Terrorism Resources Terrorism Resources
MR. RUBIN: Now, if we could turn to the Secretary's designations on terrorism, there is a statement that I am going to briefly summarize under the Secretary's name that we will provide you after the briefing. The Secretary designated 28 groups today. This is the second biannual designation under the Act. Ambassador Sheehan will go through the various groups that this applies to. These designations have three main consequences, ensuring that it is a crime to provide funds, weapons or other types of tangible support to the designated organizations. Second, members and representatives of these organizations are ineligible for visas and are subject to exclusion from the United States. And, third, any funds that these organizations have in our country will be frozen. Through the good work of our counterterrorism coordinator, Michael Sheehan, the State Department plays a key role in this effort to stop terrorism. That is why Secretary Albright believes it is alarming that Congress has just voted to slash our funding for counterterrorism programs at a time of increased public concern about the terrorist threat and clear evidence that terrorists continue to target Americans, this action is directly contrary to the interest of our country and is one of the reasons the President has said he would veto the Foreign Operations Appropriation Bill. With those general comments, let me introduce you again to a regular briefer here in the briefing room, Ambassador Michael Sheehan. Thank you. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: Thank you, Jamie. Let me expound upon Jamie's opening remarks and say a few words about the Secretary's designation of the foreign terrorist organizations, FTOs as we know them, and then review a few other aspects of our counterterrorism policy. As a member of the State Department, our role isn't always as glamorous as those of my counterparts in other agencies, FBI, CIA, the military, apprehending criminals, bringing them back on airplanes late at night. But we are, rather, the steady and the political, diplomatic fight against terrorism. Often unseen, slow grind, diplomatic slog that I believe really pays dividends in the long term. What we do as part of this designation process--it is important to understand what it does. It isolates terrorists from their international--from the community of nations and from its sympathizers and its financial support. It criminalizes their behavior. This is a legal process that we go through that criminalizes the acts of terrorists. It depoliticizes their actions. It also is a basis to close off their space to move and operate. It means reducing their ability to maneuver by exposing them in the world public opinion, keeping them out of our airports, off airplanes and subjecting them to international scrutiny. We will continue to use the designation of FTOs, foreign terrorist organizations, as well as state sponsorship of terrorism, as key instruments of our counterterrorism policy. It is important to note this year too, as this is our second foreign terrorist organization designation, that we keep an eye on the groups, both for those that behave better and are dropped off the list--we've dropped three off the list this year--and for those that are added. It is a dynamic process and, although we do it every 2 years, we can add or subtract people from the list at any time. Let me also just review and state that this is part of a larger strategy and talk about some of the other results that we've had recently. First, this week in the United Nations Security Council, we introduced a resolution that would impose sanctions on the Taliban. The last time I was on this podium was to talk about the President's Executive Order on the Taliban and many people asked me around here what the impact would be. One of the things we have done is worked hard to multilateralize those sanctions and we are moving forward on that right now. We think right now in the Council we have a good deal of support and, hopefully sometime next week, we will be able to get a resolution on that. This UN action, similar to our Executive Order, would shut down the airlines, Ariana Airlines, of the Taliban and freeze their assets worldwide, as I said, effectively multilateralizing our sanctions. Since our Executive Order, by the way, in solidarity with the U.S. position, several countries have already taken action and limited financial transactions of the Taliban and air traffic with Afghanistan. It is important to note that this UN Security Council resolution has the support of many key members of the Council that often we don't always see eye to eye on every issue, but we are coming together on this important issue of counterterrorism. Let me also highlight a few of the other areas that we are moving forward on, on the law enforcement arena. Just allow me to reiterate that we continue to support the activities of the Scottish courts that are planning the trial of the two Libyan suspects for Pan Am 103. That dates back to 1988. We have a long memory in the counterterrorism business. Also, as you know, that was mentioned last week in the press, Hani al-Sayegh, one of the suspects of the Khobar bombing, is in the process of being deported back to Saudi Arabia and that legal process continues to move forward and we are actually warming up his airplane as we speak. Also, we brought back another individual, as you know was brought back last night from Africa, a suspect in the Dar Es Salaam bombing. So we are moving these fugitives around the world, where they can be properly tried for their crimes. The bringing back of this individual last night to New York brings the total to nine the number of individuals who have been apprehended for the two attacks last year and we are determined to bring back all the rest of those that are accused of that crime. Let me just also say that we are expanding the cooperation on counterterrorism around the world. Recently, I traveled to India where we significantly increased our dialogue and cooperation with the Indian Government on the issue of counterterrorism in South Asia. We are engaged right now in serious discussions with the Russians on the issue of counterterrorism. I plan to go there again later in the month to expand those. We continue to work very closely in the Middle East with many of our partners there, with the Israelis, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, many other countries in the Middle East also committed to combating terrorism. All this speaks positively for what we can do in the future. We have a lot more to do, so it's a daily grind of our office and many of our allies around the world. I would just like to reiterate and reemphasize what Jamie mentioned at the end, why the cuts in our programs for antiterrorism assistance are so important to me and why they are so debilitating to us. The Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program is really the currency of an Ambassador's security programs, not just for his Embassy but for all Americans that work and travel abroad. We use these funds to train our partners abroad in all types of security issues, such as the protection of our airports, borders and the other institutions that provide security in these countries. Let me just say for an example, if a country has weak security in an airport, just imagine the Ambassador going in and saying, you know, "We've determined that your security apparatus is weak and we think you should improve it," and he walks out. As opposed to the Ambassador can go in there, "We think the security in your airport is weak and we can help you improve it. And we have a program of trained professionals that can help you train your people." Not only does that bring training to that country but it also gives--it strengthens the relationship between our Embassy and the security institutions of those countries. This type of relationship is what yields results and allows us to pick up those types of individuals that move through airports and around the world, the terrorists, and lead to the results such as we saw last night of bringing back one of the Dar bombers. So I'd just like to reiterate again how important this funding is, one of many of the funding apparatus of the State Department which I believe brings results, and reiterate again the strong emphasis the Secretary's made to a full funding of the Administration's request for the State Department's budget and, of course, for my program and counterterrorism. Thank you very much. Q If I could go into a subject we touched on previously with Jamie Rubin. To what extent is the United States and the Federation of Russian Republics cooperating specifically with regard to terrorism in Russia recently, Bin Ladin's link and can you tell us anything at all about that and--anyway, I had something else but it dropped. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I think there's been a growing recognition between the governments of the United States and Russia of a common interest with a common threat of certain terrorist organizations. I was in Moscow last February and had very good conversations with the Russians. I led an interagency team from many aspects of our government, from the intelligence community, the FBI, Department of Defense and others, and we began a dialogue with the Russians on counterterrorism. That continues. There is dialogue among all the separate agencies within the battle of counterterrorism, which I won't get into in detail. And as I say, those are increasing. I think they're positive. They will continue. And I say I hope also to go back out there at the end of the month also to expand that dialogue. Q Mr. Chernomyrdin told me recently during his visit to the National Press Club that he thought it was Bin Ladin, and Bin Ladin--the blood of Russians and the blood of Americans was on the hands of Bin Ladin. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I don't have evidence directly leading it to Usama Bin Ladin or his organization. His organization, by the way, is very loosely organized around the world. It has alliances with other organizations. So people--when they talk about Bin Ladin, you have to be very specific and I don't have information on that. Q Could you speak a little bit about the addition of al-Qa'ida to this list and whether you view the fact that his organization hasn't--at least we haven't seen any evidence that they've had any kind of terrorist acts in the last year. Does the State Department view that as a success? And just to follow up, you say that you use this list as a way to kind of limit their ability to move about, but they don't advertise the fact that they belong to the group. So how--can't they just get on airplane? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: The answer to your first question is, why--we initially did an Executive Order against Usama bin Ladin and al-Qa'ida right after the bombings and we went through the--however, being designated as a foreign terrorist organization is a much more detailed legal process, and we started that last year, and we've just come to conclusion. And now we move from the Executive Order to include this designation which provides us a similar legal instrument. But what it does is, if you want to raise--the designation helps us prevent fundraising for an organization or people moving or associated with it. Now we have a legal basis to move against them. And so that's part of the reason for it, namely one of the main reasons. Q The earlier question was the fact that they haven't done in the last year. Do you view that as a-- AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I don't want to claim success on that yet. That would be an unlucky thing to do. But we're working hard to contain them and put pressure on them, but they're continuing their terrorist activity that we're very, very concerned about. I'm not about to claim any success on that. Q Why isn't there, like, any North Korea organization when North Korea is certified as a country that supports, sponsors terrorism? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: North Korea is on a state sponsorship list for its harboring of terrorists, primarily the Japanese Red Army, some of their people. But there are no North Korean organizations, per se, that are on our list, or organizations even associated with North Korea. They're on it for state sponsorship for harboring terrorists from other countries and previous terrorist acts of the past. But right now, there is not an FTO. Q I'm curious about a couple of omissions. For example, one of the more horrific terrorist incidents recently was apparently committed by an organization called the Real IRA. I don't see any of the Irish groups included in here even though, obviously, there were some acts of terrorism during the year. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: Let me make a statement about the IRA. In 1997, when we initiated this process, both the Irish and the British governments affirmed to us that the IRA was continuing to adhere to the cease-fire it declared in August of 1997, and that this cease-fire is genuine in both word and deed. We, therefore, decided not to designate the IRA as a foreign terrorist organization at that time. However, we continue to keep the IRA under review, and we have since then as well. We continue to review the activities also of some of the dissident elements, some of whom may be former IRA members, to determine if there is sufficient evidence to designate one of these splinter groups as a foreign terrorist organization under U.S. law. Q Does that mean that you did investigate the Real IRA and you were not able to make a specific connection? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: We are currently looking at that right now. We have currently decided not to designate any splinter groups at this time. That does not mean that we can't do so at any time in the future if that type of evidence is pulled together. Q I understand that the Secretary could designate an organization at any point, it doesn't have to be done on this two-year review. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: That's right. Q Why was al-Qa'ida not added earlier? The language that is in "The Patterns of Global Terrorism," which was issued almost a year ago, is exactly the same as the language you have today in describing why they are added to the list. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: It's a difficult process. It probably could have been accelerated but we thought we had enough to keep them bottled up at the time. But we wanted to go through the formal designation to make them an FTO. It's a very laborious and difficult process done by teams from the intelligence community, law enforcement, both Justice and Treasury as well as State Department analysts and it just takes a long time. It's a very painstaking process to go through this legal step. Q I understand you saying that but why can't you present to us some of that? What new do you have on them that you didn't have a year ago that has resulted in this? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I would say the case against them has developed a lot since the August bombing and that probably strengthened it tremendously. But we can't share--most of the information that is the basis of this report is classified and we do send a reclassified report up to the Congress that accompanies with it. Q Can you talk at all about the money raising or the now--now it makes it more difficult but what kind of monies have they raised in the U.S.? Has that been a problem or is this just something you want to preempt? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I don't think al-Qa'ida raises much money in the United States. Each terrorist organization has its own fundraising mechanisms and they've become very different over the years; al-Qa'ida has its own resources from Usama bin Ladin's own personal wealth, as well as we know that they have some sources of funding outside of Afghanistan. I won't get into the specifics on that. This legislation will help us curb that. It also just helps us focus the activity of our law enforcement officers as well as our coordination and other states that clamp down on that type of activity. Q Instead of the PKK leader Ocalan's arrest and he called for surrender of the organization and some part of the organization but I understand that the United States still see the organization, the terrorist organization still dangerous? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: Right now, we have noted that activity by Ocalan and his statements and we noted that in our analysis. Right now, though, based on the last two years and right now we are still determining that the PKK is a terrorist organization. However, if an organization takes that type of action and moves away from terrorism activity and makes the proper steps, then we will reconsider them as well as any other group. Q Another terrorist organization, this year's list, the revolutionary--the DHK--the leftist organization, is one of the left organization--I don't remember the name of it right now. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I'm not sure which one you mean. Q The second Turkish terrorist organization that you add to list also. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: It may be one of the--let me talk to you about that after this. I'm not exactly sure. I want to keep moving. Q Among the terrorist organization you cite in the report is the 17th of November and ELA from Greece. Yesterday, you participated in a meeting with the Minister of Public Order from Greece. I am wondering if you can tell us if the 17th of November and the other organization came up and if you are satisfied with the cooperation Greece has with you on these terrorist organizations. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: We did have meetings yesterday. Minister Khrisokhoidhis was here, met with not only Ambassador Pickering and others within the U.S. Government. I think we had very good, substantive meetings with him. We raised our concerns about some of the past investigations regarding some of those terrorist activities. We have confidence in Minister Khrisokhoidhis and he spoke to us about what he has been doing to energize his ministry, both not only against terrorism but against criminal elements in Greece and we had very good meetings. Q Administration spokesmen have recently said that the U.S. has asked Iran for help in the investigation of the Khobar Tower bombing and also some of the same spokesmen have said that the U.S. has information that it is looking into about the possible involvement of Iran in the same bombing. I wonder if you could both clarify that and tell us if the US has been asking Iran for cooperation in other terrorism cases? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: The answer to your second question is no, not that I'm aware of. And the first, I don't think I could add anything to what was already stated so I think I'll just leave it at that. I'll start right here, sir. Q What role did--political changes, changes in DFLP policy, play in your decision to drop the DFLP from the list? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I don't think that really plays. It doesn't really play. We look at the facts. We look at what--obviously, if groups make statements, political statements that they're going to move away from terrorism, that's very important. But, really, what we do is we look at the facts based on the statute of whether an organization is involved in terrorist activity over the past two years. If they are not, then they will be dropped from the books, and that is what happened with DFLP. Q And the same with regard to other groups like the DFLPGC which is also not carried out in the known acts. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: It's not known acts. Let me clarify this. It's not known acts of terrorists; it's terrorist activity, which could include such things as planning, training, surveillance. That type of activity also falls within the rubric of terrorist activity. Q What is your evaluation at this point of the Colombian guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, and have you been able to move against their criminal activities by freezing assets or any other kind of, you know, movement on your part? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: Both of those organizations remain on our list, the FARC and the ELN. In terms of us moving against their resources, I'm not aware of any. I think both of them are quite capable of getting their own resources within Colombia, as you know, through their different methods. Q Do you know at this point any question of any other paramilitary groups in Colombia as-- AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: We are looking at that. We've just started to review that as well as some of the (inaudible) groups in Central Africa. We're looking at whether they would fit under the designation. So we're reviewing that and, if they fall under the statute, we will do so, but right now I say it's under review. Q When will that-- AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: It's going right now, ongoing right now. Q (Inaudible) of the U.S. and India talked about cooperating? You mentioned that we've agreed to enhance cooperation and increase dialogue. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: We started off with a general discussion of how we saw the problem, and I think that was very fruitful, very open and candid discussion of the problem in South Asia. And we come up with several initiatives. I really don't want to get into the details of them because the details of those are being worked out. But suffice to say that was a good meeting, clearly a commitment on both sides to continue working together on this issue of mutual concern. But I don't want to get into details. As I get them, we'll roll them out as concrete things are developed. Q Mr. Ambassador, is dropping the DFLP from the list a positive sign of activities toward Middle East peace that maybe some of the old terrorism elements are gone? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I wouldn't speculate on that but I would say that it's important that the DFLP was dropped. It shows that if an organization does behave properly, move away from support for terrorist acts, they will be dropped and hopefully move into the political process. Q You were talking about isolating terrorist organizations and I was wondering, a lot of countries have opened their doors to the guerrilla groups in Colombia such as FARC and ELN. You've seen them go to Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela now and they also go into Europe or other places. And, well, I was wondering, do you have any suggestions for these countries as if they should open their doors to terrorist organizations? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: We certainly don't encourage that and we will be discussing that very thing with those countries that have FARC or ELN representation in it. Again, this type of designation helps us deal more directly and frankly with that issue. Q A question about the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria. Are you aware of any specific fundraising activities in the U.S. or any other activities that threaten the security of the U.S. nationals? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: I am not, of the GIA right now, of whether there is fundraising in the U.S., although most of these groups have fundraising tentacles that reach around the world. I don't know about the GIA specifically. Q Would you say that's the case with bin Ladin? AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: Bin Ladin--they all are different. His financing links certainly go beyond Afghanistan into different parts of the world, yes, definitely. Thanks. [end of document]
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