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Report Paints 7 Countries as Promoting Terror
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
(12:00 AM)
By Barry Schweid
Associated Press Writer

Iran is described as the most active sponsor of terrorism.

WASHINGTON -- AP
The State Department branded Iran and six other countries as promoters of terror Tuesday in a report shadowed by "the horrific events of Sept. 11."

While Iran intensified its support last year for Palestinian militants attacking Israel, Sudan and Libya took some steps "to get out of the terrorism business" and North Korea and Syria made limited moves to cooperate in the international campaign against terror, the department said in its annual report to Congress.

Also cited were Cuba and Iraq, the latter concentrating its terror on opponents of President Saddam Hussein but also providing bases for anti-Israel terror groups, the report said.

Lebanon, which wasn't listed, nonetheless was accused of refusing to hand over three Hezbollah operatives who are on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists for their role in the hijacking of a TWA airliner in 1985.

"The terrorist threat is global in scope, many-faceted and determined," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "The campaign against terrorism must be equally comprehensive."

Releasing the 22nd annual report, Powell said: "Terrorists are trying every way they can to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear."
(More: KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

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