wheelbarrel. the crowd cheers. he points to a man in the front row and says, get in the wheelbarrel. the point obviously is that believing, whether in the context of salvation, believing is not sitting on the sidelines saying, yes, yes, i believe. believing is stepping forward and getting in with your heart, mind and soul, putting everything you have. that's what you all are doing every day, and that is what it's going to take across this nation. awakening and energizing the american people.

i believe. i am convinced we are going to pull the united states of america back from this precipice, back from the brink. it's going to take each and every one of us getting in the wheelbarrel. and i just want to say thank you, and god bless you. together we work to save the greatest nation in the history of the world. thank you. [ applause ] . ♪ >> and we say thank you, senator ted cruise. my name is regime in a brown, it's my honor to be here tonight to introduce a man who needs no

introducti introduction, lieutenant colonel allen west. allen west, as we all know served in several combat zones. he served in operation desert storm, and operation iraqi freedom. we understand the spine that he has, and we appreciate it. we thank you and we welcome. give a nice florida welcome to lieutenant colonel allen west. >> thank you. thanks so much for having me here, i think the most important thing is the title you see on this roster, faith and freedom. i want to talk to you about how do you get to have faith and freedom? last month i had an opportunity to speak in louisiana at a

conference. i was given a letter by a gentleman by the name of fred david solomon. i want to share what fred wrote to me. he's from montgomery, alabama. he says, we agree that 2014 may be our last best chance to change control of the u.s. senate for a very long time. the staggering statistic that the approximate 80 million people that claim to be evangelical christians, oath 50% were even registered to vote of those only 50% actually did vote in 2012 speaks volumes. that and a bit of voter fraud which i know a little bit about, caused the gop the white house. i believe my assignment is to change that in 2014 and 16 or our judeo-christian system on which america was founded could be lost forever. fred writes this, unlike many

christians who were raised as christians and speak in the faith. my 30 year journey was long. i have been told it's an interesting story and could perhaps be an inspiring one if presented well. fred says, since i am not an accomplished public speaker that could be challenging. sometimes i feel like i have been preparing for 30 years, and if i speak from my heart and do my best. i believe god will do the rest. the real message fred says is not about me anyway. although hopefully people of faith will come and hear my story and testimony, and be trapped into hearing the real message. the real message is why as people of faith, we have an obligation to get involved in politics, yes. politics notwithstanding the phony separation of church and state argument. thank you.

not only is it okay for the church to be in politics, people of faith must play a major role in deciding what kind of people get elected as representatives of the people. from the schoolhouse to the white house in 2014 and 2016, focusing on 14 critical elections. ladies and gentlemen, something recently happened that i want to share with you. which is why what fred solomon is talking about is so important. because if we continue to sit on the sidelines, we will see more of what just happened recently out in california. how many people heard the story of brooks hamby. senior high school student salutatorian in raliegh, california and what the union school district said to him, the references to jesus and prayer

were inappropriate and violated the legal standards. school officials rejected three versions of the young man's graduation address. and one administrator went so far as to redact every religious reference with a black marker as if it was some sort of top secret government document. the first and second draft speeches oppose government case law and are a violation of the constitution read a warning letter sent to this young man. it's amazing to me that brooks standing up for his freedom of religion is unconstitutional. yet what we see happening on our southern borders finally accepted by the president of the united states of america. the district is saying you reference any reference to religious content is inappropriate. and the first two drafts provided will not be allowed.

this is brooks' response. this is where faith leads to freedom. he said i didn't want to compromise my faith, i wasn't interested in removing every trace of god or jesus, i just wasn't interested in conforming to those demands. i did not want to compromise my values, i did not want to water down the message. see, the first draft of the speech was written in the form of a prayer, and it said, heavenly father, in all times, let us always be kind to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as god in christ has forgiven us. what is so threatening about those words in the united states of america? and so brooks was called into the front office, where he was add advised by a counselor that the speech had been rejected, so he began writing a second draft that he turned in later that day, the draft referenced the school's censorship of his original speech. and on thursday morning, just

hours before the graduation, brooks and his parents were summoned to a meeting with the principal of the high school. they were given a notice from the district advising them that if their son interjects religious content the sound would be cut off and a disclaimer to the entire audience must be made explaining the district's position. afterwards brooks went back and delivered a third version of his speech. this time directly to the superintendent of the school district. that speech too was rejected. he was e-mailed a copy of that speech with every religious reference marked out in black. sol brooks went home and thought, the time is ticking down. i wanted to impart something that would be meaningful and have some lasting impact. so this is what brooks wrote in a fourth version. he did not hear back, but he continued to go forth and deliver this version.

in simply coming before you today, i presented three drafts of my speech. all of them denied on account of my desire to share my personal thoughts and inspiration to you in my christian faith, he told his fellow graduates. in life you will be told no. in life you will be asked to do things that you have no desire to do. in life, you will be asked to do things that violate your conscience and your desire to do what is right. and then brooks closed out by saying, may the god of the bible bless each and every one of you every day in the rest of your lives. brooks said very simply, when asked, i would tell young christians to be bold and always speak with gentleness and kindness, to leave the sweet taste of christ in their mouths, allow them to want and search

for more. faith and freedom does not come unless you have strength and courage. that's a challenge that each and every one of us has today. and so today, after i had my little five mile run, and i did my normal bible devotions study. there was an interesting verse as part of the study. it's a verse that's on a dog tag i wear, it's my favorite verse, it comes from the character that is my favorite character in the bible. and i want to share this with you. first joshua in chapter 1, starting at verse 5. no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as i have been with moses, i will be with you, i will not fail you, nor foresake you. be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which i swore to their fathers to give them. again, only be strong and very

courageous, be careful to do according to all the law which moses, my servant commanded you. do not turn it. from the right or the left. so that you may have success in wherever you go. this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous. and then you will have success. have i not commanded you, be strong and courageous? do not tremble or be dismayed, for the lord your god is with you wherever you go. faith and freedom cannot exist unless there's strength and courage. the same strength and courage that joshua accepted when he was commanded three times by our lord god, it's the same that we need today to preserve our faith and to preserve the freedom here in the united states of america. the problem is, too many of us sit on the sidelines, the problem is, too many of us stay

at home. the problem is, too many of us are afraid to go out and stand courageously, and fight against this evil that we see over taking our country in the form of secular humanism, which just attacked brooks hamby, but let us learn from a young man, so the children shall lead them. brooks hamby showed us the way. if we don't accept that lesson, then sadly we will be that first generation that will lose the great judeo-christian faith heritage that our forefathers be keithed to us some 200 plus years ago. when you go back and look at the final words of joshua, when he was old and he was about to pass away, he says, now, therefore, feel the lord and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which our father served before the river in egypt and served the lord. if it is disagreeable in your

sight to serve the lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. whether the gods which your forefathers served which were beyond the river or the gods whose land you were living. but as for me in my house, i will serve the lord. the simple challenge today, you are here as christians, as conservatives concerned about your country. the simple challenge is that as joshua stood on strength and courage, his faith was emboldened and there was freedom for the children of israel. if we find our strength, if we find our courage, which is rooted in our faith, then we will have freedom for the united states of america. and not just the freedom that is earthly, ladies and gentlemen, a freedom that transcends the boundaries of the things that we see that are finite. that is what we are fighting for

today. but if as fred outlined, 50% of us sit at home, 50% of that number, 8 million aren't even registered, then you'll be discounted. you will become irrelevant, your voice is not worth anything. the challenge is to make your choice today. the challenge is to stand up when they call you all sorts of names. let me tell you something, does it hurt to be called an oreo, an uncle tom, a white man's porch monkey, a house negro? nah, it don't hurt, because i've been shot at. [ applause ] >> but if you wilter in your faith, if you don't show the strength and the courage and resolve to make a stand, there will not be faith and freedom. we can talk about all the policies, we can talk about all the current events.

but it comes down to two simple concepts, faith and freedom only comes from strength and courage. and if you're strength and courage comes from the lord god all mighty who will never leave you or foresake you, then a god before you, who can be against you. god bless you all, and thank you so much. >> he's amazing, all of our speakers today have been incredible. i am honored and privileged to introduce our next speaker. he is also a hero of this republican. he is a man without whom america, i believe, would truly

be lost. and he is a brilliant strategic thinker. my doctorate is in foreign affairs and every time i read ambassador john bolden's wordses i learn something. he's a prolific writer, and a tireless champion of american superpower, which we need now more than ever. like all of those from whom we have heard today, ambassador bolton is also a fearless truth teller. political correctless and manhattan and georgetown dinner parties be damned. america is far too extraordinary and far too critical and important to let lies, corruption, mismanagement and the dismantling of our power and prestige in the world go unchallenged. ambassador bolton serves as a fellow at the american institute. he served as the united states permanent representative to the united nations from 2005 to

2006. ambassador bolton served as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. also in the bush administration. he graduated phi beta kappa from yale. please welcome the indispensable american patriot ambassador john bolton. ♪ [ applause ] >> thank you very much. thanks to ralph reid for inviting me to be with you today. i realize you've had a long line of speakers here at lunch, it's been fantastic. i will keep to my time limit so that you can get to the hill. but it's a very, very important time for you to be in washington. and when you look at the issues

of the family, all of the things that motivate you to the work you do. to draw the ring around those freedoms and to protect our way of life here at home. the absolutely critical variable is to provide for the common defenses, the preamble that the constitution says. let's be very clear, barack obama is not fulfilling that constitutional responsibility. this is a president who doesn't give priority to national security affairs, it gets in the way of what his real agenda is, which as he told us in 2008 was fundamentally transforming america. and every day that goes by, leaves the republic weaker. virtually everything he has said about foreign and defense policy has proven wrong. we can see it in the famous reset button with russia, which

has resulted in armed force being used against a sovereign nation, ukraine, and territory being shifted from one nation to the other. we can see it in the middle east today where the president's policies have helped bring the region virtually to complete chaos. today, however, very historic day, the wall street journal reports this morning that president obama believes that the al malaki government in iraq needs to be changed. now, let's contemplate exactly what this means. after ten years of -- or more of incessant criticism of the bush administration's policies in iraq and the middle east, today barack obama came out in favor of regime change in iraq. how about that. it's something that our

adversaries all around the world have seen. so that -- our friends moving away from us, our adversaries increasing the pace and scope of their challenges. the bad news is still to come. they can see they're only two and a half years left. to us it looks like a long time, to our enemies it looks like a short time. the pace and scope of the challenges we face internationally. every night people have tried to answer the question, what is it that motivates barack obama to follow the policies he pursues. and i'd like to just explore that a little bit today.

the proper place of america in the world. it's a huge issue of great philosophical importance. and the president has a view of america's place in the world that puts him at odds with the long line of presidents, democrat and republican alike. he is the first president since roosevelt, not to wake up every morning and have as his first thought what threats does the united states face today? and this is absolutely critical, even the most libertarian of us, should remember that adam smith said in the wealth of nations, the first duty of the sovereign. the first duty of the sovereign is to protect the society against the violence of other societies. that's not barack obama's first priority. instead, he's somebody who sees america as part of the problem in the world. he sees america's too strong, too assertive, too privileged, too successful, and as he said famously to joe the plumber in

the 2008 campaign about spreading the wealth around, internationally, he doesn't see anything wrong with spreading the power around. now, this isn't the first time that a leader of the democratic party has felt that way, but it is the first time he's been president. you know, going back to 1988, george h.w. bush said of michael dukakis my opponent sees the united states as another pleasant country out there, somewhere on the u.n. role call between albania and system babb with a. that's how barack obama sees it as well. he was asked on his first european trip, do you believe in american exceptionalism? listen to obama's response, because it informs what we've seen of his policies in the past

five and a half years. the president said, yes, i believe in american exceptionalism. just as the brits believe in british exceptionalism and the greeks believe in greek exceptionalism. let's parse that sentence in the way the president would. yes, i believe in american exceptionalism, so all those people who say i don't, i've just proven you wrong. but then in the second two thirds of the sentence he takes it back. there are 193 countries in the united nations. the president could have continued just as the papa new guineas believed. you get the point. if everybody is exceptional. then nobody's exceptional. that's what he thinks. in his view, if america is part of the problem. then the answer is a withdrawn inward looking declining america. he actually thinks that this will make the world a safer place. he thinks that it's american

strength that's provocative. but he's 180 degrees wrong. it's like looking at the world through the wrong end of a telescope. it's not our strength that's provocative, it's our weakness that's provocative. because our adversaries see the opportunity to take advantage when we turn away from the world. when we're not prepared to act. and they act instead on their own agenda. right before us today we see the consequences in iraq of america withdrawing. and it's a laboratory experiment. something you rarely get in international affairs. we could have kept a residual american force in iraq to help stabilize the country and protect the sacrifices that americans had made over the past ten years, the president was determined to withdraw all american forces and he did. he used the pretext, and that's

a critical point. the pretext, not the reason, but the pretext of not achieving a status forces agreement to justify the withdrawal. and today you have chaos in iraq, chaos in syria, perhaps chaos throughout the middle east so that our close ally israel finds itself in jeopardy across the board, and particularly from iran's growing nuclear weapons program. what is the president's answer to this? as i say, first he wants to change the regime in iraq, something that he would have criticized the bush administration for and did so before. he said he's going to send 300 military advisers to iraq to help the al malaki regime, which is the functional equivalent of helping iran. since the al malaki regime is effectively a puppet for the ayatollah's in tehran, and then this, i know that this will calm all of your fears.

he's going to send john kerry to baghdad. you know, he was scheduled. this is a perfect example of the obama policy at work, he was scheduled to make his statement in the white house today at 12:30, and he was over 45 minutes late in making that statement. why? almost certainly because they were still making up what he was going to say. and this is the prospect that we face from now until the end of this administration. i believe as part of the overall national debate that we're having, and the critical issues that you're raising on the domestic scene and internationally when it comes to issues of religious freedom, we have got to have a national debate on this country and america's proper place in the world. are we a force for good? for stability, to protect our own interests? as i think all of us believe? or are we a force for instability and trouble as

barack obama believes. we got a weak and inexperienced president through two presidential elections because those issues were not debated adequately, we cannot afford for that to happen again. all of you will make your decisions on house and senate races and the presidential race, probably pick many different candidates. one thing that we have to ensure is that we do not leave our country undefended. because if america falls, all of our freedoms are lost. and that is the critical reason why providing for the common defense is a constitutional imperative, and absolutely critical in the coming years ahead. thank you very much. good luck to you. this weekend, american history tv is live from the gettysburg college civil war institute, saturday morning starting at 8:45 eastern. you'll hear peter carmichael on

robert e. lee followed by arizona state university professor, brooks simpson on u list ease s. grant. and kate nelson on the burning of chambers burg . iran's human rights record is the focus of this joint house committee hearing. they discuss the imprisonment and execution of her father due to his religion. lawmakers also hear about the persecution of gay iranians. the house foreign affairs subcommittees on human rights and the middle east held this hearing. this is just over 1:45. >> the joint subcommittee will come to order.

>> after recognizing myself, chairman smith, ranking member deutsch and ranking member bass for five minutes each for our opening statements, i will then recognize other members for one minute. we will then hear from our witnesses and without objection, the witnesses prepared statements will be made a part of the record. we thank you all for being here. members may have five days to insert statements and questions for the record. subject to the length limitations in the rules. the chair now recognizes herself for five minutes. it was thought that the human rights situation in iran, couldn't possibly get any worse than it was under the tyranny of ahmadinejad. during ahmadinejad's eight years in office, iran saw a precipitous increase in the numbers of prisoners of conscience, journalists in jail.

executions, and the ethnic and religious minority communities all suffered a great deal. we cannot forget the 2009 green movement in iran, in which millions took to the streets to ahmadinejad's stay in power, calling for reforms. this was an opportunity for the united states to lend its support for a reform movement in iran, but instead the administration refused to support the green movement, missed a real opportunity to support change in a part of the world that is resistant to peaceful change. it is unfortunately a mistake we have seen with this administration too often. and we are seeking the results of -- and we are seeing the results of its inaction and indecisiveness now. then along came the so-called moderate rouhani. and the administration tripped over themselves saying he was a man to bring reform to iran. what they are forgetting was the

fact that this rouhani was the consummate regime insider, handpicked by the supreme leader to be one of the finalists in the presidential selection. it bears reminding everyone that no policy, domestic or foreign gets enacted in iran with the leader's say so. yet everyone wanted so badly to believe rouhani would be this reformer, just like he had done when he was iran's chief nuclear negotiator, he managed to pull the wool over the eyes of many. what we have seen so far in the one year since rouhani won the june 14th, 2013 selection. and i call it a selection, because the people of iran were given a false choice of selecting one of his handpicked choices. while according to the most objective analysis the human rights situation in iran has not gotten better, and in many areas

it has decreased, gotten worse. there have been over 670 executions under rouhani, and over 900 political prisoners remain in jail. according to some human rights groups, iranian authorities have executed more than two people a day in 2014, many of whom have been political prisoners or members of ethnic minority communities. but the wanton and flagrant human rights abuse practices don't just earned there. in rouhani's iran, the regime continues to stifle free speech, freedom of the press, right to assembly, jailing bloggers and social media users and shutting down media organizations and jailing journalists. some reports indicate that there are upwards of 40 journalists and bloggers. iran has the second highest number of jailed journalists, 100 human rights defenders, and hundreds of religious minorities

unjustly imprisoned in iran. one of the most endangered groups who have seen their community constantly targeted for persecution and imprisonment. there are over 150 members of the bahai community in in iran's prisons. i have adopted one as my prisoner of conscience. these prisoners of conscience are being held in iranian prisons for practicing their religious beliefs. and many have been sentenced to harsh prison sentences of five years or more, where they are placed in solitary confinement, subjected to cruel conditions and denied the medical attention they need. christians continue to be intimidated, harassed and detained, including u.s. citizen

pastor saeed abedine, who was just recently taken from his hospital bed, beaten and thrown back in jail. who has suffered a multitude of injuries at the hands of the iranian authorities. then, of course, there is south florida resident robert levenson, who lives in congressman deutsch's district and his family lives there. who was abducted in iran over 2,500 days ago, and is now the longest held captive in u.s. history. despite iranian promises to aid in the investigation and search for him, they have been less than forthcoming. the lit thing of cruel and inhumane human rights abuses that continue to occur is seemingly endless. rouhani knows that all he needs to do is smile and tweet and promise the u.s. in the west that he will cooperate on the nuclear issue and his transgressions against the iranian people will be forgiven or overlooked.

is that really how we want america to project our foreign policy? it's way pastime for the administration to stand up to these thugs and stand up for the people who cannot stand up for themselves. if we won't do it, who will. i'm pleased to yield to the ranking member, my good friend mr. deutsch of florida. >> thank you. thank you, madam chairman for holding today's really important hearing. and thanks to all of our witnesses for being here today as well. as the world remains focused on iran's illicit nuclear program, we must not -- we cannot ignore this regime, which is still the world's largest state sponsor of terror. responsible for the detention of three american citizens. and it is one of the world's worst human rights abusers. today we'll shed light on the continued grotesque human rights violations that take place in iran. june 14th marks a year since

rouhani was elected president with the reluctant support of iran's movement. despite his campaign promises, the human rights situation in iran remains unchanged. repression of basic rights, discrimination against minority groups has continued every single day. congress has passed and the administration has enacted numerous provisions both in the 2010 comprehensive iran accountability and divestment act. and in 2011's iran threat reduction to ban visas, to impose asset freezes and travel bans on those persons and entities responsible for human rights abuses in iran. just last week, the u.n. special torah in iran. some eight months into the rouhani presidency, expressed outrage over the alarming number of executions that have taken place in iran this year. per capita, iran ranks first in

the world in terms of executions. more than 500 executions have taken place this year alone. but the iranian government had only publicly reported on some 125. a recent report by the u.n. special repertoire, stated there are at least 895 prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in iran. this includes civic activists, students, journalists and other society leaders. political prisoners face widespread physical, mental and often sexual abuse. iran continues to discriminate and to perpetrate egregious abuses against minorities. the largest nonmuslim group in iran, numbering somewhere between 300 and 400,000. faces discrimination throughout the iranian judicial system.

as of last year, 136 are being held in iranian prison for religious reasons. since 2005, 49 incidents of arson have been reported on the property. without a single arrest being made for these crimes. in 2010, seven leaders were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. women are rarely affords equal treatment in the judicial system in iran. in fact, the testimony of a woman is thought to be worth half of that of a man. a woman who had been sentenced to stoning for adultery was released from prison. this is precisely why constant pressure from the united states and our allies is so critical. iranian women have recently been persecuted for posting pictures of themselves. established by an iranian journalist who had been denounced on tv.

women are subject to fines by the morality police for failing to wear a hejab in public. and now there are calls for a woman to be publicly flogged after a male director kissed her cheek at the cannes film festival. the lgbt festival is all but silenced. iran is one of several countries where those engaging in consensual same sex relationships is punished by death. news reports accuse him of trying to spread homosexuality as his work was published by publishing houses outside iran. free speech and freedom of expression, freedom of the press virtually nonexist an the in iran. we must not allow iran to drop an electronic curtain on its people. the internet and all social media in iran is highly censored, despite the fact that

rouhani and others are quite active on twitter. we must use them. executive order 13628 which authorizes the united states treasury to sanction those who engage in censorship of the iranian people must be utilized. madam chairman, we could literally spend all day sharing examples of all of the ways that the people of iran are deprived of their most basic human rights. the u.s. must continue to speak out in support as well as to implement policies that bolster education and outreach iranian society. human rights, human rights cannot take a back seat in negotiations with iran. we must commit ourselves and we must continue to call on every nation that we call a partner to not ignore what's going on inside of iran. any country that values human rights must stand up for those rights everywhere. i want to thank the witnesses for being here. madam chairman, i yield back.

>> thank you very much for an excellent statement. i'm pleased to yield to the chairman of the subcommittee on africa, global health and human rights, mr. smith of new jersey. >> thank you very much, again working together, the two subcommittees sends a clear and powerful message on issues, particularly as it relates to human rights in iran. it's great to work with you and your subcommittee. madam chair, at the end of this month will mark two years since saeed abedine has seen or hugged his wife and children. what started out as a meaningful humanitarian trip to build an orphanage for children suffering in iran, tragically left his children fatherless. he's been arrested in iran before, and he had been, but he was released and told he could enter and exit the country for humanitarian work if he agreed to cease pastoring house

churches. as his wife testified before our two subcommittees in december, pastor saeed accepted the requirement and turned to building an orphanage instead. but iran did not uphold its end of the agreement. he was arrested in september 2012 and remanded to a prison housing iran's worst criminals. the trial was a sham, it was not public, he and his attorney were barred from participating in key portions of the trial. following which a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison, supposedly undermining the security of iran, i mean, what a cruel joke that is. by sharing his faith and/or practicing christianity. a lot of the details are unclear, and discussion is very difficult as the iranian government has denied his own lawyers access to the judicial decisions. he has suffered periods of solitary confinement, beatings,

internal bleeding, death threats and continued psychological torture during his 630 days in captivity. he was permitted to be examined this winter by a private physician in tehran, who determined he needed surgery for internal injuries, he was denied any necessary treatment. on may 20th, just a few weeks ago, he was brutally beaten at the hospital, in front of his iranian family and then returned to prison. unfortunately, pastor saeed isn't the only american held under questionable and under dire circumstances by the iranian government. amir nazari is a 41-year-old former marine who disappeared while visiting his family in iran in 2011. he was tried and sentenced to death on charges of cooperating with an enemy state and accused of moharabe. he's been accuses of being a cia

agent, he's been an iranian prisoner for more than 1,000 days on these trumped up charges, meanwhile, his father is dying of brain cancer and may never see his son again in life. the iranian government is believed to have imprisoned retired federal fbi agent robert levenson. he travelled to dubai to iran's kish island and hasn't been seen since. in march 2011, the administration announced there are indications he was being held in southeast asia. the iranian government has not lived up to its promise to fully investigate his disappearance. he's now been in captivity for 2500 days. the false imprisonment of the american citizens did not change under president rouhani, and one excuse proffered is that the iranian legal system is organized differently than the american legal system. of course, we believe that the president has huge power. that said, we know in the united

states, the executive branch investigates, prosecutes and imprisons those convicted of crimes, and the role of the judiciary is limited in the case of appeals. the judicial branch prosecutes alleged crimes. the judiciary tries the cases, executes the sentences, supervises the prisons and runs programs that purportedly we have prisoners. the chief justice is also the official to whom request for pardons are initially addressed. for it is he who bears the responsibility of making recommendations to the supreme leader for pardoning or reducing the sentences of convicts within the framework of islamic criteria. i respectfully call on the chief justice, called on the president many times, the foreign minister many of us have conveyed strong abuse directly to him. now we call on the chief justice to help resolve these cases that will be a sore point between the

united states and iran. i ask that the chief justice visit or appoint a personal representative to visit in the prisons where they are held. the chief justice reviewed the integrity of their trial processes and instruct prosecutor general to release for public review the full trial and appeal records, including the evidence on which the court relied for each of their cases. the chief justice is also asked to permit representatives of the swiss ambassador in tehran to visit with each of these prisoners and to report back to his government and to ours on the zalt of their health and the conditions of their imprisonment. my reading of article 156 is that it is the judiciaries role to serve as protector of the rights of individuals and society, to call on the chief justice to implement that. ironically, iran wants the world to lift sanctions and trust them

with nuclear capabilityies not only for americans but countless other peoples. pastor saeed and others are american citizens but they have not had their freedom. dr. ahmed shahite warned in march 2014 that hundreds of individuals reportedly remain in some form of confinement for exercising their fund amtal rights, including 179 b'hai, sunni and muslims. >> while i'm grateful the president raised the case of president saeed last september, the united states must do more to secure his release. you'll recall he testified before our committee in december, and she said, while i'm grateful, and this is a quote, for president obama's

willingness to discuss concern about my husband and other imprisoned americans in iran, during his recent phone conversations with iran's president. i was devastated to learn the administration didn't even ask for my husband's release, when seated directly across the table from the leaders of the government that holds him captive. she said that right there sitting at the witness table. my husband is suffering because he's a christian, he's suffering because his american. can his own government, at least the executive diplomatic representatives have abandoned him. don't we owe it to him as a nation to stand up for his human rights and his freedom. we need to redouble our efforts. with the deadline coming up for july 20th, we have a window of opportunity that cannot be squaun dared. >> thank you very much. we will begin with mr. conley of virginia. >> thank you, madam chairman, imagine for a moment, you are a gay woman, iranian ethnic

minority who's working conditions are deplorable, you'd like to take action to improve your life. first you're successful enough to join the workforce is commended since it's something that only 32% of iranian women ever realize. it's assumed your husband does not object to your employment, because he's allowed to. he can bar you from entering the workforce. like most kurds, arabs in iran, you persevered through a lifetime of government neglect and institutionalized discrimination. and finally, despite overcoming these significant obstacles and nonetheless arrested for spreading propaganda against the regime and forming socialist groups, the human rights situation in iran is mid evil and remains bleak, and it is very important we speak out about it.

thank you, madam chairman, and thank you to the ranking member for hosting this hearing. >> thank you, well but. mr. shah bat, our subcommittee chairman is recognized. >> thank you, i want to commend you for continuing this series of hearings on dangerous regime in the world today. proceeding this hearing iran continues to be one of the biggest abusers. the regime -- persecutes anybody who sperefuses to speak and insulting islam. it's become pretty clear that the so-called moderate rouhani is just another in a long list of iranian thugs whose contempt for his own people's fundamental human rights and religious freedom is readily apparent. want to thank you for holding this hearing as i say and yield back. >> thank you very much, sir.

mr. cyicilline is recognized. >> i'd like to thank the witnesses for their testimony before the subcommittee this morning and to say that it's truly a great honor to be joined by people who exemplify courage and a deep commitment in the struggle against injustice and human rights abuses. even as we closely monitor their nuclear capability we have a responsibility to address other risks such as how iran threatens universal values of human dignity, equality and free expression. in a region of the world with a troubling record on civil lib 'tis and human rights especially for women, girls and minorities, iran stands out as particularly egregious. in order to lack of due process and discrimination against women and minorities i'm particularly concerned about the status of sexual and gender minorities in iran. while nearly 80 countries in the world still criminalize people

for simply being lesbian or gay iran is one of the few countries that has the death penalty as a potential punishment, a position inconsistent with the most basic respect for human rights. i look forward to the testimony of our witnesses and yield back, madam chair. >> thank you very much, sir. now we will turn to our panel, wonderful witnesses that we have, first we welcome dr. robert george who is the chairman of the u.s. commission on international religious freedom, dr. george is also the mccormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the james madison program in american ideals and institutions at princeton university. he has taught at harvard law school and is a senior fellow at the hoover institution at stanford university. welcome, dr. george. and we will -- i'll just quickly introduce the other panelists and begin with you, dr. george.

we have with us miss clair bahari who was born and raised in iran where she was denied entrance to universities simply because of her faith. after leaving iran she was resettled as a refugee in canada before moving to the united states. thank you so much for being with us, miss behari and we look forward to your testimony. a third we're so pleased to welcome mr. hossain alizadeh who is the middle east and north africa regional program coordinator for the international gay and lesbian human rights commission. mr. alizadeh has worked over the last 15 years in iran and throughout the region to promote equality and foster cross cultural understands and support for the civil and human rights of all people. we welcome you, sir and fourth we welcome mr. emir hossain

etemadi who is the president for the foundation of human rights and of a website that covers human rights and civil society news in iran. because of his role in student protest he was imprisoned for two years and in 2010 was forced to leave iran. we welcome all of you and your statements will be made a part of the record and start with esteemed dr. george. >> the beliefs defining iran's regime remain strongly theocratic. any iranian dissenting can be considered an enemy of the state. since 1999, the united states annually has designated iran as a country of particular concern. that means its government ranks among the world's worst religious freedom abusers subjecting dissenting iranians of every description to

prolonged detention, torture and even execution. the regime's human rights and religious freedom record must feature centrally in any assessment since president hassan rouhani took office last august. madam chairman, the record, the picture is bleak. iran's already dire religious freedom conditions have deteriorated during the rouhani tenure. particularly for baha'is, christians and muslims belonging to minority seyts. even others have been targeted including ayatollah boajerdi who advocates religious tolerance of iran's religious communities. minorities. dissidents and human rights defends have been executed for t the crime of waging war against

god and some are remaining in prisons. now here's a snapshot of what we have had -- >> without objection that list will be made a part of the record. >> thank you, madam chairman. here's a snapshot of what happened under president rhu. 135 baha'is are imprisoned, a doubling of the number since 2011. this past may marked six years of incarceration for seven baha'i leaders for following their consciences in matters of faith. i'm sorry, that was -- this is the baha'i seven. taking a cue, three baha'i family members sustained knife injuries from a mass assailant's attack and local leader was murdered last august. no one has been charged. crime is committed with impunity. next to the baha'is their theocratic government views present tents as their main --

as of february 2014, 40 were imprisoned. human rights groups inside iran reported significant increases in christians physically assaulted in prison and that has meant to intimidate those considering christianity. farsi fathi was one of those injured as you can see. he's a young man. pastor saeed abedini, an iranian born minter of the gospel is serving eight years on the absurd charge of threatening iran's national security. here is pastor abedini. last november, he was transferred to another prison known for its harsh conditions. in march prison authorities beat him as was mentioned after he was sent to a hospital in may. he repeatedly was reportedly was beaten again and returned to prison. during the past year u.s. policy

includes multiple statements and imposing sanctions on entities for human rights violations. at the u.s. commission on international religious freedom we recommend the following, that the u.s. government should first include violations of human rights and religious freedom within multilateral discussions with iran and work closely with our allies to apply pressure through advocacy, diplomacy and targeted sanction, number two, continue to des significant nate iran a country of particular concern and take appropriate actions as enumerated under the religious freedom act, the international religious act. number three, identify iranian government agent cyst and officials responsible for the severe violations of religious freedom, bar them from entry to the u.s., freeze their assets and as per the comprehensive iran sanctions accountability and divestment act take action. next, an act for multiple years the lautenberg amendment, a lifeline for religious minorities. finally, u.s. officials should speak out publicly and

frequently at the highest levels about human rights and religious freedom abuses, advocate for the release of all prisoners of conscience and work with the international community to hold them accountable. representatives should join the project of thele tom landis commission as you and others have done. let's recall elie weisel's pledge to himself. he said, i swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings are suffering humiliation, we must always take side, neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim, silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented. iran's religious minorities are not waging war against god, but the regimes' theocratic rulers are doing this against the iranian people, their abuses demand our attention and action because negotiations on the nuclear issue really could divert attention from its increasingly egregious human rights and religious free doom

violations. the u.s. should insist that iran demonstrate its commitment to peaceful intentions abroad by ceasing its war at home against its own people and their rights. thank you, madam chair. >> thank you so very much, dr. george. >> chairman -- sdmrrs hold on one second. let's stop the clock. push the microphone and hold it close to your mouth. let's start the clock again. >> got it. >> thank you. >> chairman ros-lehtinen, ranking member deutch, my name is clair baheri. i want to thank you for the opportunity to share my story with you. i would like to request my written statement be included. >> without soaks. >> the baha'i community of iran has been the target of systemic and severe state sponsored persecution since the revolution of 1979. my family and husband's family have experienced execution firsthand. when the revolution began in 1979 i was 12.

my father had been serving on the local spiritual assembly to elect the governing council in that city. as a result, our house was raided five times and finally 1980, my father and several other members of the assembly along with two other local baha'is were arrested and imprisoned. in prison my father was notified because he was a baha'i, his employment as an accountant with the ministry of health had been terminated and salary owed to him was canceled and his retirement funds which had accumulated over the course of 24 years in the civil service were repossessed. my family an i would visit my father once a week. my brother and i would fake our report cards to our father. he was happy we were doing well in school. once he read us a birthday note

on a piece of clothing that was sent to us to be laundered. in the note he said he needed to us understand that he was not in prison for any crime other than his belief in the baha'i faith. and that he wanted to us fight for him by continuing to do well in school. my apologies. a few days before his execution my father was taken in the middle of the night into a room with one interrogator and a tape-recorder. the interrogator fell asleep and my father was expected to continue to answer a list of questions that had been put in front of him. this was his so-called trial. after their trial, my father and the other baha'is were sentenced to death and held in solitary confinement for 24 hours. during this time they were given the choice of islam or adam which means islam or death. this meant that if they recanted their faith and declared themselves to be muslims, their

lives would be spared. all of them refused. instead, they declared that they were baha'is and for this they were killed. on july 29th, '81. my father was executed and this is a picture of him. my brother was 9 and i was 15. when my family was informed of my father's death, one of our relatives went to receive the body. the prison authorities forced them to pay for the bullets that had taken his life. later that night executions were announced on the radio. the announcer stated that my father and the others were convicted of corruption and

worrying against god. i finish high school in iran in 1983. though i had one of the highest scores on the exams i like many other students across iran was denied entrance to university solely because of my faith. the next year i left iran alone traveling on the back of a truck through the desert into pakistan. i was eventually resettled as a refugee in canada and i now live in virginia with my husband naem. naem is also a baha'i and is from tehran. he was arrested and detained three times in iran. twice for playing jazz in private concerts. and once for possessing educational material in his car for baha'i children. when he was arrested for having the children's material, he was imprisoned for two months and was often held in solitary confinement in a small room with no windows. he was 18 at the time.

he was also denied admittance to university because he was a baha'i. soon after he left with a guide into the western mountains of turkey. after being stranded for five days during border skirmishes he crossed the border into turkey. he was also processed by the united nations high commissioner for refugees and was resettled in maryland. his father is currently imprisoned in iran for his efforts to educate baha'i youth. he had been a successful civil engineer but soon after the revolution he was terminated from his job for being a baha'i and his salary, pension and savings were seized. in the years following the revolution baha'i students and professors were expelled from universities and baha'i youth were denied the right to attend university. in 1987 my father-in-law along with several other baha'is, most academics and professionals who lost their jobs after the revolution came together to form

the baha'i institute for higher learning known as bihe. bien he -- it's a formal list of subjects such as architecture and law. material and funds are donated and classes are usually held in homes. b ich bihe is their only option. managing administrative work and hosting classes in his home. for over to years he and the other dedicated faculty of bihe have been giving freely of themselves to ensure the next generation of baha'is have a chance to contribute to society. in may of 2011 there was a series of raids on dozens of homes associated with bihe. real was arrested along with

several others. he and the others were held in evian prison. in october after a brief, short show trial, he and six other baha'is -- baha'i educators were convicted of membership in the deif apartment baha'i seyt with the goal of taking action against the security of the country in order to further the aims of the deif apartment seyt and those of organizations outside the country. they were each sentenced to four to five years with my father-in-law receiving four years. after their sentences riaz and the others were join to another prison where the male prisoners were put in the same ward as the members of seven imprisoned baha'i leaders known as the yaron. in the years since then other bihe educators have been imprisoned and now 12 in prison solely because of their efforts to educate baha'is. and this is a picture of the 12

currently there. when my husband's family is now living through -- because of my father-in-law's imprisonment is unfortunately nothing new. their experience with persecution started long before the imprisonment. two of his cousins were execute ford being a baha'i with names little brother, navid who was 6 years at the time. 6 years old at the time passed away. they buried him in a small baha'i cemetery. soon after the cemetery was bulldozed and turned into an agricultural field. a few years later naem's grandmother and aunt were arrested and imprisoned for being baha'i and held in evian for one year in solitary confinement for part of that time and repeatedly beaten and tortured. in the last several years naem's younger sister and husband have both been imprisoned twice. she was denied admission to university and completed studies in law with bihe now working with the defenders of human

rights center, an organization founded by nobel laureate abati. >> if i could impose a time limit on your statement. >> okay. >> i hate -- so sorry to do so. >> not a problem. in november of 2013 he released a charter as human rights organization noted it is a restrictive and problematic document that raises concerns. one of these is that the charter states that the rights it enumerates applies only to religious minorities, a group that excludes baha'is. in recent months two baha'i cemeteries were attacked. one in shiraz. i would like to thank the house of representatives who are passing a may 28th hr-4028 which adds the desecration of

cemeteries to freedom religious violations and hope the senate and president will agree to this much-needed provision. >> thank you very much. thank you, miss baheri for your powerful testimony. we thank you. now please yield to mr mr. alizadeh. thank you, sir. >> thank, madam chairman and the house on foreign affairs. thank you for allowing me to testify. almost one year ago iranians went to the polls to choose a seventh president of islamic republic of iran. few people in iran had any illusions about the flawed electoral process or the real power of the president in iran over the past three decades elections in iran have been fueled with allegations of vote rigging, intimidation and threats against candidates and more importantly widespread disqualification of independent and opposition candidates by the

electoral monitoring body. just last week, under one-year anniversary of his election the iranian president has sent rouhani himself openly noted that elections in iran have the reputation of being a political sham. unlike the united states, iran's constitution allows limited authority to the president of the country. the office of the president and iran, for example, has no control over the army, the intelligence, the police or key foreign policy issues. the real center of power in iran's politics is the office of the supreme leader ayatollah khomeini who has the final military and political say. furthermore his office is exempt from regular checks and balances. although these facts may already be known to the committee, a brief mention of them may help us to set realistic expectations while evaluating the president's performance and his accomplishments. the truth of the matter is within the political dynamics of

the islamic republic, the office of president cannot be an engine of significant change even at the best of times. and the bigger scale it is neither realistic neurological to expect a self-declared theocracy to function as a secular democracy. over the past 12 months the human rights situation in iran has demonstrated no significant improvement in comparison to the status of human rights under former president ahmadinejad. they continue to carry out a high number of executions including political prisoners over other instances including arrest, house arrest, juvenile execution, mistreatment and torture of detainees, regular interference in the privacy of citizens, the banner free speech and persecution of individuals based on religious beliefs and political pensacola. i would like here to specifically highlight the

plight of gay, lessen and transgendered individuals. they continue to prescribe the death penalty for consensual same-sex relations. the official media and top publications and top officials including iran's supreme leader ayatollah khomeini regularly attack homosexuality as a western conspiracy and sign of moral decay. individuals suspected of being gay, lesbian or transgender face systemic acts of violence and discrimination. newspapers are shut down for publishing pieces about same-sex relations. security forces raid private parties of suspected lgbt people and subject them to beating, humiliation and the confiscation of property. professors and students are forced to leave universities for organizing academic discussions about gender and sexuality. even worse act of vice against suspected lgbt family members often go unpunished and unnoticed.

as a result of those oppressive realities, every year hundreds of lgbt individuals leave their home country and seek asylum in the west including the united states. i am one of them. i'm of course horrified by the human rights violations occurring in iran. but i do believe that rouhani's presidency provides an opportunity for the iranian people and the international community to successfully demand more freedom for the people of iran. unlike his predecessor rouhani seems to believe in less government control, more international trade and a stronger role for academic and professional communities. no one can or should mistake rouhani for a champion of human rights. however, he appears willing to make small improvements and seems to have the political and social capital to do so. the united states government has a moral obligation to provide opportunities and resources for the iranian people in order to give them broader access to information about human rights standards and personal freedoms

especially through funding, technology to fight internet censorship and develop informative resources in person. the political opening created by rouhani's election shut be utilized through significant investment in public awareness to counter the notion that human rights are not compatible with iranian traditions and values. also it's very important to keep in mind that the authorities iran should take this is that the rest is not really interested in its bottom line or lucrative oil business. they need to know the international community cares about human rights records of iran and to take action of positive and negative developments this that regard. more importantly, human rights protection should not be a footnote or in the fine print of bilateral and regional negotiations. the united states and the west should speak loudly and clearly about the importance of human rights and make sure to discuss this topic in every conversation. thank you. >> thank you very much. sir. and now please to yield to mr

mr. etemadi. >> ranking member -- >> hold on a second and stop the clock and put that mike right in front of you. thank you. >> madam chairman, ranking member deutch and members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today. i am a former iranian political presser and the current spokesman of graduates. what motivated me to speak at this hearing is the continuation of the systemic and violation of human rights and basic freedom of iranian people along with the efforts of international community to prevent iranian regime from achieving nuclear weapons. today islamic republic of iran under the sanctions has been forced to -- submit to parts of

international requests on its nuclear case. it would not be -- the election of hassan rouhani in june 2013 was due to this pressure. on the contrary the notes for the silence of the international community at the face of human rights violation in iran has encouraged the islamic republic to further expand and aggravate violation of iranian people's rights. according to reports by human rights -- since hassan rouhani's election at least 700 people including 38 political prisoners have been executed. almost all of them were deprived of their rights to due process and fair trial. in the past year arrests issuance and enforcement of prison sentences for religious minorities including baha'is, sunni muslims have been

continued. rouhani's government like its predecessor's does not recognize followers of baha'i faith as a religious minority and they are still banned from attending universities. on the other hand, despite all his promises during the presidential campaign, the political prisoners to be releas released, the leaders have been under house arrest since february 2011, not only had mr. rouhani done nothing for them even more journalists and blockers, human rights defenders, labor and civil activists, student, cyberactivists have been arrested in the past year. moreover, while facebook continued to be blocked, the supreme leader and hassan rouhani along with other members of the government such as foreign min stister jaafar are

active on this. iran state tv which has a monopoly on visual and audio in iran still has an important role in censorship and the iranian regime against its opcws. satellite signals by transmitting strong elect electromagnetic frequencies have been intensified since the new government has taken office to an extent that the possible link to cancer has been discussed in local media. ladies and gentlemen, at such time i as individual who have experienced detention, torture and harassment by iranian regime for my peaceful political activities ask you to places lambic republic's human rights dossier on the nuclear negotiation table and tie the final resolution of the latter to their human rights abuses.

i believe the uranium and its allies to ask them to be committed to international obligations under specific verse -- specific cases. one, acting to a trip by mr mr. saed on the situation and granting him the permission to visit. two, ending transmission of rogue frequency aimed at jamming satellite signals in accordance of iran's obligation as a member of international communication associations. three, commitment to free elections in accordance with declaration on free and fair election passed by interparliamentary union in 1994 to which iran is a signatory. i would also like -- i would also like to ask you to firstly share full adherence of the u.s. government to the existing

sanctions against violators of human rights and those individual s individuals in crackdown and suppression of the dissidents also place the supreme leader and all the financial and military organizations under his responsibility, on the list of the sanction, keeping the execution of his order eiko and islamic revolutionary guard irgc and their subsidiaries on the list of results. it ensures that. it ensures that the release of frozen iranian funds which belong to iranian people would not be controlled by an organization and also it would intensify the pressure on the violators of human rights. thank you. >> thank you very much all of you for powerful testimony. i'll begin the question and answer period. we've heard the harsh realities of the human rights situation in

iran. dr. george, sadly iran is not alone. part of your commission's mandate by law is to review the ongoing facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom around the world, present that in your annual review, make policy recommendations to the president, to the secretary of state, to us in congress with respect to matters relating to international religious freedom. how many countries are currently listed by the state department as a country of particular concern due to their ongoing and systemic violations of religious freedom? how many did your commission recommend to be listed and when was the last time a new country was designated as a country for particular concern by the state department and why does the administration repeatedly overrule your commission's recommendations? is this symptomatic of the

larger problem that the united states is dropping advocating for religious freedom and human rights solo on our foreign policy agenda, have we been using all of the tools available to us namely sanctions to promote religious freedom and human rights and let me just ask the questions and we'll have all of you respond and miss baheri, thank you again for your testimony telling your story, a story that unfortunately is not a unique to just you as a member of the baha'i community and your testimony you talked about rouhani's citizen rights charter and this was part of his so-called reform agenda, but as you note, it raises very serious concerns least of which that it still does not recognize baha'i as a religious minority. rouhani, do you believe has ushered in an era of reform and moderation or is really just is he really just another man and part of the inner circle of the

supreme leader who has managed to fool so many with his smooth talking and empty promises, the so-called window of reform and, mr. etemadi, you've been a political prisoner of the regime and you say that the silence of the international community is the face -- in the face of ongoing human rights violations in iran is actually encouraging rouhani and the regime to even further expand these abuses and curtail the rights of his people. has the rush by the media in the west to anoint rouhani as a reformer and moderate blinded us to his real nature because we want to believe that he can change iran and the administration's push for a nuclear deal for -- without pursuing the human rights track, as well, has emboldened the iranian rescream to continue committing these atrocities without repercussions and we will begin with dr. george if you could be brief in your

remarks. >> thank you again, madam chairman. i want to address one of the points you made well into your question. and that is this question of silence. international silence, silence sometimes from those of us here in the united states. as i said in recent testimony to chairman smith's committee, there is a time and place for quiet diplomacy, yes. i can tell you some examples from our own experience at the commission where that time and place have existed. but most of the time staying quiet simply encourages the human rights abusers to continue the human rights abuse, most of the time what we need are vocal forms of resistance, criticism of these abusive regimes and that is certainly true here with iran. madam chairman, we, currently the state department designates eight countries of those of concern, the worst abusers,

burma, eritrea, north korea, saudi arabia, sudan and uzbekistan. we currently are recommending eight additional countries, some of them have been on recommendations for years but as you noted they haven't always been taken. the countries that we are recommending but have not been designated as countries of particular concern are egypt, iraq, nigeria, pakistan, syria, tajik ten, turkmenistan and vietnam. we list pakistan at the very top of our list of offending nations which have not yet been designated as countries of particular concern. if there's one country at the top of the list that should be so designated as i've recently testified that is pakistan because the horrific abuses that take place there including abuses again against the baha'i community. the last designations by the state department were in 2011. i believe. we strongly advocate annual

designations, if annual designations aren't meat they become in the words of my colleague, the vice chairman of our commission, katrina, sweat the daughter of tom lantos, the human rights activity and congre congressman. she says they become part of the wallpaper and nobody notices them anymore. we're pressing our leadership. whether it's republican administration or democratic administration -- >> thank you. >> we want them to make these designations on an annual basis. now, as far as why -- >> i'm going to just stop you a second because i asked too many questions but want to give a chance to miss baheri and mr mr. etemadi. >> with respect to the baha'is in particular the rights discussed in charter apply to only religious minorities officially recognized by the constitution which excludes baha'is. as to mr. rouhani's moderate practices as an iranian have

been hopeful and as a baha'i, we are strictly nonviolent and owe bead cent to the government we live in. we participate in no partisan politics. we have noticed that in the last year since mr. rouhani's presidency, we've had cemeteries that have been desecrated and have mr. restvanny and a family stabbed in his home in february of 2014 and no progress in the investigation of their case. just as of yesterday, there was a report from the baha'i international news that in january -- this was a cataloged anti-baha'i articles that were on websites and so forth. in january there was 55, in february there were 72. in march there were 93, april, 285 and in may there were 366 anti-baha'i -- >> thank you very much. mr. etemadi.

>> thank you. actually the real power in iran is under the supreme leader and as i said the election of hassan rouhani was a result of international pressure to decrease the pressure and release the bloodhounds. actually rouhani doesn't have enough power to change the situation of human rights in iran and i don't think so even if he had, he change anything in iran because he's not reformist as we know. he's very close to mr. khomeini and actually i think it's the show, the regime to show him as a reformist. >> thank you very much. thank you. please to yield to the ranking member mr. deutch for his question and answer period. >> thank you, madam chairman. thanks to the witnesses for being here. it's almost overwhelming.

it's -- the breadth of abuses in iran is almost too difficult for us to get our arms around so i'd like to try to approach it a different way. doctor, i know you focus on religious freedom and i appreciate what you do but let me start with the other witnesses, though. we're viewing all this as a human rights issue. but i'd like you to speak to the americans -- the american people to help us understand, help them understand what it means in each specific area. miss baheri to help them feel what the type of persecution that the baha'i undergo in iran. >> well, it's simple.

it's been nothing except wanting to practice our basic rights, to be able to be married as baha'is, to be able to go to school, to be able to continue education and all for the sake of really just being baha'i and refusing to recant your faith. simple. >> mr. alizadeh, to the lgbt community in america, who are engaged to their leaders, help them understand the relevance of what's happening to the community in iran. >> i just want to emphasize that the issue is not specific to lgbt community. it is a broader issue and goes back to -- >> mr. alizadeh. i understand that and i appreciate it and my point is it's so broad -- >> right. >> that for those of us who spend a lot of time thinking about human rights issue answer how to uphold human rights

around the world, that's how we approach it. i'm trying to personalize this for people who may not think much about iran, don't perhaps don't think much about foreign policy, but absolutely unders n understand and focus on their own community. >> it's as easy as this. as a person your individuality, your privacy is constantly being violated and scrutinized by the government. the government decides how much rights you have based on who you are, what sexual orientation or gender identity you have, even what gender you have as congressman smith pointed out there is a difference between the rights of men and women in iran so everything has been categorized and depending on which category you belong to, your right differs so for lgbt community, they do not exist as former ahmadinejad put it, they don't exist, the official

narrative is that they don't exist, therefore they have no rights and so the government continues to violate the rights of lgbt people on the basis that this is a form of perversion, this is not a human behavior that can be recognized and i just want to point out something else. just last week, the parliament of iran issued a -- former declassified report by the minister of education that shows 20% -- almost 20% of students in iran have homosexual tendency, so we are talking about a sizable portion of population whose right is being violated on a daily basis. >> i appreciate that. mr. etemadi, for students in america who are engaged in politics for civic leaders, for community leaders, people who just want to express themselves, can you talk about the type of persecution they would experience in iran? >> i wants to introduce my

friends. she is a student -- actually e she -- after gay movement protest in 2009 and after rouhani's election she got arrested by intelligence ministry just because she was active in the duration -- presidential campaign and she sentenced to seven years jail and since last july she is in jail and she should be in jail for another two years. she's just one of my friends. another has been in jail since

2009. another one has been in 2009 and many of my friends are in jail at the moment and they should be in jail just because they peaceful political activities. >> i appreciate that. mr. chairman, just to finish, i know that we talk as i said before a lot of us talk about human rights. but to look at -- at those rights that are being violated, miss baheri, for americans to understand, america with freedom of religion, to understand the type of persecution that the baha'i and dr. george as you pointed out other religious groups face in iran and mr mr. alizadeh, to think for

americans to think about for a moment what it would be like to be percesecuted and be subject death, frankly, because of your sexual orientation and mr mr. etemadi, for you to help us understand for students, for people who just are engaged in views -- take views that are in opposition to the government, the threats, the possibility of going to jail, the persecution that they face, that's i think how we need to think about it here. these are tremendous violations of universal human rights and finally to journalists who face the same thing in iran, to journalists in this country, i would suggest the same thing, think about what it would be like for you in iran and let all of us be guided by those notions of how our own lives could be turned upside down because of

what we believe, who we are, the way we voice our opinion, i'm so grateful for you being here today to help shed light on that for us. it's very moving testimony that i hope moves all of us, not just on the committee but as a nation, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you very much, mr. deutch. let me, mr. etemadi, thank you for underscoring the notion of human rights being on the table when discussions of issues of nuclear weaponry are at hand. how do you trust a totalitarian regime on enrichment issue, on whether or not they have a bomb or plan to making bombs, plural, not singular or when they maltreat and torture and murder their own people as well as three americans who are being held unjustly? you know, naghmeh abedini testified at our hearing that we had here in december and before that that a frank wolff hearing as part of a lantos commission and at the wolf hearing shockingly the administration

told naghmeh that there was, quote, nothing we can do to help her. astounding, thankfully secretary curry, when he heard that did reverse course for the state department but frankly it still is not part of the negotiating -- maybe somewhere on the periphery but far off the periphery it would seem to me. yesterday i chaired a hearing on human rights in north korea. we heard from ambassador-at-large from south korea, the republic of korea ambassador lee who talked about a grand mobilization on behalf of the north koreans that are being decimated by the kim, jung-un and talked about the gulags and laid out how horrific it is. a special envoy to south sudan, to sudan i should say, now co-chair of a north korean human rights effort, talked about the

abject failure of the nuclear talks and the delinking of human rights to those and how human rights had grossly deteriorated because they were not even on the table and people were not there for -- not subjected to relief that they might have gotten. the same issue being replayed with iran. we've done it on trade issues with china and doing it on trade issues with vietnam and many others but the north korean and iranian absolutely are appropriate parallels and very, very discouraging that it is not there front and center. how do you trust a regime that butchers its own people. i would say to miss baheri, in 1983 i joined president reagan at the white house when they had a mobilization and the president reagan spoke out boldly how alarmed and dismayed we were at the persecution of baha'i in iran and he talked about the 100 men and women who had been hanged or shot since khomeini

had come in, one of those was your dad obviously and my greatest sympathy, all of us on behalf of the committees for your enormous loss, not surprisingly, just like the chinese, they made your family pay for the bullets that murdered your father. again, underscoring why human rights have to be front and center and not on the peripheral negotiations if they are that. so thank you for being here and bearing witness. dr. george, on the cpc issue which you spoke so eloquently tee to when you were here testifying before my subcommittee a few weeks ago i think members have to realize since 2011 not a single cpc designation, that is also a frank wolff legislation or the international religious freedom act called for annual designations and frankly like you said wallpaper, if we don't have those designations and robust enforcement there are 18

prescribed sanctions that are -- were meant to be utilized when a country showed indifference for worse, double down and how things have gotten worse under rouhani not even a designation since 2011 and make a call again to president obama, designate cpc countries and do it now and there are many more that ought to be added, again, that are just languishing and there's been nothing done. we don't even have an ambassador-at-large and say i chaired the hearings and marked up the bill for international religious freedom act in this room back in 1998. this is not what we envisioned. a nonenforcement of that very important human rights piece of legislation. dr. george, i'd like to ask you, you pointed out in your testimony that official policies promoting anti-semitism have risen sharply in recent years and jews have been targeted on the basis of perceived ties to israel. could you elaborate on that.

you point out the issue of sanctions, you know, i wrote the belarus democracy act and worked closely with the europeans on who we sanctioned in the lu. luka shchlt henko regime. 90 have been sanctioned to our 1 and you are encouraged there's at least, the mayor of tehran. but where are the others? we have the law in place to do it. 90-1. if it was a world cup score it would be a blowout. we need to update and add to that list. you also finally -- i do have a lot of others but i'll just go to your answers. dr. george. >> yes, thank you, congressman smith. i'll take a moment to address the particular issues that you wanted me to talk about. we have noticed our staff has noticed that since rouhani assumed the presidency there has

been a toning down of the anti-jewish rhetoric that we had seen from government officials during the ahmadinejad period. but what we haven't seen is any corresponding diminution of the pressure against the jewish community as still 20,000 jews remaining in iran, a fraction of the -- what was once a flourishing and large community there. so, yeah, there's been a toning down of the rhetoric but no real action to make things any better, any different for the jewish community like all the religious minority communities in iran, they are third class citizens or worse and always subject to harassment of all sorts so we don't have any good news to report beyond the rhetorical side for the jewish community in iran. were you asking me particularly about the jewish community in iran because before your committee you talked about the rise of it globally. >> but also about the sanctions

regime and its -- >> yes, we need those annual designations. we really do. you're right to urge the administration. we did. we urge every administration whether republican or democrat to make those annual designation, to call attention to the offenses and then to use those sanctions that are available under the act which was passed by congress signed into law in the 1990s by president clinton, they are there to be used. they are effective tools when they are used. we saw this about a decade ago when the tools were used effectively against vietnam when it was a very gross abuser of religious freedom. we saw some real benefits for persecuted religious people in buddhists and christians alike in vietnam. we then removed them from the cpc list to encourage the good behavior we had seen to reward the progress that had been made and unfortunately they slipped right back into their old

patterns of behavior and became an abuser again and find ourselves in 2014 recommending that vietnam, again, be shifted over to cpc status, another designation we'd like to have made but we need to follow the law here and we need to make those designations and need to be am and bring pressure on these regimes. >> again, on the sanctions enforcement with regards to the holding individual violators like we've done with belarus -- >> exactly right. the tools are there in the legislation to put travel restricts on people, officials who are responsible for the brutality and for the abuses, to freeze assets, those tools are available, as well. you know, make the people who are responsible for these human rights abuses, whether they're actually committing the abuses or whether they are tolerating them and letting them occur with impunity, make them pay a cost and suffer a cost. the tools are there right in the legislation, let's use it.

>> begin, just before i yield back, andrew is one of the tinest sub servants i've known. yesterday as i said he talked about north korea and the abject failure of delinking human rights from the six-party talks. we have delinked human rights from the talks on nuclear issues, vis-a-vis iran, it is a mistake. my hope is it's never too late to relook at that and i would encourage the administration it especially with the deadline coming up with the three americans but on behalf of iranians suffering daily indignities and torture to put human rights on the table and be bold bit. have names and lists. one of the things reagan did so excellently throughout his entire time when he was president, schultz when he was secretary of state, wherever they went especially the soviet union before they met with soviet officials they met with the dissidents and they proffered a list that they gave

to and said we want progress on that. because it's linked to everything else we do. >> would my colleague yield for just a question on that? >> sure. >> does my colleague agree th that -- because we justed passed the north korean sanctions legislation, does my colleague agree that there's a clear link between sanctions and the elevation of the issues he so eloquently has just described? >> well, there's definitely a link. >> i'm sorry? >> sanctions i think when they're judiciously applied effectively and i think targeted sanctions are the best and i think our witnesses have pointed that out, you know, we don't want to hurt the iranian people and

we advocate for or which groups we say deserve special protection. it's a whole panoply of human rights and human rights violations we need to be concerned about. bo that be an accurate statement on my part? if well, i'm here today -- >> i know. that's why i read your tight. >> on behalf of the commission on religious freedom and constrained by the mandate we have to stay within those boundary lines so what i can talk about are religious freedom abu abuses. very often they are linked to other abuse, for example, abuses of freedom of speech and association and so forth with respect to religious minorities and so in those circumstances our commission feels as though it's within our mandate to call

attention to those abuses because they bear on religious freedom abuses but there are nine of us and represent a range of viewpoints on a wide range of issues, we are united on the basic commitment to religious liberty. but in order to avoid anyone, any member of the commission including the chairman speaking out of turn offering his own personal opinions, which might not be shared by the other commissioners, we in our capacity as commissioners and i in my compass is it chairman stay within the lines. >> yes, but -- all right. let's stay within your rubric. >> yeah. >> would it be visible if the congress and the administration were to decide what we're going to focus on this year is the persecution of roman catholics in iran, therefore, we're not going to be talking about the baha'is or jews or any other religious group because we're pretty much focused on that one? what would that do to your mandate and what do you think -- what kind of message would that send to iran. >> our mandate is to advocate on behalf of the religious freedom

rights of all people. >> thank you. > so we don't -- >> that's my point. we don't cherry-pick and although your mandate has to do with religious freedom you might take the point by extension that we don't want to be freedom yout take the point by extension that we don't want to be cherry picking rights and human rights either, just as we don't within your purview. >> i'm sure there are true. of course there are many important philosophical and important debates about the nature of rights, whether such and so is a right or is not a right. those are disputes that you have in the congress and we have among the american people. >> to what extent do you deal with -- how do you deal with sort of the cultural barriers? so for example, i mean, america was founded by some pretty fashi passionate found hoarse wanted to make sure that there were careful woundries. in fact, jefferson referred to them i believe as firewalls -- between the state and religion,

and some of them actually professionally cut their teeth on exactly that. madison spent his early professional career in my home state of virginia fighting against the established church of virginia. he wanted religious liberty for other nonestablishment groups. especially the anabaptists. and so to what extent -- to what extent is it a cultural issue? iran doesn't have that tradition. iran is an overwhelming ly unitary denomination. one could understand, not justify, one could understand therefore there's going to be tension when people are sort of outside the norm religiously. to what extent, how do you in your mandate and to what extent does the united states have to understand that -- the difference between, no, you're

crossing a boundary that we cannot accept, and that's persecution and not justified, versus cultural identity that we have to respect and work with? >> well, it's an excellent question, representative connolly. you're right, iran is different from the united states in that we do have the separation, what we call the separation of church and state. that's not a phrase that exists in our constitution but it describes the basic theory of the relationship of the institutions of religion and the institutions of government under our constitutional system and especially, of course, under the first amendment. they don't have that. they don't have that state/church separation. but our state/church separation should not be interpreted to mean a separation of religion from public life. religion has always played a very important role in our public life. george washington in his farewell address noted that religion and morality were essential to the flourishing of any community of freedom, any political order that aspires to

be a set of free institutions. john adams said that our constitution is for a moral and religious people and will serve well no other. so we can understand the relationship between religion and state in other societies, including in iran where religion is an important part of the picture because religion is an important part of the picture in the united states and we don't see it as something separate. we don't say martin luther king should not have spoken in terms of the bible or the brotherhood of all man in attacking racial injustice and significant gra race. we don't have the system of france and some other european jurisdictions. we don't treat religion as the enemy of politics or something that's purely private and should never be brought into the public square. culturally we value the role of religion in public life -- >> stipulated. >> so the big difference, of course, is do we respect the right of everyone, irrespective of faith, including those who have no faith, those who are athei atheists, who are unbelievers, to follow their consciences

precisely in matters of faith? we believe in that very strongly. we did from the beginning in the united states. it's written into our constitution. even before we had a first amendment, our constitution has a prohibition of religious tests for public offices. anybody of any faith can hold any office under the united states. and we have committed ourselves, as have many other nations, including iran, to international human rights standards with respect to religious freedom. so we're really simply asking iran to live up to those standards. we're not saying disseven religion, that's not our claim. we understand you can have a different system from ours. we're just saying, respect the equal rights of freedom of religion for the baha'is, for the jewish community, for the christian community, for the minority muslim communities, whether sunni or sufi or whatever they are. that's really all we're asking. we're not trying to be cultural imperialists and impose the american system. we understand they have a different system. that's okay. we're not trying to force them into a jeffersonian

constitution. but we do say, live up to the requirements that you yourselves have signs on to in international documents by respecting the religious freedom the minorities. >> i think that's a very important statement and distinction. mr. chairman, if i can just ask one more question, different topic. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. assad -- am i pronouncing that correctly? you said i want to highlight lgbt persecution. and i wanted to come back to the theme i was asking dr. george in his lane about, you can't cherry pick which denomination you're going to protect, it's the whole thing. i'm a little concerned that sometimes some of my colleagues want to highlight certain human rights abuses and never talk about others. and it seems to me that if we're going to be consistent and we're going to hold somebody to a norm, every group is entitled in a society to human rights protection. whether they be baha'is, whether

they be women, whether they be gay or lesbian brothers and sisters. could you talk to us a little bit about that? because i'm really worried if some of our human rights ed a voe dates here in the congress kind of conspicuously never talk about that we send a signal unintentionally to the ren jet stream that is not a signal we want to send. maybe i'm wrong. what's your sense of that? >> mr. congressman, i just want to thank you very much for highlighting the cultural basic problems. the root of the problem in iran is cultural issues. i think that needs to be acknowledged and highlighted. we're talking about a region that has seen a number of rounds of regime changes and revolutions in neighboring countries and one after another we see that situations getting worse in terms of the rise of minorities and respect for human rights. neighboring iraq, in afghanistan, in egypt, in syria. all those countries we see that simple regime change is not resulting in improvement of human rights. i just want to acknowledge that

this is a social problem and we need to deal with it as a social phenomenon. as such we have to invest in this society. we just can't hope for a regime change or the change of the president's approach to fix the issues. going back to your question, i want to mention that we really think that this is not about lgbt people, this is about sexual rights, about autonomy over your body, about the rights of individuals to decide who they want to love, about equal rights between men and women. this is a broader issue. we're not really talking about a specific segment of the society. i'm very aware that when we talk about iran, we're talking about a society where hit low sexuals don't have rights. if you're walking down the street with your boyfriend as a woman, you can be arrested. any form of sexual encounter outside marriage, heterosexual marriage; a crime. so this is outrageous. so when we talk about basically

lgbt issues, i want to emphasize that we really hope that rights will be provided to all iranian citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity. this is about the right of individuals to decide what they want to do with their body. regardless of interference of the government. the government does not have the right to tell people what to do in the privacy of their houses. people can decide what they want to do with their body and talk about the issues that they're interested in. a lot of issues when we talk about lgbt issues is related to general rights. such as right of freedom of speech, right of freedom of assembly. so we're not really talking about a very specific segment of the society or a very specific subcategory of rights. we talk about the general rights that everybody in the society is entitled to. >> thank you. mr. chairman, thank you for your graciousness. >> no problem. >> the chairman recognizes himself for a period of five minutes.

i thank you guys for coming. i think this issue of iran is very important. i'd like to say, before i ask my questions, i was really alarmed this weekend when i was hearing rumblings, not just from the administration but from members of my own party, that the way to deal with what's going on in iraq is to work with iran. and i think that that's died down a little bit. and i think rightfully so. we do not have mutual interests with iran. they are diametrically opposed and they are a moral enemy of the united states and i think that the imposition of a sunni sharia state is contrary to our national interests. but i also think we have to recognize iran is a mature terror state and a mature sharia state. so aligning to them would not serve our national interests. and i would just say given that, i'm concerned about the administration's decision to continue to send money to this unity government with the palestinian authority. they may have a veneer of

technocratic leadership but hamas is a part of that government, that man is going to end up going to hamas in one way or the other, given that money's fungible. and guess who that aligns us with? that aligns us with iran because they send money, they fund hamas. i'm going to be working with some of my colleagues to stop that money while hamas is a part of that government. i think that's very important. professor george, i appreciated what you said. i think you described kind of our history with religious liberty and establishments very ably. but i wonder, in terms of viewing iran, and i think you said, look, they're going to have their own system, maybe they have an established church or whatnot. but it's more than just that. these ayatollahs, their version, how they want to have a sharia society, it's much more than just religion, it's a whoa socio, political, totalitarian ideology. you could look in like the united states, even after