[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3076 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3076

  To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of 
marque and reprisal with respect to certain acts of air piracy upon the 
  United States on September 11, 2001, and other similar acts of war 
                        planned for the future.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 10, 2001

   Mr. Paul introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of 
marque and reprisal with respect to certain acts of air piracy upon the 
  United States on September 11, 2001, and other similar acts of war 
                        planned for the future.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act 
of 2001''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) That the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 upon 
        the United States were acts of air piracy contrary to the law 
        of nations.
            (2) That the terrorist attacks were acts of war perpetrated 
        by enemy belligerents to destroy the sovereign independence of 
        the United States of America contrary to the law of nations.
            (3) That the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks were 
        actively aided and abetted by a conspiracy involving one Osama 
        bin Laden and others known and unknown, either knowingly and 
        actively affiliated with a terrorist organization known as al 
        Qaeda or knowingly and actively conspiring with Osama bin Laden 
        and al Qaeda, both of whom are dedicated to the destruction of 
        the United States of America as a sovereign and independent 
        nation.
            (4) That the al Qaeda conspiracy is a continuing one among 
        Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and others known and unknown with 
        plans to commit additional acts of air piracy and other similar 
        acts of war upon the United States of America and her people.
            (5) That the act of war committed on September 11, 2001, by 
        the al Qaeda conspirators, and the other acts of war planned by 
        the al Qaeda conspirators, are contrary to the law of nations.
            (6) That under Article I, Section 8 of the United States 
        Constitution, Congress has the power to grant letters of marque 
        and reprisal to punish, deter, and prevent the piratical 
        aggressions and depredations and other acts of war of the al 
        Qaeda conspirators.

SEC. 3. AUTHORITY OF PRESIDENT.

    (a) The President of the United States is authorized and requested 
to commission, under officially issued letters of marque and reprisal, 
so many of privately armed and equipped persons and entities as, in his 
judgment, the service may require, with suitable instructions to the 
leaders thereof, to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize 
outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its 
territories the person and property of Osama bin Laden, of any al Qaeda 
co-conspirator, and of any conspirator with Osama bin Laden and al 
Qaeda who are responsible for the air piratical aggressions and 
depredations perpetrated upon the United States of America on September 
11, 2001, and for any planned future air piratical aggressions and 
depredations or other acts of war upon the United States of America and 
her people.
    (b) The President of the United States is authorized to place a 
money bounty, drawn in his discretion from the $40,000,000,000 
appropriated on September 14, 2001, in the Emergency Supplemental 
Appropriations Act for Recovery from and Response to Terrorists Attacks 
on the United States or from private sources, for the capture, alive or 
dead, of Osama bin Laden or any other al Qaeda conspirator responsible 
for the act of air piracy upon the United States on September 11, 2001, 
under the authority of any letter of marque or reprisal issued under 
this Act.
    (c) No letter of marque and reprisal shall be issued by the 
President without requiring the posting of a security bond in such 
amount as the President shall determine is sufficient to ensure that 
the letter be executed according to the terms and conditions thereof.
                                 <all>