The briefing was chaired by Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a senior member of the Sub-Committee on Terrorism of the International Relations Committee. Other speakers included Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, member of Homeland Security and Judicial committees and Bruce McColm, former executive director of Freedom House.
The briefing was chaired by Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a senior member of the Sub-Committee on Terrorism of the International Relations Committee. Other speakers included Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, member of Homeland Security and Judicial committees and Bruce McColm, former executive director of Freedom House.
Democratic Congressman Bob Filner of California, Co-Chair of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus, welcomed the participants among them senior staff to the Representatives that dealt with the issued of foreign affairs, intelligence and homeland security to the briefing and invited Mr. Casaca to address the session.
As a member of the delegation which visited Ashraf City in Iraq on behalf of the Friends of a Free Iran, a European Inter-Parliamentary Committee, to investigate allegations by Human Rights Watch against the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, Casaca presented a brief account of his research to the audience.
He denounced the May 2005 report by Human Rights Watch on the PMOI as "biased and unfounded with political objectives" since it was based merely on telephone conversations with 12 people without seeking comments from the organization in question or any of its members residing in Ashraf City, who he reminded are protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is while any international official body can have access to Ashraf City and speak to any member of the PMOI.
Casaca added: "It is our task to reveal the Iranian regime’s misinformation campaign against the PMOI and tell the truth to the governments and general public."
Next to speak after Casaca was Congressman Tancredo who told the briefing that he and Congressman Brad Sherman from California, member of the Middle East Sub-committee, had jointly sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State protesting the terrorist designation of the PMOI. He stressed that U.S. policy on Iran had been based on wrong information and the terrorist designation of the PMOI, carried out under the Clinton Administration, was equaliy unwarranted.
He noted that members of Congress based their assessment on the PMOI’s effectiveness on the extent of the regime’s fear towards the group. He emphasized that the Iranian regime fears the PMOI because of its widespread support inside Iran.
Congresswoman Jackson-Lee told the audience that although members of Congress differed on various issues but they all agreed that they should support the Iranian Resistance for democracy. She paid tribute to the residents of Ashraf City who had chosen to remain there and fight for freedom of their nation rather than seeking refuge in a safe haven. She reminded her colleagues that they should support the Iranian Resistance and that the PMOI should not have been branded as a terrorist group.
On the charges made by Human Rights Watch against the PMOI, Bruce McColm said that the Iran Policy Committee had conducted an independent investigation the results of which were published in a whitepaper and refuted all the allegations as unfounded. He informed the briefing of effort in Europe to support the Iranian people and adopt an appropriate policy on Iran and added that the joint session between the representatives of the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament was a prelude to further trans-Atlantic cooperation to formulate a policy on Iran.