Sec. 1215. Sense of Senate and briefing on counterterrorism posture of the United States after transition of United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan
474 words·~2 min read·
/bill/117/s/2792/rs/section-1215·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of the Senate that— the United States should ensure that Afghanistan will not be a source of planning, plotting, or projection of terrorist attacks around the globe, including against the United States homeland; the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment for 2021 warned that ISIS and al-Qaeda remain among the greatest … terrorist threats to U.S. interests overseas; they also seek to conduct attacks inside the United States, although sustained U.S. and allied [counterterrorism] pressure has broadly degraded their capability to do so ; the Afghan Study Group advised that a complete U.S. withdrawal without a peace agreement would allow [al-Qaeda and ISIS] to gradually rebuild their capabilities in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region such that they might be able to attack the U.S. homeland within eighteen to thirty-six months ; in the February 2020 agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban, the Taliban promised not to allow other individuals or groups, including al-Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies ; in a report to the United Nations Security Council in May 2020, a United Nations monitoring team assessed that al-Qaeda has been operating covertly in Afghanistan while still maintaining close relations with the Taliban ; the transition of United States and coalition forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, should not be perceived as marking the end of efforts by the United States and its allies and partners to counter and degrade the threat from al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups; and the United States should continue to devote sufficient resources, intelligence collection capabilities, and analysis to counter the terrorist threat from al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups that may seek to use Afghanistan as a safe haven.
Not later than January 15, 2022, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, shall brief the appropriate committees of Congress on— the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and the access, basing, and overflight requirements necessary— to determine whether the Taliban is abiding by its commitment to break ties with al-Qaeda; to determine whether al-Qaeda and ISIS have rebuilt their capabilities in Afghanistan such that al-Qaeda and ISIS threaten the security of the United States and its allies; and to support counterterrorism operations necessary to degrade the ability of al-Qaeda and ISIS to threaten the United States and its allies in the event that al-Qaeda or ISIS rebuilds their capabilities; and a plan for fulfilling such requirements.
In this section, the term appropriate committees of Congress means— the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate; and the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives.