In 2012 the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the U.S. State Department had reportedly removed Iran's Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from the terrorism list. According to the article:
Iranian Americans sympathetic to the plight of MEK enlisted the support of a number of pro-Israel figures, including Nobel Peace laureate and Holocaust memoirist Elie Wiesel; Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz; and Irwin Cotler, the former Canadian justice minister. " (emphasis added)
White Helmets leader Raed Saleh (left) received the 2019 Elie Wiesel Award at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Photo | Wolf Blitzer via Twitter
As an aside, earlier this year the White Helmets were recipients of the Elie Wiesel Award from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (HMM) for their "work" in Syria. Raed Saleh was available to receive the award on behalf of Al Qaeda's auxiliaries and simultaneously picked up a check from the U.S. government for $5 million to "help us with acquiring ambulances and to help us with search and rescue operations."
Former CIA counter-terrorism officer Philip Giraldi wrote a scathing article condemning the hypocrisy of the award, the irony of the taxpayer-funded HMM honoring what he called a "terrorist group " used in support of Israeli propaganda vis-a-vis Syria." Giraldi concluded:
Perhaps, while they are at it, the museum's board just might also want to check out Elie Wiesel, for whom the award is named. Wiesel, who was a chronicler of Jewish victimhood while persistently refusing to acknowledge what Israel was doing to the Palestinians, notoriously mixed fact and fiction in his best-selling Holocaust memoir, Night. Ironically, the award and recipient are well matched in this case, as mixing fact and fiction is what both Elie Wiesel and the White Helmets are all about."
Cotler, Wiesel's comrade in defending the MEK and promoting the White Helmets, was responsible for the organization of three "Iran Accountability" weeks. In 2014 Cotler invited Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MEK, to appear in the program alongside UN human-rights officials and "pundits from a hawkish American think tank." Cotler later argued that Rajavi's inclusion in the event was "issue specific," but his prior support for this brutal terrorist cult undermines such an argument.
Cotler employs blatant "human rights" double standards in his condemnation of governments in U.S. and Israeli crosshairs, while systematically ignoring the appalling human-rights records of governments or organizations included within the U.S. circle of power.
As in Syria, it seems that prominent neoconservatives will favor terrorist groups over legitimate governments that are perceived to threaten Israeli security in the region.
Cotler is also a member of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (ICJP). The ICJP has operated under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) since 2006. Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel (NY-16), is chairman of the ICJP and vice president of the WJC. Engel is another vociferous supporter of the MEK.
Engel presented a "gift of appreciation" to Cotler during a dinner at the King David Hotel in 2015, on behalf of the WJC. "If one looks to this generation and seeks a role model, that would be Irwin Cotler," Engel said.
Engel connects again with Cotler in his condemnation of the Syrian government and support for increased "humanitarian" military intervention in Syria. Engel was responsible for the Caesar Civilian Protection Act, which was ostensibly introduced to increase economic sanctions against the Syrian government based upon claims made by an alleged former Syrian military photographer in the questionable Caesar Report. That report was commissioned by the government of Qatar, a Gulf State heavily invested in the financing of terrorist groups and the White Helmets in Syria.
The Caesar Civilian Protection Act will effectively collectively punish the Syrian people for resisting efforts to destabilize their country and topple their elected government in the time honored tradition of U.S. Coalition sanctions that can only be considered siege warfare or economic terrorism. The orchestrators of this vindictive measure clearly have their roots in the neoconservative camp in the U.S.
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