<

U.S. State Department Terrorism Report Names 7 States Sponsors of Terrorism
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
By Ayesha Ahmad
Islam Online

“This unprecedented coalition of nations has sought to synchronize diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, economic, financial, and military power to attack terrorism globally."

Washington -- IOL
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.”
(More: Islam-Online.net News Source)
2002 © Islam Online.

Dan