Colonel Wesley Martin: March 24, 2012 Paris – Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. [applause] Thank you. I appreciate it. No one despises war more than the warrior. And nobody despise the breaking of cease fire agreements and surrender agreements more than the warriors who secure them. That is why you see so adamantly General Phillips, Colonel McCloskey, Colonel Mesh, Lieutenant Colonel Julie Norman and myself fighting this issue, because it is despicable as to what has been allowed to happen to the residents of Camp Ashraf. In combat we fight for the ones on our left and the ones on our right. And I was very proud to have members of Camp Ashraf on my flank, and I was equally proud to be on their flank. Even though they had no weapons they immediately took the lead and always wanted to work closely with us, always were concerned about the health of their fellow Americans. And they were the best of the best I have ever known and had pleasure to work with. [applause]
Unfortunately, our fight is not over. The American warriors may be out of harm’s way. Sadly, the American nation turned its back and violated those agreements we made with the members of Ashraf, the former National Liberation Army of the PMOI. Instead of maintaining the protected person status that we had agreed to, we abandoned them and turned them over to the Iranian-friendly, corrupt Maliki government with all of the blessings of the executive branch this was done, and especially the U.S. State Department. My friend Glenn Carl correctly just pointed out, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Unfortunately with the State Department I have to quote American actor Jack Nicholson. You can’t handle the truth.
The State Department [applause] is in violation of the 2004 mandate standards set by Congress. It was three criteria: foreign, threat to the United States, and capability of attacking the U.S. or its citizens. As the former antiterrorism officer for all of Iraq and the former commander of Camp Ashraf, I can tell you the PMOI was not a threat. Matter of fact, I found them to be a very strong ally. State Department is also in violation of the 2010 Court of appeals ruling that said, you’ve got six months to fix this problem. July 2010 to the present, that’s far greater than six months. Matter of fact, it is about the same length of time it has taken the United States to enter and fight in the First World War. Apparently there is a big discrepancy between State Department and Defense Department in one simple word. Hilary Clinton says they are aggressively working this issue. I would like to know the definition of the word aggressive by the State Department because it doesn’t match the Defense Department. [applause]
Also, I am amazed at the responses we get from the State Department when the Saudi ambassador was planned to be attacked on U.S. soil. And the comment was, we need to have increased diplomatic isolation. What is increased diplomatic isolation? It sounds like the Animal House movie, Double Secret Probation, nothing more. And then the comment came out, we need to see, from the State Department, how high up the Iranian government this went. There is no question it went all the way to the top. The U.S. involvement in Middle East reminds me the State Department has never gotten anything right since the wrongful 1953 overthrow of a very popular Iranian government. And we continue to this day to make mistakes, to include blessing and endorsing Maliki. The State Department claims the PMOI are terrorists. We know better. Everybody in this room knows better. You are our allies, not our enemies. [applause]
The State Department has criticized the PMOI for working with Saddam. And yet when Saddam was on the verge of being defeated by the Iranian, it was the U.S. that was providing intelligence, resources and money to help prop Saddam up. So if that argument of working with Saddam is valid, then the U.S. is a terrorist nation. It does not, State Department does not call [applause] Muqtada Sadr and his Mahdi army a terrorist organization. And yet I have lost soldiers to Muqtada and his operation. Soon my friend, Lieutenant Colonel McCloskey will come up and he’ll be walking with a limp, courtesy of Muqtada Sadr and his Mahdi army. And yet State Department will not declare Muqtada a terrorist. There is a hypocrisy that just does not stop. State Department attacks PMOI for their founding principles, equality between those being led and those leading, the clerics do not have sole control over the interpreting the scripture and clerics cannot expect blind obedience form the congregations. State Department calls that Marx and Lenin. I think all of us, we see that as Jefferson, Madison and Lafayette. Furthermore, I think we can all agree as would President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher, these are not Marxist, Leninist philosophies. And I think we can all agree also that President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher were not communist.
The State Department claims to have classified information about the PMOI but they never showed it to me or anyone else when I was in Iraq or working at the Pentagon, and I had a top secret secret compartmented information clearance, as does still Secretary Ridge, Ambassador Bolton, Colonel McCloskey. I challenge right now, State Department, show the four of us what that information is so we can have a chance to validate it or debunk it. [applause] I sincerely expect [chanting] I sincerely expect we will find information no more valid than what Colonel McCloskey, General Phillips and I were sent out into Ashraf, middle of the night to answer State Department and Iraqi government and Iranian government allegations. And every time we came back more and more disgusted in knowing the PMOI were not doing things that they were being accused.
Our State Department now has an ally in its twisted appeasement of the Iranian regime. It’s the United Nations and its point man, Martin Kobler. Ambassador Kobler has already proven himself to live up to the legacy of the United Nations. That legacy was formed in Rwanda when 800,000 died to genocide. The United Nations did not respond to General Dallaire’s warnings, nor his requests for help. Instead they kept delaying and delaying for three months and 800,000 paid the price. We cannot allow 3,400 Ashraf and Liberty residents to pay the price while our United Nations does nothing. [applause] My fear is that we’re going to see already Camp Liberty, which is a concentration camp, become an extermination camp because we’ve already packed 1,200 people into a very small, isolated area, under some very brutal guards who have already proven themselves willing to start squeezing triggers.
Recently Martin Kobler gave a speech, and he claims the Iraqi Army is better now than it was four years ago. The Iraqi Army is better under the control of Muqtada Sadr and Maliki now than it was four years ago. And here’s a statement that it just amazes me. Now this is Martin Kobler’s words, now coming back to the Ashraf questions, “There was no murder in Camp Ashraf. To say it very clear there was no murder.” Martin Kobler, I challenge you, when we watch by video Iraqi and Iranians wearing Iraqi uniforms firing precision shots and running over people with American-made vehicles, you do not call that murder? As a law enforcement officer, and I know all the lawyers and the prosecutors will join me, that was murder, Ambassador Kobler.
And then Martin Kobler says to the facts that, “This camp was ready for 5,500 American soldiers and UNAMI press lived in it until the end of this year and electricity was okay, water was okay, sewage was okay, I really do think it is also okay for 800 people.” First off, I lived on Camp Liberty. We had a lot more space, we had miles more space than what has been cast upon the Ashraf residents. And also, Ambassador Kobler, that camp to include the water treatment plant was pilfered to no end. The Camp Liberty the Americans left Maliki is not the Camp Liberty that is being forced on the residents of Ashraf today.
We got one good shot at getting the Middle East right. We praised Arab Spring with what happened in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. And guess what, everybody here knows it turned into a mess and more fundamentalists started moving in, because a good structure was not in place to replace the fallen governments. In Iran we have a good structure in place. It’s called the PMOI under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi. [applause] So, we need to correct the mistakes that have been made, identifying the PMOI as a foreign terrorist organization is wrong, delist it now. Bring the Ashraf and Liberty residents out of Iraq immediately. We have the resources and available space in Europe and especially in the United States. We created this problem. We need to stop appeasing Iran and recognize that the mullah regime is an enemy to democracy throughout the world. We need to stop praising Maliki. He can’t be trusted, he has proven that many times over. The residents of Ashraf recently sent Secretary Clinton a letter outlining all their concerns. I have read that letter by my friends in Ashraf. I recommend Secretary Clinton also reads that letter. As Secretary Ridge has pointed out, he is ready to go to Iraq. I am ready in uniform or without uniform to return to Iraq. [applause]
As I close I would like to recognize, I would like to recognize the four hundred thousand seventy-five Iraqis who have signed a letter to he UN secretary in support of the Ashraf residents. This is in the face of a very brutal Maliki government that will retaliate and yet you have almost half a million friends in Iraq still saying what’s happening at Liberty and Ashraf is wrong. And finally, to my brothers and sisters at Ashraf and Liberty I say this, we stood together in the past, we stand together today, we will stand together always. Thank you. [applause]
