US designates Pakistani Taliban as foreign terrorist group

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has designated the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan popularly known as the Pakistani Taliban, linked to the botched Times Square bombing attempt, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Clinton also designated two senior TTP leaders, Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali Ur Rehman, as specially designated global terrorists and according to State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley who made the announcement Wednesday, "Secretary Clinton took these actions in consultation with the Attorney General (Eric Holder) and the Secretary of the Treasury (Timothy Geithner).

Crowley said, "These actions will help stem the flow of finances to TTP and provide the Department of Justice with a critical tool to prosecute those who knowingly provide material support to TTP and its senior leaders."

Meanwhile, the State Department said, "The Rewards for Justice Program has announced a $ 5 million reward for any information leading to the arrest of Mehsud or Rehman. Additionally, the Department of Justice has filed an arrest warrant for Hakimullah Mehsud and charged him with conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction."

It said, "The TTP is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts against Pakistani and US interests. Hakimullah Mehsud has been the leader of TTP since August 2009 and Wali Ur Rehman is the TTP Emir (leader) in South Waziristan. Rehman has participated in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan against US and NATO personnel, as well as attacks against Pakistani security forces."

The State Department further noted that "the TTP has carried out numerous attacks against US interests under Mehsud and Rehman's leadership. Such instances include a December 2009 suicide attack on a US military base in Khowst, Afghanistan, which killed seven US citizens, and an April 2010 suicide bombing against the US Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which killed six Pakistani citizens."

 "The TTP and Al Qaeda have a symbiotic relationship; TTP draws ideological guidance from the Al Qaeda while the Al Qaeda relies on TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border. This mutual cooperation gives TTP access to both Al Qaeda's global terrorist network and the operational experience of its members. Given the proximity of the two groups and the nature of their relationship, TTP is a force multiplier for Al Qaeda," the State Department added.

It also said that "the TTP is suspected of being behind the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto," and that "most recently, TTP claimed involvement in the failed attempt by Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in New York City's Times Square on May 1, 2010. TTP's claim has been validated by investigations which revealed that TTP directed and facilitated the plot."

Crowley explained that "the various actions taken today against TTP support the US effort to degrade the capabilities of this group. We are determined to eliminate TTP's ability to carry out terrorist attacks and to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat their networks."

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, said, "Faisal Shahzad's attempted attack on US soil highlights the direct threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban."

He said, "Today's actions put the TTP and its sympathizers on notice that the United States will not tolerate support to this organization, which has inflicted great harm to US and Pakistani interests," and pointed out that "the  TTP's destabilizing effect in Pakistan's tribal areas has resulted in innumerable civilian deaths and considerable property losses."

Thus, " It has greatly, indeed unacceptably, complicated the efforts to counter the threat posed by al-Qaeda," Benjamin added.

In June, four influential US Senators led by Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York, introduced legislation calling on the Obama administration to designate the TTP as an FTO, and expressed indignation that it had not been so far listed as an FTO by the State Department despite all of its terrorist attacks, most recently the aborted Times Square bombing attempt.

They lawmakers said the designation of the TTP had become a no-brainer in the wake of Shahzad pleading guilty to the attempted Times Square bombing and acknowledging the role of the TTP in his training and funding and the planned execution of the entire failed attack.

At a news conference at the time with the co-sponsors of the legislation, Schumer said , "It's time to turn up the heat on this terrorist organization, and the FTO gives us a quick, ready and proven way to do it," and called on the State Department to act expeditiously on this designation.

He said that "for years, the Pakistani Taliban has been plotting and scheming against the US. We know they run active training camps where people, including Shahzad, learn how to carry out terrorist attacks."

Schumer asserted that "they've publicly committed to killing Americans," and noted that "in a video that surfaced in April, they pledged to make the US and its cities their main target."

"Now that the Times Square terrorist has pleaded guilty in court, it's time to take the next step, but confronting the organization that aided and abetted him," he said, and warned that "this group, poses an existential threat to the safety of not only our soldiers fighting abroad, but also to American citizens here at home."

Thus, Schumer argued that "it's time we dealt with this terrorist organization with every tool at our disposal, and said that as the Obama administration has pledged "to disrupt, dismantle and defeat terrorist networks abroad," the legislation he had introduced with the other lawmakers was "essential to protecting Americans at home and abroad and to destabilizing the Pakistani Taliban."

The other three co-sponsors of the legislation, all Democrats were Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

At the time and during the following weeks, the State Department, especially Crowley at the daily briefings was peppered with questions as to why the administration had not designated the TTP an FTO, particularly after Shahzad had pleaded guilty, and his response was always that a legal process had to be scrupulously followed so that there would be no technicalities later that would compromise the designation when it was ultimately made.