Video of Congressman Sherman in Action
Washington, D.C. - 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.
