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| Europe |
| The Evidence of Absence |
| 2006-02-03 |
| Since September 11, the European-U.S. partnership in the war on terror has generally been strong. Even countries vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq, such as France and Germany, have been cooperating with the US. In fact, John McLaughlin, the former CIA director, described the relationship between the CIA and its French counterparts as "one of the best in the world. What they are willing to contribute is extraordinarily valuable." But if Europe is really America's ally, how come it does not include Al Qaeda on its list of terrorist organizations? More importantly, why doesn't anyone seem to care? Indeed, it is common knowledge that the Lebanese Shia terrorist group Hezbollah is not part of the EU's list. This is a matter of controversy -- Israel wants Hezbollah included but France has resisted, saying the group fulfills a "social function." But nowhere is Al Qaeda mentioned. Following the September 11 attacks, the European Union formulated an official list of terrorist organizations. Groups such as the Basque separatist organization ETA, "the external security arms of Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad", the real IRA, and the Orange Volunteers were placed on this list, which obliges member states to seize their assets. But there was no mention of Al Qaeda and this was three months after the attacks in New York and Washington DC. The most recent EU list of December 2005 includes now 48 groups (they removed Hezbollah altogether) but still no Al Qaeda. As a comparison, Al Qaeda is of course included in the US State Department list as well as the UK and Australia ones, which seems only natural and common sense. So, how come the European Union does not consider Al Qaeda a terrorist entity? Even though the EU has a different definition of terrorism than the US, there's no way Al Qaeda could not fit it. Europeans have been historically lenient towards what they assume to be "freedom fighting" groups or "mostly social" entities such as Hezbollah. But Al Qaeda cannot be considered either a freedom fighting group, except if one assumes that they are liberating the ex Caliphate, or a social group. But still the EU would not have it; Al Qaeda does not seem to fit its definition of a terrorist group. The reason behind this is that Osama Bin Laden's organization is much more a franchise than an organized entity. Al Qaeda is a loose collection of different terror networks and therefore cannot be construed as one group per se. This argument does not hold water because Al Qaeda always had a centralized command, a clear hierarchy. Interestingly enough, this issue has not really been on the table: for instance the latest available State Department report on Patterns of Global Terrorism does not mention the EU's omission. While Hamas and Hezbollah's potential inclusion to the EU list got a lot of coverage and rightly so, Al Qaeda got none whatsoever. Regarding Hamas, the US lobbied with the help of some European allies to include the Palestinian terrorist group in that list, overcoming France's refusal. It would be wise for American diplomacy and Congress to tackle this issue and pressure the European Union to add Al Qaeda to its terrorist list. Over four years after the bloodiest terrorist attacks in history, it's well past time. |
| Posted by:tipper |