--- From: "J.D. Abolins" <jda-ir@private> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> Subject: US State Department extends FTO list to include Internet sites Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003 10:20:23 -0400 FTO = Foreign Terrorist Organization More reference notes after the article snippet. -JDA http://washingtontimes.com/national/20031010-112733-8086r.htm 4 Jewish Web sites deemed 'terrorist' By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES Four Internet Web sites operated by two extremist Jewish groups have been included by the State Department on its list of "foreign terrorist organizations" — the first time the list has been extended to include Internet sites. The listing, which went unnoticed when announced Oct. 3 in the department's annual redesignation of the world's terrorist organizations, includes the four sites operated by the Kach and its offshoot, the Kahane Chai, both of which have been designated by the department as terrorist organizations. [...] The four Web sites are: www.newkach.org, www.Kahane.org, www.Kahane.net and www.Kahanetzadak.com, the department said in a notice in the Federal Register. They offer news, commentary and links to other sites of interest to followers of Meir Kahane. The impact of the listing was not immediately clear, since all four sites exist in cyberspace. A designation as a terrorist organization carries travel and financial sanctions, including the freezing of assets and a prohibition against the issuance of visas to those identified as members or associates. [...] The designation makes it illegal for persons in the United States to donate money or other material support to the Web sites. The three accessible sites yesterday included information on where contributions could be sent, what items could be donated and offered a number items for sale, including pendants and books. <rest snipped> Comments & References: I not going to get into the issues of how organizations get listed on the FTO. But I will note this is the first time I have seen .org, .net, .com, etc. on the list. The offline entities with which they associated have already been on the State Department's lists. Maybe this addition was simply adding "aka's", as the notice seems to indicate. The purchase of books can be an interesting question if the books are only available from the entity on the FTO. Theoretically, if a journalist or researcher wanted to study the organization by reviewing its literature, recordings, etc. -- material not available from other sources --, any purchase seems to violate US law. (I am not an attorney nor do I deal with this body of law in depth.) Maybe the practical risk is low but it seems that it could be someday used as a legal leverage to get a journalist to reveal sources, notes, or even to not publish a piece deemed to be problematic. Has anybody researched these issues? Finding the notice: The 3 Oct 2003 FTO list is not readily found on the State Department's site. The full information is found in a notice recently published in the Federal Register. (Federal Register: October 10, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 197) Page 58738-58739) txt: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-25888.htm pdf: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-25888.pdf J.D. Abolins _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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