Time & Value Group: Former American Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton...

Time & Value Group: Former American Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton...: From 2011 through early 2013, the Clinton State Department administration repeatedly rejected efforts to designate Boko Haram as a terror...

Former American Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton Aided Boko Haram - Newt Gingrich

From 2011 through early 2013, the Clinton State Department administration repeatedly rejected efforts to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. In recent weeks, the group has exploded onto the world stage by kidnapping more than 250 girls at a Nigerian boarding school.

Boko Haram is so clearly and vividly a terrorist organization that it seems indefensible that the State Department would have refused to designate it as such. A thorough investigation of the decision process that protected Boko Haram from 2011 until late 2013 could be devastating.

Now that Boko Haram has attracted worldwide attention for its vicious assault on young girls, political leaders, including the former secretary of state, are rushing to issue emotionally powerful but practically meaningless statements.

Hillary Clinton tweeted: "Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls" bla..bla..bla...

Clinton's tweet contrasts vividly with her failure to stand up to terrorism in 2011 by calling Boko Haram what it was.

The requests to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization were serious and came from very responsible authorities.

As Josh Rogin reported:

"What Clinton didn't mention was that her own State Department refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011, after the group bombed the UN headquarters in Abuja. The refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen Senators and Congressmen.

"'The one thing she could have done, the one tool she had at her disposal, she didn't use. And nobody can say she wasn't urged to do it. It's gross hypocrisy,' said a former senior U.S. official who was involved in the debate. 'The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials.'

"In May 2012, then-Justice Department official Lisa Monaco (now at the White House) wrote to the State Department to urge Clinton to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. The following month, Gen. Carter Ham, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, said that Boko Haram provided a 'safe haven' for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and was likely sharing explosives and funds with the group. And yet, Hillary Clinton's State Department still declined to place Boko Haram on its official terrorist roster."

The protection of Boko Haram from designation as a terrorist organization is even more unbelievable when you read the description of the group's activities in the American Foreign Policy Council's World Almanac of Islamism.

Consider the following highlights:

-- Boko Haram means "Western education is sinful."

-- The initial Boko Haram organization grew to an estimated 280,000 followers. In 2009 there was a huge fight with the Nigerian Army and over 1,000 followers and the founder were killed.

-- A revitalized Boko Haram launched an attack on Bauchi prison on September 7, 2010.

-- Since then they have carried out over 600 attacks, killing more than 3,800 people.

-- Boko Haram's orientation can be discerned in its support for Taliban-like, extremist Sharia law and its designation of its original encampment in northern Nigeria as "Afghanistan."

-- The Nigerian terrorists have allied with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and a number of transnational terrorist groups.

-- On Christmas Day in 2011, Boko Haram staged church bombings.

-- Boko Haram has deep ties with extremists in Saudi Arabia. Supposedly dozens have been trained in Afghanistan.

Given these facts, it is amazing that Clinton's State Department refused to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization, since clearly it was engaged in terrorist activities. Why would the department she led not call a terrorist group a terrorist group when it was in her power to do so, and, as Rogin reports, the FBI, CIA, Justice Department, and many members of both the House and Senate were urging her to do just that?

Rogin reports that some U.S. officials, and possibly the Nigerian government, opposed the listing because, among other reasons, they thought it might give the group more publicity. But this is a fairly weak rationale. For one thing, Boko Haram seems to have managed the publicity part on its own. And despite designating three individuals associated with Boko Haram as terrorists in June 2012, by refusing to list the organization, the State Department was denying the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department the tools they were seeking to use against the group as a whole and anyone linked to it.

As Congressman Patrick Meehan, who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, stated that, by failing to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization in 2011, "We lost two years of increased scrutiny. The kind of support that is taking place now would have been in place two years ago."

Hillary Clinton tweeted: "Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls"

Clinton's tweet contrasts vividly with her failure to stand up to terrorism in 2011 by calling Boko Haram what it was.

The requests to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization were serious and came from very responsible authorities.

As Josh Rogin reported:

"What Clinton didn't mention was that her own State Department refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011, after the group bombed the UN headquarters in Abuja. The refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen Senators and Congressmen.

"'The one thing she could have done, the one tool she had at her disposal, she didn't use. And nobody can say she wasn't urged to do it. It's gross hypocrisy,' said a former senior U.S. official who was involved in the debate. 'The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials.'

"In May 2012, then-Justice Department official Lisa Monaco (now at the White House) wrote to the State Department to urge Clinton to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. The following month, Gen. Carter Ham, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, said that Boko Haram provided a 'safe haven' for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and was likely sharing explosives and funds with the group. And yet, Hillary Clinton's State Department still declined to place Boko Haram on its official terrorist roster."

-- The initial Boko Haram organization grew to an estimated 280,000 followers. In 2009 there was a huge fight with the Nigerian Army and over 1,000 followers and the founder were killed.

-- A revitalized Boko Haram launched an attack on Bauchi prison on September 7, 2010.

-- Since then they have carried out over 600 attacks, killing more than 3,800 people.

-- Boko Haram's orientation can be discerned in its support for Taliban-like, extremist Sharia law and its designation of its original encampment in northern Nigeria as "Afghanistan."

-- The Nigerian terrorists have allied with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and a number of transnational terrorist groups.

-- On Christmas Day in 2011, Boko Haram staged church bombings.

-- Boko Haram has deep ties with extremists in Saudi Arabia. Supposedly dozens have been trained in Afghanistan.

Given these facts, it is amazing that Clinton's State Department refused to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization, since clearly it was engaged in terrorist activities. Why would the department she led not call a terrorist group a terrorist group when it was in her power to do so, and, as Rogin reports, the FBI, CIA, Justice Department, and many members of both the House and Senate were urging her to do just that.

It is a potentially devastating addition to a record as secretary of state that included a number of decisions favoring the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (after abandoning a longtime U.S. ally there), as well as appeasing a virulently anti-American regime in Iran -- moves that have not turned out so well, to say the least.

Now the Boko Haram decision raises a whole new set of questions.

How could the Clinton State Department reject naming Boko Haram as a terrorist group?

Who was involved in blocking Boko Haram's terrorist designation?

Are any of the so-called experts who were totally wrong still at the State Department?

Did Clinton have anything to do with refusing to designate Boko Haram?

If not, was she even aware of the controversy? Shouldn't she certainly have been aware, considering the number of federal agencies and members of Congress that were asking her to designate the organization?

These questions about Clinton's record are potentially even more serious than the questions about Benghazi. As Congressman Patrick Meehan, who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, told Rogin, by failing to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization in 2011, "We lost two years of increased scrutiny. The kind of support that is taking place now would have been in place two years ago."

In light of the recent events in Nigeria, former Secretary Clinton and other key State Department officials owe us some answers about their decisions.

Time & Value Group: Nigeria's army has stepped up the hunt for hundred...

Time & Value Group: Nigeria's army has stepped up the hunt for hundred...: Nigeria's army has stepped up the hunt for hundreds of schoolgirls, abducted last month by  Boko Haram, in an attack condemned globall...

Nigeria's army has stepped up the hunt for hundreds of schoolgirls, abducted last month by  Boko Haram, in an attack condemned globally including by US first lady Michelle Obama.

The country's Defence Headquarters said on Saturday that two divisions of the military were now stationed in the border regions close to Chad, Cameroon and Niger to work with other security agencies.
At least 10 army search teams were trying to track down the girls in the remote far northeast, border guards were on high alert and the air force had so far flown at least 250 sorties.
Teams from the US, UK and China had also arrived in Nigeria to assist with the search. They included specialist teams in areas that include intelligence gathering, satellite imagery and hostage negotiations.
At least 200 schoolgirls remain missing and the government's slow response to the abduction has led to protests around the country.
Denial of warnings
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade on Saturday also denied separate reports on Friday by Al Jazeera and Amnesty International that the Nigerian military had received advance warnings of the attack on the Chibok school, describing the reports as "unfounded".
Amnesty said on Friday it was told that security forces were given four hours' notice of the attack on April 14, but failed to reinforce the town.
Two politicians from Borno state, which borders Chibok, separately told Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege that the army had been given at least two hours' notice.
Makmid Kamara, a Nigeria researcher for Amnesty, on Friday said: "We received information and we spoke to a senior Nigerian military officer ... that they had received intelligence reports, even before local authorities and politicians got the information, that gunmen were on their way to the Chibok town."
Kamara told Al Jazeera that senior officials in Maiduguri and Dambua towns were alerted at about 7pm on April 14, and that information was given to senior military officers based in Dambua and Maiduguri.
"Later on, at 10pm on the same night of the 14th of April, local authorities, who Amnesty had spoken to, informed us, that they informed the local military command in Chibok town about the planned attack," Kamara said.
"When I spoke to one of the senior military officials, they informed me that they [had] informed their superiors, and requested for reinforcement. But the reinforcement did not come."
The school was attacked at 11.45pm.
"Only 17 troops were there to face the attack and they were outgunned and outnumbered," Kamara said.
"They had to flee for their lives together with some other villagers."
Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said the Nigerian people would be "extremely shocked and extremely disappointed" to think the Nigerian military knew in advance an attack was going to take place and most would find it "inexcusable".
"The question is, why would the military deliberately choose to ignore this SOS?" our correspondent said.
Michelle Obama, the wife of the US president, used the president's weekly address in the US to talk about the abductions, which she described as an "unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group".
Mrs Obama was recently featured on Twitter holding a card which read "bring back our girls".
The Obama administration had in the past opposed imposing sanctions on Boko Haram, and refused to put the armed group in the United States' foreign terrorist organisation list.  
Carl Levan, an African security specialist at American University, however said that the "robust bilateral relationship" between the US and Nigeria prompted the Obama adminitration to help President Goodluck Jonathan find the abducted schoolgirls.    
Also on Saturday, Nigerian celebrities joined about 100 protesters in a march to the state governor's residence in Lagos to call for the rescue of the girls.

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Hilary Clinton is a Boko Haram apologist (Republicans)

Clinton's handling of Boko Haram questioned

Hillary Clinton erred two years ago by not designating Boko Haram a terrorist group.

The question arose Thursday as part of the international focus on last month's abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls by the jihadist group in northeast Nigeria that threatens to sell them into slavery.

A Daily Beast article raised the issue. It quoted an anonymous U.S. official who criticized the Clinton State Department for rejecting calls in 2012 by some in Congress, the Department of Justice and others to add Boko Haram to the terror list as a threat to U.S. interests and homeland security.

At the time, State Department officials argued such a move could cause more harm than good by enhancing the group's standing and making U.S. and Western interests a target of Boko Haram attacks.

After Clinton stepped down and was succeeded by John Kerry, the State Department designated the group as a terrorist organization in November 2013.

With global outrage and frustration over Boko Haram mounting, here are some questions and answers on what happened and why:

How did this all begin?

In 2009, the small and scattered Boko Haram -- an Islamic extremist group advocating Sharia law -- killed two police officers and a soldier in an attack on a police station in Borno state.

The Nigerian military responded with a brutal and indiscriminate crackdown that killed 700 people, including Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf in what a congressional committee report described as an extrajudicial execution.

Such violence hardened already bitter divisions between the remote and mostly Muslim northern regions of Nigeria and the southern and more Christian southern areas. A year later, Boko Haram re-emerged with a more violent profile, according to the report by the House Homeland Security Committee.

The group's attacks escalated and spread beyond its northeast stronghold, including the August 2011 suicide bombing at the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, the capital, that killed 23 people.

"A number of factors have been attributed to fueling Boko Haram's violence and fanaticism, including a feeling of alienation from the wealthier, Christian, oil-producing southern Nigeria; pervasive poverty; rampant government corruption; heavy-handed security measures, and the belief that relations with the West are a corrupting influence," said the House panel's report compiled in November 2011. "These grievances have led to sympathy among the local Muslim population despite Boko Haram's violent tactics."

What was the response?

The Nigerian government continued to respond with brutal military repression, while voices in Congress warned that Boko Haram was getting support from al Qaeda affiliates elsewhere in Africa that could make it a threat beyond Nigeria.

In its report, the Homeland Security Committee called for Clinton to "conduct an investigation into whether Boko Haram should be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization" under federal law.

Such a move "may be required to provide our intelligence and law enforcement communities the tools necessary to ensure Boko Haram does not attack U.S. interests and the U.S. homeland," the report said.

A few months later, amid increasing violence by Boko Haram, the top Republicans on the panel wrote Clinton to urge its immediate terrorist designation.

In a letter to the secretary, Reps. Peter King of New York and Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania cited support by the Department of Justice and military intelligence for such a step.

What were the arguments?

In their letter, King and Meehan said Boko Haram could be growing into an al Qaeda affiliate capable of attacking the United States.

Other al Qaeda affiliates, such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, had started as local or regional groups that became international threats, the legislators noted.

Adding Boko Haram to the terror list would give U.S. intelligence, law enforcement and economic officials a wide range of tools against the group, according to King and Meehan.

Opponents of the terrorist designation argued that Boko Haram posed no threat to the United States, while adding it to the terrorism list could make Washington and Western interests more of a target.

A letter to Clinton by the 24 academics, including former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell of the Council on Foreign Relations, said a terrorist designation would raise Boko Haram's international profile and possibly link the United States to abuses by Nigerian forces cracking down on the group.

"Secretary Clinton's response was entirely consistent with the position of the government of Nigeria," which hired a Washington lobbying firm to oppose the foreign terrorist organization designation for Boko Haran in 2012, said Carl LeVan, an American University professor and among the academics who signed the letter.

What did Clinton's State Department do?

In June 2012, the State Department added three Boko Haram members to a terrorist blacklist, including Abubakar Shekau, who took over the group's leadership after Yusuf's death.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration offered various types of assistance to Nigeria, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday.

"Designations are just one tool we use to fight terrorism," Psaki said. "There are a range of steps including under Secretary Clinton that Secretary Kerry has continued, stepping up counter-terrorism cooperation with not just the Nigerian government but other governments in Northern Africa."

In a conference call with journalists Wednesday, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson explained the thinking on whether to designate Boko Haram two years ago.

"There was a concern that putting Boko Haram on the foreign terrorist list would in fact raise its profile, give it a greater publicity, give it greater credibility, help in its recruitment and also probably drive more assistance in its direction," Carson said.

Such a designation provides greater access to a group's finances and more ability to limit its movements, "but none of their finances are here in the United States and none of them are coming here," he noted.

Whether coincidence or not, Boko Haram has again increased its attacks since the State Department under Kerry added it to the list of terrorist organizations last November.

Despite a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head, Shekau has avoided capture and Boko Haram operates with virtual impunity in northeast Nigeria and some parts of the northwest, as well as its incursions as far south as Abuja, Campbell told the Wednesday conference call. A videotape made public recently showed a man believed to be Shekau threatening to sell the recently abducted schoolgirls into slavery.

What's the fallout?

The political right immediately embraced the Daily Beast story to enhance its attack line against Clinton, the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 if she decides to run.

With Clinton polling well so far against possible GOP challengers, Republicans seek to exploit any political vulnerability they can find.

They seek to use the Boko Haram case as well as the September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, to depict Clinton as complicit in what they argue is a weakened U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday that it was "sad" that Clinton "refused calls to designate al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram as a terrorist organization."

The conservative America Rising political action committee alerted journalists to the Daily Beast story when it was published, then featured it atop its website.

Such attacks mimicked GOP tactics during Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, when Republican nominee Mitt Romney criticized the administration's response to the Benghazi attack shortly after it occurred.

On Boko Haram, the letter from King and Meehan to Clinton urging the group's terrorist designation came amid the campaign primaries in March 2012 as Republicans sought to weaken the President's perceived advantage over Romney on foreign policy -- mostly due to the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Obama's order.

Democrats focused their comments Thursday on calls for the government to help Nigeria rescue the kidnapped schoolgirls. Clinton supporters referred journalists to the 2012 letter from the 24 academics but otherwise avoided commenting on State Department steps then.

To Carson, who served under Clinton at that time, the convoluted socio-economic dynamics of Nigeria require a more holistic and nuanced approach than the security focus of anti-terrorism efforts.

"This is a very complex situation," he said. "We all know what has happened with the girls, what happened with the number of terrorist attacks that occurred, but this is being played out against a backdrop of domestic politics and lots of social and economic immiseration in the north."

CNN's Jamie Crawford, Dan Merica, Elise Labott and Evan Perez contributed to this report.