![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/02\/edrendall-2.jpg\" "\\"edrendall-2\\"")
NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-Monarchial Revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by a number of prominent European and American dignitaries, reminded that a major development is on the way in Iran and a democratic change, as a solution to avoid an unprecedented regional and international crisis, is at hand.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ed RENDELL<\/strong>, former Governor of Pensilvania and former leader of the U.S. Democratic Party: Good afternoon.\u00a0 That was a very upbeat presentation by the former prime minister.\u00a0 And\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean to throw cold water on the enthusiasm, but I\u2019ve been coming, I\u2019ve been involved in this movement since July, almost eight months ago.\u00a0 And I joined because it was clearly to me a humanitarian cause and it was necessary for all of us, my country, the world community, the United Nations, to stand up and do the right thing.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to Paris four times.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to Geneva twice.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to Washington more times than I can count.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had rallies in front of the White House.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had rallies in the Congress of the United States, in the building itself, in the Capitol, and we\u2019ve had rallies here and in other places abroad.<\/p>\n And what other speakers have said is true.\u00a0 You have been incredibly faithful, determined, focused and dedicated supporters of your cause and your people.\u00a0 Each time I come there\u2019s a different array of impressive speakers from the United States, from Europe, from countries all over the world.\u00a0 People who have accomplished much.\u00a0 People who speak with great authority.\u00a0 People who are moral and political leaders.\u00a0 And yet very little changes.\u00a0 Madame Rajavi has been kind enough to say that the work that we Americans have done has helped product results.\u00a0 And maybe it has made a bad situation slightly better, but it hasn\u2019t changed the eventual outcome.\u00a0 And I stand here eight months into this movement, I am absolutely confounded by the fact with all this international support, with the leaders of countries that come here and speak, with current elected officials\u2014not ex-elected officials like me\u2014representing cities and towns and counties and countries, that we haven\u2019t been able to product any results.\u00a0 This is a humanitarian cause, and to resolve it there has to be movement on both sides.\u00a0 And Madame Rajavi has been brilliantly cooperative.\u00a0 She has tried to make this work in every way that she can.\u00a0 She has shown real leadership.\u00a0 A real leader has to be strong, and has to stand up.\u00a0 But a real leader has to know when to move and when to try to bring about results.\u00a0 And she has done all of that.\u00a0 And we have failed her.\u00a0 We have failed her.<\/p>\n Make no mistake about it, I don\u2019t mean to personalize this, and Mr. Douste-Blazy comes here and he\u2019s an official of the United Nations.\u00a0 Anybody here think the United Nations has done the right thing in regards to the residents of Camp Ashraf?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 It\u2019s been words.\u00a0 Words, \u201cwe\u2019re concerned,\u201d \u201cwe\u2018re upset,\u201d \u201cwe want to ensure.\u201d\u00a0 But when it comes to saying, \u201cNo, this is not going to happen unless blue helmets are stationed inside whatever place the residents of Ashraf are located in,\u201d everyone heads for the hills.\u00a0 Nobody\u2019s willing to dig in and say no.\u00a0 Nobody\u2019s willing to ask why, why did\u2014and that goes for the U.S. too.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going to talk about the U.S. in a second.\u00a0 Why did we have to leave Ashraf in the first place?\u00a0 The only excuse we heard was, well, there\u2019s intimidation going on in Ashraf, and the residents who want to go back to Iran can\u2019t go back to Iran if we did the interview process in Ashraf.\u00a0 Well, do the same thing as we\u2019re going to do in Liberty.\u00a0 Have those residents taken outside.\u00a0 General Phillips and I have discussed this before, and he tells me it was easy to find a location outside the gates where they could have been interviewed without any undue influence or pressure.\u00a0 This whole emigration process should have taken place in Ashraf.\u00a0 How was Ashraf a threat to the security of the Iraqi government?\u00a0 Can anybody explain that to me?\u00a0 I\u2019ve been asking that question over and over and over again and I haven\u2019t got an answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n And yet the U.S. and the UN stood by and let this agreement go forward that residents were going to move into a camp that a the worst is a prison camp, at the best is a refugee camp, but a refugee camp without freedom of movement that every other refugee camp has.\u00a0 Where were the UN officials?\u00a0 Where are the European community?\u00a0 Where\u2019s the international community?\u00a0 And where is the United States of America in standing up to these issues?\u00a0 Well, Madame Rajavi and the MEK have been willing to work, willing to move their residence, despite what they\u2019ve established at Camp Ashraf.\u00a0 Despite the fact that it would be so easy to do the emigration process there, they didn\u2019t say, \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0 They said, \u201cWe\u2019ll work with you.\u00a0 We\u2019ll try to make this work.\u201d\u00a0 But as the process has unfolded, the only people who\u2019ve given, the only people who have done the right thing are the MEK.<\/p>\n What they\u2019ve put together at Camp Liberty is nothing more than a prison camp.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t the UN and the U.S. say no?\u00a0 What hold does the Iraqi government and its puppet masters in Tehran have over the U.S. and the UN?\u00a0 [applause] Why didn\u2019t the international community, the UN and the U.S. say, \u201cNo, no police inside the camp\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s a secure camp.\u00a0 If you\u2019re worried about it and you\u2019re not going to give freedom of movement you can station police outside the gate to make sure nobody leaves.\u00a0 But if you put police inside the gate you\u2019re just asking for harassment and a confrontation.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t the international community, the UN and the U.S., say no to the Iraqis?\u00a0 Because we didn\u2019t have the power, because they\u2019re a sovereign nation?\u00a0 Because the Iraqis aren\u2019t interested in the weaponry that the United States is going to give them?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t we say no?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t we stand up and say the MOU is being violated?\u00a0 The same MOU that the UN put together the UN won\u2019t even enforce.\u00a0 The UN won\u2019t even enforce the MOU that Ambassador Kobler signed.\u00a0 It\u2019s already been violated in regards to personal property and automobiles.\u00a0 Where is the backbone of the UN?\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t it say to the Iraqi government, \u201cUh-uh, you signed this, those automobiles and the personal property is coming into Camp Liberty, period.\u00a0 Period.\u201d\u00a0 [applause] The UNHCR says freedom of movement is essential.\u00a0 They produced a document about ten days ago saying freedom of movement is essential to any refugee camp.\u00a0 And yet the Iraqi government said no freedom of movement, and the UN and the United States folded like an accordion.\u00a0 They had no backbone.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t say, \u201cUh-uh, freedom of movement is essential to all refugee camps.\u201d<\/p>\n And we could go on and on and on.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t we object when the original camp was supposed to be literally ten, 15 times bigger than the area in this camp.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t we object to the fact that there\u2019s no recreation, no facilities for women, no facilities for the disabled, no facilities for the sick?\u00a0 How dare they say that this camp meets basic standards.\u00a0 This is a humanitarian issue.\u00a0 And by the way this is always referred to as a temporary transfer station.\u00a0 I love the way they use the word temporary.\u00a0 While at the same time they admit that the emigration process for some of the residents of Ashraf may take up to two years.\u00a0 Anybody here think two years sounds temporary?\u00a0 And yet that\u2019s the excuse they give for the low standards.\u00a0 \u201cWell, it\u2019s only a temporary camp.\u00a0 Nobody\u2019s going to have to live in here very long.\u201d\u00a0 Two years is very long.<\/p>\n What\u2019s wrong with letter 23 former U.S. officials, governors, secretaries, generals, former CIA, former FBI people\u2014we were willing to go over at our own expense, and I want to emphasize that because the other side makes a big deal about the fact that we get paid speakers\u2019 fees\u2014all 23 of us were willing to go over, we told Madame Rajavi, at our own expense to look at the camp.\u00a0 [applause] [laughs] Don\u2019t thank\u2014don\u2019t thank us yet, we haven\u2019t gone.\u00a0 And the reason we haven\u2019t gone is because the Iraqi government said no.\u00a0 Well, where is the UN and the U.S.?\u00a0 What were we going to do?\u00a0 Were we going to be subversive?\u00a0 Were we going to somehow undermine the security of the Iraqi government by going over and looking to see if the camp had basic minimum standards?\u00a0 Ladies and gentlemen, it\u2019s a joke.\u00a0 They said we have to be out of there by 12\/31, December 31st, and yet nothing was ready by December 31st.\u00a0 And now only one out of seven sections is ready.\u00a0 We should call\u2014sometimes in politics, in government, if you have a plan and the plan\u2019s clearly not working you call it off.\u00a0 We should call this off and let everybody stay at Ashraf.\u00a0 [applause]<\/p>\n And lastly\u2014and you can tell I feel like violating my ten minutes today, but I won\u2019t\u2014lastly I want to talk about the U.S.\u00a0 In a teleconference, Ambassador Daniel Fried\u2014he\u2019s the ambassador in the State Department who\u2019s been given the responsibility of trying to work this compromise out.\u00a0 And he hasn\u2019t done a bad job.\u00a0 And he\u2019s worked with us, we have a weekly phone call with him, several elected officials and the FBI Director Freeh and General Mukasey.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a weekly phone call with him in which we get briefed and we disseminate information and we take information back to Madame Rajavi.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t mean to attack Ambassador Fried.\u00a0 I think in many ways he\u2019s doing the best job that he can.\u00a0 But he said in this teleconference on February 7th, and I want to quote it for you, \u201cthe United States is not the sovereign in Iraq.\u00a0 Iraq is the sovereign.\u201d\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s the mindset that our government has had from the beginning.<\/p>\n Well, that makes no sense.\u00a0 I want to ask you a historical question.\u00a0 Was the United States the sovereign in Kosovo?\u00a0 [recording problem] Of course we weren\u2019t the sovereign in Kosovo.\u00a0 Was the United States the sovereign in Benghazi and Libya when President Obama organized the NATO air strikes that tumbled the Libyan government and saved hundreds of thousands of Benghazi residents from genocide?\u00a0 No, we weren\u2019t the sovereign there.\u00a0 But we acted.\u00a0 We showed strength.\u00a0 We showed backbone.\u00a0 We showed courage.\u00a0 We did the right thing.\u00a0 And yes we may technically not be the sovereign, but the case for the United States standing up and saying no, and enforcing a decent\u2014if we\u2019re going to move to Camp Liberty, making sure that basic rights are protected at Camp Liberty and no one gets hurt and slaughtered again.\u00a0 The United States has a responsibility above and beyond what it had in Kosovo and Benghazi.\u00a0 Because there we acted in the best tradition of the United States of America, trying to protect the freedom and liberty and basic human rights of individuals anywhere in this world.\u00a0 It\u2019s what has always made me in my entire life proud to be an American.\u00a0 We acted in that tradition.<\/p>\n But here we have a different level of moral and legal responsibility, because when the residents of Ashraf surrounded their weapons, and General Phillips tells me that they were excellent fighters and people who could have used those weapons to defend themselves big time, when they surrendered their weapons to the United States military, each one of them got a signed contract from the United States saying that we would protect them.\u00a0 I used to, I still am a lawyer, I used to be a practicing lawyer, and I was a pretty good one.\u00a0 That contract didn\u2019t end when the United States turned over sovereignty in 2009 to the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police.\u00a0 That contract, that promise, legally is in force and morally remains in force.\u00a0 So if we acted in Benghazi, if we acted in Kosovo, we need to act in Ashraf.\u00a0 [applause]<\/p>\n We need the United States to be what we\u2019ve always been, the protectors of freedom, democracy and human dignity and rights all over the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s time.\u00a0 It\u2019s time.\u00a0 And I love seeing you.\u00a0 I love coming to Paris.\u00a0 I love having the ability to talk directly to Madame Rajavi, which we don\u2019t have in the United States.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful process.\u00a0 But it\u2019s time for the talking to end.\u00a0 It\u2019s time for the UN and the U.S. to show some backbone or else, or else [applause] or else the international community, the UN and the United States are going to have to face the responsibility for the slaughter of decent, honorable human beings.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t want to hear them condemn the slaughter if it happens after it happens.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we did in 2009.\u00a0 Oh, the UN and the U.S. condemned what happened at Ashraf.\u00a0 And then in April of 2011 a horrible\u2014carried out with United States weapons and United States vehicles\u2014a horrible slaughter, death of 36 people including eight women, and we all condemned it.\u00a0 The State Department issued a very strong statement condemning it.\u00a0 But nothing changed.\u00a0 And if we stand by and let it happen again, shame on us.\u00a0 [applause]<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-Monarchial Revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-11701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ashraf-liberty","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n