Skip to main content
CRM 1-499

13. Terrorism Transcending National Boundaries (18 U.S.C. § 2332b)

Section 2332b of Title 18, U.S.C., effective April 24, 1996, was enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-132, § 702, 110 Stat. 1214, 1291. Section 2332b is intended to reach violent international terrorist activity that takes place within the United States where at least a part of that activity also occurs outside the United States. The violent conduct can be targeted against persons or property within the United States. The statute covers such conduct when it violates either Federal or state law. It sets forth a wide spectrum of bases to assert Federal jurisdiction. It provides for consecutive punishment in addition to any other Federal offense that was committed. Subsection § 2332b(e) also gives the Attorney General (i.e., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)) primary investigative authority for all "Federal crimes of terrorism" as that term is defined in § 2332b(f).