U.S. terror report mum
on Arafat's Fatah

WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has refused to place the Fatah movement headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on the State Department list of terrorist organizations.

Instead, a State Department report released on Monday quotes Israel as accusing Fatah and Palestinian Authority security agencies of attacking Israeli installations and bombing buses. The report, however, did not explicitly confirm the Israeli assertion, Middle East Newsline reported.

"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 report said. "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."

It was the first time the report, entitled "Patterns of Global Terrorism," cited a foreign source regarding terrorist activities without placing those said to have carried out the attacks on the State Department list of terrorist groups. Otherwise the report is virtually identical to that issued last year.

Fatah was taken off the State Department list of terrorist groups after the Oslo accords in 1993. Congress has pressured the Bush administration to return Palestinian groups to the list, which would ban any formal U.S. contact with Arafat's movement.

Syria, Iran and Iraq are again on the list of terrorist sponsors. Other terrorists sponsors on the list, which deals with the year 2000, are Libya, Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan.

Lebanon, which harbors the Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, does not appear on the list. The report cited the inability of the Lebanese government to control events in the country, which is occupied by 30,000 Syrian troops.

"The United States was concerned that a variety of terrorist groups operated and trained inside Lebanon, although Lebanon has acted against some of those groups," the report said. "Lebanon also has been unresponsive to U.S. requests to bring to justice terrorists who conducted attacks against U.S. citizens and property in Lebanon in previous years."

The report also said the United States is under great threat of terrorist attacks in the Middle East. The report said the United States is being blamed for its support of Israel amid the miniwar against the PA.

But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington is increasing cooperation with countries in the Middle East in the battle against terrorism. He cited Egypt, Israel and Jordan.

"We have increased our cooperation with a number of countries and regions," Powell said. "We maintain strong working relationships with many of our allies in the Middle East, including Jordan, Egypt and Israel, and we look to expanding partnerships in the Arabian Peninsula."