The United States’ recent action against a chemical weapons facility in Sudan has suddenly brought high profile allegations of terrorism against the African desert nation. Sudan’s terrorist connection is not new and the country has been on the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism since August 1993. Following a thorough intelligence review, Sudan's Islamic government was found to be providing sanctuary, safe passage, military training, financial support and office space in Khartoum to officials of international terrorist and radical Islamic groups.

Sudan has been under diplomatic sanctions by the United Nations since 1996. Also in 1996, the United States evacuated its Khartoum embassy and expelled a Sudanese diplomat suspected of supplying inside information about the United Nations to the group of terrorists convicted of plotting the 1993 bombing of the U.N. and other New York landmarks. In November 1997, the U.S. Government announced new comprehensive economic sanctions against Sudan.

According to the U.S. State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1997, "Sudan in 1997 continued to serve as a haven, meeting place, and training hub for a number of international terrorist organizations, primarily of Middle East origin. The Sudanese government also condoned many of the objectionable activities of Iran, such as funneling assistance to terrorist and radical Islamic groups operating in and transiting through Sudan."

• The Government of Sudan -- The Sudanese government became officially Islamic when a 1989 military coup d’etat brought Lieutenant General Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir to power. While General Bashir remains the head of state, he is increasingly dominated by the Iranian-backed extremist National Islamic Front (NIF), led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi. In fact, the NIF has taken control over many government institutions.

• Dr. Hassan al-Turabi -- Dr. al-Turabi is the Speaker of Sudan’s parliament and is considered to hold the real power in Sudan. He heads the NIF, the Popular Arab Islamic Conference and is a long-time member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist Islamic group. Dr. al-Turabi was educated at The Sorbonne and the University of London and is quite capable of communicating with and relating to western oriented audiences. He is also known to have a close relationship with Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile with an extensive terrorist network in Afghanistan and Sudan, who is at the center of the U.S. investigation into the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 257 people.

• Support for Terrorism -- Sudan is believed to provide military training and/or support to Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, and regional Islamic and non-Islamic opposition and insurgent groups in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda and Tunisia. In addition, hundreds of Iranian Revolutionary Guards are sent to terrorist training camps in Sudan to train in the subversion of moderate Arab regimes.

• Assassination attempt on President Mubarak -- In 1995, three suspected members of the Egyptian terror organization Gama'at al-Islamiyya attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia. Sudan has provided safe haven to the three suspects and has refused to extradite them to Ethiopia. The United Nations imposed diplomatic sanctions on Sudan in 1996 for its failure to turn over the fugitives and for general Sudanese support of international terrorism. For the same reasons, the U.S. has implemented both diplomatic and economic on Sudan.

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