70th U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo- U.S. Iran Policy, Accountability For Rights Abuses,9/21

Excerpts of Remarks:
It is such a blessing for me to be with you all today. It is a special gathering where we can gather together to talk about an enormous threat to the world and to the freedom loving people. It is truly an honor.

Since I last spoke to you Ebrahim Raisi was formally installed as Iran’s latest so called President. You are rightly gathered at this conference with the theme of demanding that he be held accountable for what happened in 1988. The massacre of political prisoners inside of Iran. And I want each of you to know today that I join with you in your cause!

I came to know Raisi when I was a CIA Director. He should be prosecuted; not tomorrow; not next week; not next year. But he should be prosecuted now. And of course, I will talk more about this, but I support a free Iran. Bless you for staying in the fight. Make no mistake, Ebrahim Raisi himself, personally is responsible for the 1988 mass execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners; names of over 5,000 have been published. The bodies of these brave men and women were dumped in unmarked graves. And because Iran has never and likely under this regime will never allow an investigation of these killings, we do not know the true number of Iranians who were murdered. But it is almost certainly more than the 5,000 list of names that we have. Your actions, our actions supporting our love of the Iranian people must begin by holding Raisi accountable for his crimes against humanity. Remember that he was not an advisor, he wasn’t a foot soldier. He was an executioner.

I know there are those in the audience who have family that were killed in Raisi’s massacre. Too, some of you have loved one & friends currently imprisoned, in Evin & elsewhere in Iran, and, some, who have had loved ones disappeared or worse. We, none of us, will never forget any of them and will pray for you and for each of them.

Ebrahim Raisi is exactly who Khamenei wants as President; someone who will do his bidding. Someone willing to brutalize and slaughter the Iranian people at his command. This is not moving forward. It is moving backwards. It is only those who are resisting, both inside and outside, who provide the hope for Iran. That is why this gathering & what you are doing today is so important. The contrast between a government that serves its people rather than subjugates them is incredibly stark. We can see it That should be all of our inspiration for freedom for the Iranian people.

And yet we know that the more a government attempts to strengthen its hold over the people of Iran, the weaker it will become. This is certainly the case today. Protests spurred by water shortages erupted in over half of the country’s provinces and protests have taken place in Ahwaz, Tabriz, Tehran, Isfahan, and other cities all across Iran.These protestors have shown considerable resilience and bravery in resisting the regime. And I know, I know, in the end the Iranian people will have a secular, democratic, and non-nuclear republic.

The actions of 1979 is a key turning point. To understand Iran and its rightful place in history, one must unpack what happened in 1979. I think it is why Iran will never return to rule by a dictatorial Shah or theocratic regime. This is the real fight and it began in those frightful first moments of the revolution in 1979. The central fight is the one in the streets, and in the mosques and in the minds of Iranians; it is the divide between the people & the organized opposition seeking freedom & democracy on the one side, & the entirety of the regime on the other.

But here is the good news.The resistance forces in Iran, these noble Iranian patriots, are as strong as they have ever been and they provide optimism for everyone around the world who supports them. You can actually see the effects of the last years of our work in their recent elections. Every more the regime was getting desperate, the fraud had to be increased and the Iranian people could see it. Since 1979, every election in Iran has served only to give an appearance of republicanism to a corrupt, brutal theocracy.

The 2021 presidential election, however, was vastly different from those before it, primarily because it is taking place when the theocratic regime is at its most precarious state since it took power in 1979, and the people of Iran know this. Its prospects of survival are openly questioned by regime insiders and challenged by a restive, freedom-seeking nation. In short, you all know the math. Very few actually voted FOR Raisi. Turnout was the lowest since 1979 marking a total rejection of the regime and its candidate.

Even the regime admitted for the first time in 40 years it admitted that the majority of Iranian people stayed away from the ballot box. It was, in fact, a boycott of the regime & the regime leaders knows it. This boycott by the Iranian people is evidence that the Iranian people pin no hope on elections as a conduit for substantive change.