[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 46 (Friday, March 21, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4282-S4283]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SMITH (for himself, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Allard, Mr. Bayh, Mr. 
        Bond, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Miller Mr. Nickles, Mr. Santorum, Mr. 
        Cornyn, and Mr. Specter):
  S. 684. A bill to create an office within the Department of Justice 
to undertake certain specific steps to ensure that all American 
citizens harmed by terrorists 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; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to right a wrong. I am doing 
so on behalf of myself and Mr. Wyden, Mr. Allard, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Bond, 
Mr. Brownback, Mr. Miller, Mr. Nickles, Mr. Santorum, and Mr. Specter. 
For far too many years, Americans who have been murdered overseas by 
terrorists have not been receiving the full weight of equal justice 
under the law, a fundamental principle of our governance. This is 
happening while we are in the midst of trying to introduce the 
institutions of democracy, including the notion of a fair judicial 
system, to a skeptical part of the world. This is happening while we 
are in the midst of a War on Terrorism.
  This double standard of justice sends out a pernicious, mixed message 
to would-be terrorists around the world. It suggests that we are weak 
in our resolve to prosecute certain terrorists who have murdered 
certain American citizens. It wrongly sends the message that certain 
American lives are more valuable and more worthy of justice than 
others. Or as the mother of Mathew Eisenfeld, a young Yale University 
graduate who was killed in 1996, together with his young fiance, Sara 
Ducker, a Barnard College graduate, put it, ``it makes me feel that my 
son's blood is less American than others.''
  When our embassies were attacked in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 
1998, then Secretary of State Albright and President Clinton said, 
``You can run but you can't hide from the long arm of American justice. 
Anywhere an American is murdered around the globe, we will seek out 
that suspect and retrieve him to these shores to stand justice.''
  However, since the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993, 
thirty-nine American citizens have lost their lives at the hands of 
Palestinian terrorists alone. And how many indictments have there been 
in response to these thirty-nine murders? Zero. Notably, one can't find 
the term Palestinian on the State Department's web site for the 
``Rewards of Justice'' program--the place where suspects are listed and 
rewards are described for their capture. That website rather contains 
only vague references to ``persons in opposition to the Middle East 
Peace Process.''
  This is simply wrong. On the humanitarian level, it is wrong. When 
our own government fails to mete out justice with equal and due 
diligence for a particular victim, or a group of victims, this 
compounds the grief experienced by American families who have lost 
loved ones to terrorists: families such as that of 14 year old Abigail 
Litle, an American girl from New Hampshire, a young Christian who was 
among the fifteen people murdered in the recent terrorist attack on a 
bus in Haifa, Israel; families like those of Ted Burgon of Oregon and 
Rick Spier of Colorado, the two American teachers killed in August of 
2002 in Indonesia. Murders for which there have been no indictments and 
no suspects named. FBI agents have underscored that until such time as 
they have full and unfettered access to witnesses and evidence in 
Indonesia, they cannot rule out terrorism, nor can they exonerate 
members of the Indonesian military who have been implicated in this 
heinous crime.

  This is wrong as a matter of foreign policy. Anything less than 100 
percent commitment to pursue all terrorists who harm or murder American 
citizens undermines our moral clarity and our War on Terrorism. it also 
serves to embolden would-be terrorists all over the world, ultimately 
putting us all at greater risk.
  We have arrived at this unfortunate juncture because the State 
Department, whose major objective is diplomacy, has had primary purview 
over this issue. The State Department, it would seem, has simply not 
brought its full resources to bear when it comes to facilitating the 
investigation, capture and prosecution of those who have murdered 
Americans overseas. This is particularly true if those Americans have 
been murdered in Israel or in areas under control of the Palestinian 
Authority, or in countries whose support we are seeking or counting on 
in the War on Terrorism.
  The major objective of the Justice Department, in contrast, is 
justice. The Justice Department recently scored a victory, when on 
February 20th, they issued indictments on several members of the 
Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That terrorist organization is believed to 
be responsible for the deaths of two American citizens, and dozens of 
other people in recent years. As we celebrate this substantial step 
toward justice, however, we cannot lose sight of the fact that there is 
much more work to be done.
  We should not, and cannot, in good conscience allow the pursuit of 
justice to be suborned to diplomatic considerations and expediencies. 
This is why I am introducing the Koby Mandell Act of 2003. Koby was a 
13 year old boy from Silver Spring, MD, who one day decided to do the 
Huck Finn thing, and skip school. However, the punishment did not fit 
the crime. His body was found brutally stoned and dismembered in a cave 
outside of Tekoah, Israel. His assailants remain at large in the 
Palestinian controlled areas.
  This Act will create a watch-dog office within the Department of 
Justice to ensure that all terrorists who murder or harm American 
citizens overseas are pursued with equal vigor, irrespective of the 
nationality or current residence of the terrorist. This Act will work 
to ensure that no other American family who has suffered at the hands 
of overseas terrorism will have their grief compounded a lack of 
justice.
  I urge you all to join me and my fellow senator from the State of 
Oregon, ron Wyden, by becoming a sponsor of the Koby Mandell Act, to 
put the issue of justice for American victims of overseas terrorism 
into the hands of the Justice department, where it truly belongs.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Koby Mandell Act of 2003 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 684

       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

[[Page S4283]]

     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 murders 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.
                                 ______