[size=14pt]Obama Gets Dire Warning Over Boko Haram's Designation[/size]
Leadership Editors's picture
Tue, 22/05/2012 - 2:10pm | ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMI



United States President, Mr. Barrack Obama has been warned over the proposal of the United States Justice Department to designate Boko Haram a foreign terror group.

In a letter addressed to Ms. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State at the beginning of the week, twenty American scholars with a special interest in Nigeria and broad expertise on African politics warned the United States government not to categorise Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.

The scholars who are drawn from various universities across United States said that such designation would internationalise the Boko Haram menace and enhance its profile among Al-Qaeda and other global militant groups.

“A Foreign Terrorist Organisation’s (FTO) designation would internationalize Boko Haram’s standing and enhance its status among radical organizations elsewhere. Boko Haram’s recent tactics, including the use of suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices, raise questions about their foreign links"

"The network’s focus has been overwhelmingly domestic, despite an August 2011 attack on the United Nations office in Abuja. Rhetorically, some of Boko Haram’s critique of northern underdevelopment and elite corruption is within the realm of mainstream political discourse.” The letter reads in parts.

The United States scholars also explained that designating Boko Haram a terrorist organization would also bar Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academic researchers in the United States from having interactions with them.

According to the letter: “Should Boko Haram be designated an FTO through this regime, it would be illegal for non-governmental organizations to interact with members of Boko Haram, even if the purpose of such contact was to persuade them to renounce violence. An FTO designation would prevent independent scholarly inquiry about Boko Haram, and increase suspicion in the future about researchers with no governmental ties”

“Public policy benefits from dialogue with public scholars, and an FTO designation would effectively criminalize broad categories of research. A lasting solution to Boko Haram will require robust political and developmental components initiated by the Nigerian government and broadly endorsed by the Nigerian people.”

The letter was by the following: Carl LeVan (American University), Peter Lewis (Johns Hopkins University), Jean Herskovits (SUNY – Purchase) , Daniel J. Smith (Brown University), Adrienne LeBas (American University), R. Kiki Edozie (Michigan State University), Brandon Kendhammer (Ohio University), Susan Shepler (American University), John Campbell (Council on Foreign Relations), David Dwyer (Michigan State University), Paul Lubeck (University of California – Santa Cruz), Darren Kew (University of Massachusetts – Boston), Pearl Robinson (Tufts University), Laura Thaut (University of Minnesota – Minneapolis), Clarence Lusane (American University), Nicolas van de Walle (Cornell University), Judith Byfield (Cornell University), Susan M. O’Brien (University of Florida), John Paden (George Mason University), Deborah Brautigam (Johns Hopkins University).

It would be recalled that the United States Department of Justice had last week asked the State Department to designate Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group alleged to be responsible for hundreds of deaths, as a "foreign terrorist organization,"

Lisa Monaco, head of the Justice Department's national security division, had sent a letter to the State Department counter-terrorism chief Daniel Benjamin requesting that Boko Haram, also known as the "Nigerian Taliban," be put on the list.

Monaco said that although Boko Haram attacks until now have occurred only within Nigeria, the U.S. should not underestimate the threat the group poses to U.S. interests.

http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/25411/2012/05/22/obama_gets_dire_warning_over_boko_harams_designation.html

Big money is at work, trying to buy even the US.

Beaf: Big money is at work, trying to buy even the US.

you just don't know how to rate intelligent discourse do you?

I hope Obama listens because that man does not seem to have Africa's well being at heart just like our looting leaders in Nigeria.

All the ones that have been named international terrorists, what have been done to them?