Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

640 • STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISMSTATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM. The U.S. government currentlylists Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism,also called terrorist states. The list formerly also included Iraq,Libya, North Korea, and South Yemen. Iraq, which was listed as astate sponsor in the period 1979–1982 and then relisted after its 1990invasion of Kuwait, was officially delisted on 20 October 2004.Libya was removed from the list on 28 June 2006 as it discontinuedits support for terrorist groups and also took steps to discontinue itsprogram to acquire weapons of mass destruction. On 26 June 2008the U.S. government announced its intention to remove North Koreafrom the list, which was then effected on 11 October 2008 despiteperceptions that North Korea was not fully in compliance with conditionsfor being delisted, in particular, for not releasing Japanese andSouth Koreans abducted and held by North Korea. South Yemen, theformer People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, was automaticallydelisted in 1990 following its merger on 22 May 1990 with North Yemen,the former Yemen Arab Republic, to form the Republic of Yemen,a non-Marxist regime that has not supported terrorist groups.This list is maintained and updated pursuant to Section 620A ofthe Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, Section 40 of the Arms ExportControl Act of 1976, and Section 6 (j) of the Export AdministrationAct of 1979, and according to factual findings certified by the U.S.Department of State each year. Testimony and evidence are reviewedto determine whether such governments are continuing to provideterrorists with safe haven, travel documents, arms, training, and/ortechnical expertise and also whether such governments themselvesdirectly engage in terrorism as a tool of domestic and foreign policy.A lower degree of support consists not so much of active cooperationwith terrorists but rather a passive tolerance by governments, or stateco-optation, in which the government chooses to allow terrorists toreside in, travel through, or carry out logistical and recruitment effortswithout official hindrance within its sovereign jurisdiction.In reviewing the status of nations designated as state sponsors ofterrorism, the U.S. State Department does not limit itself to consideringa given nation’s sponsorship of groups abroad but also stateterror within its borders, its compliance with minimal standards ofhuman and civil rights, and its compliance with measures to preventthe proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Thus, althoughNorth Korea was not known to have been engaged in sponsorship of