[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 164 (Thursday, October 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5884-S5889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SAUDI FUGITIVE DECLASSIFICATION ACT OF 2019
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to fight for
answers--answers that are long overdue.
In 2018, my hometown newspaper, The Oregonian, identified a handful
of cases where Saudi nationals accused of serious crimes in the United
States, like manslaughter and sexual assault, fled the country and
escaped American justice.
Since then, The Oregonian has identified numerous similar cases--in
fact, almost two dozen such cases across the United States. That
includes 19 in just the last 7 years.
Today I want to tell the Senate about just one of those cases.
Three years ago, not far from my home in Southeast Portland, a young
woman had her life taken from her. Fallon Smart was then a rising
sophomore at Franklin High School, and she was aspiring to be a
teacher. By all accounts, she would have been a terrific teacher.
She was 15, and according to everybody who knew her, Fallon was warm
and smart and friendly. She had her whole life ahead of her.
According to police, she lost her life when she was crossing the
street in front of stopped traffic, and a vehicle illegally swerved
into the left-hand lane and hit her at 55 or 60 miles per hour. Her mom
was in a car half a block away and ran to her daughter. Fallon died in
her mother's arms, and the car that hit her just sped away.
A Saudi Arabian college student named Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah later
returned to the scene and was arrested. He was eventually charged with
manslaughter in Fallon's death and then released on $1 million bail.
The Saudi consulate posted his $100,000 bond, according to The
Oregonian newspaper.
In the United States, in our country, there was every expectation
that Mr. Noorah would get a fair shake from the justice system. Our
justice system was working the right way here until 2 weeks before Mr.
Noorah was scheduled to go to trial. His tracking bracelet was somehow
cut, and he disappeared. Mr. Noorah has never stood trial for Fallon
Smart's death.
Eventually, this spring, the State Department confirmed in a letter
to me that Mr. Noorah had returned to Saudi Arabia.
I felt then, and I do today, this raises an important and a serious
question: How does a foreign national charged with manslaughter, whose
passport was seized, disappear from the United States without a trace?
How does this person escape the country and make it thousands of miles
back to Saudi Arabia with there being no record of his doing so?
News reports in 2018 suggest that the Saudi Arabian Government knew
about Mr. Noorah and these other fugitives and potentially helped them
flee justice.
I have five children. I cannot imagine the grief I would feel if one
of them was taken from me, and the person responsible somehow managed
to evade the justice system. It is almost impossible to comprehend the
anger and the helplessness and the frustration any parent would feel in
a situation like this.
I met with Fallon's mom Fawn, and while she and all of Fallon's loved
ones have borne this miscarriage of justice with extraordinary grace,
they are just heartbroken.
In addition to being heartbroken, they are angry. They are outraged
by the notion that the person charged with killing their daughter may
have just been able to escape scot-free and face no consequences for
his action.
For some time, I have been demanding information from the Trump
administration. In my view, the victims of these crimes, their
families, and the American people are owed some essential answers. How
did this happen? What is the U.S. Government doing about it?
I have written the Department of Justice. I have written the State
Department. I have written the U.S. Marshals Service. I have written to
the Department of Homeland Security. As far as I can tell, I would have
gotten better answers from the Saudi royal family themselves.
In fact, when I asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo what he was
doing to try to return the Saudi fugitives to the United States,
basically what his Department did is that we just got a collective
shrug of the shoulders. I sent the Secretary of State a letter last
December. He didn't respond.
So I sent another letter in February. I said: The State Department
needs to use all its resources and all the tools at its disposal to
hold the Saudi Government accountable. I asked whether our Ambassador
pressed the Saudi Government about this disturbing, shocking pattern of
Saudi nationals skipping bail.
The State Department finally did respond to my second letter. What I
got was a whole bunch of nothing. One of Mr. Pompeo's aides said that
without an extradition treaty, there wasn't anything they could do
about it. This is from a Secretary who tried to rebrand State as the
``Department of Swagger.'' That swagger was nowhere to be found when it
was time to protect innocent Americans.
Today, I am not writing any more letters. I am here on the Senate
floor asking for action--action today. I am
[[Page S5885]]
seeking to pass the Saudi Fugitive Declassification Act of 2019. My
bill requires the FBI Director, in coordination with the Director of
National Intelligence, to quickly--quickly--declassify any and all
information related to a key question: whether the Government of Saudi
Arabia helped any Saudi nationals escape the country when those Saudi
nationals were awaiting trial or sentencing for a criminal offense.
Let me just repeat that so there is no confusion. The bill requires
that the FBI Director and what is called the DNI, or the Director of
National Intelligence, would quickly--quickly--declassify any and all
information on the issue of whether the Government of Saudi Arabia
helped any Saudi nationals escape the country when those Saudi
nationals were awaiting trial or sentencing for a criminal offense in
the United States.
I believe what I am asking for today must happen in the name of
justice immediately. The American people deserve answers. The people I
represent at home in our neighborhoods in Southeast Portland want
answers. These are not academic matters. This is not about a series of
victimless crimes.
This is about manslaughter. It is about rape. It is about a whole
array of ugly offenses. This is about real people, real families--
families who have suffered immeasurable pain. They deserve to see
justice served. When individuals who are charged with violent crimes--
no victimless crimes here, violent crimes--manage to escape and when
the United States fails to do much of anything about it, it undermines
public safety and it harms the U.S. justice system.
If, as some of the press stories have suggested, the Saudi Government
has helped these alleged criminals escape justice, the American people
have the right to be doubly concerned. Is the public image of Saudi
Arabia a higher priority than the safety of American citizens?
Any action by a foreign government to thwart our criminal justice
system would be an attack on our national security and our sovereignty.
If that is what has happened, then, all Americans deserve to know.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the U.S. Senate proceed
to the immediate consideration of S. 2635, submitted earlier today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
The bill clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2635) to require the Director of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation to declassify any and all information
relating to whether the government of Saudi Arabia assisted a
citizen or national of Saudi Arabia in departing the United
States while the citizen or national was awaiting trial or
sentencing for a criminal offense committed in the United
States, and for other purposes.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. WYDEN. I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be
considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or
debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 2635) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:
S. 2635
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Saudi Fugitive
Declassification Act of 2019''.
SEC. 2. DECLASSIFICATION OF ANY AND ALL INFORMATION RELATING
TO ACTIONS BY GOVERNMENT OF SAUDI ARABIA TO
ASSIST PERSONS IN DEPARTING UNITED STATES WHO
WERE AWAITING TRIAL OR SENTENCING IN UNITED
STATES.
Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, in coordination with the Director of National
Intelligence, shall declassify any and all information
related to whether the government of Saudi Arabia materially
assisted or facilitated any citizen or national of Saudi
Arabia in departing from the United States while the citizen
or national was awaiting trial or sentencing for a criminal
offense committed in the United States.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry.
With that action, has this bill now been passed?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It has.
Mr. WYDEN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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