Terror Group Lists (7/25/2002)

The government of Canada is the latest to establish a list of prohibited terrorist organisations. The Canadian list of banned terrorist organisations was drawn up pursuant to the new Anti-Terrorism Act, which was passed following the September 11 attacks. The 7 groups that appear on the list are the Armed Islamic Group, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (al-Jihad), Vanguards of Conquest, al-Qaeda, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, and al-Ittihad al-Islam.

On 2 May 2002, the European Council (i.e. the 15 EU governments) updated the list of terrorist organisations it drew up in December 2001 in the wake of the events of 9-11 and pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1373. The acts adopted extend the list of individuals and groups involved in terrorist activity whose assets are frozen and/or which are subject to judicial and police cooperation among EU member states. The addition of 11 new groups brings the EU's list closer to that of the US State Department. However, it is doubtful that cooperation over specific groups will translate into a similar stance on the issue of state sponsors of terrorism. The latter is a central source of disagreement between the US and Europe.

The United States has maintained a list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) since October 1997 when former Secretary of State Madeline Albright approved the designation of the first 30 groups pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act 1996).

Those organisations designated as FTOs by the US Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, are subject to a number of legal restrictions. It is unlawful, for example, for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to provide any kind of financial or material support to such organisations. Both representatives and members of these groups may be denied visas or excluded from the US. US financial institutions must block the funds of these groups and their agents and report the blockage to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury.

The stated effects of the US sanctions are as follows:

- Deters donations or contributions to named organisations

- Heightens public awareness and knowledge of terrorist organisations

- Signals to other governments US concerns about the designated organisations

- Stigmatises and isolates designated terrorist organisations internationally.

It is assumed that the EU and Canadian sanctions were adopted to promote similar effects with regard to the groups on those lists.

There are currently 23 groups on the EU list and 33 on the American. Fourteen groups appear on both the EU and US lists: Aum Shinrikyo, ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty), Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group), Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups First of October (GRAPO), the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Mujahedin-e Khalq, Palestine Islamic Jihad, the Real IRA, Revolutionary Nuclei, Revolutionary Organisation 17 November, Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (Dev Sol), Shining Path, and the United Self Defences Forces of Colombia. Hamas also appears on both lists, but the EU list distinguishes Hamas-Izz al-Din al-Qassem, the “terrorist wing of Hamas,” as the targeted organisation.

A number of groups, either Middle Eastern in origin or Islamist in orientation (or both), appear on the US list but not on the EU equivalent. These include: the Abu Nidal Organisation, the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Hizbollah, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Palestine Liberation Front, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command (PFLP-GC), and al-Qaida. Other groups that appear on the US list and are absent from the corresponding EU document are Kach and Kahane Chai, the Tamil Tigers, the Colombian National Liberation Army, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

In a similar manner, there are a number of groups that are designated terrorist by the EU but that do not appear on the US list. These include a number of home-grown European terrorist organisations: the Continuity IRA, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Other groups that appear on the EU list and that are absent from the list of US FTOs are the Indian group known as Babar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation.

At a joint press conference in Washington DC on May 2 with Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar and European Commission President Romano Prodi, US President Bush stated, “We share intelligence, we talk about arrests we've made. Terror is terror and we must fight it wherever it exists.” But as observed in a recent Stratfor commentary, that is not precisely true: “The problem…. is that the United States and Europe do not wholly agree on where terrorism exists” as evidenced by the discrepancies between the two lists of designated terrorist organisations.

LINKS:

Canadian List (July 2002)

Background on the seven terrorist organisations currently banned by the Canadian government.

EU List (May 2002)

Text of the updated list of terrorist organisations adopted by the European Council on 2 May 2002.

US List (May 2002)

List of foreign terrorist organisations as designated by the US State Department and background information on each group.

‘EU Adds the PKK to List of Terrorist Organisations'

Commentary by Statewatch on the inclusion of the PKK and a number of other groups on the new list of prohibited terrorist organisations recently published by the EU.

‘The EU, the FARC, the PKK, and the PFLP: Distinguishing Politics From Terror'

This article by Joanne Marnier, the Deputy Director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, details the political factors involved in compiling lists of terrorist organisations.

UN Security Council Resolution 1373

Text of UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which was adopted on 28 September 2001.

US Immigration and Nationality Act

Website of the US Immigration and Nationality Act. See, in particular, Sec. 1251 re. Deportable Aliens and Sec. 1182 re. Excludable Aliens.

Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act 1996

Text of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act 1996.