U.S. Charges that Iran, Iraq, Syria Continue to Aid Terrorists
U.S. Says a Few Nations, Including Libya and Sudan, Have Taken Positive Steps

May 22, 2002; Page A27
By Peter Slevin and Alan Sipress, Washington Post Staff Writers

International terrorist groups continue to draw support from the governments of Iran, Iraq and Syria despite appeals from President Bush for them to stop backing extremists, the State Department charged yesterday in its annual report on terrorism.

Hard-liners who hold power in Iran intensified their support for terrorist organizations that targeted Israel while also aiding terrorists in Turkey, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, according to the report. Syria and Iraq reportedly provided haven and logistical support to several organizations.

Yet the Bush administration, which made no changes to the roster of seven countries it considers state sponsors of terror, did credit several governments for "reconsidering their present course" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Even North Korea and Iran, two members of what Bush referred to as an "axis of evil," are noted as taking small steps "in some narrow areas" to cooperate. But North Korea's initial approach "halted abruptly," the State Department said, while Iran and Syria "seek to have it both ways." Iraq and Cuba alone made no progress, the administration said.

"Libya and Sudan seem closest to understanding what they must do to get out of the terrorism business, and each has taken measures pointing it in the right direction," the 197-page report states.

Governments in Tripoli and Khartoum took positive steps by condemning the Sept. 11 assaults and providing valuable intelligence, but neither has done enough to be taken off the terrorism list, the State Department said. Countries on the list are prohibited from receiving U.S. economic aid and are subject to controls on items that could be used for military or terrorist purposes. No nation has ever graduated from the list.

"In order to be removed from the list, a nation has not only to renounce terrorism, but to demonstrate conclusively that no longer will it use terrorism as a tool -- and none of the state sponsors has sufficiently indicated that," said Francis X. Taylor, the State Department's top terrorism official.

None of the seven countries was identified by the State Department as backing al Qaeda, the terror network blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and targeted around the globe ever since. Officials said yesterday that 1,600 suspected al Qaeda operatives have been arrested in 95 countries.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday named five countries on the list -- Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria -- as developing weapons of mass destruction. He said terrorists inevitably will acquire such weapons, perhaps from countries that have links to extremist organizations, "and they will not hesitate to use them."

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