U.S. mulling to include Pakistani Taliban in terror list

GEO 436 WASHINGTON: U.S. officials say they are mulling “foreign terrorist organization” status for the Pakistani Taliban. “We are considering the question of designating the TTP (Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) and are following the procedures established in law,” U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said during the daily briefing. Several senators wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in mid-May, asking her to place the organization on the list. At the time the State Department said the matter was already under review. Now four of the five senators are considering introducing a bill that would require the State Department to put the Pakistani Taliban on the FTO list. “There’’s a process under way, and we would expect to complete that process relatively soon,” Crowley said. “So I think that I don”t see that we would feel the need for an abbreviated process that’’s outlined in that legislation.”

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