US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that Washington was working towards having the Taliban designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO). | As an FTO, any person found to be transferring funds to the Taliban would be subject to indictment. Under current US law, only known Qaeda agents can be indicted for having obtained funding for terrorist purposes. |
Delivering her testimony to a House Appropriations Sub Committee, Rice noted that the group had already been designated as a terrorist organisation under an earlier executive order.
Replying to a query from Republican Congressman Mark Steven Kirk, she said: “As I understand it, it (Taliban) is designated as a global terrorist organisation under an executive order and the work is being done to designate it as a FTO. And so I think, in due course, as they go through that procedure, it will be brought for designation.” As an FTO, any person found to be transferring funds to the Taliban would be subject to indictment. Under current US law, only known Qaeda agents can be indicted for having obtained funding for terrorist purposes, following the group’s designation by Washington as an FTO on Oct 5, 2001. |