[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 41 (Monday, October 16, 2000)]
[Pages 2452-2453]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting the International Convention for the 
Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism

October 12, 2000

To the Senate of the United States:

    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to 
ratification, I transmit herewith the International Convention

[[Page 2453]]

for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted by the United 
Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1999, and signed on behalf of 
the United States of America on January 10, 2000. The report of the 
Department of State with respect to the Convention is also transmitted 
for the information of the Senate.
    In recent years, the United States has increasingly focused world 
attention on the importance of combating terrorist financing as a means 
of choking off the resources that fuel international terrorism. While 
international terrorists do not generally seek financial gain as an end, 
they actively solicit and raise money and other resources to attract and 
retain adherents and to support their presence and activities both in 
the United States and abroad. The present Convention is aimed at cutting 
off the sustenance that these groups need to operate. This Convention 
provides, for the first time, an obligation that States Parties 
criminalize such conduct and establishes an international legal 
framework for cooperation among States Parties directed toward 
prevention of such financing and ensuring the prosecution and punishment 
of offenders, wherever found.
    Article 2 of the Convention states that any person commits an 
offense within the meaning of the Convention ``if that person by any 
means, directly or indirectly, unlawfully and wilfully, provides or 
collects funds with the intention that they should be used or in the 
knowledge that they are to be used, in full or in part, in order to 
carry out'' either of two categories of terrorist acts defined in the 
Convention. The first category includes any act that constitutes an 
offense within the scope of and as defined in one of the 
counterterrorism treaties listed in the Annex to the Convention. The 
second category encompasses any other act intended to cause death or 
serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking 
an active part in hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the 
purpose of the act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a 
population, or to compel a government or an international organization 
to do or to abstain from doing any act.
    The Convention imposes binding legal obligations upon States Parties 
either to submit for prosecution or to extradite any person within their 
jurisdiction who commits an offense as defined in Article 2 of the 
Convention, attempts to commit such an act, participates as an 
accomplice, organizes or directs others to commit such an offense, or in 
any other way contributes to the commission of an offense by a group of 
persons acting with a common purpose. A State Party is subject to these 
obligations without regard to the place where the alleged act covered by 
Article 2 took place.
    States Parties to the Convention will also be obligated to provide 
one another legal assistance in investigations or criminal or 
extradition proceedings brought in respect of the offenses set forth in 
Article 2.
    Legislation necessary to implement the Convention will be submitted 
to the Congress separately.
    This Convention is a critical new weapon in the campaign against the 
scourge of international terrorism. I hope that all countries will 
become Parties to this Convention at the earliest possible time. I 
recommend, therefore, that the Senate give early and favorable 
consideration to this Convention, subject to the understanding, 
declaration and reservation that are described in the accompanying 
report of the Department of State.
                                            William J. Clinton
 The White House,
 October 12, 2000.