James Conway –
Former Commandant U.S. Marine
Corps
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David Deptula –
Former Deputy COS For Intel,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance,
U.S. Air Force
Hon. Louis J. Freeh – Former
Director FBI
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Leo McCloskey – Former
US Military Commander For Camp
Ashraf
Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Army Wesley M.
Martin – Former US Military
Commander for Camp Ashraf, Senior
Antiterrorism Officer – Iraq
Hon. R. Bruce McColm – President,
Institute for Democratic Strategies
Colonel (Ret.) Gary Morsch – Former
Senior Medical Officer at Ashraf
Professor Ivan Sascha Sheehan, Ph.D. –
Executive Director School of Public and
International Affairs, Univ of Baltimore
Hon. Eugene R. Sullivan –
Retired Federal Judge
Hon. Raymond Tanter – Former Personal
Representative of the Secretary of Defense
to Arms Control Negotiations
Hon. Robert Torricelli – Former NJ
Senator
Hon. Newt Gingrich – Former
Speaker of the House
Hon. Marc Ginsberg – Former U.S.
Ambassador to Morocco
Hon. Michael B. Mukasey – Former US
Attorney General
Brig. Gen. (Ret.) David D. Phillips –
Former US Military Commander For
Camp Ashraf
Hon. Frances Townsend – Former
Homeland Security Advisor to the
President
General (Ret.) Charles (Chuck) WaldFormer
Deputy Commander U.S. European
Command
Statement by American Dignitaries to the June 30 Rally “Free Iran, The Alternative”
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