Senators Abraham Ribicoff (D. Conn.) and Jacob K. Javits (R.NY) said they will re-introduced tomorrow in the Senate legislation that would require the United States to “publicly list and condemn foreign countries that aid terrorist activities.”
The bill, which failed to reach the Senate floor during the 95th Congress, after being favorably considered by four committees in the Senate is expected to have a companion measure in the House where it had been under consideration by three committees before the session ended. The Senate measure last year had some 30 co-sponsors A bipartisan block also introduced a companion measure in the House.
Under the terms of the Ribicoff-Javits legislation, the President would be allowed to stop foreign assistance, sales of defense materials, commodities of potential military application and duty tree treatment to any foreign government on that list.
“We simply cannot tolerate foreign governments aiding international outlaws,” Ribicoff said “Giving a nation ‘outlaw’ status on a public list will be an effective sanction in itself against aiding terrorists in the future. I suspect few American tourists or corporations would feel comfortable doing business in that nation.” Ribicoff is chairman of the Senate governmental affairs committee which will hold hearings soon on the measure.
Javits, the ranking minority member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he understands that the Administration wants to remove from the bill the proviso for automatic application against governments found to support international terrorism.
Javits said that the “automatic application of sanctions is a central element in this legislation.” He added that “if not included, it is unlikely that governments aiding terrorists would be brought to account.” Javits noted that the Carter Administration apparently wants to make the application of the sanctions.” entirely discretionary with the President, thereby weakening materially this deterrent.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
