Rewards for Justice Program



The Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) is the counterterrorism rewards program of the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The Secretary of State is currently offering rewards for information that prevents or favorably resolves acts of international terrorism against U.S. persons or property worldwide. Rewards also may be paid for information leading to the arrest or conviction of terrorists attempting, committing, conspiring to commit, or aiding and abetting in the commission of such acts. The Rewards for Justice Program has paid more than $100 million for information that prevented international terrorist attacks or helped bring to justice those involved in prior acts. The program was established by the 1984 Act to Combat International Terrorism (Public Law 98-533). The program is administered by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The Director of the Diplomatic Security Service chairs an interagency committee which reviews reward candidates and then recommends rewards to the Secretary of State. The committee includes members from the staff of the White House National Security Council, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Treasury, and the US Department of State.

After the September 11 attacks, the list of wanted terrorists increased dramatically, and rewards were also increased, as part of the U.S. efforts to capture al-Qaeda leadership. However, the plan has been largely ineffective against Islamic terrorists. The largest reward offered was $25 million for the leader of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden,  which had "attracted hundreds of anonymous calls but no reliable leads." Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011.

On January 15 digitally aged pictures of Bin Laden were published on the Rewards for Justice Program website. Spanish newspaper El Mundo revealed that pictures of a Spanish politician, Gaspar Llamazares, were used for that purpose. The FBI has admitted to this and removed the image from its website.

Robert A. Hartung, Assistant Director, of Diplomatic Security's Threat Investigations and Analysis Directorate, announced on September 2, 2010 that the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is offering rewards of up to $5 million each for information that leads law enforcement or security forces to Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali ur Rehman. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a list of "the five most wanted terrorists" to the Pakistan; the list included Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mohammed Omar, Ilyas Kashmiri, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman and Sirajuddin Haqqani. Each of these five have bounties issued against them by the program; however, Kashmiri, who US Intelligence officials said they were 99% sure was killed in an airstrike in South Waziristan on June 3, 2011, has been removed from the list. Rahman was killed in an airstrike in August 2011 and was removed from the list.

On December 22, 2011, RFJ announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil (aka Yasin al-Suri), the leader an al-Qaeda fundraising network in Iran that transfers money and recruits via Iranian territory to Pakistan and Afghanistan. It marked the first time that RFJ offered a reward for information leading to a terrorist financier.