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The Department of State reportedly informed Congress on Friday of its intentions to remove several terrorist groups from its blacklist. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) would no longer be considered a threat organization.
“The organizations are the Basque separatist group ETA , the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, the radical Jewish group Kahane Kach and two Islamic groups that have been active in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt,” ABC News explained.
The decision was made because, in the Department’s opinion, these groups no longer exist or pose a threat. However, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo explained that ETA committed its last attack on March 16, 2010, in Paris.
“Four years ago, in May 2018, it announced its dissolution. U.S. law requires that a terrorist group be removed from that list after five years have passed without it committing criminal actions or showing signs of activity,” the media outlet assured.
ETA is not the first group to be removed from the list
It is not the first similar measure regarding terrorist groups by the Department of State. In November 2021, Joe Biden’s administration announced that it would no longer recognize the FARC as a terrorist group.
Cuban-American Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar said that President Joe Biden’s decision to remove the group from the list of terrorist organizations is a “slap in the face to Colombians.” Salazar said that the FARC “have been destroying, killing, kidnapping, raping, trafficking drugs and being terrorists for more than 60 years,” so she considers that the presidential decision means “giving a medal of honor to these bandits.”
