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[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 854 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 854

     To direct the Secretary of State to designate Iran's Islamic 
      Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force as a foreign terrorist 
                 organization, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 2013

  Mr. McCaul introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
     To direct the Secretary of State to designate Iran's Islamic 
      Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force as a foreign terrorist 
                 organization, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Qods Force Terrorist Designation 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) On January 19, 1984, the Secretary of State determined 
        that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a state sponsor of 
        terrorism.
            (2) The Qods Force is the elite external operations branch 
        of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian 
        regime's primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting 
        terrorists abroad.
            (3) The Qods Force provides aid in the form of weapons, 
        training, and funding to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist 
        groups, Lebanese Hizballah, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban 
        fighters in Afghanistan.
            (4) The Qods Force is behind some of the deadliest 
        terrorist attacks of the past three decades, including the 1983 
        and 1984 bombings of the United States Embassy and annex in 
        Beirut, the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the 
        1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, 1994 
        attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, and 
        the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
            (5) In 2007, President George W. Bush and General David 
        Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, accused Iran's Qods 
        Force of aiding militias in killing American soldiers in Iraq.
            (6) In 2007, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated 
        the Qods Force for providing material support to the Taliban 
        and other terrorist organizations.
            (7) On October 25, 2007, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard 
        Corps Qods Force was sanctioned under Executive Order 13382, 
        for supporting proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
            (8) Section 1258 of the National Defense Authorization Act 
        for Fiscal Year 2008 expressed the sense of Congress that ``the 
        United States should designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary 
        Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 
        219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) and 
        place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of 
        Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under 
        the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 
        et seq.) and initiated under Executive Order 13224 (September 
        23, 2001)''.
            (9) In the period following the June 2009 presidential 
        election in Iran, the Qods Force was implicated in custodial 
        deaths and the killings of election protesters and committed 
        other acts of politically motivated violence, including 
        torture, beatings, and rape.
            (10) On April 29, 2011, President Obama issued Executive 
        Order 13572, Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect 
        to Human Rights Abuses in Syria, including the Qods Force, for 
        the repression of the people of Syria, manifested most recently 
        by the use of violence and torture against, and arbitrary 
        arrests and detentions of, peaceful protestors by police, 
        security forces, and other entities that have engaged in human 
        rights abuses, which constitute an unusual and extraordinary 
        threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of 
        the United States.
            (11) On October 11, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice 
        announced that two members of Iran's Qods Force were charged in 
        an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to 
        the Unites States. The criminal complaint against them included 
        charges of conspiracy to murder a foreign official; conspiracy 
        to engage in foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign 
        commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire; 
        conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives); 
        and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism 
        transcending national boundaries.
            (12) On March 7, 2012, the U.S. Department of the Treasury 
        designated Iran's Qods Force General Gholamreza Baghbani as a 
        Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker for the role that the 
        Qods Force played in its scheme to support terrorism.
            (13) Iran's Qods Force stations operatives in foreign 
        embassies, charities, and religious and cultural institutions 
        to foster relationships, often building on existing socio-
        economic ties with the well-established Shia Diaspora, and 
        recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin 
        America.

SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF IRAN'S ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS QODS 
              FORCE AS A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

    The Secretary of State shall designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary 
Guard Corps Qods Force as a foreign terrorist organization under 
section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).

SEC. 4. REPORT.

    The Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 
Relations of the Senate a report on terrorist activities of Iran's 
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force.
                                 <all>
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