Hillary Clinton ‘misled Obama’ on Boko Haram
Former US secretary of state, Mrs Hillary Clinton, misled President Barack Obama on the enormity of the threat of Boko Haram, a situation that stopped America from coming to the Nigeria’s aid before the insurgency got out of hand.
An associate fellow of the Henry Jackson Society and the Jamestown Foundation, Mr. Jacob Zenn, made this allegation in his report, Exposing and Defeating Boko Haram – why the West must unite to help Nigeria defeat terrorism, which was released by the Bow Group on Tuesday.
Zenn said Boko Haram, which has killed thousands of people this year alone, was not labelled a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) for a long time ─ and this allowed the group to access finances “almost unimpeded” for the first four years of its insurgency.
Clinton was secretary of state from 2009, the year Boko Haram started its bombing campaign, till 2013, when the crisis had virtually gone out of hand.
The US only labelled Boko Haram and its offshoot, Ansaru, as FTOs on November 13, 2013 ─ after Clinton’s departure from office ─ making it a crime for Americans to provide “material support” to the group and enabling banks to freeze US assets of the terrorists.
Zenn claimed that the US state department led by Clinton did not label Boko Haram an FTO “because of her team’s political interests and misguided theories about terrorism”.
He further alleged that Boko Haram received finances from “domestic actors” who oppose President Jonathan and “foreign sponsors” who want to see Nigeria divided and Western economic interests attacked.
His report made these recommendations:
- There should be international support and cooperation with the Nigerian government to counter Boko Haram;
- The US Democratic Party, including its consultants, should avoid negative repercussions that could arise if it were viewed to be siding with the party opposing President Jonathan in the February 2015 elections, which many Christians consider to be Nigeria’s version of the Muslim Brotherhood; and
- The US government clarify why it refused to label Boko Haram as an FTO and outline the criteria upon which the label will be used in the future.
The Boko Haram insurgency was politicised ab initio by the politically correct American reaction to the insurgency. They bought the lie of Sanusi and the other Northern sponsors of the insurgency, that poverty in the North was responsible for the insurgency, a blatant lie if ever there was one.
I am happy that the truth is out, even if too late in the day.