Senators want Pakistani Taliban on terror list
Published 8:08 am Tuesday, May 11, 2010
WASHINGTON — Several lawmakers are urging the Obama administration to put the Pakistani Taliban on a State Department terrorism blacklist that would impose sanctions on the group, which officials say is linked to the failed Times Square car bombing.
In a letter today to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, at least five Democratic senators — including those from New York and New Jersey — asked that the group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, be designated a “foreign terrorist organization.” The move would freeze the group’s U.S. assets and make it a crime for Americans to offer it material support.
U.S. officials have said the Pakistani Taliban provided financing and training to would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, who is believed to have spent five months in Pakistan preparing for the attack.
