I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3076
To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque
and reprisal with respect to certain acts of air piracy upon the United
States on September 11, 2001, and other similar acts of war planned
for the future.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 10, 2001
Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on International Relations
A BILL
To authorize the President of the United States to issue
letters of marque and reprisal with respect to certain
acts of air piracy upon the United States on September
11, 2001, and other similar acts of war planned for
the future.
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 ‘‘September 11 Marque
and Reprisal Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) That the terrorist attacks on September 11,
2001 upon the United States were acts of air piracy
contrary to the law of nations.
(2) That the terrorist attacks were acts of war
perpetrated by enemy belligerents to destroy the sov-
ereign independence of the United States of America
contrary to the law of nations.
(3) That the perpetrators of the terrorist at-
tacks were actively aided and abetted by a con-
spiracy involving one Osama bin Laden and others
known and unknown, either knowingly and actively
affiliated with a terrorist organization known as al
Qaeda or knowingly and actively conspiring with
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, both of whom are
dedicated to the destruction of the United States of
America as a sovereign and independent nation.
(4) That the al Qaeda conspiracy is a con-
tinuing one among Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and
others known and unknown with plans to commit
additional acts of air piracy and other similar acts
of war upon the United States of America and her
people.
(5) That the act of war committed on Sep-
tember 11, 2001, by the al Qaeda conspirators, and
the other acts of war planned by the al Qaeda con-
spirators, are contrary to the law of nations.
(6) That under Article I, Section 8 of the
United States Constitution, Congress has the power
to grant letters of marque and reprisal to punish,
deter, and prevent the piratical aggressions and dep-
redations and other acts of war of the al Qaeda con-
spirators.
SEC. 3. AUTHORITY OF PRESIDENT.
(a) The President of the United States is authorized
and requested to commission, under officially issued let-
ters of marque and reprisal, so many of privately armed
and equipped persons and entities as, in his judgment, the
service may require, with suitable instructions to the lead-
ers thereof, to employ all means reasonably necessary to
seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United
States and its territories the person and property of
Osama bin Laden, of any al Qaeda co-conspirator, and
of any conspirator with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda
who are responsible for the air piratical aggressions and
depredations perpetrated upon the United States of Amer-
ica on September 11, 2001, and for any planned future
air piratical aggressions and depredations or other acts
of war upon the United States of America and her people.
(b) The President of the United States is authorized
to place a money bounty, drawn in his discretion from the
$40,000,000,000 appropriated on September 14, 2001, in
the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Re-
covery from and Response to Terrorists Attacks on the
United States or from private sources, for the capture,
alive or dead, of Osama bin Laden or any other al Qaeda
conspirator responsible for the act of air piracy upon the
United States on September 11, 2001, under the authority
of any letter of marque or reprisal issued under this Act.
(c) No letter of marque and reprisal shall be issued
by the President without requiring the posting of a secu-
rity bond in such amount as the President shall determine
is sufficient to ensure that the letter be executed according
to the terms and conditions thereof.
Æ