Wolf
Encouraged by Reported Administration Plans to Label ISIS Atrocities
'Genocide'
by John Rossomando
IPT News
November 19, 2015
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 Rumors that the
Obama administration plans to accept his proposal to classify the Islamic
State's (ISIS) atrocities against Yazidis, Christians and other groups as
genocide are encouraging, former U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf told the
Investigative Project on Terrorism.
"The administration from what we can gather is taking this very,
very seriously," Wolf said.
Wolf, a former Republican congressman from Northern Virginia, doesn't
agree with the Obama administration on many things, but the genocide issue
may be one in which common ground is in sight.
"I commend them," Wolf said. "I'm really pleased that
they are moving ahead and doing this, but now that the administration is
doing this, Congress ought to do something."
A bipartisan resolution pending in the U.S. House
describes crimes being perpetrated against Christians and other ethnic
minorities in Iraq and Syria as genocide under international law. It calls
on the United Nations to "to assert leadership by calling the
atrocities being committed in these places by their rightful names: 'war
crimes', 'crimes against humanity', and 'genocide'."
In September, Wolf sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking
that the genocide label be applied. He also asked that the U.S. prosecute
ISIS's self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Mohammed Emwazi,
aka "Jihadi John," for killing American journalists Steven
Sotloff and James Foley, and American aid worker Kala Mueller.
That was before a drone strike in Syria killed Emwazi last week.
Wolf interviewed 75 Yazidi girls last winter during a trip to the region
with the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, where
he is a distinguished fellow.
"When we got back, it was clear to me that what we saw was
genocide, particularly against the Yazidis, but even the Christians,"
Wolf said.
In addition to the Yazidis, Shiite Muslims and Turkomen also are
genocide victims, Wolf said. Wolf's quest received an added boost from the
U.S. Holocaust Museum, which issued a report last week also calling on the
administration to label the atrocities against the Yazidis as genocide.
The report stated:
"Our findings also suggest there is sufficient reason to assert
that in addition to committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, IS
perpetrated genocide against the Yezidi population living in Ninewa in
August 2014. The determination of genocide against the Yezidi population is
based on a preponderance of the evidence, and does not reflect the standard
necessary for individual criminal responsibility. Any formal determination
that genocide was perpetrated needs to be made by a court and based on
careful consideration of the evidence."
Word of the pending White House action came last week from Yahoo! News reporter Michael Isikoff, who reported that
an announcement calling ISIS atrocities a genocide could come in the next
few weeks. Internal discussions are underway at the White House, State
Department and on Capitol Hill regarding the implications of such a
declaration.
"It would help trigger the indictment of ... Al-Baghdadi,"
Wolf said. "Al-Baghdadi was directly responsible for the deaths of the
four Americans, including the assault of the poor woman from Arizona.
"That would almost have to follow through because it would force the
Justice Department ... to indict Al-Baghdadi."
A genocide declaration would open the way to prosecuting anyone who
helps ISIS. It also could pressure the U.N. to similarly classify the
atrocities as genocide, Wolf said. Such people could be brought before the
International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes tribunals similar
to those that followed the Holocaust or the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.
"Anyone who did anything at all would be guilty of genocide,"
Wolf said. "They would be a participant in genocide, so that will kind
of chill a lot of the support for ISIS."
This could potentially ensnare the ISIS supporters in Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and even Turkey, the latter of which failed to stem the tide of
foreign fighters into Syria.
Numerous people warned Wolf during his trip of Qatari funding for ISIS.
Wealthy Qataris who bankrolled ISIS's predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq, have maintained their financial support for ISIS. U.S.
authorities repeatedly have cited Qatar for its failure to crackdown on
terrorism financing.
"Qatar's overall level of [counter-terrorism] cooperation with the
U.S. is considered the worst in the region," a top level State
Department official wrote in a secret Dec. 30, 2009 State Department cable.
Saudi citizens "have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to
Syria in recent years, including to ISIS and other groups," Washington
Institute Fellow Lori Plotkin Boghart wrote in a June 2014 report.
A declaration also could turn those involved in black market ISIS oil
sales into accessories to genocide.
"Trucks are rolling out of ISIS-controlled territory up into
Turkey," Wolf said.
ISIS earns an estimated $50 million per month from selling
oil, Iraqi and American officials told the Associated Press. Turkey's
shadowy intelligence agency, MIT, is alleged to be helping manage ISIS's oil smuggling operation.
Wolf also condemned Turkey for failing to shut down the flow of foreign
fighters into its territory.
"Anyone aiding and abetting [genocide] could be prosecuted,"
Wolf said.
State Department Won't Say If Christians Included
Government officials aren't saying which minority groups will be covered
by any genocide declaration, Isikoff wrote,
citing an unnamed Obama administration source who said atrocities aimed at
Christians, Shiite Muslims and others were likely "crimes against
humanity." However, the source claimed those acts did not appear to
meet the U.N. genocide treaty's standard — "that the perpetrators have
the 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part,' an entire 'national,
ethnical, racial or religious group.'"
"There is no doubt that that designation meets the parameters of
the definition of genocide because of the declaration by ISIS that they
wanted to wipe them (Christians) out," said Zuhdi Jasser, president of
the American Islamic Form for Democracy. "Their
policies really do not fit together.
"This designation becomes meaningless if it's not applied in a
consistent and rational way," said Jasser, who also serves as vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom. "
Christians must be included in any final declaration, Wolf said, but
added that he was unaware of any effort to omit them.
A State Department spokeswoman would not comment on which minority
groups might be covered in a genocide declaration, saying the agency did
not want to "comment on any internal discussions."
"We certainly continue to be horrified by ISIL's atrocities against
the Yazidi people, as well as its continuing appalling atrocities against
other minority communities including Christians, Shabak, Turkmen,
Sabean-Mandean, Kakai and other minority populations through its horrific
campaign of murder, kidnapping, sexual slavery and forcible transfer of
populations," State Department spokeswoman Julia Mason said in an
e-mailed statement.
Related Topics: John
Rossomando, Frank
Wolf, ISIS,
genocide,
Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi, Jhadi
John, Mohammed
Emwazi, 21st
Century Wilberforce Initiative, Christian
persecution, Yazidis,
U.S.
Holocaust Museum, Lori
Plotkin Boghart, Zuhdi
Jasser, USCIRF
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