Saturday, January 12, 2013

FDI Announces its Opposition to the Hagel nomination.

Also check out the list of protests starting tomorrow across Europe in favor of jailed Iranian bloggers (on our website)


The Board of Directors of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran today released a detailed memo in opposition to Sen. Chuck Hagel's nomination to become U.S. Secretary of Defense. The FDI memo includes excerpts from Hagel's own statements on Iran, and new details of his relationships to the pro-Tehran lobby in Washington, DC. It also includes new information on Hagel's efforts as a private citizen in 2009 to lobby the Russian government against joining a State Department-led effort to step up pressure on Iran.

"Over the past four years, Congress has helped steer the U.S. administration toward policies that have increased the pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran, while expanding on work done by the two previous administrations to build an international coalition to slow down the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iranian regime," FDI wrote.

"Chuck Hagel actively opposed these polices of confronting the Islamic Republic when he was in the U.S. Senate, and has continued to do so since then...

"At no point has Hagel shown the slightest concern for human rights abuses, religious liberty, the lack of political freedom, or the threats made by Islamic Republic leaders to Israel, to Jews worldwide, or to Americans. Instead, he has publicly stated that the United States should not seek or promote regime change, merely a change of “behavior” by the current leadership. This is not just bad policy; given the nature of the clerical leadership, it’s a call to genocide...
" FDI has never called – and is not calling today – for U.S. military strikes on Iran. However, for U.S. military power to have any impact on decision-making in Tehran, the Islamic Republic leadership must believe in U.S. resolve.

Senator Hagel’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense would send a message of weakened U.S. resolve to the leaders of the Islamic Republic, which could serve as an inducement for aggressive behavior.

For these reasons we urge the Senate to reject Senator Hagel’s nomination."

The full statement is attached and available online at http://iran.org/news/2013_01_10-hagel.html



Kenneth R. Timmerman
President and CEO
Foundation for Democracy in Iran
Www.iran.org
Reply to: exec@iran.org

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