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United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations

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"Foreign Terrorist Organization" (FTO) is a designation for non-United States-based organizations deemed by the United States Secretary of State, in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (INA), to be involved in what US authorities define as terrorist activities. Most of the organizations on the list are Islamist extremist groups, nationalist/separatist groups or Marxist militant groups.

Contents

The Department of State, along with the Treasury Department, also has the authority to designate individuals and entities as subject to counter-terrorism sanctions according to Executive Order 13224. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains a separate list of such individuals and entities.

Identification of candidates

The Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (S/CT) in the US State Department continually monitors the activities of groups it does not support active around the world considered potentially "terrorist" to identify targets for designation. When reviewing potential targets, S/CT looks not only at the actual attacks that a group has carried out, but also at whether the group has engaged in planning and preparations for possible future acts of violence or retains the capability and intent to carry out such acts.

Designation process

Once a target is identified, the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism prepares a detailed "administrative record," which is a compilation of information, typically including both classified and open sources information, demonstrating that the statutory criteria for designation have been satisfied. If the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, decides to make the designation, the United States Congress is notified of the Secretary's intent to designate the organization and given seven days to review the designation, as the INA requires. Upon the expiration of the seven-day waiting period, notice of the designation is published in the Federal Register, at which point the designation takes effect. An organization designated as an FTO may seek judicial review of the designation in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit not later than 30 days after the designation is published in the Federal Register.

Under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the FTO may file a petition for revocation two years after the designation date (or in the case of redesignated FTOs, its most recent redesignation date) or two years after the determination date on its most recent petition for revocation. In order to provide a basis for revocation, the petitioning FTO must provide evidence that the circumstances forming the basis for the designation are sufficiently different as to warrant revocation. If no such review has been conducted during a five-year period with respect to a designation, then the Secretary of State is required to review the designation to determine whether revocation would be appropriate.

The procedural requirements for designating an organization as an FTO also apply to any redesignation of that organization. The Secretary of State may revoke a designation or redesignation at any time upon a finding that the circumstances that were the basis for the designation or redesignation have changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation, or that the national security of the United States warrants a revocation. The same procedural requirements apply to revocations made by the Secretary of State as apply to designations or redesignations. A designation may also be revoked by an Act of Congress, or set aside by a Court order.

(Reflecting Amendments to Section 219 of the INA in the 2001 Patriot Act)

  • It must be a foreign organization.
  • The organization must engage in terrorist activity, as defined in section 212 (a)(3)(B) of the INA (8 U.S.C. § 1182(a) (3)(B)),* or terrorism, as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. § 2656f(d) (2)),** or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism.
  • The organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States.
  • It is unlawful for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide "material support or resources" to a designated FTO. (The term "material support or resources" is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b) as "currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel, transportation, and other physical assets, except medicine or religious materials.")
  • Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances, removable from the United States (see 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182 (a)(3)(B)(i)(IV)-(V), 1227 (a)(1)(A)).
  • Any U.S. financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which a designated FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

    • Other effects of designation

    The U.S. Department of State lists the following items as additional considered beneficial effects of designation:

  • Supports efforts to curb terrorism financing and to encourage other nations to do the same.
  • Stigmatizes and isolates designated terrorist organizations internationally.
  • Deters donations or contributions to and economic transactions with named organizations.
  • Heightens public awareness and knowledge of terrorist organizations.
  • Signals to other governments U.S. concern about named organizations.

    • Official designation of a group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization also triggers more robust means of combat under the Authorization for Use of Military Force act.

    Groups designated as FTOs

    List is current as of March 01, 2017, organized by region and country of origin:

    Delisted FTOs

    The following groups have been removed from the State Department list, as of December 9, 2015,

    Criticism

    The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue noted in a 2006 report that third parties play no role in the designation process, and that designated organizations only learn of the designation once it has occurred, with no chance of rebuttal. Listed entities may request reviews, or challenge the listing in court, but success is limited.

    In April 2014, Noam Chomsky criticized the list, saying:

    Why should we even take the terrorist list seriously? What's the terrorist list? The executive branch of the government simply determines you're a terrorist. I put you on the list. No review. No judicial review. No defense. It's just an executive act of an authoritarian state. Why should the state have the right to determine unilaterally who's a terrorist? Do they have that right? No, they don't.

    Controversies

    The 2012 delisting of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) was supported by numerous US lawmakers, and defense and foreign policy officials, but was criticized by the National Iranian American Council. The Treasury Department investigated allegations that payments to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, on behalf of his lobbying for the MEK, had violated the legal ban on material support for an FTO.

    In November 2013, the State Department listed the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram as an FTO. In 2014, Republican members of Congress criticized the State Department for not designating the group as an FTO earlier.

    In August, 2014 the Christian Science Monitor reported that U.S. military was coordinating with Kurdish forces in Iraq, including elements of the PKK, seemed to be in violation of the ban on assistance to a designated FTO.

    References

    United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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