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Barbarossa
05-08-2003, 02:14 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has added the Spanish Basque nationalist party Batasuna and its predecessors to a list of "terrorist" groups subject to financial sanctions, the State Department says.


U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an order signed on April 30, decreed that Batasuna, Euskal Herritarrok and Herri Batasuna were fronts for the separatist guerrilla group ETA, which is on the State Department's separate list of "foreign terrorist organisations", it said.


Euskal Herritarrok and Herri Batasuna were predecessors of Batasuna, which has been changing its name to circumvent legal restrictions on its activities. Basque separatists are now operating politically on the newly created platform AuB.


Powell signed the order one day before visiting Madrid last week. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who arrives in Washington later on Wednesday for talks with President George W. Bush, has long urged action against the groups.


Aznar was an important ally of the United States in its abortive attempt to win explicit U.N. Security Council approval of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March.


The order signed by Powell applied specifically to Executive Order 13224, issued by Bush after the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It prohibits financial transactions with organisations on the list.


But members of Batasuna, unless they happen to be known ETA members, would not be subject to the additional visa ban which comes with designation as a "foreign terrorist organisation."


State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday, "This designation is based on substantial and credible information from a variety of sources that these entities were formed at ETA's direction and functioned as part of ETA."


The three names are not yet on the list of "foreign terrorist organisations" because of a time lag between the two designation processes, he said.


He said no decision had been made on the new entity AuB.


ETA, the acronym in Basque for Basque Fatherland and Liberty, has been on the list of "foreign terrorist organisations" since 1997 and was added to the separate Executive Order 13224 list on October 31, 2001

j2k4
05-08-2003, 02:56 PM
Barbarossa-
I'm not sure I see the flaw, here-clue us in?

Barbarossa
05-08-2003, 03:51 PM
Originally posted by j2k4@8 May 2003 - 14:56
Barbarossa-
I'm not sure I see the flaw, here-clue us in?
Purely timing..

There must have been a reason that they were not included when that list was first drawn up.. Now suddenly, after the Spanish government supports the US giving them perceived international credibility in their Iraqi-venture, these enemies of the Spanish Government now go onto the list, which means they cannot do business or fundraising in the US anymore.

:blink:

4play
05-08-2003, 04:16 PM
Where can i see this list?

eta should have been on this list along time ago. They have been bombing the resort i stay at every year in spain for years.

And the Ira have been bombing Ealing where i live in london for the past 13 years or so.

You just cant get away from these idiots can you. :angry:

echidna
05-08-2003, 05:42 PM
Originally posted by j2k4@9 May 2003 - 00:56
Barbarossa-
I'm not sure I see the flaw, here-clue us in?
like the communists in vietnem and alende in chile, the basques are a democraticly sizable and politicaly capable force in their lands [ie the people there support sepratism]
4play the reason ETA wasn't on the list was that they hadn't threatened US interests directly enough
it is de rigueur for some backscratching amongst the posse now but it's mostly just PR value

BTW
as Saudi Arabia :D is to Al Qida :ph34r: , Boston :D was once for the IRA :ph34r:
:blink:

4play
05-08-2003, 06:26 PM
BTW
Saudi Arabia is to Al Qida , Boston was once for the IRA 
 

and boston probably still is. Fund raising for the ira is still rife in america.