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An activist stands in the middle of a demonstration in Milan, Italy.
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17 January 2008
Terrorist Group List Highlights Why Terrorism Is Unacceptable, January 17, 2008 (List helps thwart support for terrorist groups)
By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States views action to identify and list "foreign terrorist organizations" as an effective tool for denying them financial support, blocking their international travel and criminalizing support for them. Such listing also helps to expose terrorism generally as an unacceptable means for political change, says a senior State Department official.
"We must fight terrorists with precise, calibrated force in order to buy space and time to transform the environment and the conditions that terrorists exploit, and to build enduring solutions that transcend violence," Ambassador Dell Dailey, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, said in a recent Washington speech.
Annually, the State Department issues its Country Reports on Terrorism, which includes the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. The list was created by the U.S. Congress in a 1996 amendment to federal law, and additional changes were made under the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. The list is designed to cut off funding to terrorist groups, block their immigration into the United States and authorize deportation once members of the group are located in the country.
Since the attack on the United States September 11, 2001, the FTO list has taken on an even more critical role in confronting global terrorism.
The secretary of state is authorized to designate any group as a foreign terrorist organization if it meets certain specific criteria. And, while the State Department is the lead agency on counterterrorism, designating an FTO actually involves the joint work of the State, Justice and Treasury departments. Information on terrorist groups is gleaned from both classified and unclassified sources and is compiled in a detailed "administrative record," which explains why a group should be given that designation.
The first FTO list was published October 8, 1997, and later included in the 1997 Patterns of Global Terrorism report. The report was revised in 2004 and now is known as Country Reports on Terrorism.
Currently, the list includes 42 foreign terrorist organizations. The list, however, serves another broad purpose as a key symbol of U.S. counterterrorism policy.
A group can be designated an FTO if it meets three requirements -- it is foreign, it engages in terrorist activity as defined in federal law and its activity threatens the security of U.S. citizens or the national security of the United States. At the heart of identifying a terrorist organization is the definition of terrorism.
The Department of State, in its terrorism report, uses several key definitions that are found in federal law:
• The term "terrorism" means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, with the actions usually intended to influence an audience.
• The term "terrorist group" means any group practicing, or that has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism.
• And, the term "international terrorism" means terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than one country.
There are three consequences for a group that is designated an FTO:
• Any member who knowingly provides "material support or resources," which includes financial assistance, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe houses, false documents or fake identification, communications equipment, weapons or transportation, can be prosecuted in U.S. courts.
• Any representatives or members of a designated FTO can be denied admission to the United States, or, if already in the country, can face deportation.
• And, any financial institution that becomes aware that it is holding funds from a designated FTO or its agents, must freeze the funds and report the action immediately to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
However, the FTO list is not the only "terrorist list" published by the U.S. government. As terrorism has become an increasing threat to U.S. national security, the government has responded vigorously.
A second well-known list is the "state-sponsors of terrorism," which is required by the 1979 Export Administration Act. It also is included in the annual Country Reports on Terrorism.
Currently, five countries are included on that list -- Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. The law imposes a range of export controls on any designated state sponsor, and U.S. foreign aid also is prohibited to countries so listed.
The Foreign Terrorist Organization list is available on the State Department Web site.
