Senate Approves Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act
Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (D-De.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) today released the following statements after the Senate unanimously approved S.712, the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.
Named in honor of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, whose unlawful detention by the Iranian regime is recognized as the longest-held hostage in American history, the bipartisan legislation bolsters U.S. government resources to bring back Americans held hostage or unlawfully detained abroad. Levinson is presumed to have died in Iranian custody earlier this year.
“I was honored to lead this fight in the Senate, but this important day belongs to the family and friends of Bob Levinson,” said Menendez. “Year after year, they fought valiantly and with great tenacity and devotion, to gather information about Bob’s whereabouts and to bring him home. It is their determination and sacrifice that served as the foundation for this legislation, which will address both the wrongful imprisonment of Americans like Bob Levinson, and the hostage-taking of Americans like James Foley.”
“Earlier this year we received the tragic news about Bob Levinson, the longest held American hostage. It is our hope that no American family will ever have to endure what the Levinson family went through. This important bipartisan bill will help ensure that American hostages are brought back home safely and able to reunite with their families,” said Rubio. “I urge my colleagues in the House to take swift action and pass this important bill and send it to the president for signing.”
“This is an important step in our efforts to prevent the unlawful detention and hostage-taking of American citizens abroad,” said Coons. “This bipartisan bill honors Bob Levinson, who was held hostage in Iran for over a decade, by strengthening our ability to bring Americans like Bob home and hold their captors accountable.”
“Any time an American citizen is held unjustly, it demands the attention and full weight of the United States government to secure their freedom,” said Shaheen. “This legislation reaffirms our country’s commitment to bring Americans home safely and bolsters diplomatic powers for the President and administration to use to compel their release. I’m pleased we were able to pass this bill in the Senate on a bipartisan basis and hope it will soon be considered in the House and sent to the President’s desk.”
The Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act sets out criteria for the Secretary of State to determine whether U.S. nationals are being detained unlawfully or wrongfully, and places responsibility for resolving such cases of unlawful or wrongful detention with the State Department’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs. In addition, it establishes into law the highly effective Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, and Hostage Response Group created by Presidential Executive Order, and authorizes the President to impose sanctions on any person the President determines is responsible for or complicit in hostage-taking or unlawful detention.
A copy of the legislation can be found HERE.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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