Country Reports on Terrorism 2012

the Anti-Money Laundering Act’s reporting requirements, which would include transactions
deriving from charitable donations.
For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, we refer you to the 2013
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume 2, Money Laundering and
Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.
Regional and International Cooperation: Thailand participated in international
counterterrorism efforts, including through APEC, ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the
Asia-Europe Meeting, and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral, Technical, and
Economic Cooperation. Thailand, along with the U.S. Pacific Command, co-hosted 11 countries
for the annual Pacific Area Security Sector Working Group.
Countering Radicalization and Violent Extremism: A range of Thai government agencies,
including the Southern Border Provincial Administration Center and the Internal Security
Operations Command, continued to organize outreach programs to ethnic Malay-Muslims to
counter radicalization and violent extremism. A small group of international NGOs also reached
out to communities in the southern provinces to provide services and to identify the underlying
causes of the area’s violence.
EUROPE
Various terrorist groups continued to plot against European targets and interests in 2012, and the
year was marked by several high-profile attacks. European security services continued their
effective efforts to counter terrorism through close cooperation among countries and with the
United States, and through the use of the sophisticated technical capabilities available to most
partner states. Nonetheless, in March, before he was killed by police, “lone wolf” violent
extremist gunman Mohammed Merah killed seven persons, including three children, in Toulouse
and Mantauban, France before he was killed by police.
In July, a terrorist attack carried out on a passenger bus in Bulgaria killed five Israelis and a
Bulgarian citizen. During the same month Cypriot authorities arrested an individual suspected of
plotting a similar attack in that country. On February 5, 2013, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister
Tsvetan Tsevtanov, publically linked Hizballah to the Burgas bombing. On March 21, 2013, a
Cyprus court found a Hizballah operative guilty of charges stemming from his surveillance
activities of Israeli tourist targets.
A wide range of violent extremist ideologies remained a threat: anarchists in Greece continued to
launch low-level attacks against government offices, private businesses, and symbols of the state,
and long-active radical ethno-nationalist groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in
Turkey continued their campaigns of violence. Of these groups, the deadliest was the PKK.
According to the NATO Centre of Excellence-Defence Against Terrorism in Ankara, there were
226 terrorist incidents reported through November.
Transatlantic cooperation on counterterrorism, including the sharing of intelligence and judicial
information, capacity building in non-European countries, extradition of terrorist suspects, and
efforts to counter violent extremism remained excellent, though differing perspectives on issues
like data privacy and long-term detention sometimes complicated efforts. A number of European
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