Republicans Assail Obama’s Policy on Nigerian Terror

Prominent Republicans have attacked the Obama administration for its “insufficient” response to the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram that has targeted Christians and killed more than 1,000 people.

“The Department of State refuses to explain its rationale for not designating Boko Haram an FTO [Foreign Terrorist Organization], which puts American lives at risk,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., chairman of the committee’s counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee.

The campaign by Boko Haram — whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” — to promote Islamic law has increasingly taken the form of an anti-Christian jihad.

On Sunday, June 17, Boko Haram terrorists killed more than a dozen people and wounded scores more in suicide bombings at three churches in northern Nigeria.

On the previous Sunday, at least six people were killed and dozens injured when gunmen opened fire at a church.

And on Sunday, June 3, at least 15 people were killed and 42 wounded in a suicide bombing at a church in northern Nigeria.

On Thursday, the State Department announced it was naming three Boko Haram leaders as “specially designated global terrorists” (SDGTs) under executive order 13224, a post-9/11 mechanism designed to disrupt funding to terrorists, CNS News reported.

Americans are barred from engaging in transactions with SDGTs, and any assets they have in the United States are frozen.

The three Nigerians are Boko Haram’s “most visible leader,” Abubakar Shekau, and two others, Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi, who the department said “have ties to Boko Haram and have close links to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

The department also said in a statement: “Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in northern Nigeria, its primary area of operation. In the last 18 months, Boko Haram or associated militants have killed more than 1,000 people.”

The statement referred to several terrorist acts by Boko Haram, including a series of attacks in Kano on Jan. 20 that killed more than 180 people. Those attacks hit police stations, immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in the city of more than 9 million, The Associated Press reported.

The State Department said the designations “demonstrate the United States’ resolve in diminishing the capacity of Boko Haram to execute violent attacks.”

But King and Meehan called the department’s step “insufficient.”

“The legal ramifications of this designation only affect dealings with three designated individuals, and not the wider Boko Haram organization, which is growing in intent, capability and targeting capacity,” they said in a statement.

The lawmakers repeated earlier calls for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, according to CNS News.

“Given Boko Haram’s trajectory and intent to carry out terrorist attacks against Western targets, including possibly the Homeland, we must take the growing threat seriously.”

In a request to Clinton in March, they cited a report the Homeland Security Committee released last November entitled “Boko Haram: Emerging Threat to the U.S. Homeland.”

In a second appeal to Clinton in May, King and Meehan referred to media reports saying the Justice Department believes Boko Haram meets the legal requirements for FTO designation.

“It is deeply frustrating and concerning that a formal request from the Department of Justice for FTO designation of Boko Haram has gone unheeded for almost six months,” they wrote in the May 18 letter.

“Designating Boko Haram an FTO is essential to giving our intelligence and law enforcement agencies the legal authorities to deter individuals who might be providing support to Boko Haram in the U.S. and abroad, and freeze any known Boko Haram assets. FTO designation can no longer wait. We urge you to act immediately.”