Tag Archives: designated terror groups

‘EU to mull listing Hezbollah as terror group’

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Photo: REUTERS

By Benjamin Weinthal

BERLIN – A discussion is under way within the EU about possibly listing  Hezbollah as a terrorist group, Austria’s Foreign Ministry informed The  Jerusalem Post on Saturday.

Austria appears to be the first EU country to  acknowledge that that the 27- member body has begun a process to designate the  Lebanese Shi’ite group as a terrorist organization.

He noted that  Hezbollah is not only represented in Lebanon’s parliament but is part of its  government, with two ministers in the cabinet.

“A listing of the  Hezbollah could, therefore, have immediate effects on the security of the  country and the stability of the government,” Schallenberg continued.

He  noted that Lebanon President Michel Suleiman seeks to create a “national  dialogue” in his country, with the goal of, for example, integrating Hezbollah’s  fighters and weapons into the state’s security forces. Schallenberg said that  the EU has up until now clearly supported Suleiman’s efforts.

He stressed  that it is important that the EU find a “joint position, especially in light of  the situation in Syria.”

News organizations reported that Hezbollah’s  militias joined forces with Syria’s regime to suppress the Syrian  rebellion.

The division among EU countries revolves around whether to  designate the entire Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, or just parts of  it.

Michel Malherbe, a spokesman for the Belgium Foreign Ministry, told  the Post on Thursday: “We believe that it could make sense, instead of qualifying Hezbollah  as a whole, to isolate armed subgroups, or individuals. This method has proven  its merits, and deserves a try.”

Critics of this approach (treating armed  wings separately from political branches) point to a statement from Hezbollah’s  No. 2 leader, Naim Qassem, who said in 2009: “Hezbollah has a single  leadership,” and “All political, social and jihad work is tied to the decisions  of this leadership.”

Qassem added, “The same leadership that directs the  parliamentary and government work also leads jihad actions in the struggle  against Israel.”

The United Kingdom classifies Hezbollah’s military wing  as a terrorist organization, but recognizes its political wing as a legitimate  political party. The Netherlands designated Hezbollah as whole to be a terrorist  group. Both Dutch and British foreign ministers have urged their EU counterparts  to place Hezbollah on the EU terror list.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

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US Designates Haqqani Network as Foreign Terror Organization

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WSJ: By Samuel Rubenfeld

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she told Congress she’s designating the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network as a foreign terrorist organization.

Associated Press
An Aug. 22, 1998, file photo shows Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant group the Haqqani network, speaking during an interview in Miram Shah, Pakistan.

The move may complicate relations between Washington and Islamabad, which U.S. officials say has ties to the group. Clinton said she made the decision in accordance with legislation signed into law Aug. 10 that gave the department until Sunday to decide whether the Haqqani Network met the criteria for designation.

The designation bars anyone from knowingly supporting or doing business with anyone in the Haqqani Network, and it freezes all U.S. property the group has any ownership interest in.

“These actions follow a series of other steps that the U.S. government already has taken against the Haqqanis,” Clinton said in a statement.

Dubbed “the Sopranos of the Afghanistan war” in a New York Times profile last year, the group has been tied to some of the deadliest attacks in the region. It built an empire out of kidnapping, extortion, smuggling and trucking, the profile said.

But the U.S. had until Friday targeted individual members with sanctions, rather than go after the network as a whole.

Given the regular contact that Pakistan’s intelligence service has with it, designating the Haqqani Network as a foreign terror organization could carry the implication that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism because of its support for the group, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Some officials cited by the Journal, mainly at the State Department, have argued in the past that designating the Haqqani Network would prevent the U.S. from entering into negotiations that would end the Afghan war. Those officials said the designation is merely symbolic because many of the network’s known leaders are already under sanctions from the Treasury and State Departments.

But military leaders in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon, according to the Journal report, urged for the designation to increase pressure on the group and on Islamabad.

Last week, American officials said Badruddin Haqqani, a senior member, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Badruddin was placed under U.S. sanctions in May 2011 for being an operational commander for the group.

More coverage of the designation is available here, here and here

 

U.S. Terror Designations Renew Challenge to Pakistan

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IPT news:

Eight leaders of the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba were designated as terrorists Friday by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Meanwhile, reports indicate the State Department is close to issuing a similar designation of the Haqqani Network, which also operates from Pakistan and is responsible for some of the most significant attacks against American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

A congressional deadline for the administration to act against the Haqqani Network, or explain why it won’t, is just over a week away. Pakistan has refused repeated American requests to root the terrorist group out of a lawless region close to the Afghanistan border. A U.S. drone strike in Pakistan last week killed the group’s operations commander Badruddin Haqqani.

The eight Lashkar officials targeted by Treasury Friday work in the group’s “propaganda campaigns, financial networks, and logistic support networks,” a Treasury statement said. That includes “commanders planning attacks to those managing LET’s relationships with other terrorist groups,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen.

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is considered responsible for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, including six Americans. Treasury describes one of the men designated, Sajjid Mir, as the attack’s project manager, ordering terrorists to execute hostages taken during the multi-day operation.

Investigations into the attacks showed that officials in Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency assisted the plotters.

ProPublica‘s Sebastian Rotella reports that the designation “sends a pointed, if largely symbolic, message to a Pakistani government that remains unable or unwilling to crack down on the extremist organization.”

A designation of the Haqqani Network would be an ever greater challenge to Islamabad, which only recently reopened key supply routes for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.