Somali Extremists Who Raided U.N. Offices Not Considered a Terror Group

The extremist group al-Shabaab raided three U.N. offices in Somalia last week in a campaign to rid the volatile African nation of all "enemies of Islam," and the world body can't do a thing about it — yet.

Though the U.S. State Department designated al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization in March 2008, the U.N. has yet to add the Islamic militia to its list of terrorist groups whose members face international sanctions and travel bans.
While the U.S. has been cracking down on the Al Qaeda-linked group's recruitment efforts at home, the lack of an international standard has allowed al-Shabaab to channel its funds — much of which come from piracy along Somalia's lengthy coast — through banks in the Arabian Gulf.
"There are millions and millions and millions of dollars coming into this organization. It's being funneled in banks in Qatar and other places — that's pretty well documented — yet nobody's really doing anything about it," said Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.
Somalia expert J. Peter Pham said that it was difficult to gather consensus within the U.N., which lacks a formal definition of terrorism and whose full-fledged members include countries such as Syria and Iran, which the U.S. has accused of sponsoring terrorism...more..http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535191,00.html