House foreign affairs leaders band together on designating Haqqani Network as terror group

The chairmen of the House Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees have banded together to introduce legislation calling on the Obama administration to designate the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) dropped their legislation late Wednesday. The move follows bipartisan letters from the House and Senate Intelligence committees last month urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to move forward with the designation.

Doing so would make it unlawful to provide material support or resources to the group.

The State Department announced in November that it was engaged in the “final formal review” on whether to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and attacks on NATO troops have continued since then. Some government officials, however, worry that labeling the organization that way could hinder talks with the Taliban, who are closely affiliated with the Haqqani Network.

“Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress agree that the Haqqani Network is a violent terrorist organization and grave threat to our security,” Rogers said in a statement announcing the legislation. “The Haqqanis are responsible for killing hundreds of our troops, and their indiscriminate attacks have also murdered countless innocent Afghan men, women and children.”

---