Duncan Hunter: “We have a problem right now, and the problem is this: you have radical Islamic terrorists in places where there is no…”

“We have a problem right now, and the problem is this: you have radical Islamic terrorists in places where there is no U.S. law enforcement presence capturing and detaining and holding hostage American citizens, not American military personnel, but American citizens. In the past, the problem has not been as exacerbated as it has been since 9/11. You have the FBI. The FBI has always had purview and has had jurisdiction over hostage cases, but the problem is in Iraq, there is no FBI; in Syria, there is no FBI; in Afghanistan, there is no FBI. In war zones, you don't have the FBI. What you have is the Department of Defense and different intelligence agencies are ones that track the networks, know the networks, know who the bad guys are, know where the hostages may be, and then in case that we actually get good intelligence, the Department of Defense and our intelligence communities, those are the people that would act on the intelligence, not the FBI. If there is a hostage situation here at the Capitol, the FBI would take care of it; if there is a hostage situation in San Diego or New York, the FBI would take care of it--again, not if it is ISIS, not if it is al Qaeda, and not if it is in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, or other war zone type country. What my amendment does is make sure that there is now a joint interagency coordinator under the President who works directly with the President and anybody else that they need to.…”