Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Foreign Terrorist Organizations are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance the law.

Legal Criteria for Designation

1. It must be a foreign organization.
2. The organization must engage in terrorist activity, or terrorism, or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism.
3. The organization's terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the United States.

Other Effects of Designation

1. Supports our efforts to curb terrorism financing and to encourage other nations to do the same.
2. Stigmatizes and isolates designated terrorist organizations internationally.
3. Deters donations or contributions to and economic transactions with named organizations.
4. Heightens public awareness and knowledge of terrorist organizations.
5. Signals to other governments our concern about named organizations.

Legal Ramifications of Designation

1. A person in the US or subject to the jurisdiction of the US may not knowingly provide "material support or resources" such as financial services, lodging, or expert advice to a designated FTO.
2. Members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances, removable from the United States.
3. Any U.S. financial institution that has possession of or control over funds in which a designated FTO t has an interest must control over the funds and report it to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (as of August 2002)

1. Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) 
2. Abu Sayyaf Group 
3. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade 
4. Armed Islamic Group (GIA) 
5. Asbat al-Ansar 
6. Aum Shinrikyo 
7. Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) 
8. Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) 
9. HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement)
10. Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)
11. Hizballah (Party of God)
12. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
13. Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) (Army of Mohammed)
14. al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad)
15. Kahane Chai (Kach)
16. Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
17. Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LT) (Army of the Righteous)
18. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
19. Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK)
20. National Liberation Army (ELN)
21. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
22. Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)
23. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
24. PFLP-General Command (PFLP-GC)
25. al-Qa'ida
26. Real IRA
27. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
28. Revolutionary Nuclei (formerly ELA)
29. Revolutionary Organization 17 November
30. Revolutionary People's Liberation Army/Front (DHKP/C)
31. Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)
32. Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso, SL)
33. United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)
34. Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army (CPP/NPA)

Background

• In October 1997, then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright approved the designation of the first 30 groups as FTOs.
• In October 1999, Secretary Albright redesignated 27 of these groups as FTOs but determined that three organizations should not be redesignated.
• Secretary Albright designated one additional FTO in 1999 (al-Qa'ida) and another in 2000 (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan).
• Secretary of State Colin L. Powell designated two additional FTOs (Real IRA and United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) in 2001.
• In October 2001, Secretary Powell redesignated 25 of the 28 FTOs whose designations were due to expire, combining two previously designated groups (Kahane Chai and Kach) into one.
• Secretary Powell has designated five additional FTOs (Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Asbat al-Ansar, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e Tayyiba and Salafist Group for Call and Combat) between October 2001 and July 2002.