Investigation Into Allegations of FBI-Facilitated Ransom Payments
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about allegations that the FBI has facilitated ransom payments to terrorist groups. Unfortunately, the administration has been stonewalling the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation into the matter.
We have seen many terrible terrorist attacks recently. The government's highest duty is to provide for national security. That means fighting the radical Islamic terrorist groups that mean us harm.
An important part of fighting radical Islamic terrorist groups is going after their funding. The U.S. Government should do everything it can to stop money from flowing to groups like al Qaeda and ISIS.
The government has had significant successes in fighting terrorist funding. Ransom payments for hostages are one of the key sources of funds for terrorist groups to raise money.
The government should not be participating in helping to make such payments. Yet, in April of last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI had helped facilitate a $250,000 ransom payment to al Qaeda.
It was from the family of kidnapped aid worker Warren Weinstein back in 2012. That report was later confirmed by 60 Minutes in an interview with Dr. Weinstein's widow.
Around the same time as that Wall Street Journal article, Army LTC Jason Amerine contacted Judiciary Committee staff. He is a decorated war hero who reached out to Congressman Hunter, Senator Johnson, and to my office, to raise concerns about ineffective hostage-recovery efforts. He alleged that the FBI was involved in a ransom payment made in an effort to recover SGT Bowe Bergdahl.
To be clear, the U.S. Government should take all appropriate measures to recover American hostages.
But those measures cannot include ransom payments that end up funding more terrorist operations.
Ransom payments are big business for terrorist groups. According to a 2014 investigation by the New York Times, Al Qaeda and its affiliates have taken in at least $125 million from kidnapping for ransom since 2008.
ISIS also takes in huge amounts from ransom payments. The United Nations estimated that ISIS collected between $35 and $45 million in ransom payments in 2014 alone.
This is a serious threat to our national security.
In 2012, David S. Cohen, who was the Treasury Department's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the time, explained why in a presentation on the issue.
He said:
Ransom payments lead to future kidnappings, and future kidnappings lead to additional ransom payments.
And it all builds the capacity of terrorist organizations to conduct attacks.
Al Qaeda affiliates use ransom money to help fund the full range of their activities, including recruiting and indoctrinating new members, paying salaries, establishing training camps, acquiring weapons and communications gear and helping to support the next generation of violent extremist groups.
Paying ransoms incentivizes terrorists to kidnap more people, and it funds their terrorist attacks.
The administration says it is still U.S. policy for the government to deny hostage-takers the benefits of ransom. But its policy on helping others make ransom payments is murky.
If the FBI pays lip-service to the no-ransom policy by not making payments itself, but facilitates payments by others, then the financial incentive for terrorists to kidnap people remains the same.
The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over the Department of Justice, including the FBI.
The FBI's hostage-recovery efforts, including any facilitated ransom payments, must be subject to constitutional oversight by the committee.
The Justice Department has failed to fully cooperate with the committee's inquiries.
In May of last year I wrote to the Attorney General.
I asked several questions about the FBI's alleged involvement in facilitating payments to terrorist groups.
Among other things, I asked: ``Has the FBI been involved in any transfer of money in connection with attempts to secure the release of hostages held by al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani network, ISIS, or associated forces?''
The Justice Department failed to respond for 5 months.
In the meantime, the President issued Executive Order 13698 and Presidential Policy Directive 30. Those established a new hostage- recovery policy as the result of an interagency review.
Then, 5 months after I sent my questions to the Attorney General, the Justice Department finally sent me a response. That response failed to answer my questions. Instead, the response just summarized the public documents released by the administration when it announced its new hostage-recovery policy.
Merely pointing to publicly available documents is not good faith cooperation with independent fact finding. So I wrote to the White House last fall.
I asked that the administration provide the committee the classified parts of the new hostage-recovery policy, PPD-30, as well as the classified part of the policy it replaced, NSPD-12. But the administration failed to share those classified parts of the policies with the Committee.
Think about that. The FBI plays a key role in hostage-recovery efforts. The Judiciary Committee is responsible for overseeing the FBI. Yet, the administration refuses to even tell the Committee in full what its written policies say. That kind of stonewalling is unacceptable.
I referred the matter to the Inspector General for the Department of Justice last October. In February, he informed me that his office had opened an initial inquiry. That inquiry is ongoing. My investigation continues as well.
Yesterday I sent another letter to Attorney General Lynch and Director Comey seeking complete answers to my questions and complete copies of the policy documents.
If the public reports are accurate, then there is a very real possibility that the FBI has helped send millions of dollars to al Qaeda and ISIS. That money inevitably was used to help terrorists kill more innocent people.
The Judiciary committee needs all the facts to get to the bottom of this. The FBI should cooperate. The Department of Justice should cooperate. The White House should cooperate.
FBI Director Comey and Attorney General Lynch should fully respond to all the questions in my May 2015 letter.
Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC, May 1, 2015. Hon. Loretta Lynch, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
Dear Attorney General Lynch: I am writing in regard to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's policies and practices regarding ransom payments in hostage recovery efforts. On April 29, 2015, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed senior U.S. officials, reported that ``the Federal Bureau of Investigation helped facilitate a 2012 ransom payment to al Qaeda from the family of kidnapped aid worker Warren Weinstein[.]'' The article alleges that, although the FBI claims it did not directly approve or authorize a ransom payment, it nonetheless ``vetted a Pakistani middleman used by the family to transport the money and provided other intelligence to enable the exchange.'' The article also quoted U.S. officials as saying that, ``the family was particularly encouraged by the ransom option when the FBI said it was probably the best chance to win Mr. Weinstein's release.'' Another recent news article reported that the government ``is reviewing its policy preventing families of hostages to pay ransom to kidnappers[.]''
In order to evaluate the FBI's policies and procedures related to ransom payments to terrorist organizations as part of hostage recovery efforts, please provide the Committee with answers to the following questions by May 15, 2015:
1. Was the FBI involved in a payment of a ransom in an attempt to recover Dr. Weinstein?
2. Did the FBI vet a Pakistani middleman for the Weinstein family to use in making a ransom payment to al Qaeda in an attempt to recover Dr. Weinstein?
3. Did the FBI provide other intelligence to enable the ransom payment? If so, what intelligence was provided? To whom was it provided?
4. What other steps, if any, did the FBI take to facilitate the ransom payment?
5. What steps, if any, did the FBI take in preparation for a potential release of Dr. Weinstein following the ransom payment to secure his safe return to the United States?
6. What happened to the ransom money after Dr. Weinstein was not released?
7. What steps, if any, did the FBI take to secure a return of funds to the Weinstein family?
8. Has the FBI been involved in any transfer of money in connection with attempts to secure the release of hostages held by al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani network, ISIS, or associated forces?
9. What are the FBI's policies and procedures relating to ransom payments, whether by the U.S. Government or third parties, in hostage recovery efforts?
10. What audit procedures, if any, are in place to ensure FBI compliance with these policies, procedures, and all applicable law?
11. Have those audit procedures, if they exist, revealed any violation of FBI policies, procedures, or applicable law? Has the FBI otherwise learned of such violations?
12. If any violations were found, what remedial or punitive actions were taken?
13. What is the status of the FBI's current hostage recovery efforts for those hostages believed to be held by terrorist groups?
14. Is FBI facilitation of ransom payments by the families of hostages being considered as an option in those recovery efforts?
Please number your responses to match their corresponding questions. Please also provide FBI personnel to brief the Judiciary Committee on these issues after you have provided your responses, but in any event no later than May 22, 2015. If you have any questions about this request, please feel free to contact Patrick Davis of my Committee staff. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Sincerely, Charles E. Grassley, Chairman.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. There is no excuse for stonewalling oversight, but it is especially inexcusable in a matter as important as this. It is shocking that the only answer the FBI can come up with to these allegations is silence. Burying our heads in the sand does not make the issue go away.
If our government is assisting in paying ransom money to terrorists, Congress needs to know, the public needs to know.
The government officials involved need to be accountable. The facts cannot be hidden from the FBI's oversight committee. The policies implementing our laws on this topic cannot be kept secret from the FBI's oversight committee.
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