American Justice Department, where art thou?

The American Justice Department is not behaving any better than the American State Department when it comes to helping victims of overseas terror. The State Department has seemingly wiped its hands of Israeli victims of terror. They have a highly regarded Rewards for Justice program that is supposed to offer rewards of up to 25 million dollars for finding the terrorist killers of American overseas but the only act of terror in Israel that is mentioned on their cite is the Hebrew University bombing. Details of my son's murder (as well as other terrorism against American citizens in Israel) used to be on their site but have been taken down. And it's not because his killers were found. Koby, an American citizen, was 13 when he was stoned to death by Palestinian terrorists near our home in Tekoa. I wonder why the State Department believes that his murder, as well as the murder of the other (at least) 53 American citizens in Israel  isn't worth mentioning. In many of those, the killers are still at large.

Event though the Justice Department established an office specifically to deal with cases of overseas terror, that office has also been ineffective. The office was established because the State Department was seemingly not interested in helping American citizens, specifically in Israel, who were the victims of Palestinian terror. So the Zionist Organization of America spearheaded a bill that was named after my son Koby to open an office in the Justice Department that would be responsible for communication with the families of overseas terror victims. The office was supposed to also assist in the apprehension of killers still at large. The office was opened in 2005 as part of an FY 2005 Omnibus Bill.

In the Congressional Record of June 1 2004, you can read about Senator Patrick Leahy's (a democrat from Vermont) hopes for the bill:

Specifically, this bill will create the Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism. The Office will ensure that rewards are offered for the capture of terrorists involved in attacks that harm American citizens. It will advertise such rewards and publicize the names and photos of suspects. The Office will establish a notification system to keep victims' families updated on the status of investigations and efforts to capture suspects in each case. It will seek to ensure that suspects are not able to obtain visas to travel to the US."

Not only are there no rewards being offered, there is currently no notification either.

Greg Sofer, the first Director of the Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism, was in touch with American victims of overseas terrorism and did communicate and tell us what was happening with the process of apprehension of Koby's killers. But he left office in 2007. Not only were we not informed he was leaving, we have never heard from his replacement - no letter, no email, no telephone call. I contacted (by email on the site) the new director, Heather Cartwright, an expert in victims' and witnesses' rights.

No response.

One would think that after the American government has gone to the trouble of passing a bill and opening an office in the Justice Department that that office would be functional so that if a hapless victim sent an email, there would be some type of communication for the person that that office was created to help. But you would be wrong.

The office formulated to help victims with their rights does not communicate with them. It does not offer rewards for finding the killers. It along with the American government, abandons the families it is purportedly trying to help.