U.S.-Iran Relations: A Policy Perspective:  Past, Present, and the Future

Speaker Newt Gingrich

Washington D.C., September 10, 2012, National Press Club –

Introduction: by Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan:  Good Afternoon, Welcome to the National Press Club and welcome to today’s talk on US-Iran relations. My name is Ivan Sacha Sheehan and I am the Director of the Graduate Program of Negotiation and Conflict management it the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. It is my great privilege and distinct honor to introduce our distinguished guest at today’s luncheon. A man that needs no introduction, the honorable Newt Gingrich.

Now as I said Speaker Gingrich is a man who needs no introduction, I am going to give him one anyway. And I should note that a proper recounting of his extraordinary political accomplishments and his leadership responsibilities would keep you here for the better part of the day. For more than thirty (30) years Speaker Gingrich has been at the epicenter of American politics driving the headlines, leading the conservative cause, frustrating Democrats and speaking out on domestic and international issues of importance to the United States and the world.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

“Conditions at Camp Liberty: U.S. and Iraqi Failures,” - September 13, 2012

My thanks to the Committee on Foreign Affairs for inviting me to testify today, and to the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for welcoming me to this hearing. I am honored to join in your important deliberations, and offer the following views in my personal capacity.

I begin my testimony with three disclaimers:  First, I have not been to Camp Liberty.  Second, I have not been a first-hand witness to interactions over the past year between the United Nations and the State Department; and third, like many people I can only speculate on the extent and nature of Iran’s influence with Iraqi leaders or inside Iraq generally.  What I can and will do is tell the Subcommittee what I know, and offer my recommendations on how best to safeguard American interests in this complex situation.

Statement on the Relocation Process of Camp Ashraf Asylum Seekers

By Tahar Boumedra

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations - September 13, 2012

For the past three and a half years I have served first as chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Office and then as adviser to the Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq (SRSG), monitoring, among other things, the human rights and the humanitarian situation of 3,400 Iranian exiles who have made their home north of Baghdad since 1986 at a place called Camp Ashraf. Iraq’s government has decided to terminate their presence in Iraq and required them to vacate Camp Ashraf. UNAMI has been facilitating their temporary relocation to a former base in Baghdad called Camp Liberty, with the purported task of conducting “refugee status determination” for all of these people and ensuring that international norms of human and humanitarian rights are maintained.

Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

The UN must ensure fulfilment of the protection, humanitarian needs and human rights of the Iranian asylum-seekers in Camp Liberty

August 24, 2012 - The following is a joint written statement* submitted by France Libertés, Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, the Women’s Human Rights International Association (WHRIA), the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, the International Educational Development, Inc., the Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples (MRAP), non-governmental organizations on the roster to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations under “human rights situations that require the council’s attention,”  on August 24, 2012  The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

WASHINGTON, August 25, 2012  -- In a symposium at the historic Willard Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday, former senior U.S. officials urged the State Department to delist the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK), and protect its members in Camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq. 

In his opening remarks, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy  made a reference to the 6th group of 400 of the residents of Camp Ashraf who were preparing to go to Camp Liberty from Ashraf: "As the sixth convoy leaves and because of the leadership and good will gesture of Madam Rajavi, it's appropriate that we call on the Iraqi government, that we call on the United Nations and Mr. Kobler to finally do the right thing and that's honor the humanitarian issues that have been pointed out in the Memorandum of Understanding."

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - Thank you all very, very much.  And it's a pleasure to join you again on an important subject that's every day in the news and in the top of everyone's concerns about the future of our world and international security and for those of you who have been fighting for the humanitarian cause of the people of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, this has always been on the top of your agenda. 

Today we have a very distinguished group of panelists and we'll speak about the many aspects of the struggle to continue to press the case for these issues. 

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - You know when I have the privilege of listening to Congressman Kennedy, it is almost vicarious joy because this is the first time, Patrick, that you and I have shared the dais for something that we both so much believe in, the cause of de-listing the MeK.

I say that as someone who had the privilege and distinct honor of serving his father in the U.S. Senate for seven years of which I managed to do not only as a foreign policy advisor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Patrick's father, but also as a member of the staff of the Refugee Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee that had such responsibility for the humanitarian plight of people around the world.

You know, I scratch my head when I listen to my bipartisan, bipartisan colleagues here.  When they raise these issues I scratch my head and ask, why does this picture look so wrong?

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - Thank you, Patrick.  Very much. You asked me to explain and make sense out of the State Department.  I'm afraid I'm not capable of doing that today. (Laughter.)

I'm honored to be back here today and I'm honored as an American to be here.  We have got four threats running through this.  One is our honor as Americans.  Are we going to uphold this agreement we have made?  The second is very simple.  We have human rights requirements involved where we have given guarantees and they're still life-threatening consequences involved.

Number three is my real day job which is our national security.  My job is to find terrorists.  You know, we looked at Camp Ashraf but we didn't find any.  We found some in Tehran, but I think you know who I'm talking about. (Applause.)

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - Thank you.  First of all, I was here a couple months ago and listened to you, listened to the program that I participated in.  But during that period of time I said that you were the key to be able to make change happen and I'm proud to say I think in part you listened to those pleadings and you have done a great job.  And you've done a great job here in Washington.  You've done a great job on the Hill because you've taken your story to the Members of Congress.  

As most Members of Congress are concerned, they listen.  And when there's a just cause, they act. You helped make that happen. 

I would just like to take a couple minutes and talk about what has to happen and there's logic, and there's a whole logic to this foreign relations issues and a logic to what happens in Congress. There's logic to the funding that Congress controls and how things happen. 

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - Thank you, Congressman.  I probably ought to start off with a little bit of a baseball metaphor.  I'm not sure that I'm speaking last whether I'm the true designated hitter to hit a home run or if I'm a sorry pitcher who does not have a good batting average.

But I appreciate being here to speak today. I have a sin I must confess.  It goes back to 1994 when my father packed me off to North Carolina State University and I thought he told me to go get a university diploma.  He actually said go get an education.  I failed to do that in four years of partying.  I spent the rest of my life trying to get educated.

And I want to thank Ali for a long phone call earlier this week and a good session last night as he tried to help me parse this rather complex situation into pieces that a simple soldier could understand.

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - I want to thank Patrick  Kennedy, who is not only, I consider a great friend of  mine, but a great friend of all free people every place  as a representative of the finest in U.S. political  tradition. 

Thank you, Patrick.  Thank you for being here and that introduction.  (Applause.) 

I want to thank as well, of  course, the sponsors of this meeting, the  Iranian-American Community of Northern California for  calling us all together as we have come together before  to express our views on the increasingly perilous state  of the residents of Ashraf and also the residents of a  camp ironically named Liberty. 

Washington D.C., August 25, 2012 - Thank you, Congressman Kennedy.  I probably do come today with a bit of a different perspective in that the men that I join on the dais are people who have vast experience here in Washington, D.C. and overseas.  Vast experience in national security, in the workings of Congress, at the Senate and the House level and you're about to hear from a gentleman who has vast experience as a military commander in the United States and abroad. 

So I'm a governor from an inland state in the western United States but I think what's important for you to hear from me, for me to hopefully encourage you, is that the people of the United States care a great deal about you and about your fight and about your willingness to fight.