Lawyers at the United States State Department have removed the word “genocide” from speeches and official documents that describe the Islamic State’s brutal treatment of Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, human rights activists have warned. A report published Tuesday by the Washington Free Beacon cites human rights activists and attorneys familiar with State Department policies who claim that top State Department lawyers “are systematically removing the word ‘genocide’ to describe the Islamic State’s mass slaughter of Christians, Yazidis, and

other ethnic minorities” from speeches before they are delivered and official State Department documents.Nina Shea, a respected human rights activist and former commissioner on the congressionally-mandated U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, was quoted as telling the Beacon that Richard Visek, the State Department’s Acting Legal Adviser, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, is behind the decision to remove the term “genocide” from official documents and speeches.  READ MORE