SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Countering Iran in 
the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States has vital political, eco-
nomic, and security interests in the Western Hemi-
sphere. 
(2) Iran is pursuing cooperation with Latin 
American countries by signing economic and security 
agreements in order to create a network of diplo-
matic and economic relationships to lessen the blow 
of international sanctions and oppose Western at-
tempts to constrict its ambitions. 
(3) According to the Department of State, 
Hezbollah, with Iran as its state sponsor, is consid-
ered the ‘‘most technically capable terrorist group in 
the world’’ with ‘‘thousands of supporters, several 
thousand members, and a few hundred terrorist 
operatives,’’ and officials from the Iranian Islamic 
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force 
have been working in concert with Hezbollah for 
many years. 
(4) The IRGC’s Qods Force has a long history 
of supporting Hezbollah’s military, paramilitary, and 
terrorist activities, providing it with guidance, fund-
ing, weapons, intelligence, and logistical support, 
and in 2007, the Department of the Treasury placed 
sanctions on the IRGC and its Qods Force for their 
support of terrorism and proliferation activities. 
(5) The IRGC’s Qods Force stations operatives 
in foreign embassies, charities, and religious and cul-
tural institutions to foster relationships, often build-
ing on existing socioeconomic ties with the well es-
tablished Shia Diaspora, and recent years have wit-
nessed an increased presence in Latin America. 
(6) According to the Department of Defense, 
the IRGC and its Qods Force played a significant 
role in some of the deadliest terrorist attacks of the 
past two decades, including the 1994 attack on the 
AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, 
by generally directing or supporting the groups that 
actually executed the attacks. 
(7) Reports of Iranian intelligence agents being 
implicated in Hezbollah-linked activities since the 
early 1990s suggest direct Iranian government sup-
port of Hezbollah activities in the Tri-Border Area 
of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, and in the past 
decade, Iran has dramatically increased its diplo-
matic missions to Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ec-
uador, Argentina, and Brazil. Iran has built 17 cul-
tural centers in Latin America, and it currently 
maintains 11 embassies, up from 6 in 2005. 
(8) Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies with a 
presence in Latin America have raised revenues 
through illicit activities, including drug and arms 
trafficking, counterfeiting, money laundering, forg-
ing travel documents, pirating software and music, 
and providing haven and assistance to other terror-
ists transiting the region. 
(9) Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and 
Venezuela expressed their intention to assist Iran in 
evading sanctions by signing a statement supporting 
Iran’s nuclear activities and announcing at a 2010 
joint press conference in Tehran their determination 
to ‘‘continue and expand their economic ties to Iran’’ 
with confidence that ‘‘Iran can give a crushing re-
sponse to the threats and sanctions imposed by the 
West and imperialism’’. 
(10) The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra-
tion concluded in 2008 that almost one-half of the 
foreign terrorist organizations in the world are 
linked to narcotics trade and trafficking, including 
Hezbollah and Hamas. 
(11) In October 2011, the United States 
charged two men, Manssor Arbabsiar, a United
States citizen holding both Iranian and United 
States passports, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran- 
based member of Iran’s IRGC Qods Force, with con-
spiracy to murder a foreign official using explosives 
in an act of terrorism. Arbabsiar traveled to Mexico 
with the express intent to hire ‘‘someone in the nar-
cotics business’’ to carry out the assassination of the 
Saudi Arabian Ambassador in the United States. 
While in the end, he only engaged a U.S. Drug En-
forcement Agency informant posing as an associate 
of a drug trafficking cartel, Arbabsiar believed that 
he was working with a member of a Mexican drug 
trafficking organization and sought to send money 
to this individual in installments and not in a single 
transfer. 
(12) In February 2011, actions by the Depart-
ment of the Treasury effectively shut down the Leb-
anese Canadian Bank. Subsequent actions by the 
United States Government in connection with the in-
vestigation into Lebanese Canadian Bank resulted in 
the indictment in December 2011 of Ayman 
Joumaa, an individual of Lebanese nationality, with 
citizenship in Lebanon and Colombia, and with ties 
to Hezbollah, for trafficking cocaine to the Los 
Zetas drug trafficking organization in Mexico City
for sale in the United States and for laundering the 
proceeds. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It shall be the policy of the United States to use a 
comprehensive government-wide strategy to counter Iran’s 
growing hostile presence and activity in the Western 
Hemisphere by working together with United States allies 
and partners in the region to mutually deter threats to 
United States interests by the Government of Iran, the 
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the 
IRGC’s Qods Force, and Hezbollah. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) WESTERN HEMISPHERE.—The term ‘‘West-
ern Hemisphere’’ means the United States, Canada, 
Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, and Central 
America. 
(2) 
RELEVANT
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant congressional commit-
tees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 
the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate.
SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT OF A STRATEGY TO ADDRESS IRAN’S 
GROWING HOSTILE PRESENCE AND ACTIVITY 
IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State 
shall conduct an assessment of the threats posed to the 
United States by Iran’s growing presence and activity in 
the Western Hemisphere and submit to the relevant con-
gressional committees the results of the assessment and 
a strategy to address Iran’s growing hostile presence and 
activity in the Western Hemisphere. 
(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The strategy de-
scribed in subsection (a) should include— 
(1) a description of the presence, activities, and 
operations of Iran, the Iranian Islamic Revolu-
tionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Qods Force, 
Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations linked 
to Iran that may be present in the Western Hemi-
sphere, including information about their leaders, 
objectives, and areas of influence and information on 
their financial networks, trafficking activities, and 
safe havens; 
(2) a description of the terrain, population, 
ports, foreign firms, airports, borders, media outlets, 
financial centers, foreign embassies, charities, reli-
gious and cultural centers, and income-generating
activities in the Western Hemisphere utilized by 
Iran, the IRGC, its Qods Force, Hezbollah, and 
other terrorist organizations linked to Iran that may 
be present in the Western Hemisphere; 
(3) a description of the relationship of Iran, the 
IRGC, its Qods Force, and Hezbollah with 
transnational criminal organizations linked to Iran 
and other terrorist organizations in the Western 
Hemisphere, including information on financial net-
works and trafficking activities; 
(4) a description of the relationship of Iran, the 
IRGC, its Qods Force, Hezbollah, and other ter-
rorist organizations linked to Iran that may be 
present in the Western Hemisphere with the govern-
ments in the Western Hemisphere, including mili-
tary-to-military relations and diplomatic, economic, 
and security partnerships and agreements; 
(5) a description of the Federal law enforce-
ment capabilities, military forces, State and local 
government institutions, and other critical elements, 
such as nongovernmental organizations, in the West-
ern Hemisphere that may organize to counter the 
threat posed by Iran, the IRGC, its Qods Force, 
Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations linked
to Iran that may be present in the Western Hemi-
sphere; 
(6) a description of activity by Iran, the IRGC, 
its Qods Force, Hezbollah, and other terrorist orga-
nizations linked to Iran that may be present at the 
United States borders with Mexico and Canada and 
at other international borders within the Western 
Hemisphere, including operations related to drug, 
human, and arms trafficking, human support net-
works, financial support, narco-tunneling, and tech-
nological advancements that incorporates— 
(A) with respect to the United States bor-
ders, in coordination with the Governments of 
Mexico and Canada and the Secretary of Home-
land Security, a plan to address resources, tech-
nology, and infrastructure to create a secure 
United States border and strengthen the ability 
of the United States and its allies to prevent 
operatives from Iran, the IRGC, its Qods 
Force, Hezbollah, or any other terrorist organi-
zation from entering the United States; and 
(B) within Latin American countries, a 
multiagency action plan, in coordination with 
United States allies and partners in the region, 
that includes the development of strong rule-of-
law institutions to provide security in such 
countries and a counterterrorism and counter- 
radicalization plan to isolate Iran, the IRGC, its 
Qods Force, Hezbollah, and other terrorist or-
ganizations linked to Iran that may be present 
in the Western Hemisphere from their sources 
of financial support and counter their facilita-
tion of terrorist activity; and 
(7) a plan— 
(A) to address any efforts by foreign per-
sons, entities, and governments in the region to 
assist Iran in evading United States and inter-
national sanctions; 
(B) to protect United States interests and 
assets in the Western Hemisphere, including 
embassies, consulates, businesses, energy pipe-
lines, and cultural organizations, including 
threats to United States allies; 
(C) to support United States efforts to 
designate persons and entities in the Western 
Hemisphere for proliferation activities and ter-
rorist activities relating to Iran, including affili-
ates of the IRGC, its Qods Force, and 
Hezbollah, under applicable law including the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act; 
and 
(D) to address the vital national security 
interests of the United States in ensuring en-
ergy supplies from the Western Hemisphere 
that are free from the influence of any foreign 
government that would attempt to manipulate 
or disrupt global energy markets. 
(c) DEVELOPMENT.—In developing the strategy 
under this section, the Secretary of State shall consult 
with the heads of all appropriate United States depart-
ments and agencies, including the Secretary of Defense, 
the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of 
Homeland Security, the Secretary of the Treasury, the At-
torney General, and the United States Trade Representa-
tive. 
(d) FORM.—The strategy under this section shall be 
submitted in unclassified form, but may contain a classi-
fied annex if necessary. 
SEC. 6. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State 
should keep the relevant congressional committees contin-
ually informed on the hostile actions of Iran in the West-
ern Hemisphere.
SEC. 7. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the 
rights or protections enjoyed by United States citizens 
under the United States Constitution or other Federal 
law, or to create additional authorities for the Federal 
Government that are contrary to the United States Con-
stitution and United States law. 
Passed the House of Representatives September 19, 
2012. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3783 
AN ACT 
To provide for a comprehensive strategy to counter 
Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity in 
the Western Hemisphere, and for other purposes.