The US issues a blacklist of terrorist enemies

The terrorist groups that Washington considers as targets for destruction have been clearly identified by the State Department. These organizations offer a direct threat to the USA and its allies according the official compilers of this report who go on to list in some detail a range of international and regional terrorist groups.

They include the ABU NIDAL group supported by Iraqi and Libyan, with aliases such as the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Arab Revolutionary Brigades, Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims and Black September. Broke away from Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization in 1974;
ABU SAYYAF affiliated with Al Qa'ida, it is the most radical Islamic separatist group in the southern Philippines, split from the Moro National Liberation Front in 1991;
ARMED ISLAMIC GROUP,supported by Iran & Sudan which seeks to replace the secular Algerian government with a strict Islamic state. The Salafi Group for Call and Combat is a splinter faction active since 1998;
AUM SUPREME TRUTH also known as Aum Shinri-kyo, the group gained infamy for using the sarin nerve agent in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people and injuring up to 6,000;
DEV SOL or Turkish Revolutionary People's Liberation Party, this quasi-criminal Marxist group formed in 1978 is virulently anti-American and anti-NATO has been severely disrupted by the success of Turkish internal security actions;
ETA or Basque Fatherland and Liberty was founded in 1959 with the aim of establishing an independent, Marxist homeland in the border area between Spain and France;
HAMAS widely supported throughout the Arab world, receives considerable cash injections from private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Also called the Islamic Resistance Movement, this group was formed in late 1987 from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood once very powerful in both Egypt and Syria in particular;
HEZBOLLAH much under-rated by the USA and its allies, it operates under many aliases include Islamic Jihad, Revolutionary Justice Organization, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, and Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine. This radical Shiite Muslim group was deeply involved in instigating and possibly carrying out the destruction of the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, the suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and in all probability the attacks on September 11th. It is so closely linked to the Al Qa'ida groups that they have a joint operations planning council. Supported by Iran, Syria and private Muslim benefactors around the world, Hezbollah is now being reinforced with thousands of the Al Qa'ida 'Arab Legion' that simply walked away from the US and allied forces in Afghanistan without being noticed and with the help of dissident elements in the Pakistan intelligence services and Iran have now reached the West Bank and the Beka'a Valley:
AL-JIHAD this Egyptian group seeks an Islamic state in Egypt.Deeply linked to Al Qa'ida and Iran;
KACH & KAHANE CHAI Israeli terrorists whose goal is to restore the boundaries of the Biblical State of Israel. Radical Israeli American Rabbi Meir Kahane founded Kach. Kahane Chai, or "Kahane Lives," was founded by Binyamin Kahane following his father's assassination in New York in 1990. Maintains close links with the Israeli 'special unit' Sayeret Matkal, Mossad and indeed with a shadowy quasi-official terrorist group known as 'The University';
KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY founded in 1974 as a Marxist- Leninist insurgent group, the party is primarily composed of Turkish Kurds bent on forming an independent Kurdish state in south-eastern Turkey was originally led by Abdullah Ocalan;
LTE or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, founded in 1976, it is the most powerful Tamil group in Sri Lanka and includes the BLACK TIGERS suicide group and even the CHILD TIGERS which uses young children to offer under age sex in order to reach their assassination targets. Has deep connections with Europe and many of its operations abroad are run from the London area.
MKO, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization or sometimes MEK, this Iranian Marxist-Islamic group formed in the 1960s to counter "excessive Western influence" in the Shah's regime. It is the largest, most active armed Iranian dissident group. Based in Iraq, the group used to receive funds from Saddam Hussein, but with the increasing warmth in Iraqi-Iranian relations its activities have been severely curtailed by the Baghdad regime;
The NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY based in Colombia, this Marxist insurgent group formed in 1965 and is currently in a dialogue with the Colombian government;
PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD supported by both Iran & Syria and originating among militant Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the 1970s, the PIJ is one of many groups seeking the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel;
PALESTIAN LIBERATION FRONT, based in Iraq it started as a breakaway from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in 1973.Sometimes known as the Abu Abbas group it carried out the 1985 attack on the cruise ship Achille Lauro;
PFLP or Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: A Marxist- Leninist group founded in 1967 by George Habash, it committed numerous international terrorist attacks during the 1970s. Based in Syria its true role appears rather nebulous, it may indeed act as an intelligence gathering group for other Islamic groups as it has established links with extremist political groups throughout the world;
PFLP-GC or Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command violently opposes Yasser Arafat's PLO, funded and supported by both Iran and Syria, it again links its activities to the Hezbollah-Al Qa'ida network;
FARC or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, established in 1964 by the Colombian Communist Party, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped Marxist group. It has close links with Cuban intelligence, the Provisional IRA and probably the Real IRA and through these Irish terrorist groups with ETA and surprisingly, some extreme Right Wing and Islamic organizations in Germany, the UK, the Balkans and the Baltic States;
REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION 17 NOVEMBER,  a Greek radical leftist group established in 1975, it is named after the 1973 student uprising that threatened the Greek military regime. Responsible for killing U.S. officials and Greek public figures, its most recent victim was a British defence attaché in June 2000.
SENDERO LUMINOSO or The Shining Path terror group of Peru is based on founder
Abimael Guzman's belief in militant Maoist doctrine. .
TUPAC AMARU, a Peruvian revolutionary movement formed in 1983 to establish a Marxist regime. The group's ability to operate has been sharply reduced by Peru's counterterrorism program following the groups seizure of the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in December 1996. Peruvian forces stormed the residence after a four month siege in April 1997.

Surprising omissions

However this far from comprehensive list has some extremely surprising omissions, no mention of either the PROVISIONAL IRA or the REAL IRA, two wings of one of the most effective and long surviving terrorist organizations in the world which has plagued Britain for more than 86 years, Pakistani supported KASHMIRI terrorist groups who have killed tens of thousands of Indian citizens in the last thirty years, Europe's home-grown Right Wing and Neo-Nazi extremist groups, the Muslim CHECHEN terrorist groups guilty of acts of mass murder in Russian Cities and of course the Muslim KLA or KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY and its replacements and offshoots who are guilty of appalling acts of terrorism in Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia against Christian and Muslim alike and well known for being closely linked to Al Qa'ida.

It would be very disappointing in a world where the United States expects and usually gets the whole hearted support of its friends and allies in the war against terrorism that such omissions may create the impression that the feelings and votes of Irish Americans take precedence over the deaths of British soldiers and civilians in IRA terrorist attacks or that Islamic terrorism in the Balkans is acceptable if directed at Washington's enemies and only outrageous when it 'blows back' in the United States direction. Of course, this may just be a State Department glitch, to be rectified very quickly. It is sincerely to be hoped so, for the 'special relationship' between Britain and the USA in particular, is supposedly reciprocal.
 
 
 
 
 

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