On March 20, at the rally in Brussels, former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy delivered a speech in which he emphasized the need to stand up to the brutal regime in Tehran. He also highlighted the fight of the people of Iran against the clerical dictatorship, which he described as the largest state sponsor of terrorism around the world. Mr. Kennedy called out Brussels for attempts of releasing the Iranian terrorist diplomat Asadollah Assadi and denounced the regime’s President Raisi during the 1988 massacre. Mr. Kennedy expressed his support for the ten-point plan of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and the MEK, which has proven its integrity and legitimacy in the fight for a free Iran.
Below is the speech of former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy:
Thank you all very much. And thank you, Madam Rajavi, for your leadership in allowing us all to get behind the Ten Point plan for a new Iran. It’s not enough just to be against the Mullahs. It’s not enough just to have fought against the Shah, because a military dictatorship is just like a religious dictatorship. And with Madam Rajavi, we will have a democratic republic of Iran.
So we are here today in the heart of Europe. A generation ago, my Uncle Joe died in the skies not far from here. He died fighting Hitler. He died fighting the Nazis. He died fighting fascism. And today we must do the same and stand up to fascism, the torture chambers, and the death squads of the modern Nazi regime. Make no mistake, the IRGC is nothing more than a modern Gestapo. Europe and the United States and countries around the world stood up against Adolf Hitler because he was a threat to democracy and to freedom all around the world.
Today, Europe is standing up to Putin, who is trying to invade and subject the people of Ukraine to another form of dictatorship. And now, today, we are seeing that same fight from the people of Iran, but also people from around the world to stand up against the brutal dictatorship of the mullahs. We must understand this is not an Iranian issue, this is a world human rights an issue. I may not be from Tehran, but I am standing with all of those in Iran who want the same freedom that I enjoy in the United States.
So let us today remember Mahsa Amini, the young woman who was killed because she would not comply with the fascist mullahs. I have five children. I cannot begin to imagine what it is like for every mother and father, every grandmother and grandfather in Iran who watches their children go out each day to the streets demanding a free country. They have to be worried every single day whether their children will be taken, tortured and killed and even hung, like the Iranian regime is doing to its people every day. Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism around the world and it is the largest sponsor of terrorism to its own people in Iran as well.
The IRGC is a tool of the Mullahs, just as the embassies here in Brussels, in Germany, and in Austria are nothing more than an arm of this brutal dictatorship. We all know Assadi. Assadi was a diplomat hiding under the cloak of legitimacy. And yet he orchestrated a terroristic plot here in Europe, here in Belgium. The Iranian government wanted to kill your countrymen in Belgium and your neighbors in France and all over Europe. When they tried to bomb the event to find an opportunity to celebrate freedom, Assadi and the Iranian henchmen were trying to kill everybody that showed up to that rally. And we must make sure that the courts here in Belgium do not allow Assadi to go back to Iran. But he should rot in jail here in Belgium.
.@PJK4brainhealth: We must make sure that the courts here in Belgium do not allow Assadi to go back to Iran, but he should run in jail here in Belgium.#BlacklistIRGC
#ShutdownIranTerrorEmbassieshttps://t.co/fDXGLouJRf— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 20, 2023
Everybody in the Iranian regime is part of a history of brutality. Even the President, Raisi, only became president because he murdered. He was on the Death Commission in 1988 which was responsible for the murder of 30,000 MEK members who were fighting for freedom in Iran. And Raisi was there to pull the trigger and hang the nooses and kill 30,000 MEK members.
And if you want to know why it was so difficult for Iran to build a new resistance movement after the Shah was deposed, it was because the Shah killed so many MEK, so many resistance fighters.
So when we have a new Iran that is coming very soon, it only makes sense that the organization that has been protesting longer and stronger than any other freedom group, the MEK, can begin to build a new future because they have the legitimacy of having been in the fight and having died for the struggle for a free Iran.
So not far from here in Berlin, during the height of the crisis that was known as the Cold War, my uncle, President John F. Kennedy, came to Berlin and people wondered, why did an American president care at all about the people of Berlin? Because he saw the struggle of those from Berlin as a universal struggle of all humankind. And he said in that famous speech “Ich bin ein Berliner; I am a Berliner.” And so today you may ask, why is it that Americans, Canadians, and people from all over the world are supporting you, the Iranian people? The reason we are supporting you is that we are you. We want the same freedom for you as you want for yourselves.
And people say why is it so important now? Because the saying goes, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I would have thought after the Nazis, people said “Never again”. And yet here we are today, fighting dictators like Putin. Here we are today fighting mullahs and fighting fascists. The times may have changed, but the struggle for freedom always maintains its strength because it is a common human struggle. I want to say a particular word about our friends, the Ashrafis, who have fought that struggle, who fought that struggle on behalf of the whole world. Because through their struggle they brought attention to the struggle of Maryam Rajavi and the resistance movement.
Thank God, friends, Ashrafis, for all that you have done. And so, as we know, everywhere a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And that is why we’re gathered today here. Because we need to say to Europe; you must stand up to these thugs just like you stood up to Hitler, just like you’re standing up on behalf of Ukraine. Because it is a unifying fight for freedom that we all should stand up together. And with that, as my uncle said, when he said “Ich bin ein Berliner” today I say “man Irani hastam!”