I want to thank you for being here today. This is an extremely serious issue.
Having read the testimony, I would suggest to you, sir, that it's worth going online and watching Colonel Martin. He gave very compelling testimony here. It sounds as though, internationally, there are huge inconsistencies with Britain and other countries delisting the MeK.
It struck me, as I was sitting here listening to Mr. Sweet pose his questions, that the revolutionary army in the United States would have been called a terrorist group by the British crown. At some point, the acts of war and the things that have occurred reach an end point and people move on. Colonel Martin said that these particular people had given up their arms and renounced violence, and he described them as his best allies during the time he was there. I certainly don't mean to minimize the views you've taken in any way.
Tom Ridge of Homeland Security is calling for the delisting. It seems there is an almost endless list of people who believe that at this point in history this group should be delisted. A number of witnesses besides Colonel Martin testified that Iraq's leadership, which will be running the country following the U.S. withdrawal, is heavily influenced by the regime in Iran. The belief is that these people will either be murdered or be moved about in the country to make it easier to destroy them.
I find it very difficult to try to express this, because this is something that's going to occur within a few days. This isn't something that's down the road months away so that as a country we have the luxury of sitting here saying we'll wait to see what happens. I know you work for the leadership of our country, and you give them the best advice you possibly can, but is there not somebody prepared to say they believe that these 3,400 particular individuals, who were granted protection by the American government...? It strikes me as strange that the U.S. government would grant protection to people it truly believed were terrorists. There's a contradiction here.
Should we not, as a country, be calling for the delisting of these people by our country and the U.S.?