Al-Shabaab: links to background and analysis

 

Image source: Wikimedia Commons user Ingoman

It has been widely reported that the Somali militant group al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall on 21 September 2013 which cost at least 62 lives. This FlagPost provides information on the listing of al-Shabaab as a terrorist organisation in Australia and other countries, and links to publicly available information on the organisation.

Delisting the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK)

Image source: US State Department

Two months ago, on 28 September 2012, the US Secretary of State formally removed the Iranian group, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK), from the US Government’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and delisted it as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, in recognition of the group’s renunciation of violence. This is a significant milestone for the MeK which was first designated as an FTO by the US Government in 1997 and whose repeated attempts since then to be delisted have failed a number of times. The delisting follows similar rulings in the UK in 2008 and the EU in 2009. While Australia has never proscribed the MeK as a terrorist organisation, in December 2001 the Australian Government effectively froze the MeK’s assets and made it an offence to fund the group by adding the MeK to the Government’s ‘Consolidated List’—where it currently still remains.