, the former House Speaker stressed, “I hope that this administration will now as part of this process of beginning to unravel both the IRGC and then ultimately the dictatorship, will reach out [to the source of that information in a much more collaborative way to coordinate information and to coordinate advice and find ways to work together. The National Council of Resistance of Iran has a tremendous potential, and [NCRI President-elect] Mrs. [Maryam] Rajavi has done an amazing job of leading an organization through a very long, very difficult period. And I would hope that at some point in the near future that she would be given an invitation to officially visit the United States, and have a chance both to meet with American leaders in Washington, but also to go around the country.

Newt Gingrich: State Dept. Has Listened to Iran More Than to ‘The Resistance

“As long as that dictatorship is in power, as long as it’s able to spend money, as long as it is able to project terrorism around the world, it is ultimately a mortal danger to the United States. And of course, it was a terrible thing for the Iranian people. A dictatorship which in 1988 killed 30,000 people. They’re surviving by sheer repression. It is a fantasy to suggest that the dictatorship would survive without repression,

Huffington Post, OCT. 21, 2017-- Former House Speaker and Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich described the clerical establishment of Iran as “a dictatorship with a façade of democracy,” adding, “If you’re not part of the dictatorship, and you’re not acceptable to the dictator, you can’t run, and therefore to pretend that the elections actually offer any serious choice to the Iranian people is simply a fantasy. Mr. 

Gingrich was speaking at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Friday, held by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, OIAC. The event was moderated by Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., the Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs under the George W. Bush administration.

TOM RIDGE: WE NEED REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN President Trump has been very clear about his strong commitment to combat the global scourge of terrorism and to combat those nations that support and enable it. He has signaled his desire to build meaningful partnerships to achieve these goals and his focus in the Middle East is particularly relevant. In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, the President unhesitatingly identified which players are our friends and which are our enemies in that unstable region.

WHY WE NEED REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN

Since taking office, he has strengthened ties between our traditional Arab allies, led by Saudi Arabia, with a determined and specific eye toward challenging a mutual, longstanding enemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This approach should be taken a step further. In addition to working with supportive countries to confront Iran, there is a meaningful partnership to be built with an Iranian democratic resistance group with a global diaspora and significant presence in Iran itself – the NCRI (National Council of Resistance in Iran).

It was the NCRI which first blew the whistle on Tehran’s hitherto 20-year clandestine nuclear weapons program in 2002, which triggered inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
President Trump also clarified his message distinguishing the repressive Iranian government from the people of Iran in his remarks before the UNGA.

For the first time since the popular revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979, a U.S. President reiterated the ties between the U.S. and the people of Iran, acknowledging their shared goal of changing the behavior and agenda of the ruling regime, and encouraged them to choose their “nation’s proud roots as a center of civilization, culture, and wealth.

The 2014 poverty line in Tehran for a family of five stood at about $900. Therefore, many teachers end up living under the poverty line. So they have to work two or three shifts or have several jobs.

A glance over the situation of Iranian teachers on World Teachers’ Day

Teachers are grossly underpaid and sometimes they do not receive their meager salaries for several consecutive months. Iranian teachers also are deprived of insurance, bonuses and other benefits.
Education Ministry statistics show that some one million Iranian teachers make between $200 to $1,400 per month.

The 2014 poverty line in Tehran for a family of five stood at about $900. Therefore, many teachers end up living under the poverty line. So they have to work two or three shifts or have several jobs.
This situation has a direct impact on the quality of their work and education of students.
Iranian teachers have been demanding enactment of the Pay Parity Bill, which could promote their livelihoods, minimum benefits and equal pay similar to other government employees.

Iranian educators are deprived of the right to organize. Nevertheless, they have staged nationwide protests over the past years to demand their basic rights. The Iranian regime has not responded to their demands and security forces have harassed, repressed and imprisoned Iranian teachers. This is while according to Articles 26 and 27 of the Iranian Constitution, holding protests and rallies are free.

May this year be a year in which you teach the children of Iran that they have to take the risk and pay the price for achieving freedom and that they must not believe the superstition that advocates passivism and continued suffering to avoid paying the price. And may this season, which you have defined as the spring of knowledge, would be transformed into the spring of freedom.

MARYAM RAJAVI’S MESSAGE ON THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR IN IRAN

Honorable teachers and professors of Iran,
On the beginning of the New Academic Year, I salute you. I wish you a year filled with academic and scientific successes. I also hope that the new school year would be a year of advancement and uprising to topple the ruling religious dictatorship and achieve freedom.

Under the mullahs’ brutal tyrannical rule where the talents of Iran’s younger generations and the efficiency and sense of responsibility of teachers and professors are fettered by repression and discrimination, the first lesson is the lesson of freedom.

I hail our country’s honorable teachers and their associations in all cities and provinces and congratulate them in advance on the World’s Teachers Day on October 5.

May this year be a year in which you teach your students the lesson of resilience and freedom more than ever before, the lesson of seeking and finding newness, the lesson of the little black fish who swam against the flow of water and did not give in to the prevalent coercions, lies and discriminations.

Iranian porters in West of the country are the targets of arbitrary killings by the Iranian border guards

A study of the arbitrary killing of porters in western Iran

Iran HRM, September 18, 2017 - Every year, hundreds of unarmed porters are killed or injured by Iranian security forces near the western borders of Iran mainly in the provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan and Kermanshah. 

The killing of porters has dramatically increased in recent months. At least 16 back carriers and petty tradesmen have been killed and 12 wounded only during the months of July and August. This is while 49 got killed and 47 wounded throughout 2016, meaning an average of four porters killed per month.

Killing of porters, as the poorest people who have to resort to this type of hard work to make ends meet for their families, has sparked a wave of outrage among the public.

In protest to these killings by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the State Security forces, demonstrations broke out in the western city of Baneh. A large number of residents gathered outside the Governor’s Office on Tuesday, September 5, demanding an end to the ongoing attacks against the porters.

I would like to congratulate all of you on your election of my dear sister, Zahra Merrikhi, whom you chose unanimously in the final phase of your election process, as the Secretary General of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

Maryam Rajavi’s remarks at the assembly of the PMOI on its 52nd anniversary

With this choice, you have presented the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance, in general, with an important gift, which will boost the organization enormously and propel our movement forward politically and organizationally.

I could see with my own eyes that the Mojahedin (PMOI members) have become prolific. I saw a long line of those who could serve as Secretary General. And I saw how, with utmost knowledge and responsibility toward achieving your goal, you reached such unanimity.

I witnessed the glorious moments when your sisters --whom you had nominated as candidates—spoke with one heart, in unity. I felt great pride.

 I heard you speak and I greatly admired your sincerity and awareness, and the consensus you have in the principles and values by which you live. I could sense the truthfulness in each and every one of you, in your votes, and in your eyes when you spoke of the advancements of the PMOI. And I was truly pleased and honored.

Dear sisters and brothers, Another issue I would like to address is the link and relationship between the September 1st massacre in Ashraf and the nuclear talks. In fact, the mass executions of Mojahedin in Ashraf on September 1, 2013 was the hidden half of the regime’s retreat in the nuclear talks and the JCPOA. On November 24, 2013, the Iranian regime’s representatives engaged in the nuclear talks in Geneva, signed an agreement. Before the start of these talks, in September 2013, Khamenei took action through his puppet, former Iraqi prime minister Maliki, and committed the massacre in Ashraf.

The massacre in Ashraf is a chapter directly tied to the Resistance, freedom and human rights in Iran
August 30, 2017

Among these martyrs were also pioneers from Iran’s younger generation:
Rahman Mannani, Amir Nazari, Saeed Akhavan, Nasser Habashi, and Yasser Hajian. These were pioneers for the younger generation of Iranians. Selfless and knowledgeable freedom fighters who chose to fight on the frontlines equipped with full sincerity and honesty.

Nor will we ever forget the seven residents of Ashraf who were taken hostage. The government of Iraq never informed us of their fates. Unfortunately, the UN, US, EU and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees did not compel the puppet government of Iraq at the time to hold itself accountable for this abduction.

The mullahs and their puppet, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, were complicit in this kidnapping, but have cowardly refused to claim responsibility.
But we will not forget or relent until we take the mullahs’ religious tyranny and their agents and mercenaries in Iraq to the courts to face justice.

Some human epics need the passage of time to reveal their true message. But there are also epics that immediately inspire action and regenerate themselves. The Epic of Ashraf was one such example because it immediately created a large impact led by the perseverance of the 42 brave surviving PMOI members.
You were witnesses to the scenes of the massacre. 

You emerged from that battle, eager to fight on under the command of Maryam Akbari in those moments of life and death. Indeed, she fulfilled her historic duty in the best way possible. At the time, you were not just 42 individuals, but representatives of an enchained nation that wishes to bring down the mullahs’ tyrannical regime. You lived to fight the murderers.