http://nigerianssavingnigerians.org/2013/11/13/u-s-names-boko-haram-terrorists-video-and-literature/

Below is the press release from the U.S. Department of State regarding the terrorist designations of Boko Haram and Ansaru.
“Terrorist Designations of Boko Haram and Ansaru
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
November 13, 2013
The Department of State has announced the designation of Boko Haram and Ansaru as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. Boko Haram is a Nigeria-based militant group with links to al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) that is responsible for thousands of deaths in northeast and central Nigeria over the last several years including targeted killings of civilians. Also operating in Nigeria, Ansaru is a Boko Haram splinter faction that earlier in 2013 kidnapped and executed seven international construction workers.
These designations are an important and appropriate step, but only one tool in what must be a comprehensive approach by the Nigerian government to counter these groups through a combination of law enforcement, political, and development efforts, as well as military engagement, to help root out violent extremism while also addressing the legitimate concerns of the people of northern Nigeria. All of our assistance to Nigeria stresses the importance of protecting civilians and ensuring that human rights are respected. That assistance and these designations demonstrate U.S. support for the Nigerian people’s fight against Boko Haram and Ansaru.
These designations will assist U.S. and other law enforcement partners in efforts to investigate and prosecute terrorist suspects associated with Boko Haram and Ansaru.
Boko Haram has been conducting an ongoing and brutal campaign against Nigerian military, government, and civilian targets. Among its most lethal attacks, Boko Haram carried out indiscriminate attacks in Benisheikh, Nigeria in September 2013 that killed more than 160 innocent civilians, including women and children. Boko Haram has also conducted attacks against international targets, including a suicide bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja on August 26, 2011, that killed 21 people and injured dozens more, many of them aid workers supporting development projects across Nigeria.
Ansaru’s attacks have focused on Nigerian military and Western targets. In November 2012, Ansaru raided a police station in Abuja, killing Nigerian police officers and freeing detained terrorists from prison. Also in January 2013, Ansaru attacked Nigerian security services when its members ambushed a convoy of Nigerian peacekeepers. Ansaru has also conducted several kidnappings of foreigners living or working in Nigeria.
The consequences of the these FTO and E.O. 13224 designations include a prohibition against knowingly providing, or attempting or conspiring to provide, material support or resources to, or engaging in transactions with, Boko Haram and Ansaru, and the freezing of all property and interests in property of the organizations that are in the United States, or come within the United States or the control of U.S. persons. The Department of State took these actions in consultation with the Departments of Justice and Treasury.”

What are your thoughts on this?

One more article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10445603/US-to-name-Nigerias-Boko-Haram-as-a-terrorist-group.html

The State Department will formally designate the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram as a "foreign terrorist organisation" on Wednesday, congressional sources and others have said.
The designation is significant because it directs US law enforcement and regulatory agencies to block business and financial transactions with Boko Haram, which wants to impose Islamic law in northern Nigeria and has ties to al Qaeda.
The move makes it a crime under US law to provide "material support" to the group. A State Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boko Haram and other splinter Islamist groups are seen as the biggest security threat in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and top oil exporter.
In May, President Goodluck Jonathan increased a military campaign against Boko Haram. His government said last week that it has killed 70 civilians.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee, which a source said has been notified of the decision, has scheduled a hearing on the group for Wednesday.
"The likelihood of more hearings on this issue may have been a final straw in encouraging the State Department to acknowledge something which has been apparent for some time - the growing relationship between Boko Haram and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," said US Rep. Patrick Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican who convened his own hearing on the issue.
Mr Meehan chairs a Homeland Security subcommittee, not a Foreign Affairs committee, and has not been briefed by the State Department. "Boko Haram is of growing influence and of major concern," he said.
Last year, the Justice Department's senior top national security official, Lisa Monaco, sent a letter to the State Department arguing that Boko Haram met the criteria to be listed as a "foreign terrorist" group because, she said, it either engages in terrorism that threatens the United States or has a capability or intent to do so.
Monaco is now President Barack Obama's top White House counter-terrorism advisor.
Although the State Department later designated three alleged Boko Haram leaders as terrorists, it stopped short of a more sweeping declaration against the organization.
For two years, Meehan and Rep. Peter King of New York have pressed the State Department to put Boko Haram on its list of terrorist groups alongside the likes of al Qaeda and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
They have warned that an August 2011 attack on a UN building in Abuja, Nigeria, marked a turning point as a threat to U.S. interests. Meehan has noted that the United States did not perceive al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as a threat to US interests until after the attempting downing of an airliner by a Nigerian near Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009.

Boko haram is a big time terrorism like al qaeda only that they haven't gone on a full time international terrorism!

It is good the group is laballed terrorist group and what is bad is the aftermath effect on the northern people.If the terrorist attacks on civilians doesn't stop,the US might be left with no option than to attack the northern part of the country.That is the bad omen.

igbo2011: http://nigerianssavingnigerians.org/2013/11/13/u-s-names-boko-haram-terrorists-video-and-literature/



What are your thoughts on this?

Interesting. Given how quickly BH became sophisticated, there is a good chance they have the backing of some foreign govt. I wouldn't be surprised if Iran is implicated at some point (Iranian clerics have been rumored to have instigated some religious riots in the north in the past). This would make part of a good case to ramp up sanctions, maybe even invasion of Iran. On the other hand I wonder if its now going to be harder to transact business/money to and from Nigeria. It certainly looks like there will be more eyes on that cash flow from diaspora back home

Tolexander: Boko haram is a big time terrorism like al qaeda only that they haven't gone on a full time international terrorism!

They are militants just like MEND but they are more consistent....I give that to them though.

AbdH:

They are militants just like MEND but they are more consistent....I give that to them though.

MEND has legit grievances and have limited their wahala to kidnapping (and releasing) oil workers. BH doesnt have any real grouse to speak of. Ultimately they just want to let some blood and cause as much mayhem as possible. Even they know education aint going nowhere.

birdman:

MEND has legit grievances and have limited their wahala to kidnapping (and releasing) oil workers. BH doesnt have any real grouse to speak of. Ultimately they just want to let some blood and cause as much mayhem as possible. Even they know education aint going nowhere.

MEND take lives too.
Their reason is that they are shortchanged by the government. What they want is that the government clean up their environments and compensate them for exploiting their lands so that they can live better lives which is a good call but these are no just cause for their criminal actions.

Boko haram also believe that they can live better if their system of governance is changed. They say they want Islam right? This is also a good call but there is no just cause for their criminal actions.

Bottom Line: Both are driven by the same will and both carry out the same acts of bombing and kidnapping people.
If boko haram were from the south, trust me, they will still be termed as an ordinary group while if MEND was full of Muslims, they will be termed terrorists.

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