[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 54 (Thursday, April 28, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4606-S4607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ADDING HEZBOLLAH TO EUROPEAN UNION TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS

  Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations 
Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now 
proceed to S. Res. 82.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 82) urging the European Union to add 
     Hezbollah to the European Union's wide-ranging list of 
     terrorist organizations.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the resolution be 
agreed to, the amendment to the preamble be agreed to, the preamble, as 
amended, be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and any statements be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment (No. 596) was agreed to, as follows:
  The resolution (S. Res. 82) was agreed to.
  The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

(Purpose: To provide a substitute for the preamble strike the preamble) 
                       and insert the following:

       Whereas Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based radical organization 
     with terrorist cells based in Europe, Africa, North America, 
     South America, Asia, and elsewhere, receiving financial, 
     training, weapons, and political and organizational aid from 
     Iran and Syria;
       Whereas Hezbollah has led a 23-year global campaign of 
     terror targeting United States, German, French, British, 
     Italian, Israeli, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian, Argentinean, Thai, 
     Singaporean, and Russian civilians, among others;
       Whereas Hezbollah has been suspected of numerous terrorist 
     acts against United States citizens, including the suicide 
     truck bombing of the United States Embassy and Marine 
     Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 1983, and the Embassy 
     annex in Beirut in September 1984;
       Whereas the French unit of the Multinational Force in 
     Beirut was also targeted in the attack of October 1983, in 
     which 241 United States soldiers and 58 French paratroopers 
     were killed;
       Whereas Hezbollah has attacked Israeli and Jewish targets 
     in South America in the mid-1990s, including the Israeli 
     Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in March 1992, and the 
     AMIA Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires in July 1994;
       Whereas Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for 
     kidnappings of United States and Israeli civilians and 
     French, British, German, and Russian diplomats, among others;
       Whereas even after the Government of Israel's complied with 
     United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 (March 19, 
     1978) by withdrawing from Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued to 
     carry out attacks against Israel and its citizens;
       Whereas Hezbollah has expanded its operations in the West 
     Bank and Gaza Strip, providing training, financing, and 
     weapons to Palestinian terrorist organizations on the 
     European Union terrorist list, including the Al Aqsa Martyrs 
     Brigade, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the 
     Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine according to 
     the 2005 State Department Report on Terrorism and other 
     testimony;
       Whereas according to the same report in March 2004, 
     Hezbollah and Hamas signed an agreement to increase joint 
     terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and 
     Hezbollah instigated, financed, and played a role in 
     implementing a significant number of Palestinian terrorist 
     attacks against Israeli targets;
       Whereas the European Union agreed by consensus to classify 
     Hamas as a terrorist organization for purposes of prohibiting 
     funding from the European Union to Hamas;
       Whereas the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty 
     Restoration Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 2151 note) urges the 
     Government of Lebanon to assert the sovereignty of the 
     Lebanese state over all of its territory and to evict all 
     terrorist and foreign forces from southern Lebanon, including 
     Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards;
       Whereas, although the European Union has included Imad 
     Fayiz Mughniyah, a key operations and intelligence officer of 
     Hezbollah, on its terrorist list, it has not included his 
     organization on the list;
       Whereas the United States, Canada, and Australia have all 
     classified Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and the 
     United Kingdom has placed the Hezbollah External Security 
     Organization on its terrorist list;
       Whereas leaders of Hezbollah have made statements 
     denouncing any distinction between its `political and 
     military' operations, such as Hezbollah's representative in 
     the Lebanese Parliament, Mohammad Raad, who stated in 2001, 
     that `Hezbollah is a military resistance party, and it is our 
     task to fight the occupation of our land. . . . There is no 
     separation between politics and resistance.';
       Whereas in a book recently published by the deputy 
     secretary-general of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, entitled 
     `Hezbollah--the Approach, the Experience, the Future', Qassem 
     writes `Hezbollah is a jihad organization whose aim, first 
     and foremost, is jihad against the Zionist enemy, while the 
     political, pure and sensible effort can serve as a prop and a 
     means of support for jihad';
       Whereas United Nations Security Council resolution 1559 
     (September 2, 2004), jointly sponsored by the United States 
     and France, calls upon all remaining foreign forces to 
     withdraw from Lebanon and for the disbanding and disarmament 
     of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias;
       Whereas in December 2004, the Department of State placed 
     Al-Manar, Hezbollah's satellite television network, on the 
     Terrorist Exclusion List, and in December 2004, the French 
     Council of State banned the broadcasting of Al-Manar in 
     France;
       Whereas France, Germany, and Great Britain, with the 
     support of the High Representative of the European Union, 
     have created a working group with Iran to discuss regional 
     security concerns, including the influence of terror 
     perpetuated by Hezbollah and other extremist organizations; 
     and
       Whereas cooperation between the United States and the 
     European Union regarding efforts to combat international 
     terrorism is essential to the promotion of global security 
     and peace: Now, therefore, be it

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