SPEAKERS       CONTENTS       INSERTS    
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2004
DESIGNATION OF FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS REFORM ACT

MARKUP

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON
H.R 3978

MARCH 17, 2004
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Serial No. 108–85

Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/internationalrelations

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman

JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey,
  Vice Chairman
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
AMO HOUGHTON, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
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ROY BLUNT, Missouri
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
NICK SMITH, Michigan
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JERRY WELLER, Illinois
MIKE PENCE, Indiana
THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan
KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida

TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
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BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
ADAM SMITH, Washington
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
CHRIS BELL, Texas

THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director

Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation

and Human Rights
ELTON GALLEGLY, California, Chairman

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
PETER T. KING, New York
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
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CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
NICK SMITH, Michigan
MIKE PENCE, Indiana

BRAD SHERMAN, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
CHRIS BELL, Texas
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota

RICHARD MEREU, Subcommittee Staff Director
DONALD MACDONALD, Democratic Professional Staff Member
RENEE AUSTELL, Professional Staff Member
JOSEPH WINDREM, Staff Associate

C O N T E N T S

MARKUP OF:

    H.R. 3978, To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify provisions relating to designation of foreign terrorist organizations, to amend the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, to include in annual Department of State country reports on terrorism information on terrorist groups that seek weapons of mass destruction and groups that have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and for other purposes
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LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

    The Honorable Elton Gallegly, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, and Chairman, Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights: Prepared statement

DESIGNATION OF FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS REFORM ACT

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2004

House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on International Terrorism,
Nonproliferation and Human Rights,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:12 p.m. in Room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Elton Gallegly (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.

    Mr. GALLEGLY. Pursuant to notice, I call up bill H.R. 3978, the Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Reform Act, for purposes of markup. Without objection, the bill will be considered as read and open for amendment at any time.

    [H.R. 3978 follows:]
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    Mr. GALLEGLY. Are there opening statements? I have a brief one, then I will yield to my friend from California.

    Today the Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights will consider H.R. 3978, the Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Reform Act. H.R. 3978 would streamline the procedure for redesignating a group as a foreign terrorist organization, thereby allowing the State Department, Treasury Department, FBI and our intelligence agencies to better concentrate their efforts on actually fighting terrorism and preventing new attacks.

    Currently one of the U.S. Government's most effective tools in the fight against international terrorism is the provision enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 that makes it illegal to provide funds and other forms of material support to foreign terrorist organizations. The law authorizes the Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist organizations, makes it illegal for persons to knowingly contribute material support to such groups, and requires U.S. banks to freeze their assets. This statute also makes members of such groups inadmissible to the U.S.

    The Justice Department has used the law to investigate and obtain convictions of persons providing material support to terrorist groups, and it has helped curb the flow of terrorist funding.
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    However, experience with the law over the past 7 years shows the need to refine it and make it more effective in the fight against global terrorism. Under existing law, the U.S. Government must devote significant amounts of its counterterrorism resources to the FTO redesignation effort. This bureaucratic process must take place every 2 years, even though the vast majority of these groups do not even dispute their designation as terrorists. And, as we all know, some of the groups, such as al Qaeda, openly boast of their terrorist activities.

    H.R. 3978 would make two principal changes in the law regarding the designation of foreign terrorist organizations. First, it would replace the requirement to formally redesignate terrorist organizations every 2 years with a procedure allowing groups to request a review at 2-year intervals, as well as a simplified procedural requirement to review each group every 4 years. This change would allow the State Department and other agencies to focus more of their scarce resources on responding to the new terrorist threats or tracking and analyzing newer groups that emerge on the horizon.

    For example, last year 29 of the 36 organizations on the U.S. Government's foreign terrorist list were due for redesignation. As a result, State, Justice, Treasury and the intelligence community expended thousands of hours in preparing a detailed administrative record for each of these groups. There are at least 20 steps in the process. Each case requires clearance from 10 different offices in the State Department and similar clearance processes at Justice and Treasury. Over a dozen lawyers at Justice are taking time from their other counterterrorism and law enforcement responsibilities to review each one of these voluminous administrative records so they can be used in court cases, if necessary. The administrative process has been repeated without exception every 2 years.
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    The modified redesignation requirement proposed by H.R. 3978 will still provide designated terrorist groups with plenty of procedural safeguards. Under the legislation, a group can still request a court review of a designation within 30 days after it is first designated. In addition, the bill allows all designated organizations to petition the Secretary every 2 years to revoke its designation. The Secretary of State has to respond within 180 days. If that review is not to the group's satisfaction, the designation can also be challenged in court. Furthermore, even if a group has not requested a review, the Secretary of State will have to formally review its designation every 4 years.

    The legislation would also establish a new procedure for handling the situation in which a terrorist organization changes its name and uses new aliases. The new provision allows the government to amend the underlying administrative record instead of re-creating a voluminous document every time a group takes on a new alias. A group will be able to appeal these additional designations.

    Under H.R. 3978, a group's ability to challenge a designation or redesignation are essentially unchanged. The main difference is that the U.S. Government does not have to spend scarce resources formally redesignating groups every 2 years when there is no doubt or challenge to the redesignations.

    The language on foreign terrorist organizations is identical to the provisions contained in an en bloc amendment to H.R. 1950, the Department of State Authorization bill that was passed by voice vote on the House Floor. The same language was also included in two separate versions of the State Department Authorization bill approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, S. 925, passed on April 24th of last year, and S. 2144, passed on March 4th of this year. However, the State Department Authorization bill has not yet passed the Senate and may not pass during this Congress. Given the importance of this measure, we are marking up this provision as a separate bill. I will urge the Full Committee and the leadership of the House to take action on this bill at the earliest possible date, hopefully next week.
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    In addition, this provision has the support of both the State Department and the Justice Department.

    Lastly, section 3 of the bill requires that the State Department's annual report on terrorism include information on countries and terrorist groups that are seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Experts on terrorism both within and outside the government agree that the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction is the most dangerous security threat faced by the United States and our allies. Therefore, it makes absolute sense to have the State Department's main report on terrorism discuss this linkage.

    I urge passage of this important legislation, and I would now yield to the gentleman from California Mr. Sherman.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Gallegly follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ELTON GALLEGLY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

    Today, the Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights will consider H.R. 3978, the Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Reform Act. H.R. 3978 would streamline the procedure for redesignating a group as a foreign terrorist organization, thereby allowing the State Department, Treasury Department, FBI and our intelligence agencies to better concentrate their efforts on actually fighting terrorism and preventing new attacks.
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    Currently, one of the U.S. government's most effective tools in the fight against international terrorism is the provision enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 that makes it illegal to provide funds and other forms of material support to foreign terrorist organizations (''FTOs'').

    This law authorizes the Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist organizations, makes it illegal for persons to knowingly contribute material support to such groups and requires U.S. banks to freeze their assets. This statute also makes members of such groups inadmissible to the U.S.

    The Justice Department has used the law to investigate and obtain convictions of persons providing material support to terrorist groups, and it has helped curbed the flow of terrorist funding.

    However, experience with the law over the past seven years shows the need to refine it to make it more even more effective in the fight against global terrorism. Under existing law, the U.S. government must devote significant amounts of its counterterrorist resources to the FTO redesignation effort. This bureaucratic process must take place every two years, even though the vast majority of these groups do not even dispute their designation as terrorists. And as we all know, some groups such as Al Qaeda openly boast of their terrorist activity.

    H.R. 3978 would make two principal changes to the current law regarding the designation of foreign terrorist organizations:
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    First, it would replace the requirement to formally redesignate terrorist organizations every two years with a procedure allowing groups to request a review at two-year intervals, as well as a simplified procedural requirement to review each group every four years.

    This change would allow the State Department and other government agencies to focus more of their scarce resources on responding to new terrorist threats or tracking and analyzing newer groups that emerge on the horizon.

    For example, last year 29 of the 36 organizations on the U.S. Government's foreign terrorist list were due for redesignation. As a result, State, Justice, Treasury, and the intelligence community expended thousands of hours in preparing a detailed administrative record for each of these groups. There are at least 20 steps in this process. Each case requires clearance from 10 different offices in the State Department, and similar clearance processes at Justice and Treasury. Over a dozen lawyers at Justice are taking time from their other counterterrorism and law enforcement responsibilities to review each one of these voluminous administrative records so they can be used in court cases if necessary. This administrative process has to be repeated, without exception, every two years.

    The modified redesignation requirement proposed by H.R. 3978 will still provide designated terrorist groups with plenty of procedural safeguards. Under the legislation, a group can still request a court review of a designation within 30 days after it is first designated. In addition, the billallows all designated organizations to petition the Secretary every two years to revoke its designation. The Secretary of State has to respond within 180 days. If that review is not to the group's satisfaction, the designation can also be challenged in court.
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    Furthermore, even if a group has not requested a review, the Secretary of State will have to formally review each designation every four years.

    The legislation would also establish a new procedure for handling the situation in which a terrorist organization changes its name or uses new aliases. The new provision allows the government to amend the underlying administrative record instead of re-creating a voluminous document every time a group takes on a new alias. A group will be able to appeal these additional designations.

    Under H.R. 3978, a group's ability to challenge a designation or redesignation are essentially unchanged. The main difference is that the U.S. government does not have to spend scarce resources formally redesignating groups every two years when there is no doubt or challenge to the redesignations.

    The language on foreign terrorist organizations is identical to provisions contained in an en bloc amendment to H.R. 1950, the Department of State Authorization bill that was passed by voice vote on the House floor. The same language was included in two separate versions of the State Department Authorization bill approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—S. 925 passed on April 24, 2003, and S. 2144 passed on March 4 of this year. However, the State Department Authorization bill has not yet passed the Senate and may not pass during this Congress. Given the importance of this measure, we are marking up this provision as a separate bill. I will urge the full committee and the leadership of the House to take action on this bill at the earliest possible date.

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    In addition, this provision has the support of both the State Department and the Justice Department.

    Lastly, section 3 of the bill requires that the State Department's annual report on terrorism include information on countries and terrorist groups that are seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Experts on terrorism both within and outside of government agree that the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction is the most dangerous security threat faced by the United States and our allies. Therefore, it makes absolute sense to have the State Department's main report on terrorism discuss this linkage.

    I urge passage of this important legislation and I yield back the balance of my time.

    Mr. SHERMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for bringing up this critical legislation. I look forward to other markups here in the Subcommittee where we can deal with other important legislation, and I want to commend you and our Committee Chairman for moving to the Full Committee the legislation on Iran and its nuclear proliferation program.

    This bill would reduce the workload of the State Department. Currently staff who could be conducting counterterrorism activities must instead spend their time going through an arduous administrative process every 2 years to redesignate an organization on the foreign terrorist organization list, the FTO list. You and I know that during that 2-year period nothing has happened that would cause most of these organizations to even assert that they should be taken off the list.

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    Hamas is a terrorist organization yesterday and today, and they plan to be tomorrow. Nonetheless, every designation expires under the current law every 2 years, and the Department must go through the process of affirmatively redesignating the same groups that will earn their terrorist designation. They have to create an administrative record, spend hours upon hours justifying what we already know is true, what they already justified just 2 years earlier. Last year some 29 groups had to go through this redesignation process, and as a result of this distraction, a number of other groups that deserve to be on the list may not get there simply because of this misdirection of administrative resources.

    There are currently 37 organizations on the list. Obviously there are more than 37 terrorist organizations worldwide. Additional organizations should have been added to this list, and I note that Ansar al-Islam, an organization operating in Iraq and known to us to be a terrorist organization, is only now being so designated. I think we can do better, and I think this bill will help.

    This bill will leave a group on the FTO list indefinitely. The organization may petition the Secretary after 2 years. And I should point out that they can in effect send a letter to the Secretary at any time, and the Secretary can at any time, or upon the receipt of this 2-year petition, conduct an independent review if there has been none after 4 years. It leaves in place existing judicial review provisions, allowing the group to take a designation to the DC Court of Appeals.

    The bill will also allow the Department to easily amend designations to add aliases without having to conduct a full investigation. Many of these terrorist groups make up a new name every day. We need to be able to designate those new names as aliases and as terrorist organizations just as quickly as they can be made up.
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    And I should point out that it is my understanding of this bill that the word ''alias'' would apply even if there is some slight difference in the board or makeup or organization, so that if you have a terrorist organization controlled by six individuals, and then five of those individuals walk into the next room and say, we will leave one guy in the other room, now we are a different organization, that is still a mere alias, an organization under the same control dedicated to the same purposes.

    This bill would provide the State Department's Global Pattern Terrorism Report will include information on WMD activities of terrorist organizations and state sponsors of terrorism. This is also a desirable change. Similar legislation to this bill has been included in the State Department Authorization bill, which, of course, remains in legislative limbo. I would hope that the leadership of both Houses would move forward with that bill, but in the absence of that, we need to move these provisions as a separate bill.

    Again, I thank Chairman Gallegly for his work on this important legislation and look forward to passing this bill through the Full Committee and to the House.

    Mr. GALLEGLY. Thank the gentleman from California.

    Are there any amendments? Hearing no requests, the Chair would now entertain a motion that the bill be reported favorably to the full House.

    Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if there are others with brief opening statements? And it appears not. Good.
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    Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I would just move to strike the last word.

    Mr. GALLEGLY. There is a pending motion. So, would you like to withdraw your pending motion?

    Mrs. NAPOLITANO. I withdraw.

    Mr. SCHIFF. I was going to move to strike the last word on the pending motion. But, Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to thank you for bringing this bill up expeditiously and add my voice of support to it. To the degree that we can streamline the process in identifying terrorist organizations, those that fund them, and accelerate the investigation and prosecution of these organizations and the funders, it is extremely beneficial, and just want to add my voice of support. And I yield back the balance of my time.

    Mr. GALLEGLY. I thank the gentleman from California, and I would now reentertain the motion.

    Mrs. NAPOLITANO. So moved.

    Mr. GALLEGLY. The gentlelady from California has moved that the bill be reported favorably to the Full Committee. All in favor, say aye.

    Any opposed?
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    That will be the order. The motion is approved, and the bill is reported favorably to the House.

    Thank you very much for attending the markup, and the meeting is adjourned.

    [Whereupon, at 1:25 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]