06/14/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09945

SYRIAN SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM

After the September 11^th attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush put state sponsors of terrorism on notice. "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make," said President Bush. "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

In its report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," the U.S. State Department lists seven countries that continue to sponsor terrorism. They are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, North Korea, Cuba, and Syria.

Syrian officials condemned the September 11^th attacks on the U.S. They are providing significant cooperation against al-Qaida, and their efforts have helped save American lives.

But as the State Department report makes clear, Syria continues to provide safe haven and logistical support to many other terrorist groups. At least five Palestinian terrorist groups maintain offices in Syria’s capital, Damascus. They are Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Abu Musa’s Fatah-the-Intifadah, George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.

In addition, Syria provides Hezbollah, Hamas, Jibril’s group, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations with refuge and basing privileges in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, which is under Syrian control. Syria has also served as the primary transit point for the transfer of Iranian-supplied weapons to Hezbollah, a group that has killed many Americans as well as Israelis and others.

As President Bush said, "Iran’s arms shipments and support for terror fuel the fire of conflict in the Middle East. And it must stop. Syria has spoken out against al-Qaida." The U.S., said Mr. Bush, expects Syria "to act against Hamas and Hezbollah, as well. It’s time for Iran to focus on meeting its own people’s aspirations for freedom and for Syria to decide which side of the war against terror it is on."

As President Bush said at the United Nations in November, "We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them. In this world there are good causes and bad causes, and we may disagree on where the line is drawn. Yet," said President Bush, "there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national aspiration, no remembered wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent. Any government that rejects this principle, trying to pick and choose its terrorist friends, will know the consequences."