In its annual report on world terrorism, the United States
Department of State said that the number of international
terrorist attacks increased by 8 percent last year
throughout the world. With regard to the situation in
Israel, the report noted that the Israelis accuse
Palestinian Authority security officials of involvement in
terrorist attacks against Israel. However, the report
stopped short of directly accusing the Palestinians of such
actions.
Entitled "Patterns of Global Terrorism-2000," and released
by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the
State Department, the report is a detailed review of terror
throughout the world. In the 4,000 word review of Middle
East terror, the report included the following
paragraphs:
"Despite demonstrated Palestinian efforts to uproot
terrorist infrastructure earlier in the year, Israeli
officials publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with PA
counterterrorism efforts during the crisis. The Israelis
also accused PA security officials and Fatah members of
facilitating and taking part in shooting and bombing attacks
against Israeli targets, including the bus bombing in Tel
Aviv on 28 December. The Israelis charged that the release
of several prisoners during the crisis had facilitated
terrorist planning by the groups and that Palestinian
security officials had not been responsive to their calls
for more decisive measures against the violence.
"Israeli officials publicly expressed well-founded concern
that Iran supported Palestinian rejectionist efforts to
disrupt the Middle East peace process. The Israelis also
stated Palestinian rejectionists increasingly were
influenced by Lebanese Hizballah. Public statements by
HAMAS, the PIJ, and other Palestinian rejectionist officials
since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May
lauded Hizballah's actions and called for emulating
Hizballah's victory in the territories."
U.S. counterterrorism coordinator Edmund Hull said that by
including the allegations, the U.S. meant they had some
credibility, even if it could not prove them. Nonetheless,
much of the report, in its review of the conduct of the
Palestinian Authority, concentrates on the security
cooperation of the PA with Israel during the earlier part of
the year.
Although most of the information was collected during the
Clinton administration (since it refers to the calendar year
2000), the Bush administration had ample time to review and
change the report, and therefore it represents the first
view of global terrorism under the new administration. Those
familiar with past reports noted that it is significant that
the report cites Israeli charges of Palestinian involvement,
even though the report does not make any factual findings of
its own on this matter. Since it refers only to events
within the year 2000, much of the more recent evidence and
charges of the involvement of the Palestinian Force 17 is
not included.
In his statement upon the release of the report Monday
afternoon, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell stressed the
Bush administration's resolve to do something to combat
world terror, "The year 2000 was certainly not a year
without the scourge of terrorism upon the face of the earth.
But this should not obscure the basic message of today's
report. International cooperation against terrorism is
increasing and it is paying off."
Powell cited several significant achievements in the war
against terror during the past year, including UN sanctions
against the Taliban, the beginning of the trial "that led to
an eventual conviction in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103,"
and the trials of the "accused perpetrators and co-
conspirators in the East Africa embassy bombings" among
other successes.
South Asia remains the focal point for terrorism directed
against the United States, the department's report said,
with the Taliban in Afghanistan continuing to provide safe
haven for international terrorists and Pakistan backing
terrorist groups as well.
Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria make
up the list of nations accused of state-sponsored terrorism
which brings with it strict sanctions. This list has not
changed since 1993 when Sudan was added.
Secretary Powell was proud of the successes, but he did not
minimize the threat. "Terrorism is a persistent disease," he
said. "Many of you have heard me speak of the positive side
of globalization. But terrorism shows the dark side as it
exploits the easing of travel restrictions, the improvements
of communication or the internationalization of banking and
finance, making it easier for terrorists to do some of their
work. And so the fight goes on."
Of the 19 Americans killed in acts of international
terrorism last year, 17 died in the attack against the
destroyer Cole in October in the Yemeni port of Aden.
Another American victim was one of three aid workers killed
in West Timor. An American journalist was killed when rebels
in Sierra Leone fired at the car in which he and other
journalists were riding.
Iran continues to top the list of countries accused of state-
sponsored terrorism, backing groups that try to prevent
Middle East peace. The report also accused Lebanon of being
"unresponsive" to American requests to bring to justice
terrorists who conducted attacks against American citizens
and property in Lebanon.
Overall, there were 423 terrorist attacks in 2000, compared
with 392 the previous year. Rebel bombing attacks on
multinational oil pipelines in Colombia accounted for much
of the increase. Two hundred of the attacks in 2000 were
directed against the United States.
Thirteen of the 28 organizations on the U.S. list of
designated "foreign terrorist organizations" are based in
the Middle East, the vast majority of them for attacks on
Israel.
The report contained significant cautions and criticisms of
Lebanon. "A variety of terrorist groups--including
Hizballah, Usama Bin Ladin's (UBL) al-Qaida network, HAMAS,
the PIJ, the PFLP-GC, `Asbat al-Ansar, and several local
Sunni extremist organizations--continued to operate with
varying degrees of impunity, conducting training and other
operational activities. Hizballah continued to pose the most
potent threat to US interests in Lebanon. Although Hizballah
has not attacked US targets in Lebanon since 1991, it
continued to pose a significant terrorist threat to US
interests globally from its base in Lebanon. Hizballah
voiced its support for terrorist actions by Palestinian
rejectionist groups in Israel and the occupied
territories."
However, the reported noted that Lebanon "did not act,
however, on repeated US requests to turn over Lebanese
terrorists involved in the hijacking in 1985 of TWA flight
847 and in the abduction, torture, and--in some cases--
murders of US hostages from 1984 to 1991."
