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International Response: EU Freezes Fewer Potential Terrorist Assets
From Friday, March 8, 2002 issue

Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)
Working for a Safer World



The European Union has blocked assets of just two of 28 groups on a U.S. list of non-al Qaeda organizations. Out of the dozens of individuals on the list of suspected terrorists, the European body targeted eight.

The European Union disagrees with the United States over whether several groups around the world are terrorist organizations and has blocked the assets of fewer groups than the United States, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 19).

EU officials have blocked the assets of only two of 28 groups that the United States has identified as non-al-Qaeda terrorist groups, and the union has targeted only eight of several dozen individuals on the U.S. terrorist list, the AP reported (David Kalish, Associated Press/Washington Times, March 8).

At the end of December, the United States had named 189 groups and individuals that it said were linked to terrorism (see GSN, Jan. 30). The entities included Middle Eastern militant Islamist groups, South American militant organizations, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, companies suspected of channeling funds to terrorists and others (State Department release, Dec. 31, 2001).

The European Union did not block the assets of several of those groups, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, the Shining Path in Peru, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and even several European groups that the union lists as terrorists, including the Basque ETA in Spain, the Real IRA in Ireland and the Revolutionary Organization 17 November in Greece, according to the Times.
(More: An NTI News Source)
2002 © National Journal Group, Inc.

Dan