U.S. adds Hamas and Hezbollah to list of terrorist groups

WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday added 22 groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, to the list of "terrorist" groups under tight financial controls introduced after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The main pro-Israeli lobbying organization in the United States applauded the decision, saying it showed the Bush administration intended to combat all forms of terrorism.

Six groups - Al-Qaida and five allegedly associated groups - came under the new rules in September. Al-Qaida, led by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the United States.

The addition standardizes the rules for all 28 groups on Washington's list of "foreign terrorist organizations" and suggests that the United States still wants to extend its campaign against terrorism beyond the Al-Qaida organization.

It also meets demands from Israeli leaders and U.S. lawmakers that the tighter restrictions apply to the groups which attack Israelis, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

"We applaud the Bush administration for its decision to aggressively go after all forms of terrorism," said Rebecca Needler, spokeswoman for the pro-Israeli American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

"This new list clearly shows that there is no distinction between terrorism against Americans and terrorism against Israelis," added an AIPAC official who asked not to be named.

"It brings all foreign terrorist organizations under one uniform set of rules," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a daily briefing.

"The new executive order (in September) gave us more authority to act against individuals, against organizations that are associated with these terrorist groups, and against banks that facilitate the flow of funds for them," he added.

Designation as a "terrorist organization" already led to the freezing of assets but under the September rules the United States can exclude from the U.S. market and block the assets of foreign banks which do not comply with its requests.

After President George W. Bush tightened up the system on Sept. 24, pro-Israeli groups complained that he had not included Hamas and Hezbollah. They said the United States, to muster Arab support for its campaign against Osama bin Laden, appeared to be distinguishing between attacks on Americans and attacks on Israelis.

The addition of the 22 groups could also be a minor victory for the view that the United States should fight "terrorism" on a broad front, not concentrate solely on bin Laden.

"The president has made clear that Al-Qaida is the first organization that we're going after, but it's not the only terrorist organization," Boucher said.

Other groups among the 22 include eight Arab organizations, three Colombian groups, the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) and the Basque group ETA.

The original six groups associated with bin Laden were Al-Qaida, Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, the Harakat ul-Mujahidin in Pakistan and Kashmir, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Thank you, Belial. Though I didn't encounter anything particularly incriminatting in any of the material you posted that was accessible.

Please note the letter below. Not that it necessarily demonstrates anything, but seemed then - as now - a logical assessment of my own feelings, based on my own expereinces.

24 JUL 1998

Senator Feinstein:

I've addressed this issue to your office once before and received no response, but I think it's important, so I'd like to do so once more.

I am disturbed by comments made yesterday I believe (7/23) by Congressman Joseph P Kennedy regarding his campaign to close the US Army School Of The Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. He claims that human rights abuses perpetrated by SOA graduates in Latin American countries are doctrinal to the US Army training those officers have received at the school. My experience as an Army Vietnam combat veteran compels me to think this is not true. For as many human rights abuses as were committed by US troops in that conflict (and there were many), NONE were doctrinal. Rather they were human. If you recall the massacre at My Lai for example, it was finally stopped by a US Army helicopter crew who were determined not to let it continue. It is this concern for what is right that is constantly inculcated into US armed forces personnel, the contrary committed by a relative few notwithstanding.

What disturbs me furthermore about Kennedy's comments is how easy a target the military is for someone with a broader agenda. This is somewhat akin to the recent "Tailwind" fiasco at CNN: Sure, go ahead, disinform on the military. Who's going to say anything. Well...we know how that turned out...at least to a somewhat more constructionist extent. It's always much easier to tear something down than to build it up or try to improve upon it. Should Harvard University, or wherever Kennedy went to school, be closed because a relatively small minority of its alumni has at some point engaged in criminal or other anti-social behavior?

I am not saying that military activities should not be monitored. This is essential to a democracy and civilian governance. But to insist on closing the School of the Americas based on a very concerted campaign of disinformation does no service whatsoever to the United States and Latin America. Rather, I strongly feel it is in our country's best interests to foster strong military ties with as many other countries in our hemisphere as we can, knowing that it is also in our interests to "understand" the military thinking of their leadership as well for an obviously wide variety of militarily related reasons.

One other important point: If we don't take the most pro-active role in training and working with the military forces of Latin American nations, there are many other countries not necessarily friendly to US interests who would be only too happy to fill such a void.

Thank you very much.

"onedoug"
Los Angeles

From a letter Mr. "onedoug" sent to his Senator -- letter provided by Mr. "onedoug" to USARSA on 28 July 1998)

The FBI is still NOT moving against known members of Hamas (OKC), Abu Nidal(Dallas,LA,DC), and ALqaeda(5 on East Coast identified by Bob Woodward=FBI admitted to him that FBI would NOT go after them!) that have been in the US for years and known to the FBI and DOJ and CIA.

AShcroft said yesterday that the USG would keep known members of Hamas and Hezbollah from coming into the US but he did not say the FBI or DOJ would do anything about the known cell members that are ALREADY in the US. Bush's order to freeze assets of these groups does not mean the FBI will go after these known Abu Nidal, AlQaeda and Hamas cell members nor go after the assests of these members already in the US. Bush and AShcroft and the FBI are being deceptive on this issue to Israel and the American people to appease the PLO,Syrians, the Saudis, radical Muslim Campaign contributers to Bush/Repub coffers.

The Hamas network in the US is still being preserved by the Bush administration to appease the Arabs even though Bush is falsely trying to make it appear he is going after their infrastructure in the US when in fact he is not, at least not yet. Maybe if Israeli intell and the Israeli government will verify my claims they then can then convince the US Congress and Bush to stop playing charades with Hamas , ABu Nidal and AlQaeda in the US so that not as many Americans and Israelis will get killed.

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