Kyl-Lieberman Amendment

Summary: In September 2007, rising anger in the United States at the alleged role of Iran in supporting Shiite insurgents in neighboring Iraq resulted in the passage of a "sense of the Senate" resolution calling on the Bush Administration to label the Iran Revolutionary Guards Group (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. Doing so would have marked the first time an official part of a country's armed forces was officially designated a terrorist organization. The Senate vote was 76-22, keeping strong Republican support and a divided Democratic caucus. The amendment passed amid allegations that the government of Iran was actively supporting Iraqi militias attacking US troops. A month after the amendment passed, the Bush administration effectively rendered it moot by designating only one branch of the IRGC, the Quds Force, as a terrorist organization. Nevertheless, the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment became an issue in the ensuing competition for the Democratic presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton (voted aye) and Barack Obama (opposed the nomination, although he did not cast a vote in the Senate), mainly over the question of whether the administration could have used the amendment as a legal backing for an attack on Iran.

In September 2007, the US Senate passed, by a vote of 76-22, an amendment to the 2008 defense appropriations bill that called on the Bush administration to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Group (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. Language in the original version of the amendment—dropped at the last minute before the vote—called for the "use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments" to "combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The measure was dubbed the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment after its lead sponsors, Senators John Kyl (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). Co-sponsors included Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), John Ensign (R-NV), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Corker (R-TN), John Thune (R-SD), and John McCain (R-AZ). The version that passed the Senate declared that it was the "sense of the Senate" that "the United States should designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization" and "place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists." The amendment also called on the Treasury to implement economic sanctions against the IRGC. This would have been the first time that the United States had formally declared a branch of a foreign state's military as a "terrorist organization."

A month after the amendment passed, it was effectively rendered moot by the administration's decision, announced in October 2007, to designate one branch of the IRGC-the Quds Force, a special operations group thought to be active outside Iran-as a terrorist organization. The administration named the larger IRGC as an "entity of proliferation concern," accusing the IRGC of advocating the sale of Iranian ballistic missiles to groups outside the country. Had the entire IRGC been designated a terrorist organization, it would have marked the first time the armed forces of a foreign state had been so designated.

In broad terms, the overall IRGC has operated since 1979 as an internal "guardian" of the Shiite revolution of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against possible counter-revolutionary reactions by the established Iranian military, once thought loyal to the Shah. The Quds Force has been accused of actively supporting foreign organizations, notably Hezbollah in Iran, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and Shiite militias in Iraq.

Although the most bellicose language of the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment was stricken, the measure aroused intense controversy, both at the time it was being debated and afterward during the 2008 presidential campaign. Opponents of the amendment likened it to a resolution passed in 2002 authorizing the president to send troops into Iraq. Backers of Kyl-Lieberman insisted the resolution was only a "sense of the Senate" and did not explicitly authorize military action against Iran.

Senate Republicans were nearly unanimous in supporting the measure; forty-six Republicans voted aye, only two voted nay, and one did not vote. Among Democrats, twenty-nine voted aye, nineteen voted nay, and one did not vote. The two independent Senators were split, one voting aye (Lieberman of Connecticut) and one nay (Saunders of Vermont).

For the next nine months, Kyl-Lieberman was among the issues vying for attention in the 2008 presidential campaign. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), the eventual 2008 Democratic presidential nominee, expressed opposition to the amendment, although he was in New Hampshire when the vote was taken and did not vote. His leading competitor for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, voted for the amendment. The eventual 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, was a co-sponsor of the amendment, although he was in New York on the day of the vote.

Supporters of the amendment insisted that it was merely a "sense of the Senate" and did not authorize the Bush administration to launch an attack against Iran. Opponents objected that the amendment was too close for comfort to a resolution passed five years earlier that was eventually used by the administration as legal justification for the invasions of Iraq in March 2003. The wording of the two resolutions was, in fact, different: the Senate measure was explicitly a "sense of the Senate," and the measure that eventually passed dropped language specifically urging the administration to "combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The Kyl-Lieberman Amendment was passed in the context of escalating anger in the United States towards Iran and allegations that Iran had provided support to Shiite insurgents fighting US troops in Iraq. At the same time, it came at a time when US casualties in Iraq had begun to decline following a surge in US troop strength, beginning in early 2007, a cease-fire by the largest Shiite militia, and rising opposition to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia by the Awakening Movement of Sunni tribal chiefs.

Text of the amendment

(Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate regarding Iran)

At the end of subtitle C of title XV, add the following:

SEC. 1535. SENSE OF SENATE ON IRAN.

(a) Findings.—The Senate makes the following findings:

(1) General David Petraeus, commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq, stated in testimony before a joint session of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives on September 10, 2007, that "[i]t is increasingly apparent to both coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps Qods Force, seeks to turn the Shi'a militia extremists into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq".

(2) Ambassador Ryan Crocker, United States Ambassador to Iraq, stated in testimony before a joint session of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives on September 10, 2007, that "Iran plays a harmful role in Iraq. While claiming to support Iraq in its transition, Iran has actively undermined it by providing lethal capabilities to the enemies of the Iraqi state".

(3) The most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, published in August 2007, states that "Iran has been intensifying aspects of its lethal support for select groups of Iraqi Shia militants, particularly the JAM [Jaysh al-Mahdi], since at least the beginning of 2006. Explosively formed penetrator (EFP) attacks have risen dramatically".

(4) The Report of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, released on September 6, 2007, states that "[t]he Commission concludes that the evidence of Iran's increasing activism in the southeastern part of the country, including Basra and Diyala provinces, is compelling…. It is an accepted fact that most of the sophisticated weapons being used to 'defeat' our armor protection comes across the border from Iran with relative impunity".

(5) General (Ret.) James Jones, chairman of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, stated in testimony before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate on September 6, 2007, that "w]e judge that the goings-on across the Iranian border in particular are of extreme severity and have the potential of at least delaying our efforts inside the country. Many of the arms and weapons that kill and maim our soldiers are coming from across the Iranian border".

(6) General Petraeus said of Iranian support for extremist activity in Iraq on April 26, 2007, that "[w]e know that it goes as high as [Brig. Gen. Qassem] Suleimani, who is the head of the Qods Force…. We believe that he works directly for the supreme leader of the country".

(7) Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the president of Iran, stated on August 28, 2007, with respect to the United States presence in Iraq, that "[t]he political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly. Soon we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course we are prepared to fill the gap".

(8) Ambassador Crocker testified to Congress, with respect to President Ahmedinejad's statement, on September 11, 2007, that "[t]he Iranian involvement in Iraq-its support for extremist militias, training, connections to Lebanese Hezbollah, provision of munitions that are used against our force as well as the Iraqis-are all, in my view, a pretty clear demonstration that Ahmedinejad means what he says, and is already trying to implement it to the best of his ability".

(9) General Petraeus stated on September 12, 2007, with respect to evidence of the complicity of Iran in the murder of members of the Armed Forces of the United States in Iraq, that "[t]he evidence is very, very clear. We captured it when we captured Qais Khazali, the Lebanese Hezbollah deputy commander, and others, and it's in black and white…. We interrogated these individuals. We have on tape … Qais Khazali himself. When asked, could you have done what you have done without Iranian support, he literally throws up his hands and laughs and says, of course not…. So they told us about the amounts of money that they have received. They told us about the training that they received. They told us about the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry and all of that that they received."

(10) General Petraeus further stated on September 14, 2007, that "[w] hat we have got is evidence. This is not intelligence. This is evidence, off computers that we captured, documents and so forth. In one case, a 22-page document that lays out the planning, reconnaissance, rehearsal, conduct, and aftermath of the operation conducted that resulted in the death of five of our soldiers in Karbala back in January".

(11) The Department of Defense report to Congress entitled "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq" and released on September 18, 2007, consistent with section 9010 of Public Law 109-289, states that "[t]here has been no decrease in Iranian training and funding of illegal Shi'a militias in Iraq that attack Iraqi and Coalition forces and civilians…. Tehran's support for these groups is one of the greatest impediments to progress on reconciliation".

(12) The Department of Defense report further states, with respect to Iranian support for Shi'a extremist groups in Iraq, that "[m]ost of the explosives and ammunition used by these groups are provided by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force…. For the period of June through the end of August, [explosively formed penetrator] events are projected to rise by 39 percent over the period of March through May".

(13) Since May 2007, Ambassador Crocker has held three rounds of talks in Baghdad on Iraq security with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

(14) Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress on September 10, 2007, with respect to these talks, stating that "I laid out the concerns we had over Iranian activity that was damaging to Iraq's security, but found no readiness on Iranians' side at all to engage seriously on these issues. The impression I came with after a couple rounds is that the Iranians were interested simply in the appearance of discussions, of being seen to be at the table with the US as an arbiter of Iraq's present and future, rather than actually doing serious business…. Right now, I haven't seen any sign of earnest or seriousness on the Iranian side".

(15) Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress on September 11, 2007, stating that "[w]e have seen nothing on the ground that would suggest that the Iranians are altering what they're doing in support of extremist elements that are going after our forces as well as the Iraqis".

(b) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate—

(1) that the manner in which the United States transitions and structures its military presence in Iraq will have critical long-term consequences for the future of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, in particular with regard to the capability of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to pose a threat to the security of the region, the prospects for democracy for the people of the region, and the health of the global economy;

(2) that it is a vital national interest of the United States to prevent the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran from turning Shi'a militia extremists in Iraq into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq, including by overwhelming, subverting, or co-opting institutions of the legitimate Government of Iraq;

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies;

• [Editor's note: Paragraphs 3 and 4 were deleted from the text of the amendment before the final vote in the Senate.]

(5) that the United States should designate the Islamic Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224; and

Ambassador Crocker further stated before Congress on September 11, 2007, with respect to talks with Iran, that "I think it's an option that we want to preserve. Our first couple of rounds did not produce anything. I don't think that we should say we're not going to talk any more…. I do believe it's important to keep the option for further discussions on the table."

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated on September 16, 2007, that "I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by far the preferable approach. That's the one we are using. We always say all the options are on the table, but clearly, the diplomatic and economic approach is the one that we are pursuing."

• [Editor's note: the preceding two paragraphs were inserted into the amendment, by hand, prior to passage in the Senate.]

(6) that the Department of the Treasury should act with all possible expediency to complete the listing of those entities targeted under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1747 adopted unanimously on December 23, 2006 and March 24, 2007, respectively.

The roll-call vote on the amendment

YEA

NAY

Not Voting

Bibliography

Porter G. (2008). The evidence against the Lieberman-kyl amendment. Autumn Leaves Used Books.

Roll call vote 110th Congress - 1st session. (2007). United States Senate. Retrieved Sept. 28, 2023, from https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll‗call‗votes/vote1101/vote‗110‗1‗00349.htm