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05-12-2010, 11:18 AM
Pakistan Taliban May Join Terror List
May 12, 2010
Agence France-Presse
The United States said Tuesday it was mulling whether to blacklist Pakistan's Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization after it was implicated in the failed Times Square bombing.
The State Department designation would freeze any U.S. assets of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, ban Americans from funding or assisting the group and bar its members from entering the United States.
"We are considering the question of designating the Pakistani Taliban," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
"There is an intentionally deliberate process that we go through. And any group that is to be designated must meet very specific legal criteria," he said.
"It has come into sharp relief in light of the [failed] Times Square bombing and this is something that we are actively considering," Crowley said.
He added that the investigation of the plot might shed light on whether to blacklist the Taliban.
A group of U.S. senators, meanwhile, called for Pakistan's Taliban to be blacklisted.
"This group poses an existential threat to the safety of not only our Soldiers fighting abroad but also Americans here at home," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told a news conference.
"It's time we confronted them with every tool at our disposal," Schumer said.
Schumer, joined by four fellow Democratic senators, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to blacklist Tehreek-e-Taliban.
The administration has hesitated in part out of consideration for relations with Pakistan, where anti-Americanism runs rife and whose government is keen to be seen as fighting the Taliban on its own terms.
Schumer said he accepted the need not to blacklist Afghanistan's Taliban so as not to jeopardize Western-backed efforts to reintegrate guerrillas -- a key step in Obama's plan to start pulling U.S. troops from the country.
Schumer said that the Afghan Taliban -- remnants of a hardline regime that sheltered al-Qaida before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- by itself did not appear to be active abroad.
"The Pakistani Taliban is a different story," Schumer said.
"With this attack on our homeland, they've declared war on the citizens of the United States. We must respond appropriately," he said.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's chief Hakimullah Mehsud, whom U.S. officials earlier believed was killed in a missile strike, recently resurfaced in two videos and threatened attacks on major U.S. cities.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said there is evidence that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the May 1 plot, in which Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad allegedly left a car packed with explosives in New York's bustling Times Square.
The United States blacklists a range of prominent foreign movements as terrorist groups, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was accused of masterminding the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai.
Other U.S.-designated terrorist groups include the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, the Real Irish Republican Army and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.
Crowley did not say exactly when the State Department began mulling the Pakistan Taliban for the terror list.
"It is a group that we have been focused on for some time but I think in light of the Times Square attempt, it is something we are looking at very closely," he said.
http://www.military.com/news/article/pakistan-taliban-may-join-terror-list.html?col=1186032320397
May 12, 2010
Agence France-Presse
The United States said Tuesday it was mulling whether to blacklist Pakistan's Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization after it was implicated in the failed Times Square bombing.
The State Department designation would freeze any U.S. assets of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, ban Americans from funding or assisting the group and bar its members from entering the United States.
"We are considering the question of designating the Pakistani Taliban," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
"There is an intentionally deliberate process that we go through. And any group that is to be designated must meet very specific legal criteria," he said.
"It has come into sharp relief in light of the [failed] Times Square bombing and this is something that we are actively considering," Crowley said.
He added that the investigation of the plot might shed light on whether to blacklist the Taliban.
A group of U.S. senators, meanwhile, called for Pakistan's Taliban to be blacklisted.
"This group poses an existential threat to the safety of not only our Soldiers fighting abroad but also Americans here at home," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told a news conference.
"It's time we confronted them with every tool at our disposal," Schumer said.
Schumer, joined by four fellow Democratic senators, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to blacklist Tehreek-e-Taliban.
The administration has hesitated in part out of consideration for relations with Pakistan, where anti-Americanism runs rife and whose government is keen to be seen as fighting the Taliban on its own terms.
Schumer said he accepted the need not to blacklist Afghanistan's Taliban so as not to jeopardize Western-backed efforts to reintegrate guerrillas -- a key step in Obama's plan to start pulling U.S. troops from the country.
Schumer said that the Afghan Taliban -- remnants of a hardline regime that sheltered al-Qaida before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- by itself did not appear to be active abroad.
"The Pakistani Taliban is a different story," Schumer said.
"With this attack on our homeland, they've declared war on the citizens of the United States. We must respond appropriately," he said.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's chief Hakimullah Mehsud, whom U.S. officials earlier believed was killed in a missile strike, recently resurfaced in two videos and threatened attacks on major U.S. cities.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said there is evidence that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the May 1 plot, in which Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad allegedly left a car packed with explosives in New York's bustling Times Square.
The United States blacklists a range of prominent foreign movements as terrorist groups, including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was accused of masterminding the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai.
Other U.S.-designated terrorist groups include the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, the Real Irish Republican Army and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.
Crowley did not say exactly when the State Department began mulling the Pakistan Taliban for the terror list.
"It is a group that we have been focused on for some time but I think in light of the Times Square attempt, it is something we are looking at very closely," he said.
http://www.military.com/news/article/pakistan-taliban-may-join-terror-list.html?col=1186032320397