Ted Poe: “For nearly a decade the United States has invested money, sweat, blood and tears, all in the name of a free and…”

“For nearly a decade the United States has invested money, sweat, blood and tears, all in the name of a free and democratic Iraq. Before the war, Iraqis suffered from the oppressive dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, and recent events have led me to believe that perhaps the new government does not value freedom any more than the last one did. As a Member of Congress, I've been fortunate to go to Iraq several times to visit with our troops. And during my last visit with a bipartisan congressional delegation, we also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. During the 2-hour-long discussion covering many things, I asked one question: ``Can we go see Camp Ashraf?'' Now, Madam Speaker, Camp Ashraf houses Iranian dissidents who are called the MEK, and I represent a good number of Iranian Americans who have family members in this camp. They are particularly worried at this point in time, since Iraqi forces had recently killed 36 residents at the camp just a few weeks before. Here are the pictures of those real people that were killed by the Iraqi forces that came into the camp. Here is an example. You notice this is an American-made HUMVEE coming into the camp. And over here on this far picture, you see an Iranian dissident being run over by one of those HUMVEES driven by an Iraqi soldier. So that is why the question was asked: can we go see the camp and see these Iranian dissidents?…”