Speech [The defeat of the superpower's mythical power; the military intervention and the economic sanctions are at a dead end]

I would like to express my thanks to you, sportsmen, who occasionally come here to visit me and to tell me of your universal successes gained at universal sports events for your Islamic Republic. I pray for you and ask God for your success. You have made our foes understand that the Iranian youth are men of combat and men of holy war. At this juncture of time, when we are afflicted with all sorts of difficulties, you could be of great assistance for this nation. These events might be difficult on the one hand, but could be considered as an honor for a nation who has torn apart all shackles of serfdom. Most of our young men ask me to ask God for their martyrdom; and I ask God for their success. I implore God for your safety and welfare. Our enemies, who have lost all their battles against us, frantically try to disturb us through the assassination attempts against our dignitaries.

Through these actions, these trouble makers try to discourage us in our endeavor to carry out our plans. However, they fail to realize that when you try to fight for Islam or for God, your trial takes on a spiritual color and you are ready to sacrifice yourselves to the last one.

I am surprised at the stupidity of these agitators. The assassination of personalities such as Mr. Mutahhari or Mr. Mufattih is an attempt by these trouble makers to weaken our Islamic movement. And their stupidity is even felt more when they see that people unite when a scholar like Mr. Mutahhari is assassinated. If after each assassination half of the people had withdrawn from their support for Islam and the Islamic government, then they would have tried to assassinate another personality, such as Mr. Qadi «1» or Mr. Mufattih, to let the other half of the population disperse. However, much to their astonishment, they have realized that after each assassination attempt, the movement takes up more momentum, and is welcomed more by people. The reason for their miscalculation lies in the fact that they are made blind and deaf by God. Allah has deprived them of their rightful thinking. They themselves are to blame for this deprivation. They have acted in such a way that they are deprived of the faculties of visualization and conceptualization. Now they are engaged in doing things contrary to their own interests.

You should have a look at Carter who is doing everything possible to get reelected, but he is dumb and blind and chooses the wrong way. Would it not be better for Carter to stop protecting the man «2» when he saw the latter was falling and instead approve of the Iranian stance? However, he continued defending the Shah and his substitute, Bakhtiyar, hoping it would install him again as President? Carter has lost his chances. Would it not have been better for Carter to stop catering for a diseased and wretched soul and have him go and live somewhere else?

Carter did all of these because he was blind and deaf. He is acting obstinate children. Carter could not continue keeping the Shah. His second move was to send him elsewhere- a move which created hubbub in the world. In Panama, people took to streets in opposition to the Shah's entry there. This was against the American interests. If Carter had sent the Shah back to Iran, he could have tried to prove to the world that he had been with the oppressed and plundered nations of the world and not against them; freeing themselves from the shackles that he had been with the deprived classes and not with the aggressors. However, Carter himself is a plunderer. If he had been wise, he would not have agitated the whole world against American interests.

Today, nobody will rely on bayonets. The world has changed. Thirty or fifty years ago it made sense to rely on ones' weapons. But now, nations are becoming vigilant and are freeing themselves from the shackles of colonialization one by one. Under such conditions the threat of military intervention loses its merit. Carter constantly vacillates between using or not using force against us. This is because his eyes are wide open but are unable to see properly. They are those who have eyes, ears and intellect have been rendered inutile by God. This does not mean that they were such at birth; they themselves have put a covering upon their eyes, ears and intellect, which, in a way, is an aid to the oppressed people. This way of losing one's direction is actually one form of assisting the deprived people. Prior to all this controversy, that is before it was decided to take the Shah to America and to give this wretched man medical attention, some countries, nations, that is, were united with us. Carter and his likes have acted in such a way that their wisdoms have been blurred.

Now most nations are with us. Our movement is being expanded and is being absorbed by other nations. These nations, which are themselves under the satanic domination of superpowers, are watching the Iranian nation standing firm against other diabolic powers. These nations are suffering tyrannies of all sorts: Egypt is run by a dictator called Sadat «3»; likewise, other nations are, run by other tyrants. Nearly all nations are run by their tyrant governors. When these nations see that Iran could break ties with a super power, albeit through great losses of like, they, too, visualize some ways to terminate the superpowers' hegemony in their lands. These nations will surely succeed.

You must realize that through your great Islamic movement you, the Iranian nation, have crushed these enormous powers, which have imposed through propaganda on the minds of everyone that nobody could ever stand against England (in the past) or America today. You, beloved Iranian nation, men and women took to the streets and carried out" God is Great," undermined the greatness these powers have dictated upon the hearts of people who were suppressed to silence lest their words upset the superpowers. In the past, we, too, tried to break this image of greatness of the superpowers. There was so much repression in the past regimes that nobody could even breathe and our nation was made to believe in them that and defeated your enemies they did not dare say a word of protest against the wrongdoings of a policeman, for instance. A veil of silence was drawn over the nation. However, the voice of the nation broke this silence and gradually these beliefs were erased off its mind: firstly, that nobody could ever oppose America; secondly, that a human being could evaluate what" can be" and" cannot be".

The first step in any revolution is the evaluation of what could be done and what should be avoided. You have shown that you could, and that you could oppose the United States. You have demonstrated that you could occupy the American espionage den, that you could detain the American spies. You have proved this to the world. You have destroyed the idol of their false might and power. You showed to nations how to utter slogans such as" Down with Carter." Now, this is happening in India, in Pakistan, in Iraq and in Kuwait. It is taking place in the western hemisphere, such as the United States, as well. The United States always boasted of its military forces and used to intimidate us. In the old regime, if a journalist used even one word against either England or the United States, it was Muhammad-Rida's task to shut him up. If England wanted to set up sham a false colonialistic consultative assembly, it used to dispatch its warships towards Iran and if there were some consciences England wanted to be given to it, when Iran's government learned of the approaching worship, pacts and treaties with England would be concluded and signed. And when, for instance, some people would show some sort of resistance around the borders, the" ship scheme" would be enough for the central government to cease resisting, and agree [to British demands]. These were scenarios would be aggrandized and propagandized by their own agents by raising hue and cry, using the propaganda machinery such as the radio and publicity media inside the country against their own country.

They have magnified issues to the degree that people assumed the American parachutists would descend from the skies and would destroy Iran if people uttered even one single word against American interests. We were being constantly informed that the parachutists would descend over the American Embassy and would pour some anesthetic drugs over everybody to make them unconscious and to move the American hostages to safety. They told me they would come to Qum and would take me with them. Some even advise me not to stay in Qum during the night. This is nonsense. These stories had better be told in the book called" Husayn, the Kurd." «4» These stories should be told by Alfe Layl. «5» It was their plan to intimidate us like before. The military intervention now is a useless method and is a failure. It is not valid even as a threat. These superpowers use this approach because they still assume we are a backward nation.

According to a survey done in the United States, it was announced today, or last night that fifty-five percent of people were against the military intervention in Iran. They had wrongly claimed something and now they make excuse by stating that people of the United States are against such an intervention. Suppose their nation agreed to such an act. We are ready to confront them. How in the world is such an act possible? These slogans have lost their meaning now. Now if they do something against us, the East will explode. This also will happen in the West. Is it possible to carry out such acts of atrocity now? The American people have said even if the Iranian authorities killed these hostages, the military intervention should not be carried out. Now it is becoming clear that they have become wiser and would not let some countries including the United States undergo bloodshed. Now they show more inclination for deploying economic sanctions against us. We are ready. Let us see what happens. Economic sanctions?! What a nonsense! Are the nations of the world obedient to Carter? Are the world nations trying to let Mr. Carter succeed for his second term in office? The leaders of the world nations know one another. They know Carter's ambitions. They know Carter wants to run for president. These leaders know well that the issue is not that of the safety of the hostages. The issue is not that the U. S. government felt so sorry for the fifty spies or whoever.

I have referred to this incident several times. When I was in France, one of these high ranking politicians came to me to mediate between us and that man. «6» This man had said that once there was some commotion in their embassy in China. He said that they were worried for the valuable furniture they had at their embassy more than the lives of the personnel being taken as hostages there. It is the habit of these people to value the furniture more than the people's lives. The reelection for the second term is more important to Carter than the lives of fifty people. Carter resorts to everything to publicize his own interest. But as I said before, God has made them blind and deaf and they fail in anything they put their fingers on. They took the Shah and kept him there so that they could gain political advantages; but they failed. People's ideas changed and they rejected Carter. Then they showed obstinacy in keeping him and not surrender him. This turned out to be against them. Now the people of Panama are taking to the streets protesting the keeping of that man (the Shah) there. The American politicians do not realize that such a worthless person should be turned to the Iranian authorities to stand trial. Why bother the people of Panama? He might as well be sent back to our own place. We know what to do with him.

The main point is that the American politicians are neither worried about the Shah nor about the fifty hostages in Iran. They are well aware of the fact that if the Shah is returned to Iran he will stand trial in a court composed of the distinguished personalities of the world. It is because this trial is not of a wretched man (the Shah) only; rather it is of a bunch of American presidents. Even this was predicted by the Shah when he stressed the fact that his trial would include several American presidents.

This is not the trail of one person, or a human being or one wretched creature. And we do not want the Shah as such; he is a miserable man. We want to make the arrogant powers stand trial so that the oppressed ones would know the nature of these presidents and that of the man who dominated us for so long. So that the oppressed people of the world, that is, the American country and its nation will know what to do with their presidents and understand what kind of human beings were ruling over us in the same manner we here, have understood what kind of people have been ruling over us. God willed it that our nation rose and expelled this man.

Let the people of the world know that when we hold a trial, we share it with the whole world. We invited the Shah's trial here is scandalous The world's thinkers, writers, scholars, politicians, and dignitaries, even from the United States to take part in prosecuting this man in an uproarious trial to prove to the world and all the oppressed. people that they (superpowers) were uttering irrelevant words and imposing them on nations. We shall make nations understand that their rulers do not deserve to rule over them. We will make them think for themselves and among themselves to hold the reins of government with their own hands, and not allow anybody else to lord over them. We have this as our objective. We are aiming at having someone (the Shah) come here to be tried. No, this is not our goal. And Mr. Carter is afraid lest such a story unfolds! He is envisioning such a problem and the thought has thrown him into a state of frenzy. Now, he took custody of the Shah and thon sent him somewhere else. I don't know what he will do next.

And the Iranian nation should realize that they are the focal point of the world's attention. The mass media of the world are focused on the Iranian issues now. You should realize your true status now that you are at the center of world's attention. You should not go astray, the treasons that are being done against the Iranian nation, either in Azerbayjan or elsewhere, are being observed by all nations. The world nations are watching closely a nation who has uprisen to govern itself and to stop the superpowers from plundering this nation's assets. However, there are some agents inside the country who oppose the Iranian efforts to stop the foreign colonialism. The splinter groups which opposes us is, in fact, earning public disgrace for itself. Carter, too, earned public disgrace for himself. The members of this clique political call themselves Iranian and pretend to love Iran and the Iranian nation. Now that the Iranian nation has uprisen and has broken the back of a superpower, its members dream of establishing a government of their own with a separate constitution and with a separate council of experts of their own. These same people have disgraced the central government. They tried to blot the name of Azerbayjanis. But they should realize that neither the name of Azerbayjan, nor that of Kurds, nor that of Balouch would ever be tainted. A treacherous minority group is making turmoils. It is opposing the votes of thirty-five million people. More than eighty percent of our nation have voted for us at the first referendum because a it seriously and did not vote. But now over ninety percent voted affirmatively few did not take.

The world is closely watching this minority, who are standing against a vast majority, who are firmly approving of and supporting the constitution.

What is this minority group trying to say to our nation? Why should a gang of traitors be convinced that they are authorized to oppose the majority? These are a gang of aggressors and rebels who have uprisen against the Islamic government and are dreaming of a government of their own. Didn't Muhammad-Rida try to dominate the whole nation through his gang? Now, these rebels have their roots in Muhammad-Rida's gang. What do you want to say to a nation who has sacrificed its children and other relatives to support an Islamic order of its own? What do they have to say vis-a-vis Islam? Our nation should be fully vigilant and distinguish their foes. The more our nation becomes more unified the more agitations and commotions are observed around us. I hope we will follow this way of selection more smoothly in the future. We hope to establish an Islamic government, which is the aspiration of our Prophet (s), of our Imams (`a). I am sure we will achieve our goals through your prayers, your attention to Good and your unity of word.