Mark Kirk: “the State Department's Terrorist Rewards Program is one of the most successful and inexpensive programs against…”

“the State Department's Terrorist Rewards Program is one of the most successful and inexpensive programs against international terrorists. As a staff member to Chairman Gilman, I drafted the enhancements to this program that made it a very successful program in the arrest of United Nations war criminals in Yugoslavia. Chairman Hyde, Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen, and Ranking Member Lantos joined me several years ago in increasing this rewards program to a total offer of $50 million. We also enacted more important reforms that authorize brand new newspaper, radio, and TV ads to increase the impact of this program. Mr. Amil Sanzi killed Americans outside CIA headquarters before fleeing to Pakistan. Matchbox covers with his face on them provided the impetus for the key tip that led to his arrest, conviction, and execution. Uday and Qusay Hussein, the murderous sons of Saddam Hussein, were found and cornered by a tip from this program. Today, we are hunting down Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, and Mullah Omar, the leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban dictatorship. I have conducted two official missions to the Afghan-Pakistan border where conventional wisdom has located the probable sites of the al Qaeda core leadership. I assessed this rewards program and proposed improvements to change its effectiveness. We found that the radio, newspaper, and TV ads in Pakistan are working.…”