Topics in Brief

• Author: International Law Group

U S. signs Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism

On June 3, 2002, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, along with 33 other government representatives of member states of the Organization of American States (OAS), signed the new Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism at its adoption during the OAS General Assembly in Barbados. The OAS handed down its mandate for negotiations shortly after the terrorist attacks in the U.S. of September 11, 2001. The Convention commits the Western Hemisphere to intensify cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Among other things, it denies safe haven to suspects, and requires the signatories to implement other international agreements against terrorism.

Citation: U.S. Department of State Fact Sheet, May 31, 2002; The Washington Times, June 4, 2002, page A13.

U S. adds Afghanistan to list of proscribed destinations in ITAR regulations

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Political- Military Affairs, has amended the list of banned destinations in the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations (22 C.F.R. Part 126) by adding Afghanistan. In general, the U.S. denies export licenses for defense articles and services to Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Vietnam. This policy also applies to countries with respect to which the U.S. maintains an arms embargo. These include Burma, China, Haiti, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). The recent amendment modifies the denial policy by allowing exports of defense articles and services to the Government of Afghanistan (currently the Afghan Interim Authority) and to the International Security Assistance Force.

Citation: 67 Federal Register 44352 (July 2, 2002).

Pakistani court convicts four in murder of U S. reporter

On July 15, a special anti-terrorist court in Hyderabad, after a three- month trial, convicted Ahmed Omar Sheikh along with three accomplices for the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The court sentenced Sheikh to death and the co-defendants to life in prison. Once a student at the London School of Economics, Sheikh had become a zealot who had gone back to his homeland to wage a "holy war" against the West. Mr. Pearl's murder marked the first in a series of attacks on Westerners in Pakistan during 2002. According to prosecutors, twenty-eight-year-old Sheikh had enticed Mr. Pearl into a trap by promising him information for a story. Pearl was looking into possible ties between militant groups and Richard C. Reid, a man arrested in the U.S. for allegedly trying to set off a "shoe bomb" during a...