Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ANTITERRORISM AND EFFECTIVE DEATH PENALTY ACT OF 1996 • 33service in Wichita. The suspect caught later that same day was an antiabortionactivist, Scott Roeder, who was charged with first-degreemurder on 2 June 2009.ANTICOMMUNIST SECRET ARMY. The Ejército Secreto Anticommunista(ESA) was a state-sponsored, repressive organizationaimed at silencing leftist dissent and activism in Guatemala that operatedlargely as a death squad. The ESA emerged in 1977 duringa period when the leftist guerrilla movement was reconsolidating itsforces. The ESA involved members of the Guatemalan security forceswho participated in assaulting and killing students at San Carlos University.The ESA published death lists of leftist intellectuals and laborleaders and forced many left-wing politicians to flee Guatemala. On8 December 1978 the ESA listed 10 people on a death list, includingMiguel Cifuentes, a leader of the Central American Tobacco CompanyUnion. After four others on the list had been killed, Cifuentes left forCanada to avoid assassination. The ESA is also thought to have beenresponsible for the bombing of the Soviet Tass News Agency officein Guatemala City in 1988. In 1998, after several hundred Cuban doctorsarrived in Guatemala to help in relief efforts following HurricaneMitch, the ESA issued death threats against Cuban relief workers,drawing condemnation from President Alfonso Portillo.ANTI-IMPERIALIST INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE. The Anti-Imperialist International Brigade was a nonstate, revolutionary leftistgroup that was a front for the Japanese Red Army (JRA), set upto carry out retaliatory strikes against the United States for its April1986 bombing of Libyan targets.ANTITERRORISM AND EFFECTIVE DEATH PENALTY ACTOF 1996 (AEDPA). Public Law 104-132, signed by President BillClinton on 24 April 1996, gave federal law enforcement agenciesnew powers with which to counter domestic and international terrorists.It permits blocking fund-raising by groups for terrorist causesabroad. It increases the power of the national government to excludepeople affiliated with groups designated as terrorist organizationsfrom entering the United States, limits use of political offense exceptionclaims by suspected terrorists to avoid deportation or extradition,and bans U.S. aid to nations that provide military assistance toterrorist states. The act also enhanced the standing of U.S. citizens