A Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) is any person who is determined by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to be a specially designated terrorist (SDT) under notices or regulations issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The U.S. government began to use economic sanctions against international terrorists in 1995. The lead agency in the effort has been OFAC, under the U.S. Treasury Department.
Executive Order 12947, issued by President Bill Clinton on January 23, 1995, prohibits financial transactions with any SDT. Twelve organizations and 18 people were identified in the Order as threatening disruption of the Middle East peace process. The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the U.S. Attorney General were given the power to add other organizations and people to the list. On August 20, 1998, President Clinton expanded the list by Executive Order 13099.
All of the assets of all SDTs were frozen. In addition, transfers of "funds, goods, or services" to SDTs were prohibited. Also, any U.S. entity that holds any funds in which any interest is held in an SDT was required under the law to report its interest to appropriate U.S. authorities. The sanctions apply to any entity "owned or controlled by", or acting on behalf of, an SDT. They also apply to foreign branches of U.S. entities, but not to subsidiaries formed under non-U.S. law.
On January 25, 1995, Hamas and Hezbollah were listed as SDTs, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook was added in August 1995, Osama bin Laden was added in 1998, and on December 4, 2001, OFAC designated the Holy Land Foundation as an SDT. On February 28, 2006, Sami Al-Arian signed a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to contribute services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a SDT organization, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ยง 371; he was sentenced to 57 months in prison.
The SDT list appears in the Federal Register, which is updated regularly.