Word: terrorist
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...United States' biannual list of countries alleged to sponsor terrorism is as much a practice in politics as it is in practicalities. The State Department's "Patterns in Global Terrorism" document released Monday emphasizes that most terrorist activity today emanates from groups independent of any state that can't easily be reined in by pressure on a government. Nonetheless, though the report focuses particularly on the upsurge in terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan - and uses the mention as a means to pressure those countries - it stops short of adding them to the official list of countries supporting terrorism...
...list of "official" sponsors of terrorism remains static - Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Sudan - although in many cases "qualifying" for the list (and the harsh sanctions that come with it) is somewhat of a stretch. "North Korea may have a couple of old-time Japanese Red Army terrorists from the '70s still kicking around there, but it's not considered an active sponsor of terrorism," says TIME Washington correspondent Massimo Calabresi. "But the U.S. is actively using North Korea's presence on that list as a bargaining chip in negotiations to get Pyongyang to back off on proliferating...
...Pakistan, on the other hand, is an immediate problem area. It plays host to at least one group designated a terrorist organization by the State Department (the Kashmiri Harkat al Mujahedeen, implicated in last December's Indian Airlines hijacking) and has refused to close the organization down despite pressure from Washington. But adding Pakistan to the list would mean closing the door on an already unstable nuclear power, and that remains an unlikely scenario. While castigating its record on terrorism, State Department counterterrorism coordinator Michael A. Sheehan made clear that Pakistan "is a friendly state that is trying to tackle...
...cost (up to $60 billion on top of $60 billion already spent) to its viability (tests of the system's prototype interceptor missiles have been decidedly hit-and-miss) and its purpose (defense analysts believe the "rogue states" the system is supposedly designed for are likely to prefer terrorist methods over missiles to attack the U.S.), national missile defense has become an enduring favorite of both the White House and Capitol Hill. But building the system would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, and Moscow has not only refused to negotiate a loophole for Washington, but has warned that violating...
...kidnappers are indeed members of the skittish terrorist group and not simply some of the pirates for which the region is notorious, American tourists James and Mary Murphy, of Rochester, N.Y., may be even luckier than they first thought to have escaped their captors. Those currently held captive at an undisclosed location in Philippines waters include citizens of Finland, France, Germany, Lebanon, Malaysia and South Africa. But if they had managed to hold onto the two Americans who escaped during the raid on the Sipadan resort, that might have tempted the kidnappers to aim high in their demands. Although...