Patrick-Kennedy – Standing With People of Ashraf

Monday, 25 June 2012 19:32

Paris, June 12, 2012 - I’m honored to join you today.  Fifty years ago my uncle, John F. Kennedy, went to Berlin to speak out against the crisis that occurred in that day and era and that was the crisis of the threat to freedom, the threat to freedom from the communists.  Today, 50 years later, we are gathered instead in Paris and I wish the world community could look and see what I see today and that is tens of thousands of people from all over the world. [applause]

For those who are wondering what Iran will look like in the future today, the future of Iran is in this room.  [applause] For my own country of the United States, I wish that all the people of the United States could see a free and democratic opposition to the mullahs in Iran right here in Paris. [applause]  I wish, I wish that we could understand that the future lies with delisting the main opposition group to the Tehran regime and delist MEK. [applause] Today 50 years ago the proudest words my uncle spoke in Berlin, Germany were “Ich bin ein Berliner.”  Today, those words are (“Man Irani hostum”). [applause]

For those who are trapped in Iraq, who are trapped by the Iraqi regime, who are trapped between Ashraf and Camp Liberty, we want to say to them, (“Man Ashrafi hostum.”) [applause] 

And we want to say that we stand with the people of Ashraf and that’s why we say that until the United Nations, until the Department of State of the United States changes its position and forces Iraq to make good on the promises in Camp Liberty, we will not advocate for more Ashrafis to go to Camp Liberty. [applause] Now we have a video.

[end of audio]