The Biden administration removed five extremist groups, all believed to be defunct, from its list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO). The action was part of a five-year review mandated by law that tracks terrorist organizations.
Taking the groups off the list removes all sanctions that had been placed on them, their finances, and their leaders. It removes their names from “no fly” lists and ends financial sanctions.
Three of the groups have not carried out any attacks for a decade or more. The notorious Aum Shinrikyo (AUM), the Japanese “Supreme Truth” cult, which carried out the deadly sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995, withered away after the jailing of most of its leaders and execution of its top echelons, including its charismatic leader Asahara Shoko. It has since changed its name to Aleph and lost most of its members when the successor to Shoko left to form his own religion.
Other former terrorist organizations were also removed from the FTO.
Basque Fatherland and Liberty, or ETA, which ran a separatist campaign of bombings and assassinations in northern Spain and elsewhere for decades that killed more than 800 people and wounded thousands more, until declaring a cease-fire in 2010 and disbanding after the arrests and trials of its last leaders in 2018. It was designated a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
Kahane Chai, or Kach. The radical Orthodox Jewish group was founded by ultranationalist Israeli Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1971. He led the group until his assassination in 1990. Members of the group have killed, attacked or otherwise threatened or harassed Arabs, Palestinians and Israeli government officials, but the organization has been dormant since 2005. The group was first designated in 1997.
There are two groups that may or may not still be active and have carried out dozens of attacks on the army and police in the Middle East in the past.
The Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, an umbrella group of several jihadist organizations based in Gaza that has claimed responsibility for numerous rocket and other attacks on Israel since its founding in 2012. The council was first designated in 2014.
Gama’a al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group–IG, an Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement that fought to topple Egypt’s government during the 1990s. It conducted hundreds of deadly attacks against the police and security forces as well as tourists. The group was first designated in 1997.
Given the potential political fallout if the administration is wrong about any of these groups, it’s fairly certain that none of them pose a threat to America or its citizens.
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But what do we say to the families of the terrorist victims? For them, it must be a slap in the face for America to designate a group that killed a loved one as no longer a threat. They will never forget and while they may forgive, it must hurt not to be consulted about this decision.
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