NOW!! What difference does it make now the deed is done and the Girls have been abducted.
UK squad arrives
Nigerian military had a four-hour warning before attack, says Amnesty
Some perpetrators of Nyanya blast arrested — Jonathan
Some lawmakers in the United States are blaming former Secretary of State and former First Lady, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, for her alleged role in refusing to list Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organisation under her watch in the State Department.
The report surfaced just as it was confirmed that some British counterinsurgency forces have arrived in Nigeria to assist the Nigerian government in its bid to rescue the over 200 female students of the Government Girls’ College, Chibok, in Borno State, abducted by Boko Haram.
According to US publication, The Daily Beast, many stakeholders believe that if Clinton had acceded to the request spanning a period of two years, it would have been easier to curb the atrocities of the group.
The report said: “The State Department under Hillary Clinton fought hard against placing the al Qaeda-linked militant group Boko Haram on its official list of foreign terrorist organisations for two years. And now, lawmakers and former U.S. officials are saying that the decision may have hampered the American government’s ability to confront the Nigerian group that shocked the world by abducting hundreds of innocent girls.
“In the past week, Clinton, who made protecting women and girls a key pillar of her tenure at the State Department, has been a vocal advocate for the 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, the loosely organised group of militants terrorising northern Nigeria.
Her May 4 tweet about the girls, using the hashtag #BringBackOur- Girls, was cited across the media and widely credited for raising awareness of their plight. “On Wednesday, Clinton said that the abduction of the girls by Boko Haram was ‘abominable, it’s criminal, it’s an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible, first and foremost from the government of Nigeria’.
Clinton said that as Secretary of State she had numerous meetings with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and had urged the Nigerian government to do more on counterterrorism. “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 U.N. 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 Boko Haram “are likely sharing funds, training, and explosive materials” with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. But Clinton’s State Department still declined to place the sect on its official terrorist roster.
Secretary of State John Kerry eventually added Boko Haram and its splinter group Ansaru to the list of foreign terrorist organizations in November 2013, following a spate of church bombings and other acts that demonstrated the group’s escalating abilities to wreak havoc.
The designation makes it illegal for any U.S. entities to do business with the group in question. It cuts off access to the U.S. financial system for the organization and anyone associating with it. And the designation also serves to stigmatize and isolate foreign organizations by encouraging other nations to take similar measures.
The State Department’s refusal to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization prevented U.S. law enforcement agencies from fully addressing the growing Boko Haram threat in those crucial two years, The Daily Beast quoted some GOP lawmakers as saying.
“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.” British High Commission’s head of press and public affairs, Mr. Rob Fitzpatrick, confirmed the arrival of the British team in a statement, on Friday.
According to Fitzpatrik, the contingent was drawn from across government agencies including, Department for International Development (DfID), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Ministry of Defence. “The team will work with Nigerian authorities leading on the abduction and terrorism in Nigeria.
“The team will also be considering not just recent incidents but also longerterm counter-terrorism solutions to prevent such attacks in the future and defeat Boko Haram,” he said. And in a bid to address the situation, President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, yesterday said intelligence chiefs of member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) would meet in Accra on May 12.
On why the intelligence chiefs are converging on Accra, Mahama, who is the chairman of ECOWAS, said the meeting would also proffer strategies to end terrorist activities of Boko Haram. He said the essence of the meeting was to discuss the Boko Haram threat in Nigeria and the subregion.
“ECOWAS has a common anti-terrorism strategy, and so, as Chair of ECOWAS, I have been speaking to other member heads of state and they believe that we should activate that anti-terrorism strategy.” Meanwhile, Amnesty International has alleged in a BBC report that it was informed by several credible sources that the military was given about four hours’ warning of the raid.
The military in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, according to Amnesty, were informed of the impending attack soon after 1900 local time – the school was attacked around midnight. It added that despite the warning, reinforcements were not sent to help protect the school in the remote Chibok area.
Indications emerged over the weekend that the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), will coordinate multi-national troops, in the renewed efforts to rescue over 200 students of Government Girls Secondary School, who were abducted on April 14, by Boko Haram insurgents.
This development is coming on the heels of the arrival, in the country, of Special Forces from the United States (US), in fulfilment of President Barack Obama’s pledge to assist the federal government’s rescue efforts. A top military source who spoke with New Telegraph on Saturday, said the terms of collaboration, which will be across board, were being worked out, as at Friday. He maintained that the Nigerian armed forces “will not be relegated to the background”.
While noting that it was only some “hi-tech” equipment that they lack, he said: “Let me make it abundantly clear, that we (military) are throwing our hands in the air while our counterparts carry out the exercise.
No. “Our officers and soldiers on the frontline are well trained, except that we need more sophisticated, up-to-date hardware, to deal with the challenge of terrorism which, you will agree with me, is a recent phenomenon,” he stated. While regretting comments in some quarters that the military lacked the capacity to effectively prosecute the war on terror, the military chief reminded the public of Nigeria’s military exploits at peacekeeping missions abroad.
“There is no country that operates like an island, especially where the global scourge of terrorism is involved. “What we are having from the US and others, is partnership to defeat terrorists, who are enemies of the world,” he declared. .Apart from troops deployment, New Telegraph learnt that the US may deploy drone and satellite equipment, to enhance the rescue mission.
“It won’t be cumbersome for the US, because the country already has its presence in Mali and the Gulf of Guinea,” he added. Apart from the US, China, France as well as the United Kingdom, have offered to assist Nigeria in her ongoing rescue operation.
Also, yesterday, President Goodluck Jonathan told participants at the World Economic Forum on Africa that some perpetrators of the bomb blast at Nyanya, Abuja, have been arrested.
New Telegraph
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