Checking Chris Christie's claim that Clinton kept Boko Haram off terrorist list
Chris Christie slammed Hillary Clinton and her record as secretary of state in a series of arguments in his speech Tuesday at the GOP convention -- here's a little more information about one accusation he made about her foreign policy failures:
"In Nigeria, Hillary Clinton amazingly fought for two years to keep an al Qaeda affiliate off the terrorist watch list. These terrorists abducted hundreds of innocent young girls two years ago. These schoolgirls are still missing today." -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, GOP convention, Jul. 19, 2016
Christie here was referring to Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based militant group which may be best known for the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls, most of whom remain missing, as he pointed out. His comment on Clinton probably refers to the House Homeland Security Committee's 2011 report urging the State Department to formally designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization, which it did not do until two years later, at the end of 2013. The charge against Clinton is not a new one, and it was raised in a Daily Beast article in 2014.
The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler in 2014 looked into the accusation in a Fact Checker column and suggested that while technically, Clinton issued the terrorist designation, the process is a complex one with a lot of input from a lot of competing interests. The decision, Kessler said, "was resolved before it ever reached her level."
Regional bureaus and the ambassadors of the countries are involved in the decision-making, and if they settle on a recommendation, that also goes to the attorney general and the Treasury Department with a request to concur, according to the Post story.
In the case of Boko Haram, the official in charge of the Africa region, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, preached caution, according to the Post, because Nigeria, which has good relations with the U.S., "was adamantly opposed to the designation." Nigeria feared that formally calling Boko Haram a terrorist organization would raise its stature and its strength. The move would also affect the flow of money and aid to parts of Nigeria, which would potentially heavily impact some of Nigeria's poorest populations, and could even unintentionally help the group with terrorist recruitment. Still, Assistant Secretary Daniel Benjamin, who headed the Counterterrorism bureau, was "leaning toward" the designation.
Another complicating factor was the U.S. objection to the way Nigeria was battling Boko Haram -- government forces were reportedly committing atrocities against Boko Haram as they tried to control the group -- this is the kind of issue that would limit U.S. military aid to the country.
Ultimately, State did make the designation, and although Kessler concluded that it could have acted more quickly, there is no evidence that putting Boko Haram on the terrorist list any sooner would have prevented the kidnapping of the schoolgirls.