[A-List] US Imperialism: Iran

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Iran still most active supporter of terrorism, State Department
report says
Tue May 21, 1:36 PM ET
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON - Iran remains the world's most active sponsor of
terrorism, while Sudan and Libya took some steps ? but not
enough ? to "get out of the business," the U.S. State Department
said Tuesday in an annual report to Congress.


The report listed the same seven countries ? Iran, Sudan, Libya,
Iraq, North Korea (news - web sites), Cuba and Syria ? as state
sponsors of terrorism that it had named last year.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said the
report marks the significant progress the United States and its
partners in the terrorism fight are making.

"Country by country, region by region, coalition members have
strengthened law enforcement and intelligence cooperation," he
said.

But Powell also cautioned that terrorists are trying every way
they can to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction ?
"whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear."

And Francis X. Taylor, the department's counter-terrorism
coordinator, warned that "additional terrorist attacks are very,
very likely."

Of those on the list of state sponsors, Iran has intensified its
backing for violent Palestinian groups that attack Israel, but
Iran also apparently has reduced its other terror activity, the
report said.

In this mixed picture, the State Department said there was no
evidence that Iran sponsored or knew in advance of the Sept. 11
attacks, a point that U.S. law enforcement officials have made
privately.

Yet, Iran continued to supply Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian
groups with money, haven, training and weapons, the report said,
and encouraged Hezbollah and Palestinian groups to coordinate
their activities.

In certain areas, including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, state
sponsors remain a driving force behind terrorism, the report
said. Iran, Iraq and Syria were all cited for backing terror
groups.

Israel's cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (news - web
sites) broke down because of the Palestinian uprising, and
counter-terrorism by the Authority "remained sporadic throughout
the year," the report said.

But the report also accused Israel of destroying the
Palestinians' security apparatus, an assertion that Israel has
rejected in the past.

Iraq provided training and political encouragement to many terror
groups, but its main focus was on dissident Iraqis opposed to
President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the report said.

Syria and Lebanon cooperated with the United States in the fight
against al-Qaida, but refused to recognize other groups that
conduct terrorism against Israel, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as
terrorists, the report said.

Some of the seven listed countries, particularly Sudan and Libya,
took steps to get out of the terrorism business, but "none has
yet taken all necessary actions to divest itself of ties to
terrorism," the report said.

And positive moves in North Korea were halted abruptly, the
report said.

Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites), meanwhile, views
terror as a legitimate revolutionary tactic, the report said,
even though he signed all 12 U.N. counter-terror convention.

Little evidence was offered to justify bracketing Cuba with the
six other countries whose support for terror was recounted.

Overall, terrorist attacks claimed a record number of lives ?
3,547 ? in 2001, about 90 percent of them in the Sept. 11 attacks
in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the State Department
said.

And yet, the number of international terror attacks declined to
346, down from 426 in 2000. A little more than half of the
attacks, 178, were bombings against an international oil pipeline
in Colombia.

The report called the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon (news - web sites) and an airline that crashed in
Pennsylvania, "the worst international terrorist attack ever.


Full at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020521/ap_wo_
en_ge/us_terrorism_report_1