The indict Ahmadinejad campaign continues

”In my opinion, it is a very solid case from a legal standpoint, from an evidentiary standpoint, and from a moral standpoint,” Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, an early sponsor of the initiative, recently told The Christian Edition.

Cotler is a former Justice Minister and Attorney General who indicted two Rwandans under the same legal precedent for inciting tribal genocide during Rwanda’s vicious civil war.

Cotler notes that Ahmadinejad’s personal Web site has even displayed a photo of Shihab-3 missiles parading through Teheran with banners on them saying, “Wipe Israel off the map, as the Imam said.” He insists, “This is an even more dangerous case, where you have religiously motivated fanaticism combined with a determined nuclear quest.”

A member of the Liberal party, Cotler had high hopes of bipartisan support for Canada to take action against Ahmadinejad, but he has yet to win the backing of conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, who is otherwise a strong supporter of Israel.

”No country seems to want to take the lead, but they would follow if someone else did,” says Cotler.

Reports out of Washington indicate that the Canadian government was ready to move on a referral to the United Nations or International Court of Justice, but was waiting for the US Congress to first adopt a resolution taken up by the House of Representatives earlier this year calling for Ahmadinejad’s indictment. That resolution passed the House last summer by an overwhelming margin of 411 to 2, but has since stalled out in the Senate.

Some Democrats, including Joe Biden, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are apparently concerned the resolution may be used by the Bush Administration to justify military action against Iran, according to Richard Hellman, head of the Christian pro-Israel lobby CIPAC, which has spearheaded a year-long lobbying campaign for the resolution.

”Several senators were very keen to move on the resolution, but Chairman Biden has decided to sit on it, and his aides are not giving us a clear answer why. I suspect it’s the military excuse,” Hellman says.

Biden is indeed opposed to a pre-emptive military strike on Iran. When he recently dropped his presidential bid after a poor showing in Iowa, Biden’s parting shot was a vow to personally lead an effort to impeach US President George W. Bush if he attacks Iran without congressional approval.

“Instead of providing a pretext for war, this would squarely put the issue before the UN and fulfill that body's founding principle to prevent genocide,” counters Hellman.

He hopes to revitalize the lobby campaign on Capitol Hill, particularly as it becomes a campaign issue. Republican hopeful Mitt Romney has a plank on indicting Ahmadinejad in his campaign platform, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton also endorsed the idea some months ago.

Meanwhile, Cotler points to Australia as another promising option, after newly-elected Labour prime minister Kevin Rudd embraced the JCPA’s initiative late in his successful campaign.

"We would like to initiate legal proceedings against President Ahmadinejad on a charge of incitement to genocide,” Rudd promised. “Adopting this approach would serve two purposes. Firstly, as the former Israeli UN Ambassador Dore Gold mentioned, it will move the international legal system from punishing genocide post-facto to preventing it before it occurs.”

Cotler senses the window for legal action may be closing soon, as Ahmadinejad appears to be wisely curtailing his hostile rhetoric against Israel to some degree. Still, Colter plans to press the matter directly with top UN officials soon and remains hopeful someone will take the lead on an indictment referral.