Secretary of State John Kerry has the power to revoke Americans’ passports, but one diplomat said that he will only do it on the recommendation of law enforcement officials.
Ambassador Robert Bradtke, a State Department adviser on the conflict in Syria, made the remarks Tuesday before a House Foreign Affairs joint subcommittee. He cited the lack of Justice Department appeal as the reason why no US citizen fighting for an Islamist militia in Syria has had the travel document rescinded.
“This is something we would only do in relatively rare and unique circumstances,” he explained to Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) in response to a question about the lack of revocations.
“We would only do it also in consultations with law enforcement authorities, and we have not yet had any requests from law enforcement authorities to cancel passports of ISIS or foreign fighters.”
The hearing was held to discuss the threat posed by militants who travel to Syria to fight in the country’s ongoing civil war. A career diplomat, Bradtke came out of retirement to help the US government cooperate with foreign envoys on the issue.
In September, Secretary Kerry told Congress that he hasn’t revoked passports of US citizens fighting in Syria because he didn’t want to derail open criminal investigations.
“What I want to make certain is anybody who has a passport and returns returns in handcuffs, not through customs with a passport,” he said.
On Sept. 4, a Department of Defense spokesperson claimed that there are about 100 US passport holders “inside Syria,” with about a dozen fighting for the Islamic State.
While no US citizen-militant in Syria has had a passport revoked, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden famously had his taken away last summer while traveling from Hong Kong to Moscow after revealing top secret details about the US government’s worldwide dragnet surveillance program. He was since granted temporary asylum in Russia, which is set to expire in August 2017.
