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Vol. 74/No. 45      November 29, 2010

 
Washington offers to take
Sudan off ‘terror’ list
 
BY ANGEL LARISCY  
The Barack Obama administration recently announced it was holding out a carrot to Sudan—the possibility of being removed from the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. The price for getting on Washington’s good side is for the Khartoum government to go forward with a January referendum that will likely divide the country, and provide a more favorable situation for imperialist powers in the oil-rich nation.

The U.S. government also made clear that any hindrance of the thousands of African Union and United Nations armed forces stationed in Sudan will “reflect negatively on our abilities to carry out these steps.”

The “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list was begun under the James Carter administration in 1979. There are four countries on the list—Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Along with sanctions of various kinds, the list is used by Washington to maintain pressure on governments that fail to meet U.S. government demands politically or economically. A broader list of “countries of interest” is also maintained by the U.S. State Department. It includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen, in addition to the four on the “terrorism” list. Individuals traveling from any of these countries are subject to extra security measures when entering the United States.

Washington removed North Korea from the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list in 2008 in order to pursue its efforts to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

While the U.S. government has made changes to the “terrorism” list over the years to advance its aims, it continues to forcefully insist Cuba remain. President Ronald Reagan placed Cuba on the list in early 1982 and that designation has been maintained by every U.S. administration ever since.

Cuba is falsely accused of providing a safe haven for “terrorists” from around the world. In particular, the State Department justifies Cuba’s place on the list by claiming Havana allows rebel groups from Colombia to have a “permanent presence” in the country. The Colombian government, the United Nations, and the European Union, however, all point out that Havana, more than any other government, has helped advance negotiations to bring an end to the protracted guerrilla war in Colombia—sponsoring six rounds of negotiations since 2005.

Washington currently imprisons five Cubans who were framed up for their efforts to monitor counterrevolutionary groups in southern Florida with a history of armed attacks and acts of sabotage against Cuba. There is an international campaign to free those known as the Cuban Five—Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, René González and Fernando González—who were given long sentences for their work in defense of Cuba.  
 
 
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