The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a United States law (22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq.) passed in 1938 requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers be properly identified to the American public.[1] The act was passed in response to German propaganda in the lead-up to World War II. The FARA Registration Unit of the of the Counterespionage Section (CES) within the National Security Division (NSD) of the United States Department of Justice is charged with handling the enforcement of the law.[1]
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The act requires people and organizations that are under foreign control ("agents of a foreign principal") to register with the Department of Justice when acting on behalf of foreign interests. This law defines the agent of a foreign principal as someone who:
The Department of Justice has found that most violations of this law are unintentional and is attempting to work out problems without legal action.
According to disclosures under the Act, organizations lobbying on behalf of foreign governments include[2]
Subsection 611 defines the term foreign principal as (1) a government of a foreign country and a foreign political party; (2) a person outside of the United States; or (3) a partnership, association, corporation, organization… organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country.[3]
An agent of a foreign principal is defined as “any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a foreign principal…whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal.”[4]
The term "political activities" means any activity that the person engaging in believes will, or that the person intends to, in any way influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States or any section of the public within the United States with reference to formulating, adopting, or changing the domestic or foreign policies of the United States or with reference to the political or public interests, policies, or relations of a government of a foreign country or a foreign political party;[5]
In 1995, the term “political propaganda” was removed from Subsection 611. The original definition stated:
The term 'political propaganda' includes any oral, visual, graphic, written, pictorial, or other communication or expression by any person (1) which is reasonably adapted to, or which the person disseminating the same believes will, or which he intends to, prevail upon, indoctrinate, convert, induce, or in any other way influence a recipient or any section of the public within the United States with reference to the political or public interests, policies, or relations of a government of a foreign country or a foreign political party or with reference to the foreign policies of the United States or promote in the United States racial, religious, or social dissensions, or (2) which advocates, advises, instigates, or promotes any racial, social, political, or religious disorder, civil riot, or other conflict involving the use of force or violence in any other American republic or the overthrow of any government or political subdivision of any other American republic by any means involving the use of force or violence.[6]
The definition was removed following the 1987 Supreme Court case, Meese v. Keene, in which a California State Senator wanted to distribute three films from Canada about acid rain and nuclear war, but felt his reputation would be harmed if he distributed films that had been officially classified “political propaganda”. [7]
Although the act was designed to broadly apply to any foreign agent (and was first used against German Nazi and Soviet propagandists), in practice FARA is frequently used to target countries out of favor with an administration.[8]
In the 1960s, the American Zionist Council was found to be engaged in massive violations of FARA by being funded by and acting on behalf of Israel and was ordered by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to register as a foreign agent. The DOJ reversed those enforcement efforts under pressure from both the pro-Israel lobby and the Johnson administration during its reelection bid.[9][10] Controversy regarding lobbying on behalf of Israel continued after the American Zionist Council was reorganized as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), with former Senator William Fulbright and former senior CIA official Victor Marchetti calling for registering the lobby. The issue was renewed in 2004 by the AIPAC espionage scandal.[11]
Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American businessman who admitted helping Saddam Hussein's government in the oil-for-food scandal was fined $300,000 and sentenced to probation.[12] He was charged, among other counts, with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.[13]
The Foreign Agent Registration Unit is heavily underfunded despite an increase in the number of foreign lobbyists in Washington, as well as higher spending. In June 2004, the Justice Department claimed that the Unit's database for tracking foreign lobbyists was in disrepair and claimed that much of its data could be lost unless the database was backed up.[16]