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Who Are They, How Do They Contribute, What Have They Done Lately
According to the U.S. State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism there are some 28 organizations classified as terrorist organizations. The DoS also has classified 7 countries which are engaged in active support of Terrorism. The definition used by State Department is pretty clear 1 on what defines a terrorist nation. Activities described in such language as "the gathering of information on potential targets of terrorist activity" and "the providing of any type of material support, including a safe house, transportation, communication, funds, false identification, weapons, explosives, or training, to any individual the actor knows or has reason to believe has committed or plans to commit a terrorist activity" are those that should concern us the most.
The modern terrorist is a criminal. This follows the Geneva convention which states that a soldier engaged in combat must owe his allegiance to an identifiable country. After all, a soldier acts as part of a military arm of a country, and thereby is acting out military action sanctioned by that country. A countryless fighter is no longer a soldier. The logic behind the Geneva convention argument is that acts of military violence are condoned because the meet a set of limits determined to be acceptable for warfare, and one of the greatest tenets is the ability for response or retaliation to an act of military violence. A countryless soldier leaves no response or retaliation possible. Hardly an equitable situation.
Thus modern terrorism has forced the governments fighting terrorism to identify those countries sponsoring terrorism so retaliation can be meted out to those providing sanctuary and training to terrorists. Retaliation can take the form of economic sanctions such as import/export embargos and the freezing of assets or more deliberate and direct action such as attacks on terrorist strongholds.
In February, 1999 2, the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism included:
The Countries
The following text is taken directly from the Department of State report, Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999 3 report.
Havana also maintained ties to other state sponsors of terrorism and Latin American insurgents. Colombia's two largest terrorist organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN), both maintained a permanent presence on the island. In late 1999, Cuba hosted a series of meetings between Colombian Government officials and ELN leaders.
Iran
Although there were signs
of political change in Iran in 1999, the actions of certain state institutions
in support of terrorist
groups made Iran the most active state sponsor of terrorism. These state
institutions, notably the
Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security,
continued to be involved
in the planning and execution of terrorist acts and continued to support
a
variety of groups that use
terrorism to pursue their goals.
A variety of public reports indicate Iran's security forces conducted several bombings against Iranian dissidents abroad. Iranian agents, for example, were blamed for a truck bombing in early October of a Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist base near Basrah, Iraq, that killed several MEK members and non-MEK individuals.
Iran continued encouraging Hizballah and the Palestinian rejectionist groups--including HAMAS, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GC--to use violence, especially terrorist attacks, in Israel to undermine the peace process. Iran supported these groups with varying amounts of money, training, and weapons. Despite statements by the Khatami administration that Iran was not working against the peace process, Tehran stepped up its encouragement of, and support for, these groups after the election of Israeli Prime Minister Barak and the resumption of Israel-Syria peace talks. In a gesture of public support, President Khatami met with Damascus-based Palestinian rejectionist leaders during his visit to Syria in May. In addition, Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei reflected Iran's covert actions aimed at scuttling the peace process when he sponsored a major rally in Tehran on 9 November to demonstrate Iran's opposition to Israel and peace. Hizballah and Palestinian rejectionist speakers at the rally reaffirmed their support for violent jihad against Israel. A Palestinian Islamic Jihad representative praised a bombing in Netanya that occurred days before and promised more such attacks.
Tehran still provided safehaven to elements of Turkey's separatist PKK that conducted numerous terrorist attacks in Turkey and against Turkish targets in Europe. One of the PKK's most senior at-large leaders, Osman Ocalan, brother of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, resided at least part-time in Iran. Iran also provided support to terrorist groups in North Africa and South and Central Asia, including financial assistance and training.
Tehran accurately claimed that it also was a victim of terrorism, as the opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq conducted several terrorist attacks in Iran. On 10 April the group assassinated Brigadier General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, the Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff.
Iraq
Iraq continued to plan and
sponsor international terrorism in 1999. Although Baghdad focused
primarily on the antiregime
opposition both at home and abroad, it continued to provide safehaven
and support to various terrorist
groups.
Press reports stated that, according to a defecting Iraqi intelligence agent, the Iraqi intelligence service had planned to bomb the offices of Radio Free Europe in Prague. Radio Free Europe offices include Radio Liberty, which began broadcasting news and information to Iraq in October 1998. The plot was foiled when it became public in early 1999.
The Iraqi opposition publicly stated its fears that the Baghdad regime was planning to assassinate those opposed to Saddam Hussein. A spokesman for the Iraqi National Accord in November said that the movement's security organs had obtained information about a plan to assassinate its secretary general, Dr. Iyad 'Allawi, and a member of the movement's political bureau, as well as another Iraqi opposition leader.
Iraq continued to provide safehaven to a variety of Palestinian rejectionist groups, including the Abu Nidal organization, the Arab Liberation Front (ALF), and the former head of the now-defunct 15 May Organization, Abu Ibrahim, who masterminded several bombings of U.S. aircraft.
Iraq provided bases, weapons, and protection to the MEK, an Iranian terrorist group that opposes the current Iranian regime. In 1999, MEK cadre based in Iraq assassinated or attempted to assassinate several high-ranking Iranian Government officials, including Brigadier General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, Deputy Chief of Iran's Joint Staff, who was killed in Tehran on 10 April.
Libya
In April 1999, Libya took
an important step by surrendering for trial the two Libyans accused of
bombing Pan Am flight 103
over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The move responded directly to the
US-UK initiative; concerted
efforts by the Saudi, Egyptian, and South African Governments; and
the active engagement of
the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General. At yearend,
however, Libya still had
not complied with the remaining UN Security Council requirements:
payment of appropriate compensation;
acceptance of responsibility for the actions of its officials;
renunciation of, and an
end to, support for terrorism; and cooperation with the prosecution and
trial.
Libyan leader Qadhafi repeatedly
stated publicly during the year that his government had adopted
an antiterrorism stance,
but it remained unclear whether his claims of distancing Libya from its
terrorist past signified
a true change in policy.
Libya also remained the primary suspect in several other past terrorist operations, including the La Belle discotheque bombing in Berlin in 1986 that killed two US servicemen and one Turkish civilian and wounded more than 200 persons. The trial in Germany of five suspects in the bombing, which began in November 1997, continued in 1999.
In 1999, Libya expelled the Abu Nidal organization and distanced itself from the Palestinian rejectionists, announcing that the Palestinian Authority was the only legitimate address for Palestinian concerns. Libya still may have retained ties to some Palestinian groups that use violence to oppose the Middle East peace process, however, including the PIJ and the PFLP-GC.
North Korea
The Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) continued to provide safehaven to the
Japanese Communist League-Red
Army Faction members who participated in the hijacking of a
Japanese Airlines flight
to North Korea in 1970. P'yongyang allowed members of the Japanese Diet
to visit some of the hijackers
during the year. In 1999 the D.P.R.K. also attempted to kidnap in
Thailand a North Korean
diplomat who had defected the day before. The attempt led the North
Korean Embassy to hold the
former diplomat's son hostage for two weeks. Some evidence also
suggests the D.P.R.K. in
1999 may have sold weapons directly or indirectly to terrorist groups.
Sudan
Sudan in 1999 continued
to serve as a central hub for several international terrorist groups, including
Usama Bin Ladin's al-Qaida
organization. The Sudanese Government also condoned Iran's
assistance to terrorist
and radical Islamist groups operating in and transiting through Sudan.
Khartoum served as a meeting place, safehaven, and training hub for members of the Lebanese Hizballah, Egyptian Gama'at al-Islamiyya, al-Jihad, the Palistinian Islamic Jihad, HAMAS, and Abu Nidal organization. Sudan's support to these groups included the provision of travel documentation, safe passage, and refuge. Most of the groups maintained offices and other forms of representation in the capital, using Sudan primarily as a secure base for organizing terrorist operations and assisting compatriots elsewhere.
Sudan still had not complied with UN Security Council Resolutions 1044, 1054, and 1070 passed in 1996--which demand that Sudan end all support to terrorists--despite the regime's efforts to distance itself publicly from terrorism. They also require Khartoum to hand over three Egyptian Gama'at fugitives linked to the assassination attempt in 1995 against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia. Sudanese officials continued to deny that they are harboring the three suspects and that they had a role in the attack.
Additional Countries
In July of 1999, moves were
being made to add Afghanistan to the list is response to Usama Bin Liden's
training camps and efforts to attack the U.S. with terrorism planned from
his various headquarters in that country. In the State Department's
report to Congress that year, the Secretary reported:
"Prior to the UN sanctions, in July 1999, we imposed by executive order
sanctions against the Taliban that froze their assets in the United States
and banned all trade, excluding humanitarian assistance, until they surrender
Usama Bin Laden to a jurisdiction where he can face justice. To date,
approximately $250 million in assets have been frozen and fund transfers in
which the Taliban have an interest amounting to $1.6 million has been frozen.
These measures, combined with UNSCR 1267, are causing governments and
companies to avoid doing business with the Taliban."
4
The U.S. Department of State
has listed the terrorists who have called Afghanistan home, from the perspective
of having headquarters their or having trainded there:
"The list of terrorists that live in or have lived in, have trained in, are headquartered in, or financed from Afghanistan gets longer all the time. To name a few:The U.S. sought and won a U.N. Security Council resolution to install international sanctions against Afghanistan. Security Council Resolution 1267 imposed an embargo against the Ariana Afghan airline and froze assets worldwide. Theoretically, the freezing of assets is a well known means of providing for payment for restitution to victims of terrorist acts and allows countries and citizens to sue for these monies from their home countries, with the World Court distributing these funds from the frozen assets. In actual practice, however, the assets are typically used by non-terrorist governments to help fund the fight against terrorism. A good example is the use of Iraqi frozen assets being used to fund the U.N. Inspection teams when there were being allowed into Iraq to inspect for weapons of mass destruction or the facilities to manufacture them.Usama bin Ladin - indicted for terrorist attacks, including 1999 attack on U.S. embassies in East Africa;
Mir Aimal Kansi - 1993 attack on U.S. CIA workers;
Ramsi Youssef - 1996 Bombing of the World Trade Center;
Ayman al-Zawahiri, Muhammed Atef, Mohammad Rashed Daoud al-Owhali, Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, and Fazul Abdullah Mohammad -- all indicted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa;
Ahmed Ressam - 1999 planned attack launched from Canada;
Raiz Basra - 1999 would-be assassin of former Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif;
Abu Hawshar, cell leader of 1999 thwarted attack in Jordan; Raid Hijazi, deputy cell leader; and Khalil Deek and Abu Qatadah also wanted for the thwarted attack in Jordan;
Taha Musa - of the Egyptian Al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya organization;
Ibn al Khattab - field commander in Chechnya;/li>
Shami Basayav - field commander in Chechnya; and
Tohir Yuldashev - IMU commander. " 5
Sanctions
The U.S., has for nearly a decade, made attempts to counter states who sponser terrorism by writing sanctions into law. The most famous of these is the 1996 "D'Amato Law" named after Senator Alfonso D'Amato who sponsered the legislation. In essence, this law made it illegal to invest in countries identified as terrorist sponsoring nations. The law seeks to cause damage to companies investing in those countries. At the time, chief most in interest were Libya and Iran. 2
As cited earlier, the effect of similar legislation has resulted in modifications to the U.S. import and export laws. In U.S. Code, section 6(j)(1)(A) of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 U.S.C. App. 2405(j)(i)(A)) the Secretary of State is required to identify on a regular basis those countries who sponser terrorism. Countries listed by the Secretary of State fall under explicit export controls including bans on just about every kind of commerce, and the cited regulations include tough penalties for disobeying them.
Sanctions also include the
freezing of assets in the U.S. for nations on the terrorist list. Theoretically this allows U.S. citizens who have been harmed by actions of terrorists
associated with the terrorist nations to sue for reperations. In
practice, however, the assets are typically used by
governments to
assess funds to be used in repairs or to further fight terrorism. It also
allows the U.S. government to recommend to the United Nations to also
levy similar sanctions, which in turn allows other governments and their
citizens to apply to the World Court for reperations.
End Notes:
1 Section
212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, sub section VI,
paragraphs iii, which begins with "ENGAGE IN TERRORIST ACTIVITY DEFINED"
as mirrored online byMILNET at
2 State
Sponsorship of Terrorism, Steve Macko, Emergency Response and Research
Institute, May 3, 1997, as mirrored by MILNET online at ../erri/stateter.htm
3 Patterns
of Global Terrorism: 1999, Secretary of State Madeline Albright,
U.S. Department of State.April 2000, as mirrored online by MILNET at 1999/1999index.html
4 U.S.
Counterterrorism Efforts Since the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Africa,
as mirrored by MILNET online at 0800-counterterror.html
5 Ambassador
Michael Sheehan, Coordinator for Counterterrorism, in testimony before
the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Washington, DC, December
13, 2000, as mirrored online by MILNET at
1999/fto_info_1999.html#definition
sheehan-121300.htm
