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State Sponsors of
Terrorism Overview
Country Reports on Terrorism
Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
April 30, 2007
State sponsors of terrorism
provide critical support to non-state terrorist groups. Without state sponsors,
terrorist groups would have much more difficulty obtaining the funds, weapons,
materials, and secure areas they require to plan and conduct operations. Most
worrisome is that some of these countries also have the capability to
manufacture weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and other destabilizing
technologies that could get into the hands of terrorists. The United States will
continue to insist that these countries end the support they give to terrorist
groups.
As a result of the historic
decisions taken by Libya's leadership in 2003 to renounce terrorism and to
abandon its WMD programs, the United States rescinded Libya's designation as a
state sponsors of terrorism on June 30. Since pledging to renounce terrorism in
2003, Libya has cooperated closely with the United States and the international
community on counterterrorism efforts.
Sudan continued to take
significant steps to cooperate in the War on Terror. Cuba, Iran, and Syria,
however, have not renounced terrorism or made efforts to act against Foreign
Terrorist Organizations. Iran and Syria routinely provided safe haven,
substantial resources, and guidance to terrorist organizations.
Venezuela was certified by the
Secretary of State as "not fully cooperating" with U.S.
counterterrorism efforts. The designation, included in Section 40A of the Arms
Export Control Act, was based on a review of Venezuela's overall efforts to
fight terrorism. Effective October 1, the decision imposed sanctions on all
commercial arms sales and transfers. It remains in effect until September 30,
2007, when it may be renewed by a determination by the Secretary. (Venezuela is
the only nation certified as "not fully cooperating" that is not a
state sponsor of terrorism.)
State Sponsor: Implications
Designating countries that repeatedly provide support for acts of
international terrorism as state sponsors of terrorism imposes four main sets of
U.S. Government sanctions:
- A ban on arms-related exports
and sales.
- Controls over exports of
dual-use items, requiring 30-day Congressional notification for goods or
services that could significantly enhance the terrorist-list country's
military capability or ability to support terrorism.
- Prohibitions on economic
assistance.
- Imposition of miscellaneous
financial and other restrictions, including:
- Requiring the United States
to oppose loans by the World Bank and other international financial
institutions;
- Lifting diplomatic immunity
to allow families of terrorist victims to file civil lawsuits in U.S.
courts;
- Denying companies and
individuals tax credits for income earned in terrorist-listed countries;
- Denial of duty-free
treatment of goods exported to the United States;
- Authority to prohibit any
U.S. citizen from engaging in a financial transaction with a
terrorist-list government without a Treasury Department license; and
- Prohibition of Defense
Department contracts above $100,000 with companies controlled by
terrorist-list states.
Cuba
Cuba continued to publicly oppose the U.S.-led Coalition prosecuting the War on
Terror. To U.S. knowledge, Cuba did not attempt to track, block, or seize
terrorist assets, although the authority to do so is contained in Cuba's Law 93
against Acts of Terrorism, as well as Instruction 19 of the Superintendent of
the Cuban Central Bank. No new counterterrorism laws were enacted, nor were any
executive orders or regulations issued in this regard. To date, the Cuban
government had not undertaken any counterterrorism efforts in international and
regional fora or taken action against any designated Foreign Terrorist
Organizations. The Government of Cuba provided safe haven to members of ETA,
FARC, and the ELN, and maintained close relationships with other state sponsors
of terrorism such as Iran. The Cuba-Iran Joint Commission met in Havana in
January.
The Cuban government continued to
permit U.S. fugitives to live legally in Cuba and is unlikely to satisfy U.S.
extradition requests for terrorists harbored in the country. The United States
periodically requested that the government return wanted fugitives1,
and Cuba continued to be non-responsive. The Cuban regime publicly demanded the
return to Cuba of five of its agents convicted of espionage in the United
States. The five were variously accused of being foreign intelligence agents and
infiltrating U.S. military facilities, but the Cuban government continued to
refer to these individuals as heroes in the fight against terrorism. One was
accused of conspiracy to murder for his role in the Cuban Air Force's shooting
down of two small civilian planes. Cuba has stated, however, that it will no
longer provide safe haven to new U.S. fugitives who may enter Cuba.2
Although Cuba did not extradite
suspected terrorists during the year, the government demanded that the United
States surrender Luis Posada Carriles, whom it accused of plotting to kill
Castro and bombing a Cubana Airlines plane in 1976, which resulted in more than
70 deaths. Posada Carriles remained in U.S. custody. Cuba also asked the United
States to return three Cuban-Americans implicated in the same cases.
Iran
Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Its Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)
were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and
continued to exhort a variety of groups, especially Palestinian groups with
leadership cadres in Syria and Lebanese Hizballah, to use terrorism in pursuit
of their goals.
Iran maintained a high-profile
role in encouraging anti-Israeli terrorist activity, rhetorically,
operationally, and financially. Supreme Leader Khamenei and President
Ahmadi-Nejad praised Palestinian terrorist operations, and Iran provided
Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups - notably HAMAS, Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-General Command - with extensive funding, training, and
weapons.
Iran continued to play a
destabilizing role in Iraq, which appeared to be inconsistent with its stated
objectives regarding stability in Iraq. Iran provided guidance and training to
select Iraqi Shia political groups, and weapons and training to Shia militant
groups to enable anti-Coalition attacks. Iranian government forces have been
responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-Coalition
attacks by providing Shia militants with the capability to build IEDs with
explosively formed projectiles similar to those developed by Iran and Lebanese
Hizballah. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard was linked to armor-piercing
explosives that resulted in the deaths of Coalition Forces. The Revolutionary
Guard, along with Lebanese Hizballah, implemented training programs for Iraqi
militants in the construction and use of sophisticated IED technology. These
individuals then passed on this training to additional militants in Iraq.
Iran remained unwilling to bring
to justice senior AQ members it detained in 2003, and it has refused to publicly
identify these senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted
numerous calls to transfer custody of its AQ detainees to their countries of
origin or third countries for interrogation or trial. Iran also continued to
fail to control the activities of some al-Qaida members who fled to Iran
following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
North Korea
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was not known to have sponsored
any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987. The
DPRK continued to harbor four Japanese Red Army members who participated in a
jet hijacking in 1970. The Japanese government continued to seek a full
accounting of the fate of the 12 Japanese nationals believed to have been
abducted by DPRK state entities; five such abductees have been repatriated to
Japan since 2002. In the February 13, 2007 Initial Actions Agreement, the
United States agreed to "begin the process of removing the designation of
the DPRK as a state-sponsor of terrorism."
Sudan
The Sudanese government was a strong partner in the War on Terror and
aggressively pursued terrorist operations directly involving threats to U.S.
interests and personnel in Sudan. In recent months, Usama Bin Laden and other
senior al-Qaida leaders have called for the expansion of AQ's presence in Sudan
in response to possible deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur. This has led to
speculation that some individuals with varying degrees of association with AQ
have taken steps to establish an operational network in Darfur, but there were
no indications that AQ affiliated extremists were active there.
With the exception of HAMAS, the
Sudanese government did not openly support the presence of extremist elements in
Sudan. The Sudanese government took steps to limit the activities of these
organizations. For example, Sudanese officials welcomed HAMAS members as
representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA), but limited their activities
to fundraising. The Sudanese government also worked to disrupt foreign fighters
from using Sudan as a logistics base and transit point for Jihadists going to
Iraq. There was some evidence to suggest that individuals who were active
participants in the Iraqi insurgency have returned to Sudan and were in a
position to use their expertise to conduct attacks within Sudan or to pass on
their knowledge.
The Lords Resistance Army (LRA)
continued to be a threat to Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
and Southern Sudan. The Government of Southern Sudan worked to mediate peace
between the LRA and the Government of Uganda and sought to curb LRA raids, but
achieved little tangible progress. Although LRA attacks declined significantly,
renewed violence remains a threat. Formal negotiations commenced in Juba in July
2006. The LRA continued to stall the talks, however, most recently with demands
for a change of venue and a halt to all Ugandan People's Defense Forces activity
in southern Sudan. Both parties signed a Cessation of Hostilities agreement in
August 2006 identifying areas where the LRA could assemble for the negotiations
without fear of being attacked by the Ugandan People's Defense Forces.
Syria
The Syrian government continued to provide political and material support to
Hizballah and political support to Palestinian terrorist groups. Palestinian
Islamic Jihad (PIJ), HAMAS, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP),
and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC),
among others, base their external leadership in Damascus. The Syrian government
insisted that the Damascus-based groups undertake only political and
informational activities, but Palestinian groups with leaders in Syria have
claimed responsibility for anti-Israeli terrorist acts.
Syria's public support for the
Palestinian groups varied, depending on its national interests and international
pressure. In April, visiting PA Foreign Minister Zahar (HAMAS) met with
Damascus-based Palestinian leaders and attended a rally at the Palestinian
Yarmouk refugee camp alongside HAMAS Political Bureau Chief Khalid Mish'al and
representatives of other terrorist groups and Hizballah. In July, Mish'al held a
highly publicized press conference under tight security at a Damascus hotel,
expressing gratitude for Syria's unconditional support to the Palestinian cause.
The Government of Syria has not
been implicated directly in an act of terrorism since 1986, although preliminary
findings of a UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri indicated a strong likelihood of official
Syrian involvement. That investigation remains in process.
On September 12, four Syrian
nationals with alleged Islamist ties used grenades, guns, and a small truck bomb
to launch an attack against the U.S. embassy in Damascus. All four of the
assailants were killed as was a Syrian security officer who responded to the
attack. In the incident's aftermath, the Syrian government enhanced security for
the embassy and American personnel in Syria, although it declined to provide the
embassy with the findings of its internal investigation into the attack.
Damascus repeatedly assured the United States that it will take every possible
measure to protect U.S. citizens and facilities in Syria, but at the same time
has not taken the measures considered necessary by the United States.
In 2004-2005, Syria upgraded
physical security conditions on the border and began to give closer scrutiny to
military-age Arab males entering Syria. (Visas are still not required for
citizens of Arab countries.) It also highlighted the repatriation of more than
1,200 foreign extremists and the arrest of more than 4,000 Syrians trying to go
to Iraq to fight. In November, Syria's foreign minister announced the resumption
of diplomatic relations with Iraq after a 25-year rupture, and, a month later,
the Syrian and Iraqi Ministers of Interior signed a five-year memorandum of
understanding to boost, among other things, joint efforts to control the borders
and combat terrorism.
As in recent years, Damascus
highlighted in Syrian government-controlled press, information about clashes on
Syrian territory with terrorist groups, particularly with the Jund a-Sham group.
Separately, in November, security agents on the Syrian side of the border with
Lebanon engaged in a gun battle with a Syrian Islamic militant from the Tawhid
and Jihad group. The militant, who was trying to use fake documents to cross
into Lebanon, subsequently blew himself up with a hand grenade.
1
U.S. fugitives range from convicted murderers, two of whom killed police
officers, to numerous hijackers. Most of those fugitives entered Cuba in the
1970s. In previous years, the Government of Cuba responded to requests to
extradite U.S. fugitives by stating that approval would be contingent upon the
U.S. returning wanted Cuban criminals.
2
During September, a U.S. fugitive sequestered his son, stole a plane at a local
airport in the Florida Keys, and landed illegally in Varadero, east of Havana.
American Interests Section efforts resulted in a visit to the male individual
and his son in Varadero. After several meetings between the aforementioned USINT
Offices and Cuban government officials, the son was returned in October to his
mother in Mexico, who had legal custody. Simultaneously, the father was returned
to the United States via charter flight to Miami, where he is being prosecuted.
The stolen private plane was later returned to the United States. This was the
first instance in which the Cuban government permitted the return of a fugitive
from U.S. justice.
Credit: United States Department
of State
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