Below is an excerpt of the speech by Hon. Dan Lungren. Congressman Lungren represents California’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of Sacramento and Solano County, as well as all of Alpine, Amador, and Calaveras Counties.He worked as a special assistant to the Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1971-1972.Congressman Lungren served in the U.S. Congress where he was viewed as a Republican leader in criminal justice and immigration issues.
You made fun about the Torch. (applause) I’m not sure about that. Well, thank you very, very much. It’s great to see this distinguished panel here and I really appreciate the chance to stop by. I’m only able to be here for a few minutes, but I appreciate what you are doing.
It would be an understatement to suggest we live in interesting times. It is one of the most interesting times I’ve ever seen not only with what we are doing on the budget, but in terms of what’s happening in the area of international affairs.
I would hope that it would just be obvious to people and it’s no longer possible for us to ignore the fact that the Iran nuclear program poses a thread of an arms race in the Middle East which destabilizes the entire region.
I would hope that people would how important what happens in Iran is to the United States as well as to the state of the world.
Some of us over that were here long ago to be here when President Reagan was here. Some of us were here long ago enough to understand what it means to say what’s really happening in the world, to tell the truth.
I remember when Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the evil empire and he was criticized for that. Time Magazine said he was positively primitive in his comments and who would dare say that and why would you say that and wouldn’t that inflame the Soviet Union and then, of course, when you hear it from people like Nikon Suransky who talks about the fact that those were opposed most impacted by that, that is those who were in the Goologs cheered when they heard the words of a President telling the truth.
And so as nondiplomatic as it may be it’s my idea that maybe we should tell the truth from time to time. That’s why I enjoy with my colleagues of cosponsoring House Regulation 60, the unwillingness of the State Department to even consider reevaluation of the status of such and important element of the Iranian resistance, it is both shortsighted and detrimental to our interest.
Interestingly enough at the end of last year my office had set up a classified briefing with the State Department and Department of the Defense on this very subject, and DoD was coming up to my office and suddenly the State Department canceled the meeting.
So they aren’t even willing to talk to a member of Congress who has a different point of view and believes that maybe we ought to reassess as was suggested not from political reasons but for factual and real-life reasons furthermore that human rights tragedy at Camp Ashraf is just another demonstration of the willingness of the Iranian regime to flex its muscle beyond its borders.
So I’m proud of the fact that you were able to here from a Congressman Poe and the fact that the Foreign Affairs Committee has adopted the language in the foreign relations opposition bill this coming fiscal year offered by him.
This statement of policy is an important statement for those of us who believe that once again that the truth must be known and that we must act upon it.
Let me just congratulate those of you who have worked so hard to support the Iranian dissident movement, in the wake of what was known as the green revolution, a missed opportunity, I think we would all agree, by the United States to stand up and to encourage those who would tell the truth.
It is important for us to continue to try and give substance to those who would fight against that regime. Those of us in Congress have a lot of things’s on our plate. Often times it is easy to overlook some of the more important issues.
If it were not for those of you in this room and others like you allied with you who constantly bring forward this issue before members of Congress and this administration the fight might be lost.
I have convince the fight will not be lost because I have convince that you will not flag in your efforts to do what you think is right to tell the truth and to get this country recognizing what that truth is and acting upon it.
I thank you very much for the chance to appear before you. I really do thank you for the work that you are doing. I could just say whatever I’m home in my district I’m always pleased to have my friends come and see me whether I like for them to come and see me or not. It doesn’t matter whether I am in the foothills of gold country in California as I was just two days ago or whether I’m here in the District, they are present. They don’t let me forget about this issue, and that’s not a criticism, that’s a fact.
I thank you for it. I thank them for it. And God bless you, God bless this country and God bless what you’re trying to do. Thank you very much.