Wendy Sherman: “yesterday evening I came to the floor to bring up a subject that has gotten far less attention than it deserves. And…”

“yesterday evening I came to the floor to bring up a subject that has gotten far less attention than it deserves. And that is the plan of the World Bank, an organization funded substantially with your tax dollars in mind, to lend up to $755 million to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Last night I put into the Record of this House an article that was published by the Dow Jones International News that reviewed the facts, and I would like to review that article with you tonight along with some additional commentary. The article begins: ``The World Bank undeterred by President George W. Bush's condemnation of Iran as part of the axis of evil, undeterred by the fact that it is arming itself to threaten a peaceful world, the World Bank is pressing ahead with a plan that would provide as much as $755 million in loans to that government over the next 2 years.'' Mr. Speaker, there are a few apologists for the government in Iran who note that there are reformers who play front roles, a president of Iran who exercises no power, it is almost an honorary position, who claims to have different views than those actually carried out by the government. But the reports of the American State Department say that reformers have been silenced, that there are public executions, public floggings which increased last year. And just on Monday the State Department announced that Iran is the number one governmental sponsor of terrorism.…”