Katrina Lantos Swett: “the progress of freedom requires courage, it requires people in extraordinarily difficult circumstances who are willing…”

We cannot go back. After what happened to us, after the way we saw our neighbors, neighbors going back generation upon generation, either turn against us or fail to defend us in any meaningful way, we cannot rebuild our lives there.

Unfortunately, the appalling treatment of Pastor Abedini reflects the dismal reality of religious freedom and human rights in Iran today.

That vulnerability needs to be exploited, not merely to achieve progress on the nuclear front, but to achieve progress on the human rights front.

the notion that there should be no strings attached and that there should be no conditions for aid... is just an unwise policy.