I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4728 
To authorize assistance to promote counter-extremism efforts in the Balkan 
region, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 2, 2010 
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. ROYCE, 
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. INGLIS, Mrs. MYRICK, and Mr. 
MASSA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To authorize assistance to promote counter-extremism efforts 
in the Balkan region, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Balkan Counter-Extre-
mism and Security Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The National Commission on Terrorist At-
tacks Upon the United States, also referred to as 
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the ‘‘9/11 Commission’’, found the region of Central 
and Eastern Europe to be potentially vulnerable to 
terrorists. 
(2) In 1996, the Central Intelligence Agency 
issued a report which identified approximately 16 Is-
lamic charities in countries of the Balkan region 
that were connected to Islamist extremist organiza-
tions such as al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Jamaah al- 
Islamiyah, Hamas, and Hezbollah. 
(3) In 1999, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee 
for the Relief of Kosovo and Chechnya (SJCRKC) 
reportedly brought to Kosovo almost 400 mission-
aries of the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. 
(4) The United States Department of State list-
ed the organization known as the ‘‘Active Islamic 
Youth’’ (AIO), as a terrorist organization in 2001, 
and that organization is reported to be active in 
Bosnia-Herzegovina and several other European 
countries. 
(5) The Benevolence International Foundation 
charity, which in 2002 was listed as a front for ter-
rorist financing by the United States Department of 
the Treasury, was headquartered in Croatia and 
highlighted in its documentation that its mission was 
to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to the 
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‘‘Jihad in Bosnia-Herzegovina’’, and urged people to 
‘‘contribute to your brothers in order to block the 
Jewish-Crusader assault on Islamic soil’’. 
(6) In June 2004, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad 
claimed that it had individuals working for three Is-
lamic charities in Albania, including the al- 
Haramain Islamic Foundation and the Revival of Is-
lamic Heritage Society. 
(7) The United States Department of State’s 
2005 Annual Country Report on Terrorism stated 
that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s State Border Service 
did not fully control all border crossing points and 
that many official border posts were understaffed, 
and also that the service lacked the funds, resources, 
and qualified personnel necessary to be effective. 
(8) The International Crisis Group research or-
ganization reported on April 8, 2005, that there are 
believed to be extremists of the Wahhabi interpreta-
tion of Islam now residing in the Sandzak region of 
Serbia. 
(9) In March 2006, a special Bosnian Govern-
ment 
investigatory 
commission 
known 
as 
‘‘Oslobodjenje’’ revoked the fraudulent citizenship of 
over 600 naturalized Bosnians who had not met ei-
ther of the two criteria for Bosnian citizenship: pres-
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ence in Bosnia or documentation to show a connec-
tion to Bosnia. 
(10) The actions taken by the Bosnian inves-
tigatory commission included the revocation of a 
passport that had been issued to Osama bin Laden, 
leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. 
(11) The United States Department of State’s 
2007 Annual Country Report on Terrorism stated 
that, ‘‘As a result of weak interagency communica-
tion, competing security structures, and political in-
terference in law enforcement, Bosnia is vulnerable 
to exploitation as a potential staging ground for ter-
rorist operations in Europe.’’. 
(12) In March 2007, Bosnian police found 
weapons in an apartment occupied by a group that 
had planned to blow up the British Embassy in Sa-
rajevo. 
(13) On March 19, 2007, Serbian police report-
edly raided a camp near the town of Novi Pazar in 
the Sandzak region of Serbia suspected of being 
used by extremists and discovered weapons, ammu-
nition, and explosives with detonators. 
(14) According to various reports, including 
those in Shaul Shay’s 2007 book entitled, ‘‘Ter-
rorism in the Balkans’’, 75 percent of the drugs 
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smuggled into Europe transit the countries of the 
Balkan region and profits from drugs trafficked 
through parts of the region have bankrolled global 
terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Islamic 
Jihad. 
(15) In May 2007, six Kosovar Albanians resid-
ing illegally in the United States were arrested and 
subsequently convicted for plotting to use automatic 
weapons to kill United States soldiers at the Fort 
Dix Army Base in New Jersey. 
(16) Several moderate Bosnian Islamic leaders 
have issued stern warnings to extremist groups in 
that country. In May 2007, Mustafa Ceric, the lead-
ing Islamic cleric in Bosnia, stated in response to 
demands by some Wahhabi groups that Bosnian 
Muslims follow their extremist ideology that, ‘‘The 
Islamic Community regulations rule here. Those who 
cannot accept this did not have to come here and 
don’t need to stay.’’. 
(17) In June 2007, the Albanian newspaper, 
‘‘Shqip’’, reported that a ‘‘Wahhabi sect’’ within the 
Islamic Community in Albania benefitted from 
monthly ‘‘salaries’’ paid for dressing and behaving in 
accordance with Wahhabi fundamentalism. 
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