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| Terror Networks | ||
| U.S. Adds 11 Islamist Groups to Annual Blacklist | ||
| 2003-04-30 | ||
| The United States on Wednesday added 11 militant Islamist organizations to its lists of "terrorist groups," reflecting closer attention paid by U.S. policy-makers to the Muslim world in the war on terrorism. The new second tier list of 38 "other terrorist groups" issued by the State Department also included two new non-Islamic groups -- the Communist Party of Nepal and the New Red Brigades in Italy. Second tier = Triple-A clubs all trying for the majors. The list of secondary groups acts as a watch list for the first-tier list of "foreign terrorist organizations" (FTOs) on which the United States imposes sanctions. The annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report did not change the list of FTOs, which now has 36 groups. The majors, see above The State Department removed one group from the second-tier list -- the Orange Volunteers, a pro-British group in Northern Ireland which appears to be dormant. They're sitting in the pubs crying in their beer; "I used to be a contender, now I'm just a bum." Two groups were promoted to the list of "foreign terrorist organizations" during 2002 -- the communist New People's Army in the Philippines and Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, which has been linked to a bombing on the resort island of Bali. Jemaah Islamiya is wishing they stayed in the minors where nobody paid attention to them. The 11 new militant Islamist groups are: (drum roll)The envelope, please! -- al-Badhr Mujahidin, said to have several hundred members in Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The State Department described it as an offshoot from Hizb ul-Mujahidin, a Pakistani-based group that operates mainly in Kashmir. -- Ansar al-Islam, the small group which was based in Iraqi Kurdistan until the U.S. invasion of Iraq and which may no longer exist after U.S. and Kurdish forces attacked its base. The United States said it had links with al Qaeda. "Had" being the operative word. Rumored to be relocating to a country to be named later. -- the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, a small Uighur separatist group based in China's Xinjiang province. China had pressed the United States to take a stand against the group. -- Hizb-i Islami Gulbuddin, founded by Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who opposes the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It operates mainly in eastern Afghanistan. Hek's group made the list! Pity mom didn't live to see it, she would have been so proud of her boy. -- Hizb ul-Mujahedin, described as the largest Kashmiri militant group and the political wing of Pakistan's largest political party, the Jamaat-i-Islami. The State Department said it may have several thousand members in Kashmir and Pakistan. -- the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, one of three groups affiliated with Chechen guerrillas who took over a Moscow theater and took hundreds of hostages in October 2002. Having both "Islamic" and "Peacekeeping" in their name costs them style points. -- the Jamiat ul-Mujahidin, a small pro-Pakistani militant group formed in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1990. -- the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which emerged in the late 1990s and had members train in Afghanistan. Members have trafficked in falsified documents and possibly guns, the State Department said. Having false documents and guns is a requirement for being a islamic combatant, it sez so in the union rules.
-- Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs, another of the Chechen groups which took over the Moscow theater in October 2002. It is led by Chechen guerrilla chief Shamil Basayev. Extra points awarded for longest name. --Sipah-i-Sahaba, a Pakistani group that is violently opposed to Pakistan's Shi'ite community. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf banned the group in 2002.
Cuz ya got to be "Special" to get in. Most of the those groups are already subject to financial sanctions under an executive order issued by President Bush after the September 2001 attacks on the United States. Let's all give a big hand to this year's winners! | ||
| Posted by:Steve |
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| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-05-01 03:06:39 |
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| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-04-30 16:08:40 |
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| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-30 15:36:51 |
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| Posted by: FormerLiberal 2003-04-30 14:04:13 |