[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 684 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 684

   To create an office within the Department of Justice to undertake 
 certain specific steps to ensure that all American citizens harmed by 
    terrorism overseas receive equal treatment by the United States 
     Government regardless of the terrorists' country of origin or 
 residence, and to ensure that all terrorists involved in such attacks 
 are pursued, prosecuted, and punished with equal vigor, regardless of 
            the terrorists' country of origin or residence.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 21, 2003

 Mr. Smith (for himself, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Allard, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Bond, Mr. 
  Brownback, Mr. Miller, Mr. Nickles, Mr. Santorum, and Mr. Specter) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To create an office within the Department of Justice to undertake 
 certain specific steps to ensure that all American citizens harmed by 
    terrorism overseas receive equal treatment by the United States 
     Government regardless of the terrorists' country of origin or 
 residence, and to ensure that all terrorists involved in such attacks 
 are pursued, prosecuted, and punished with equal vigor, regardless of 
            the terrorists' country of origin or residence.

    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 ``Koby Mandell Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Numerous American citizens have been murdered or maimed 
        by terrorists around the world, including more than 100 
        murdered since 1968 in terrorist attacks occurring in Israel or 
        in territories administered by Israel or in territories 
        administered by the Palestinian Authority.
            (2) Some American citizens who have been victims of 
        terrorism overseas, especially those harmed by terrorists 
        operating from areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, 
        have not received from the United States Government services 
        equal to those received by other such victims of overseas 
        terrorism.
            (3) The United States Government has not devoted adequate 
        efforts or resources to the apprehension of terrorists who have 
        harmed American citizens overseas, particularly in cases 
        involving terrorists operating from areas administered by the 
        Palestinian Authority. Monetary rewards for information leading 
        to the capture of terrorists overseas, which the Government 
        advertises in regions where the terrorists are believed to be 
        hiding, have not been advertised in areas administered by the 
        Palestinian Authority.
            (4) This situation is especially grave in the areas 
        administered by the Palestinian Authority, because many 
        terrorists involved in the murders of Americans are walking 
        free there; some of these terrorists have been given positions 
        in the Palestinian Authority security forces or other official 
        Palestinian Authority agencies; and a number of schools, 
        streets, and other public sites have been named in honor of 
        terrorists who were involved in the murders of Americans.
            (5) To remedy these and related problems, an office should 
        be established within the Department of Justice for the purpose 
        of ensuring equally vigorous efforts to capture all terrorists 
        who have harmed American citizens overseas and equal treatment 
        for all American victims of overseas terrorism.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF AN OFFICE OF JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF OVERSEAS 
              TERRORISM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

    (a) In General.--There is established within the Department of 
Justice an Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (in this 
Act referred to as the ``Office'') to carry out the following 
activities:
            (1) Rewards for justice.--
                    (A) In general.--The Office shall assume 
                responsibility for administration of the Rewards for 
                Justice program and its website.
                    (B) Administration.--In administering the Rewards 
                for Justice program the Office shall ensure that--
                            (i) rewards are offered to capture all 
                        terrorists involved in harming American 
                        citizens overseas, regardless of the 
                        terrorists' country of origin or residence;
                            (ii) such rewards are prominently 
                        advertised in the mass media and public sites 
                        in all countries or regions where such 
                        terrorists reside;
                            (iii) the names and photographs and 
                        suspects in all such cases are included on the 
                        website; and
                            (iv) the names of the specific 
                        organizations claiming responsibility for 
                        terrorist attacks mentioned on the site are 
                        included in the descriptions of those attacks.
            (2) Notification program.--The Office shall establish and 
        administer a program--
                    (A) comparable to the VINE system for notification 
                of crime victims; and
                    (B) that will provide notification for American 
                victims of overseas terrorism or their immediate family 
                to update them on the status of efforts to capture the 
                terrorists who harmed them.
            (3) Government representation.--The Office shall send an 
        official United States Government representative to attend the 
        funeral of every American victim of terrorism overseas.
            (4) Report.--The Office shall assume responsibility for 
        providing twice-annual reports to Congress as required by 
        section 805 of the Admiral James W. Nance and Meg Donovan 
        Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2000 and 
        2001.
            (5) Profiting from crimes.--The Office shall work with 
        other United States Government agencies to expand legal 
        restrictions on the ability of murderers to reap profits from 
        books or movies concerning their crimes so as to ensure that 
        terrorists who harm American citizens overseas are unable to 
        profit from book or movie sales in the United States.
            (6) Terrorists as police.--The Office shall--
                    (A) determine if terrorists who have harmed 
                American citizens overseas are serving in their local 
                police or security forces; and
                    (B) if it is found that terrorists who have harmed 
                American citizens overseas are serving in their local 
                police or security forces--
                            (i) alert those United States Government 
                        agencies involved in providing assistance, 
                        directly or indirectly, to those forces; and
                            (ii) request of those agencies that all 
                        such assistance be halted until the 
                        aforementioned terrorists are removed from 
                        their positions.
            (7) Patterns of prosecution.--The Office shall--
                    (A) undertake a comprehensive assessment of the 
                pattern of United States indictments and prosecution of 
                terrorists who have harmed American citizens overseas, 
                in order to determine the reasons for the absence of 
                indictments of terrorists residing in some regions, 
                such as the territories controlled by the Palestinian 
                Authority; and
                    (B) provide the assessment to the Attorney General 
                and to Congress, together with its recommendations.
            (8) Monitoring.--The Office shall--
                    (A) monitor public actions by governments and 
                regimes overseas pertaining to terrorists who have 
                harmed American citizens, such as the naming of 
                schools, streets, or other public institutions or sites 
                after such terrorists; and
                    (B) in such instances, encourage other United 
                States Government agencies to halt their provision of 
                assistance, directly or indirectly, to those 
                institutions.
            (9) Compensation.--The Office shall initiate negotiations 
        to secure appropriate financial compensation for American 
        citizens, or the families of such citizens, who were harmed by 
        organizations that claim responsibility for acts of terrorism 
        against Americans overseas and that subsequently become part of 
        a governing regime with which the United States Government 
        maintains diplomatic or other official contacts, such as the 
        Palestinian Authority.
            (10) Incarcerated terrorists.--The Office shall--
                    (A) monitor the incarceration abroad of terrorists 
                who harmed Americans overseas, to ensure that their 
                conditions of incarceration are reasonably similar to 
                conditions of incarceration in the United States; and
                    (B) in cases where terrorists who have harmed 
                Americans overseas, and are subsequently released from 
                incarceration abroad, are eligible for further 
                prosecution in the United States, coordinate with other 
                Government agencies to seek the transfer of those 
                terrorists to the United States for further 
                prosecution.
            (11) Persona non grata.--The Office shall strive to ensure 
        that all terrorists who have harmed Americans overseas are 
        treated by the United States Government as persona non grata, 
        including steps such as--
                    (A) denying those individuals visas for entry to 
                the United States;
                    (B) urging United States Government agencies to 
                refrain from political and diplomatic contacts with 
                those individuals; and
                    (C) instructing United States embassies and 
                consulates to urge American visitors to those countries 
                to refrain from patronizing businesses that are owned 
                or operated by such individuals.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated for fiscal 
year 2003 and each subsequent fiscal year such sums as may be necessary 
to carry out this Act.
    (b) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
authorization of appropriations under subsection (a) are authorized to 
remain available until expended.
                                 <all>