The State Department has kept Libya on the U.S. list of terrorist
sponsors. A department report released on Wednesday said Tripoli has
cooperated in the U.S.-led war against Al Qaida and related groups, but
continues to associate with terrorist groups.
The report said Libyan officials financed a plan to
assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and that Libya continues to be involved in plots against
other countries.
The annual report also cited Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as
terrorist sponsors, Middle East Newsline reported. Iran was regarded as the leading terrorist sponsor.
"Libya remains designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and is still
subject to the related sanctions," the report, entitled "Country Reports on
Terrorism 2004," said. "In 2004, Libya held to its practice in recent years
of curtailing support for international terrorism, although there are
outstanding questions over its residual contacts with some past terrorist
clients."
The report cited Libya's renouncement of weapons of mass destruction and
cooperation with the United States against terrorist groups. The State
Department said that in October 2004, Libya was instrumental in the handover
of Amari Saifi, the number two figure in the Salafist Brigade for Call and
Combat, to Algeria. Saifi, also known as Abder Razak Al Para, was accused of
abucting 32 Western tourists in Algeria in 2003.
"The United States expressed its serious concerns about these
allegations and continues to evaluate Libya's December 2003 assurances to
halt all use of violence for political purposes," the report said.
In 2004, the United States began to remove sanctions from Libya. They
included the lifting of restrictions on travel to Libya, the easing of
economic sanctions and the termination of the state of emergency declared in
1986.
The retention of Libya as a terrorist sponsor would maintain the U.S.
ban on arms-related exports and sales to Tripoli, officials said. They said
Congress would be notified of any export license that could support
terrorism or significantly contribute to Libya's military potential.
"Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2004," the
report said. "Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of
Intelligence and Security were involved in the planning and support of
terrorist acts and continued to exhort a variety of groups to use terrorism
in pursuit of their goals."
Unlike previous years, department report, which contained 129 pages, did
not provide figures on attacks or casualties. Officials said this task was
the responsibility of the new National Counterterrorism Center, which issued
its own study on Wednesday.
The State Department report, which identified 40 terrorist groups, said
Iraq "remains the central battleground in the global war on
terrorism. Former regime elements, as well as foreign fighters and Islamic
extremists continue to conduct terrorist attacks against civilians and
non-combatants."
At the same time, Al Qaida was deemed the primary terrorist threat to
the United States. The report said several Al Qaida leaders have been
captured and the group's operational capability was weakened.
"Many senior Al Qaida leaders remained at large, continued to plan
attacks against the Untied States, U.S. interests and U.S. partners, and
sought to foment attacks by inspiring new groups of Sunni Muslim extremists
to undertake violent acts in the name of jihad," the report said.
The National Counterterrorism Center report cited 651 attacks deemed
terrorist in 2004. The center said these attacks killed 1,907 people last
year. Both figures represented a more than three-fold increase over 2003.
"The numbers can't be compared in any meaningful way," the center's
acting head, John Brennan, said.
