Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Summary

This report analyzes the status of many of the major foreign terrorist organizations that are a threat to the United States, placing special emphasis on issues of potential concern to Congress. The terrorist organizations included are those designated and listed by the Secretary of State as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” (For analysis of the operation and effectiveness of this list overall, see also The ‘FTO List’ and Congress: Sanctioning Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, CRS Report RL32120.)
The designated terrorist groups described in this report are:

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)

Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade

Armed Islamic Group (GIA)

‘Asbat al-Ansar

Aum Supreme Truth (Aum) Aum Shinrikyo, Aleph

Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)

Communist Party of Philippines/New People’s Army (CPP/NPA)

Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group, IG)

HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement)

Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)

Hizballah (Party of God)

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM)

Jemaah Islamiya (JI)

Al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad)

Kahane Chai (Kach)

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, KADEK)

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT)

Lashkar I Jhangvi (LJ)

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO)

National Liberation Army (ELN — Colombia)

Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ)

Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC)

Al Qaeda

Real IRA (RIRA)

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

Revolutionary Nuclei

Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17 November)

Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C)

Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)]

Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path or SL)

United Self-Defense Forces/Group of Colombia (AUC)

Source: U.S. Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2002. (Some spellings have been altered.)