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State Sponsors of Terrorism

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State Sponsors of Terrorism

"State Sponsors of Terrorism" is a designation applied by the United States Department of State to countries which the Department alleges to have "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism." Inclusion on the list imposes strict unilateral sanctions.

Contents

The countries currently on the list are Iran, Sudan, and Syria.

The list began on December 29, 1979, with Libya, Iraq, South Yemen, and Syria. Cuba was added to the list on March 1, 1982, and Iran on January 19, 1984. Later North Korea in 1988 and Sudan on August 12, 1993, were added. South Yemen was removed from the list in 1990, Iraq was removed twice in 1982 and 2004, Libya was removed in 2006, North Korea was removed in 2008, and Cuba was removed in 2015.

Iran

Iran was added to the list on January 19, 1984. According to Country Reports on Terrorism 2013:

Sudan

Sudan was added to the list on August 12, 1993.

According to Country Reports on Terrorism 2013:

Syria

Syria was added to the list on December 29, 1979. According to Country Reports on Terrorism 2013:

Cuba

Cuba was added to the list on March 1, 1982.

According to the United States of America, Cuba has a history of supporting revolutionary movements in Spanish speaking countries and Africa. "Havana openly advocates armed revolution as the only means for leftist forces to gain power in Latin America, and the Cubans have played an important role in facilitating the movement of men and weapons into the region. Havana provides direct support in the form of training, arms, safe havens, and advice to a wide variety of guerrilla groups. Many of these groups engage in terrorist operations." Cuba "encouraged terrorism in the hope of provoking indiscriminate violence and repression, in order to weaken government legitimacy and attract new converts to armed struggle" In 1992, after the Soviet collapse, Fidel Castro stressed that his country’s support for insurgents abroad was a thing of the past.

According to Country Reports on Terrorism 2010: August 18, 2011:

As a result of the December 17, 2014 agreement to restore relations with Cuba, the President has instructed the Secretary of State to immediately launch a review of Cuba's inclusion on the list, and provide a report to the President within six months regarding Cuba’s alleged support for international terrorism. Obama announced on April 14, 2015, that Cuba was being removed from the list. Cuba would not come off the list until after a 45-day review period, during which the U.S. Congress could try blocking Cuba's removal via a joint resolution. Congress did not act, and Cuba was officially removed from the list on May 29, 2015.

Iraq

Iraq was added to the list on December 29, 1979, and removed in 1982 to allow US companies to sell arms to it while it was fighting Iran in the Iran–Iraq War; it was re-added following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The State Department's reason for including Iraq was that it provided bases to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), and the Abu Nidal organization (ANO). It was again removed following the 2003 invasion and the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein. Following the invasion, US sanctions applicable to "state sponsors of terrorism" against Iraq were suspended on May 7, 2003, and President Bush announced the removal of Iraq from the list on September 25, 2004.

Libya

Libya was added on December 29, 1979.

On May 15, 2006, the United States announced that Libya would be removed from the list after a 45-day wait period. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explained that this was due to "...Libya's continued commitment to its renunciation of terrorism".

There is no evidence that Libya was, is a state sponsor of terrorism from 2011 - 2017. There is no official state that has officially sponsored terrorist activity, in fact, the official state is fragmented into 3 - 6 different states. Each state has its own government. Due to the ongoing civil war of 2011, and the political divide, Libya, security wise is dangerous. However, sponsorship of terrorism is a subjective subject.

The attack on the US embassy in Benghazi in 2012, was carried out by a Extremist Islamist militia group known as Ansar Al Sharia. This group is not officially part of any larger state authority, and is not recognized as one. In fact, it is recognized as a criminal organization by the wider Libyan public.

Traveling to Libya is ill advised, however there still is a presence of Foreign nationals working in Libya.

North Korea

North Korea was added in 1988, following the 1987 bombing of a South Korean air flight landing near Myanmar.

On June 26, 2008, President George W. Bush announced that he would remove North Korea from the list. On October 11, the country was officially removed from the list for meeting all nuclear inspection requirements.

The North was initially added because it sold weapons to terrorist groups and gave asylum to Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction members. The country is also responsible for the Rangoon bombing and the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858.

According to Country Reports on Terrorism: April 30, 2007:

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."

Terrorology specialist Gus Martin, writes in his university-level textbook, Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, perspectives and issues that “it is important to note that the State Department’s list includes countries that have significantly reduced their involvement in terrorism, such as North Korea and Cuba. For example North Korea was at one time quite active in attacking South Korean interests. In November 1987, North Korean operatives apparently destroyed Korean Airlines Flight 858, which exploded in Myanmar (Burma), The North Korea government has since renounced its sponsorship of terrorism.”

The U.S State Department said it made the decision as Pyongyang had agreed to the verification of all of its nuclear programs, etc.

In April 13, 2009, Pyongyang agreed to dismantle the Yongbyon facility as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal, and in response, the US removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist. Despite requests from the South Korea government to put North Korea back on the list after it sunk the Navy ship the ROKS Cheonan in 2010, the Obama administration stated that it will not do so because the act was conducted by only the North Korean military and was thus not an act of terror. However, following the incident, the Obama administration also stated that it would now closely monitor North Korea for signs for a return to international terrorism. US State Department spokesman P.J Crowley also said that returning North Korea to the list was under continual review.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that she was considering renaming North Korea on the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism. As of 2011, North Korea, unlike the other countries removed and the designated state sponsor of terrorism Sudan, is still listed as not fully cooperating with the United States to reduce terrorism.

In 2017, following the alleged state-sponsored murder of Kim Jong-nam (Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un's half-brother) using the nerve agent VX (banned under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, a convention which the North Korean government has not signed), pressure has been placed on the Trump administration to revoke Bush's lifting of sanctions.

South Yemen

South Yemen was added to the list on December 29, 1979. It had been branded a sponsor of terrorism due to its support for several left-wing terrorist groups. South Yemen was dropped from the list in 1990 after it merged with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), to become Yemen.

Sanctions

The sanctions which the US imposes on countries on the list are:

  1. A ban on arms-related exports and sales.
  2. 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.
  3. Prohibitions on economic assistance.
  4. 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.
  • Terrorist safe havens

    The U.S. Country Reports on Terrorism also describes "Terrorist safe havens" which "described in this report include ungoverned, under-governed, or ill-governed physical areas where terrorists are able to organize, plan, raise funds, communicate, recruit, train, transit, and operate in relative security because of inadequate governance capacity, political will, or both."

    References

    State Sponsors of Terrorism Wikipedia