§2291–4 Official Immunity for Authorized Employees and Agents of United States and Foreign Countries Engaged in Interdiction of Aircraft Used in Illicit Drug Trafficking

Summary

Lets authorized foreign officials, including their military, legally stop or try to stop an aircraft inside that country if two things are true. First, the plane is reasonably suspected of being mainly used for illegal drug trafficking. Second, the U.S. President has told Congress within the past 12 months that stopping planes is needed because drug trafficking is an extraordinary threat to that country’s national security and that the country has rules to prevent innocent deaths, including effective ways to identify and warn a plane before using force. Authorized U.S. employees and military may help those foreign actions. Any U.S. help cannot be the basis for civil lawsuits seeking money or other relief against the United States or its employees or agents. By February 1 each year, the President must send Congress a report about U.S. help given in the prior calendar year. The report must list countries with the certification, describe the drug threat to each, explain the safety procedures in place, describe all U.S. assistance, and summarize any aircraft interceptions the U.S. helped. Reports to congressional intelligence committees follow a different deadline under another law. Reports must be unclassified but may include a classified annex. Definitions: "interdict/interdiction" means damage, disable, or destroy an aircraft; "illicit drug trafficking" means illegal trade in narcotics, psychotropic, and other controlled drugs under international drug treaties the U.S. signed or the local country’s law; "assistance" includes operational, training, intelligence, logistical, technical, and administrative help.