My friend Michael is testifying today in front of the House International Relations Committee. The New York Sun has read the testimony in advance and has an editorial. I am publishing the editorial in its entirety although the Sun is behind a subscription firewall. I doubt they will be too upset.
Ledeen and Hyde
Our friend and an occasional contributor to these pages, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, is scheduled to testify in Washington this morning before the House International Relations Committee that is chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois. His prepared testimony, available this morning on our Web site at nysun.com, is one of the clearest and most persuasive statements we have read laying out both the threat posed by Iran and what America should do about it.
Among the most chilling sentences in Ledeen testimony: “once Iran manages to put nuclear warheads on their intermediate range missiles, they might even be able to direct them against American territory from one or more of the Latin American countries with which the mullahs are establishing strategic alliances. The mullahs make no secret of their strategy; just a couple of weeks ago, when the leader of Hamas was received in honor in Tehran, a photograph of the event was released, in which there was a colorful poster of President Ahmadi-Nezhad and Supreme Leader Khamenei along with Castro, Morales and Chavez. The mullahs would be pleased to nuke Israel, and they would be thrilled to kill millions of Americans.”
Mr. Ledeen goes on to say that the Iranians are killing Americans even today even without nuclear weapons, through support for terrorist suicide bombers worldwide and improvised explosive devices in Iraq. What to do? Mr. Ledeen suggests seizing the overseas assets of Iranian leaders and imposing a travel ban on them while openly embracing support for nonviolent regime change in Tehran. That means providing a strike fund for workers; servers, laptops, satellite and cellphones and phone cards for dissidents; and broadcasting into Iran interviews with experts on nonviolent revolution. All points worth keeping in mind as Congress considers the Iran Freedom Support Act.
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