The State Department first designates al Qaeda (al-Qa’ida) a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the first new such designation of an organization since the list was created two years earlier. It says: “Al-Qaida, led by Usama bin Ladin [sic], was added because it is responsible for several major terrorist attacks, including the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.”
The FTO designation was created after the Oklahoma City domestic bombing (in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) to combat the possibility, as stated by the Congress, that “foreign terrorist organizations, acting through affiliated groups or individuals, raise significant funds within the United States, or use the United States as a conduit for the receipt of funds raised in other nations.”
The initial FTO list was issued in 1997 included 30 organizations, but not al Qaeda. Why it was not included in the original 30 organizations has to do with a formal processes and arcane criteria and definitions that result in a mix of organizations (including, for instance, the IRA) being listed as FTOs.