[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4728 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4728
To authorize assistance to promote counter-extremism efforts in the
Balkan region, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 2, 2010
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself, Mr. McCotter, Mr. Gallegly, Mr. Royce,
Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Inglis, Mrs. Myrick, and Mr. Massa)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize assistance to promote counter-extremism efforts in the
Balkan region, and for other purposes.
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 ``Balkan Counter-Extremism and
Security Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the
United States, also referred to as the ``9/11 Commission'',
found the region of Central and Eastern Europe to be
potentially vulnerable to terrorists.
(2) In 1996, the Central Intelligence Agency issued a
report which identified approximately 16 Islamic charities in
countries of the Balkan region that were connected to Islamist
extremist organizations such as al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Jamaah
al-Islamiyah, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
(3) In 1999, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for the
Relief of Kosovo and Chechnya (SJCRKC) reportedly brought to
Kosovo almost 400 missionaries of the Wahhabi interpretation of
Islam.
(4) The United States Department of State listed the
organization known as the ``Active Islamic Youth'' (AIO), as a
terrorist organization in 2001, and that organization is
reported to be active in Bosnia-Herzegovina and several other
European countries.
(5) The Benevolence International Foundation charity, which
in 2002 was listed as a front for terrorist financing by the
United States Department of the Treasury, was headquartered in
Croatia and highlighted in its documentation that its mission
was to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to the ``Jihad
in Bosnia-Herzegovina'', and urged people to ``contribute to
your brothers in order to block the Jewish-Crusader assault on
Islamic soil''.
(6) In June 2004, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad claimed that
it had individuals working for three Islamic charities in
Albania, including the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and the
Revival of Islamic Heritage Society.
(7) The United States Department of State's 2005 Annual
Country Report on Terrorism stated that Bosnia and
Herzegovina's State Border Service did not fully control all
border crossing points and that many official border posts were
understaffed, and also that the service lacked the funds,
resources, and qualified personnel necessary to be effective.
(8) The International Crisis Group research organization
reported on April 8, 2005, that there are believed to be
extremists of the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam now residing
in the Sandzak region of Serbia.
(9) In March 2006, a special Bosnian Government
investigatory commission known as ``Oslobodjenje'' revoked the
fraudulent citizenship of over 600 naturalized Bosnians who had
not met either of the two criteria for Bosnian citizenship:
presence in Bosnia or documentation to show a connection to
Bosnia.
(10) The actions taken by the Bosnian investigatory
commission included the revocation of a passport that had been
issued to Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist
organization.
(11) The United States Department of State's 2007 Annual
Country Report on Terrorism stated that, ``As a result of weak
interagency communication, competing security structures, and
political interference in law enforcement, Bosnia is vulnerable
to exploitation as a potential staging ground for terrorist
operations in Europe.''.
(12) In March 2007, Bosnian police found weapons in an
apartment occupied by a group that had planned to blow up the
British Embassy in Sarajevo.
(13) On March 19, 2007, Serbian police reportedly raided a
camp near the town of Novi Pazar in the Sandzak region of
Serbia suspected of being used by extremists and discovered
weapons, ammunition, and explosives with detonators.
(14) According to various reports, including those in Shaul
Shay's 2007 book entitled, ``Terrorism in the Balkans'', 75
percent of the drugs smuggled into Europe transit the countries
of the Balkan region and profits from drugs trafficked through
parts of the region have bankrolled global terrorist groups
such as Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
(15) In May 2007, six Kosovar Albanians residing illegally
in the United States were arrested and subsequently convicted
for plotting to use automatic weapons to kill United States
soldiers at the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey.
(16) Several moderate Bosnian Islamic leaders have issued
stern warnings to extremist groups in that country. In May
2007, Mustafa Ceric, the leading Islamic cleric in Bosnia,
stated in response to demands by some Wahhabi groups that
Bosnian Muslims follow their extremist ideology that, ``The
Islamic Community regulations rule here. Those who cannot
accept this did not have to come here and don't need to
stay.''.
(17) In June 2007, the Albanian newspaper, ``Shqip'',
reported that a ``Wahhabi sect'' within the Islamic Community
in Albania benefitted from monthly ``salaries'' paid for
dressing and behaving in accordance with Wahhabi
fundamentalism.
(18) In 2007, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Commander in Bosnia, General John Sylvestar, stated, ``In fact,
there are international terrorist organizations which have
individuals in Bosnia, including al Qaeda. What we have to
determine is whether or not the individuals involved are here
for the purpose of planning operations, or are here for
something else, being supported, being provided documentation,
seeking respite or whatever''.
(19) In August 2007, Mr. Raffi Gregorian, a senior United
States diplomat in Bosnia, stated that the al-Qaeda terrorist
organization was using Bosnia as a transit point, and utilized
supporters among former Islamic fighters who had arrived to
fight in the Balkans during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, and
later remained under fraudulently obtained citizenship papers.
(20) In January 2008, former Deputy High Representative and
former chief of the United Nations police mission in Bosnia,
Mr. Jacques Paul Klein, said, ``I know that there are al Qaeda
cells ... in Bosnia ...''.
(21) Two insurgents who were killed when they joined in a
January 2008 attack on coalition forces in Iraq were found to
have carried Bosnian passports.
(22) In May 2008, the Imam Bekir Halimi of the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was arrested for facilitating
illegal funding by a pro-terrorist organization. Since January
2007, Halimi had allegedly been receiving over 4.5 million
Euros per year through monthly payments from the Kuwaiti
Organization known as the ``Revival Islamic Heritage Society'',
which was designated as a front for terrorist financing by both
the United States Department of the Treasury and the United
Nations in January 2002.
(23) On January 28, 2009, Svetlana Lukic, the B92 radio
station host of the popular liberal talk show ``Hourglass''
which advocates for democratic reforms in Serbia, reported that
extremist Serbian ultranationalist groups had hacked into the
show's website, vandalized her car, broken into the radio
station and physically attacked the participants on her panels,
claiming that the program was ``anti-Serb''.
(24) On February 28, 2009, the Serbian Human and Minority
Rights Ministry announced its request that the Serbian
Prosecutor's Office investigate the constitutionality of an
extremist group called ``Obraz'' that was listed in 2005 by the
Serbian Interior Ministry as a clero-fascist organization and
had posted on its website a list of perceived enemies,
including ``Zionists, Ustasha, Muslim extremists, and Shiptar
terrorists'' and issued violent rallying calls that ``Serb
enemies will be eradicated and punished''.
(25) The Bosnian government lacks the capacity to
adequately monitor individuals awaiting deportation, even while
they are in prison, as was demonstrated in the case of
Tunisian-born former Islamist fighter Kamel bin Ali (also known
as Abu Hamza), who was imprisoned in 2008 for armed robbery and
domestic violence, was due to be deported at the end of his
sentence because the government had determined that his
citizenship was fraudulent and that bin Ali was ``a threat to
national security'', was given a ``good behavior'' short term
holiday from prison and then had failed to return as scheduled
on July 31, 2009, spurring a country-wide police hunt resulting
in his re-arrest in Zenica on August 8, 2009.
(26) On September 22, 2009, in response to certain ultra-
nationalist extremist groups that incited violent attacks at
football matches which resulted in the death of one French
national and the hospitalization of several others, the Serbian
Government announced it would investigate and outlaw extremist
organizations, as Serbian President Boris Tadic stated, ``All
extremists, left or right, will be tried before our courts.''.
(27) On October 13, 2009, Albanian authorities arrested
imam Artan Kristo, aka Muhamed Abdullah (who had worked in 2002
for the El-Haramain Foundation which had been listed on the
United States Department of State's Terrorist Watch List for
its alleged ties to al-Qaeda) on charges of ``publically
inciting and propagating terrorist acts'' and for calling for
jihad in an online forum.
(28) It has been reported that the Islamic missionary group
``Tablighi Jamaat'' or ``Group of Preachers'', which has been
linked to people who have committed terrorist offenses, such as
John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid, and Zacarias Moussaoui, has
been increasingly active in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia.
(29) Extremist movements in the countries of the Balkan
region pose a threat to the security of all moderate people in
the region who support the ideals of freedom, democracy,
tolerance, and the rule of law.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the countries of the Balkan region face challenges
presented by the presence of extremist groups;
(2) vulnerabilities in governance structures and the
enforcement of the rule of law in many of the countries of the
Balkan region have allowed extremism to take root there;
(3) the United States, the European Union and its Member
States, and the Republic of Turkey should coordinate their
efforts to combat extremism in the countries of the Balkan
region, with the European Union taking the lead in assisting
the countries of the Balkan region to strengthen their law
enforcement and border security capabilities; and
(4) the Secretary of State should seek agreements with the
governments of the countries of the Balkan region under which
such governments would work in partnership with the United
States to strengthen their efforts to combat extremism,
terrorism, and illicit activities that may provide financial
and operational support to extremism and terrorism movements.
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It shall be the policy of the United States to--
(1) to continue to provide assistance to the countries of
the Balkan region through previously authorized counter-
terrorism, counter-drug, border security, and law enforcement
assistance programs;
(2) prohibit travel to the United States by any individuals
who incite and recruit people of the Balkan region to engage in
violent jihad or to commit acts of terrorism; and
(3) encourage and support all countries of the Balkan
region to--
(A) ratify and fully implement the commitments
included in the United Nations International Convention
for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism
(1999);
(B) adhere to the United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1373 (2005), regarding the prohibition of
incitement to commit a terrorist act or acts;
(C) adhere to the standards contained in the
Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) ``40
Recommendations'' and ``9 Special Recommendations'',
particularly in the areas of policing donations to
charitable fronts for terrorist organizations; and
(D) ratify and fully implement the Council of
Europe's Warsaw Convention on the Prevention of
Terrorism.
SEC. 5. ASSISTANCE TO COUNTER MILITANT EXTREMIST ACTIVITIES IN THE
BALKAN REGION.
(a) Assistance Authorized.--The President is authorized to provide
assistance to countries of the Balkan region to facilitate cooperation
between the United States and such countries on counter-extremism and
counter-terrorism efforts. Such assistance shall be made available in
addition to assistance otherwise provided under chapter 8 of part I and
chapter 8 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2291 et seq. and 2349aa et seq.).
(b) Purposes of Assistance.--Assistance under this section shall be
provided as an incentive for countries of the Balkan region to more
actively cooperate with the United States to achieve the purposes
specified in section 572 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2349aa-1).
(c) Terms and Conditions.--Funds made available for assistance
under this section to countries of the Balkan region shall be provided
as follows:
(1) Tier i countries.--
(A) In general.--A country that meets the
requirements of subparagraph (B) shall be eligible to
receive an allocation of funds under this section in an
amount equal to 25 percent of the total amount of funds
provided to the country in the prior fiscal year under
chapter 8 of part I and chapter 8 of part II of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Such a country shall be
known as a ``Tier I country'' for purposes of this
section.
(B) Requirements.--The requirements of this
subparagraph are the following:
(i) The country, in conjunction with the
United States Department of State's Office of
the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, shall
conduct a review of its counter-terrorism
infrastructure, including a review of--
(I) the foundation of the country's
laws for the adequate criminalization
of incitement to violent extremist acts
and terrorist activities;
(II) anti-radicalization outreach
efforts;
(III) law enforcement training and
effectiveness;
(IV) independent and consistent
judicial processes; and
(V) border security.
(ii) The country shall sign a Memorandum of
Understanding with the United States to
establish country-specific counter-terrorism
program benchmarks based on recommendations
derived from the review required under clause
(i).
(2) Tier ii countries.--
(A) In general.--A country that meets the
requirements of subparagraph (B) shall be eligible to
receive an allocation of funds under this section in an
amount equal to 50 percent of the total amount of funds
provided to the country in the prior fiscal year under
chapter 8 of part I and chapter 8 of part II of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Such a country shall be
known as a ``Tier II country'' for purposes of this
section.
(B) Requirements.--The requirements of this
subparagraph are the following:
(i) The country shall meet the requirements
applicable to a Tier I country under paragraph
(1).
(ii) The country shall be certified by the
United States Department of State that it has
continued to meet the requirements of the
Memorandum of Understanding described in
paragraph (1)(B)(ii) and has implemented fully
the initial stage of reforms as identified in
the Memorandum of Understanding.
(iii) The country shall be certified by the
United States Department of State as fully
cooperating with any appropriate war crimes
tribunals.
(3) Tier iii countries.--
(A) In general.--A country that meets the
requirements of subparagraph (B) shall be eligible to
receive an allocation of funds under this section in an
amount equal to 100 percent of the total amount of
funds provided to the country in the prior fiscal year
under chapter 8 of part I and chapter 8 of part II of
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Such a country
shall be known as a ``Tier III country'' for purposes
of this section.
(B) Requirements.--The requirements of this
subparagraph are that the country shall be certified by
the United States Department of State that it has
implemented fully the final stage of reforms as
identified in the Memorandum of Understanding described
in paragraph (1)(B)(ii).
SEC. 6. REPORT.
(a) Report Required.--Not later than one year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on
the status of extremist and terrorist organizations and movements in
the countries of the Balkan region, and the capacity of countries of
the Balkan region to address such extremist and terrorist organizations
and movements.
(b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required under subsection
(a) shall specifically address the following:
(1) Any trend toward increased extremist influence over the
people of the Balkan region, including any indications of a
spread of extremist influence over the people of the Balkan
region through the financing of religious institutions and the
establishment of scholarships to study abroad by countries and
organizations outside the Balkan region.
(2) The capability of countries of the Balkan region to
properly secure their borders against arms proliferation, human
trafficking, and drug smuggling.
(3) The capability of the countries of the Balkan region to
maintain appropriate controls over citizenship and official
documentation for the citizens of such countries.
(4) A summary of funding amounts and a description of
associated programs for United States assistance made available
to combat terrorism in each of the countries of the Balkan
region.
(5) A summary of funding amounts and a description of
associated programs for assistance provided by the European
Union and its Member-States and the Republic of Turkey to the
countries of the Balkan region to combat the rise of extremism
and improve the capacities of such countries to secure their
borders, properly enforce laws, and take other steps to combat
financing of extremists and their operations.
(6) A summary of efforts by the United States, the European
Union and its Member-States, and the Republic of Turkey to
coordinate their assistance and programs described in
paragraphs (4) and (5) toward the objectives of this Act.
(c) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) shall be
submitted in unclassified form, but may contain a classified annex if
necessary.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.
(2) Countries of the balkan region.--The term ``countries
of the Balkan region'' means Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia), Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia.
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) International Narcotics Control Assistance.--There are
authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for each of
the fiscal years 2011 through 2015 to carry out the provisions of
chapter 8 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2291 et seq.) for programs and activities in the countries of the
Balkan region in support of the objectives of this Act.
(b) Antiterrorism Assistance.--There are authorized to be
appropriated such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years
2011 through 2015 to carry out the provisions of chapter 8 of part II
of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2349aa et seq.) for
programs and activities in the countries of the Balkan region in
support of the objectives of this Act.
(c) Assistance To Promote Counter-Extremism and Counter-
Terrorism.--
(1) In general.--There are authorized to be appropriated
such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2011
through 2015 to carry out the provisions of section 5 of this
Act.
(2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the
authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) for a
fiscal year are authorized to remain available through
September 30 of the succeeding fiscal year. Such amounts that
are unobligated beginning on October 1 of the succeeding fiscal
year are authorized to be made available to carry out the
provisions of chapter 8 of part I and chapter 8 of part II of
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2291 et seq. and
2349aa et seq.) for programs and activities in the countries of
the Balkan region in support of the objectives of this Act.
SEC. 9. TEMPORARY INCREASE IN FEE FOR CERTAIN CONSULAR SERVICES IN
COUNTRIES OF THE BALKAN REGION.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, not
later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Secretary of State shall increase by $1.00 the fee or surcharge
assessed under section 140(a) of the Foreign Relations Authorization
Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (Public Law 103-236; 8 U.S.C. 1351
note) over the amount of such fee or surcharge as of such date for
processing nonimmigrant visas for applicants from countries of the
Balkan region.
(b) Deposit of Amounts.--Notwithstanding section 140(a)(2) of the
Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995, the
additional amount collected pursuant to the fee increase under
subsection (a) shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States.
(c) Duration of Increase.--The fee increase authorized under
subsection (a) shall terminate on January 1, 2015.
<all>