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(S) Terrorism or Political Action? The Anti-Imperialist Camp Crosses
the Line
FROM:
Indigenous European Terrorism Branch (S2I33)
Run Date: 08/18/2005
(S//SI) Targeting of an outwardly legitimate anti-US group pays off.
(S//SI) Sometimes, in the murky world of civil disobedience, it is difficult to distinguish the line
between legitimate political action and terrorism. The Counterterrorism (CT) Product line is
occasionally forced to make this distinction in its pursuit of legitimate terrorists, as it did over 3
years ago when it began targeting a little-known, Europe-based group called the Anti-Imperialist
Camp (AIC).
(S//SI) The AIC and its supporters appeared on CT's radar because of the inflammatory antiU.S. rhetoric that they used in their frequent contacts with elements of another CT target: the
Spanish terrorist group Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA). A cursory look at the AIC revealed
a group that, while obviously nurturing an extreme dislike of the U.S. and its "imperialist"
tendencies, chose to express that dislike through legitmate protests and demonstrations.
(S//SI) However, a closer look revealed a duplicitous organization that publicly espoused
legitimate political action while privately it aided and abetted the Iraqi and Palestinian
resistances, as well as numerous terrorist groups such as the ETA, the Turkish Revolutionary
People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP), Lebanese Hizballah, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to name
but a few.
(S//SI) The decision to target the AIC has paid numerous dividends. AIC communications
have provided unique insights into the expansive network of extremists and terrorists
with whom the AIC maintains contacts. These insights have led to:
the arrest of a high-profile financier of the Iraqi resistance;
the identification of a Jordanian extremist with extensive links to other extremists
throughout the world;
inroads into the networks of anarchists, anti-globalists, and anti-imperialists who have
worked to disrupt the NATO Summit in Istanbul, the Athens Olympics, the Group of Eight
(G-8) Summit in Gleneagles, and the Turin Olympics, among other venues;
a front row seat to the birth of a new organization that calls itself the Resistant Arab
People's Alliance; and
the identification of a group that plans to coordinate simultaneous operations against
U.S. bases worldwide.
Moreover, knowledge of the AIC and its connections apparently prompted a recent U.S.
Government demarche to the Italian Government during which the U.S. Government demanded
the arrest of individuals involved with the Italian wing of the AIC.
(S) In the case of the AIC, time and persistence have made it much easier to determine that the
line between political action and terrorism has indeed been crossed.
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without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108