Congressman Sherman Statement On State Department Report on Terrorism
Congressman Sherman Statement On State Department Report on Terrorism
I commend the efforts of Ambassador Crumpton and the Sate Department for its work on the 2005 Country Reports. This year's report is an improvement over previous efforts.
I note that once again Iran was identified as the most active state sponsor of terrorism, as it has for every year of the last decade. The report notes Iran's support for Hezbollah, for Palestinian terrorist organizations and, most disturbingly, for jihadists in Iraq.
The report describes Iran's failure to prosecute senior members of al Qaeda it has "in custody." I am afraid the treatment of these "detainees" is far more disturbing than this report would lead the reader to believe. The Iranians have by most reports not detained these individuals, which include one of bin Laden's sons, to any meaningful degree. At most, they are under a form of house arrest that still allows them to communicate with fellow operatives. The man responsible for May 2003 attacks on a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was in Iran at the time he planned those attacks.
I once again call on the Bush administration to develop a strategy for reining in Iran's support for terrorism as well as its nuclear weapons program.
I am also concerned by the lack of negative information included about certain countries. The narrative on Saudi Arabia , for instance, is devoid of any criticism at all. While Saudi Arabia certainly works closely with the United States when it is in its interest to do so, it is a country that has failed to crack down on its own citizens' support for terrorist organizations which attack Israel. The report also ignores significant Saudi support for jihadist activities and extremists in South Asia.
Another example is the report's failure to mention Pakistan's relationship with terrorist organizations fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Indeed, while Pakistan is home to or a source of support for several terrorist organizations, the government is apparently without fault, according to the State Department.
I call on the State Department to improve this report, as I have in the past, by emulating the State Department's Human Rights Country Reports, which include negative information about some of our closest allies. It will make this report a much more effective tool.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca27_sherman/pr_060428.html