Posted on 06/20/2009 11:50:03 AM PDT by The Klingon
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 20, 2009
Statement from the President on Iran
The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
"How dare the mullahs (or the protesters) attempt to achieve a resolution of their respective futures -- without ME leading the way."
Only The One can blaze the trail to utopia in the Middle East...
“arc of the moral universe”
veiled reference to islamic crescent....
Of all the masterful and historical statements from war time US Presidents and infamous leaders of other countries, Obama chooses this from Martin Luther King, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” He just keeps on removing himself from any association with the greatness of this country.
The white hater had to quote Martin Luther King, rather than Lincoln or anything from our own Civil War.
The Magic Negro has his relevant audience confused, the Iranians are not black.
While the blacks (with the help of the whites) did fight for their rights in the 60’s, it was nothing like this and it was not a fight for a change in the entire government.
In the mean time, the people of Iran are rising up in many, many cities and fighting.
On twitter, Fatemiyeh Hospital Tehran: 30-40 dead as of 11pm; 200 injured. Police taking names of incoming injured.
More: From multiple sources on twitter, the Basij (Mullah Militia) are firing on and killing Iranians today. They are at the hospitals to take names of and cutody of injured protestors.
The following are embassies that are accepting Iranian injured so they do not have togo to state hospital (another down side of sicialist health care)
Australian Embassy : No. 13, 23rd Street, Khalid Islambuli Ave – Telephone+98 21 8872 4456
Belgian Embassy No.3,Babak Alley, Shabdiz St.,Shahid Fayyaz Bakhsh Ave.
British Embassy 198, Ferdowsi Avenue Tehran 11316-91144
Dutch Embassy – Onbol Street #7, Farmanieh
Embassy of Finland -No. 2, Haddadian St., Mirzapour St. (former Soheil St.), Dr. Shariati Ave. Tehran 19336 (Eastern entrance / Consular and visa customers)
Embassy of Finland (Alternate) – Elahiyeh, Agha Bozorgi St Shirin Alley no.4 P.O.Box 19395-1733 – (98-21) 22 20 70 90; 22 23 09 79
Finnish Embassy Corner Of Nilou St, Below Vanak Sq, Vali-e Asr Ave
German Embassy: Avenue Ferdowsi 320-324 -
Irish Embassy – North Kamranieh Avenue Bonbast Nahid Street, No. 8 19369 - (98 21)-22 80 38 35
Italian Embassy accepting injured at 81, Neauphle Le Chateau Ave.
Norway: No. 201 Dr. Lavasani St. (Ex. Farmanieh St.) Corner of Sonbol St. Tehran, Iran – (0098 21) 22 29 13 33
Portugese Embassy No.30, Nezami St., Abbas Pour St., Valy-e-Asr
Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Tehran No 30, Narenjestan 8th Alley Pasdaran Avenue
Swiss Embassy – Elahieh Ave. Sharifimanesh Yasaman Street No. 2 P.O. Box 19395-4683 19649 Tehran – 98 (0)21 22 00 83 33
WARNING:GRAPHIC Young Woman shot to death in Terhran today, 6/20/2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjQxq5N--Kc
Protests and violence are spreading in Tehran and to other major cities like in Tabriz, Mashad, Isfahan, Ahwaz, Nevab, and Azadi..
URGENT: HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT IRANIAN PROTESTORS RIGHT NOW...ON TWITTER
AMERICANS SUPPORTING IRAN LIBERTY
You can follow me on twitter if you want...Jeff_Head
Reagan on Poland: “Our sympathies are with the people, not the government.”
That's how it's done.
Obama = FAIL
We all know why MLK was chosen to be quoted.
“As I speak to you tonight, the fate of a proud and ancient nation hangs in the balance. For a thousand years, Christmas has been celebrated in Poland, a land of deep religious faith, but this Christmas brings little joy to the courageous Polish people. They have been betrayed by their own government.
The men who rule them and their totalitarian allies fear the very freedom that the Polish people cherish. They have answered the stirrings of liberty with brute force, killings, mass arrests, and the setting up of concentration camps. Lech Walesa and other Solidarity leaders are imprisoned, their fate unknown. Factories, mines, universities, and homes have been assaulted.
The Polish Government has trampled underfoot solemn commitments to the UN Charter and the Helsinki accords. It has even broken the Gdansk agreement of August 1980, by which the Polish Government recognized the basic right of its people to form free trade unions and to strike.
The tragic events now occurring in Poland, almost 2 years to the day after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, have been precipitated by public and secret pressure from the Soviet Union. It is no coincidence that Soviet Marshal Kulikov, chief of the Warsaw Pact forces, and other senior Red Army officers were in Poland while these outrages were being initiated. And it is no coincidence that the martial law proclamations imposed in December by the Polish Government were being printed in the Soviet Union in September.
The target of this depression [repression] is the Solidarity Movement, but in attacking Solidarity its enemies attack an entire people. Ten million of Poland’s 36 million citizens are members of Solidarity. Taken together with their families, they account for the overwhelming majority of the Polish nation. By persecuting Solidarity the Polish Government wages war against its own people.
I urge the Polish Government and its allies to consider the consequences of their actions. How can they possibly justify using naked force to crush a people who ask for nothing more than the right to lead their own lives in freedom and dignity? Brute force may intimidate, but it cannot form the basis of an enduring society, and the ailing Polish economy cannot be rebuilt with terror tactics.
Poland needs cooperation between its government and its people, not military oppression. If the Polish Government will honor the commitments it has made to human rights in documents like the Gdansk agreement, we in America will gladly do our share to help the shattered Polish economy, just as we helped the countries of Europe after both World Wars.
It’s ironic that we offered, and Poland expressed interest in accepting, our help after World War II. The Soviet Union intervened then and refused to allow such help to Poland. But if the forces of tyranny in Poland, and those who incite them from without, do not relent, they should prepare themselves for serious consequences. Already, throughout the Free World, citizens have publicly demonstrated their support for the Polish people. Our government, and those of our allies, have expressed moral revulsion at the police state tactics of Poland’s oppressors. The Church has also spoken out, in spite of threats and intimidation. But our reaction cannot stop there.
I want emphatically to state tonight that if the outrages in Poland do not cease, we cannot and will not conduct ``business as usual’’ with the perpetrators and those who aid and abet them. Make no mistake, their crime will cost them dearly in their future dealings with America and free peoples everywhere. I do not make this statement lightly or without serious reflection.
We have been measured and deliberate in our reaction to the tragic events in Poland. We have not acted in haste, and the steps I will outline tonight and others we may take in the days ahead are firm, just, and reasonable.
In order to aid the suffering Polish people during this critical period, we will continue the shipment of food through private humanitarian channels, but only so long as we know that the Polish people themselves receive the food. The neighboring country of Austria has opened her doors to refugees from Poland. I have therefore directed that American assistance, including supplies of basic foodstuffs, be offered to aid the Austrians in providing for these refugees.
But to underscore our fundamental opposition to the repressive actions taken by the Polish Government against its own people, the administration has suspended all government-sponsored shipments of agricultural and dairy products to the Polish Government. This suspension will remain in force until absolute assurances are received that distribution of these products is monitored and guaranteed by independent agencies. We must be sure that every bit of food provided by America goes to the Polish people, not to their oppressors.
The United States is taking immediate action to suspend major elements of our economic relationships with the Polish Government. We have halted the renewal of the Export-Import Bank’s line of export credit insurance to the Polish Government. We will suspend Polish civil aviation privileges in the United States. We are suspending the right of Poland’s fishing fleet to operate in American waters. And we’re proposing to our allies the further restriction of high technology exports to Poland.
These actions are not directed against the Polish people. They are a warning to the Government of Poland that free men cannot and will not stand idly by in the face of brutal repression. To underscore this point, I’ve written a letter to General Jaruzelski, head of the Polish Government. In it, I outlined the steps we’re taking and warned of the serious consequences if the Polish Government continues to use violence against its populace. I’ve urged him to free those in arbitrary detention, to lift martial law, and to restore the internationally recognized rights of the Polish people to free speech and association.
The Soviet Union, through its threats and pressures, deserves a major share of blame for the developments in Poland. So, I have also sent a letter to President Brezhnev urging him to permit the restoration of basic human rights in Poland provided for in the Helsinki Final Act. In it, I informed him that if this repression continues, the United States will have no choice but to take further concrete political and economic measures affecting our relationship.
When 19th century Polish patriots rose against foreign oppressors, their rallying cry was, ``For our freedom and yours.’’ Well, that motto still rings true in our time. There is a spirit of solidarity abroad in the world tonight that no physical force can crush. It crosses national boundaries and enters into the hearts of men and women everywhere. In factories, farms, and schools, in cities and towns around the globe, we the people of the Free World stand as one with our Polish brothers and sisters. Their cause is ours, and our prayers and hopes go out to them this Christmas.
Yesterday, I met in this very room with Romuald Spasowski, the distinguished former Polish Ambassador who has sought asylum in our country in protest of the suppression of his native land. He told me that one of the ways the Polish people have demonstrated their solidarity in the face of martial law is by placing lighted candles in their windows to show that the light of liberty still glows in their hearts.
Ambassador Spasowski requested that on Christmas Eve a lighted candle will burn in the White House window as a small but certain beacon of our solidarity with the Polish people. I urge all of you to do the same tomorrow night, on Christmas Eve, as a personal statement of your commitment to the steps we’re taking to support the brave people of Poland in their time of troubles.”
~~~ President Ronald Reagan, December 23, 1981
“It is ALWAYS about him! Narcissistic piece o’crap.”
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayer’s only concern is always:
Mememememememememememme,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII,Memememememememememe!!!
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.””
That has a nice feel, but also slow and not fitting for fast happening events.
If Obama is smart, this is a muddling message to the mullahs that America will not protest loudly, all the while disarming American liberals with an MLK quote.
But more likely just about himself.
No way a regular speech writer inserted “As I said in Cairo” garbage, that was pure O.
great speech by Reagan, I wonder if there is a video of it around?
Just more mush from the wimp.
What we see happening in Iran is exactly why we must NEVER allow ourselves to be disarmed.
Fox has live coverage on the ground in Tehran.
Not only is he a week late, he didn’t even make a personal appearance. This is the man who has been on our TV ad nauseum, but now he sends out a piece of paper for the press to read to us.
How the POTUS delivers a message is as important as the message itself.
Me, me, me, me.
Did he release this from the 12th or 13th hole?
What a fricking embarrassment to the once-respected US. Furriners may or may not have especially liked GW Bush, but they soon learned not to mock him and take him lightly.
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