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Terror Networks
U.S. Adds 11 Islamist Groups to Annual Blacklist
2003-04-30
The United States on Wednesday added 11 militant Islamist organizations to its lists of "terrorist groups," reflecting closer attention paid by U.S. policy-makers to the Muslim world in the war on terrorism. The new second tier list of 38 "other terrorist groups" issued by the State Department also included two new non-Islamic groups -- the Communist Party of Nepal and the New Red Brigades in Italy.
Second tier = Triple-A clubs all trying for the majors.
The list of secondary groups acts as a watch list for the first-tier list of "foreign terrorist organizations" (FTOs) on which the United States imposes sanctions. The annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report did not change the list of FTOs, which now has 36 groups.
The majors, see above
The State Department removed one group from the second-tier list -- the Orange Volunteers, a pro-British group in Northern Ireland which appears to be dormant.
They're sitting in the pubs crying in their beer; "I used to be a contender, now I'm just a bum."
Two groups were promoted to the list of "foreign terrorist organizations" during 2002 -- the communist New People's Army in the Philippines and Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, which has been linked to a bombing on the resort island of Bali.
Jemaah Islamiya is wishing they stayed in the minors where nobody paid attention to them.
The 11 new militant Islamist groups are:
(drum roll)The envelope, please!

-- al-Badhr Mujahidin, said to have several hundred members in Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The State Department described it as an offshoot from Hizb ul-Mujahidin, a Pakistani-based group that operates mainly in Kashmir.

-- Ansar al-Islam, the small group which was based in Iraqi Kurdistan until the U.S. invasion of Iraq and which may no longer exist after U.S. and Kurdish forces attacked its base. The United States said it had links with al Qaeda.
"Had" being the operative word. Rumored to be relocating to a country to be named later.
-- the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, a small Uighur separatist group based in China's Xinjiang province. China had pressed the United States to take a stand against the group.

-- Hizb-i Islami Gulbuddin, founded by Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who opposes the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It operates mainly in eastern Afghanistan.
Hek's group made the list! Pity mom didn't live to see it, she would have been so proud of her boy.
-- Hizb ul-Mujahedin, described as the largest Kashmiri militant group and the political wing of Pakistan's largest political party, the Jamaat-i-Islami. The State Department said it may have several thousand members in Kashmir and Pakistan.

-- the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, one of three groups affiliated with Chechen guerrillas who took over a Moscow theater and took hundreds of hostages in October 2002.
Having both "Islamic" and "Peacekeeping" in their name costs them style points.
-- the Jamiat ul-Mujahidin, a small pro-Pakistani militant group formed in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1990.

-- the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which emerged in the late 1990s and had members train in Afghanistan. Members have trafficked in falsified documents and possibly guns, the State Department said.
Having false documents and guns is a requirement for being a islamic combatant, it sez so in the union rules.
Note: This may be the same organization as Moroccan Salafi Jihad.

-- Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs, another of the Chechen groups which took over the Moscow theater in October 2002. It is led by Chechen guerrilla chief Shamil Basayev.
Extra points awarded for longest name.
--Sipah-i-Sahaba, a Pakistani group that is violently opposed to Pakistan's Shi'ite community. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf banned the group in 2002.
Sipah, and most other Bad Guy groups, was recently authorized by the Pak government to change its name and go back into business, with a promise to be good. Maulana Azam Tariq, Sipah's supremo, has announced that he's open for business again as 'Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan'. It should take five or six years for the Millat to make it to State's terror list, which is the whole idea behind changing the names and putting on false noses and moustaches.
-- the Special Purposes Islamic Brigade, the third of the three Chechen groups implicated in the 2002 theater attack. The State Department said it probably had no more than 100 fighters at any given time.
Cuz ya got to be "Special" to get in.
Most of the those groups are already subject to financial sanctions under an executive order issued by President Bush after the September 2001 attacks on the United States.
Let's all give a big hand to this year's winners!
Posted by:Steve

#16  Steve and FS, I'm a "splitter." I'm forming the The Popular People's Front for the Liberation of Rantburg. It's only for the popular crowd...
Posted by: R. McLeod   2003-05-01 03:06:39  

#15  Rantburg Islamist Destruction Brigade, Anonymous Faction
Posted by: anon1   2003-04-30 21:45:24  

#14  If you make an org chart or an inter-relations chart of all the terrorist organizations, it will probably look like a root bound plant in terra cotta pot....
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-04-30 20:40:16  

#13  The Rolling Raging Rantburg Raider Commentators.
Posted by: Ptah   2003-04-30 20:32:24  

#12  Rantberg Anti Idiotarian Division
Rantberg Army Faction
Posted by: Ernest Brown   2003-04-30 19:22:13  

#11  Shining Rantburg Antichiraquien Path
Posted by: True German Ally   2003-04-30 19:03:22  

#10  And I shall split with you over fine points of smartassery, and form the Popular Front of Rantburg-General Command...
Posted by: Fred   2003-04-30 18:53:36  

#9  I will, all by myself, form the "Popular Front of Rantburg."
Posted by: Steve White   2003-04-30 18:17:45  

#8  I nominate "Peoples' Front of Rantburg" (PFR). Of course, it would be only a matter of time until a rival organization surfaced with the name of "Rantburg Peoples' Front" (RPF).
Posted by: Flaming Sword   2003-04-30 16:33:36  

#7  Al-Aska San Andreas Fault Breakers Martyrs Brigade
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-04-30 16:08:40  

#6  Damm, that should have been Faction. Fred, the spell check is broken again.
Posted by: Steve   2003-04-30 15:36:51  

#5  --Rantburg Snide Comments and Special Remarks Fanction of the International Bloggers Brigade--
Posted by: Steve   2003-04-30 15:35:02  

#4  Brigade seems to be the coming thing. I miss faction. I always wanted to be part of a faction.

Could we form a Rantburg Faction? The Special Peoples Rantburg Faction? Oh, I gotta find a way to work in some dashes ----- .
Posted by: Chuck   2003-04-30 14:40:15  

#3  Hey! What about the "General Purpose Truth and Understanding Through High Explosives Brigade and Dance Troupe, LLC."?

It's a big tent, folks...
Posted by: mojo   2003-04-30 14:06:15  

#2  *claps*

Oh, ya forgot the scare quotes around "winners", Steve.
Posted by: Ptah   2003-04-30 14:06:13  

#1  But blacklisting is BAD! Tim Robbins said so!
Posted by: FormerLiberal   2003-04-30 14:04:13  

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