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U.S. State Department Terrorism Report Names 7 States Sponsors of Terrorism
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Ambassador Francis X Taylor discusses contents of the report at the State Department
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By Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 22 (IslamOnline) - A report released Tuesday, May 21, by the U.S. State Department designates Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Sudan as “state sponsors of terrorism,” saying that some of the seven have taken steps to end their association with “terrorist” groups but all seven have far to go.
The annual report, entitled, “Patterns of Global Terrorism,” says that Iran, for example, has made “limited moves” towards cooperating with international counterterrorism efforts, but describes it as “the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2001.”
Of the seven countries, the report said that Sudan and Libya “seem closest to understanding what they must do to get out of the terrorism business.” North Korea and Syria were lumped together with Iran in having taken narrow steps, but Iran and Syria’s continued support for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which is fighting Israeli occupation in Palestine, and the Lebanese Shi’a group Hizbullah, which managed to oust Israel from South Lebanon, were seen as allegedly holding the two countries back.
“Until all states that support or tolerate terrorism cease their sponsorship, whether by choice or coercion, they remain a critical foundation for terrorist groups and their operations,” the report stated. “State sponsors still represent a key impediment to the international campaign against terrorism.”
Iraq was accused of using terrorism against dissident groups opposed to the regime of president Saddam Hussein, and in Cuba, president Fidel Castro was said to “[continue] to view terror as a legitimate revolutionary tactic.”
Countries that are designated “state sponsors of terrorism” suffer four sets of U.S. government sanctions: a ban on arms-related exports and sales, controls over exports of items that could also be used to enhance “terrorist” activity, prohibitions on economic assistance and imposition of miscellaneous financial restrictions.
“Though the threat from terrorism is not new, the world's resolve to defeat it has never been greater,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an official statement at the release of the report.
“The terrorist threat is global in scope, many-faceted and determined. The campaign against terrorism must be equally comprehensive, multidimensional and steadfast,” he said. “This Report marks the significant progress against terrorism that we and our coalition partners are making in a variety of critical areas.”
The new report reviews acts of terrorism carried out in every region of the world, including a section on September 11, described as “the worst international terrorist attack ever.”
A summary review of terrorism around the world in 2001 noted that aside from the September 11 attacks, “the number of international terrorist attacks in 2001 declined to 346, down from 426 the previous year.”
Of those 346 attacks, 51 percent – totaling 178 – were bombings directed at a multinational oil pipeline in Colombia.
The report contains graphs and tables depicting details about terrorist attacks in 2001; one chart notes that the highest number of fatalities occurred in a total of four attacks in the U.S., while the highest number of attacks – 194 – occurred in Latin America, with a total of two deaths.
A map of international terrorist incidents shows that 191 of the Latin American attacks occurred in Colombia, and 45 occurred in India.
Other charts showed that bombings accounted for 73 percent of the total attacks, as opposed to other forms of violence such as arson, kidnapping or hijacking; business targets accounted for 75 percent of the facilities targeted by terrorist attacks, as opposed to military or government facilities.
The report used an unofficial estimate of 3,000 deaths in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York to complete its calculations, as official casualty data were unavailable.
On the release of the report Tuesday, Powell’s statement was followed by a press conference with counterterrorism coordinator Ambassador Francis X. Taylor, who said that the U.S. has received much support from its “coalition” partners in the war against terrorism.
“As this annual report demonstrates, their support has been much more than rhetorical,” Taylor said. “This unprecedented coalition of nations has sought to synchronize diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, economic, financial, and military power to attack terrorism globally."
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