[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 92 (Friday, June 13, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E988-E989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE ONGOING STRUGGLE AGAINST BOKO HARAM

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 13, 2014

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, since November 2013, the U.S. 
government has declared Boko Haram and its affiliate Ansaru to be 
Foreign Terrorist Organizations. This supposedly provides further tools 
with which to fight such organizations and their sponsors. However, an 
Administration that resisted the FTO designation for so long continues 
to downplay its significance. A hearing that I held earlier this week 
was intended to provide information on that reluctance and on obstacles 
to our effective security and/or military assistance to the Nigerian 
government in this anti-terror fight.
  Boko Haram is a Nigerian terrorist group whose full name in Arabic 
means ``people committed to the propagation of the Prophet's teachings 
and jihad.'' The name ``Boko Haram'' is a translation from Hausa 
meaning that conventional education (boko) is forbidden (haram).
  According to various reports, Boko Haram began in 2003 when about 200 
university students and unemployed youth created a camp in Yobe State 
near the Niger border to withdraw from what they considered the 
corrupt, sinful and unjust Nigerian government, and their community was 
supposedly founded on Islamic law. The group was then known by the 
nickname the Nigerian Taliban. Violent clashes with Nigerian security 
forces nearly destroyed the group several times, but its charismatic 
leader, Mohammed Yusuf kept the group alive until his death while in 
police custody in July 2009. Since Yusuf's death, there have been 
various spokesmen but one person who is believed to be the nominal 
leader: Abubakar Shekau. Furthermore, a breakaway group known as Ansaru 
has appeared on the scene, but still coordinates with the original Boko 
Haram.
  Because of its repeated attacks against Christian targets during holy 
days such as Christmas and Easter, Boko Haram is seen by some as 
principally an anti-Christian organization. This past year alone, Boko 
Haram terrorists are believed to have killed more than 1,000 Christians 
in Nigeria. In fact, it is estimated that more than 60 percent of 
Christians killed worldwide because of religious intolerance die in 
Nigeria. However, it would not be a completely accurate interpretation 
of the facts to assume that what is happening in Nigeria is just a 
Muslim-Christian conflict.
  The kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls in the Borno State 
town of Chibok on April 14 has caught the attention of the 
international community, albeit two weeks after the incident. However, 
the kidnapping of eight additional girls after that has been an 
afterthought, and the kidnapping of another 20 women last week has yet 
to receive much notice. Prior to the April kidnappings, Boko Haram had 
generally killed boys but let girls go, warning them to go home and 
give up their dreams of education. There have been previous incidents, 
however, in which girls have been kidnapped, though not in large 
numbers as in Chibok.
  Now Boko Haram leaders realize that kidnapping girls gets worldwide 
publicity, and whether these girls are recovered or not, they know that 
they can do this again to get publicity for their group. The very news 
media used to galvanize pressure on Nigeria to obtain the freedom of 
the kidnapped girls is being used by Boko Haram to brag of its ability 
to disrupt society and taunt Nigerians and their government about their 
ability to take their women and girls away. Several videos, purportedly 
of the kidnapped Chibok girls, have been released, echoing previously-
used al-Qaeda tactics in this regard.
  In the past two years, our subcommittee has sent a staff delegation 
to investigate the Boko Haram threat; this past September, Gregory 
Simpkins, our subcommittee's staff director, and I visited Abuja and 
Jos to further look into this matter, and I just returned the other day 
from Abuja, where I took time out from another human rights mission in 
Nigeria to further investigate the ongoing struggle against this 
terrorist threat.
  Last week, I met in Abuja with one of the Chibok girls who escaped 
early on in the ordeal. This brave young woman has suffered much and 
was clearly traumatized and in emotional pain. You could hear it in her 
voice and see it in her eyes as she sat motionless, recounting her 
story. Yet she spoke of her concern not for herself, but her friends 
and classmates who remain in captivity.
  I met with a Muslim father of two girls abducted from the Chibok 
School. Fighting back tears, he said the agony was unbearable. The 
story of his daughters underscored the fact that Boko Haram brutalizes 
Muslims as well.
  I also met with other Boko Haram victims, including a Christian 
mother whose two daughters were abducted in February 2012. She told us 
her husband was shot on the spot. Three months later, Boko Haram 
returned and asked if her son had converted to Islam. When she said 
no--he was shot and killed. We wasted more than a year of not using all 
our tools because of the specious argument that doing so would provide 
publicity to terrorists, and now the Administration is downplaying what 
the FTO designation can accomplish. There must be robust use of the 
benefits of this designation if we are to be successful in the battle 
against terrorism in Nigeria.
  The three criteria for an organization to be declared a Foreign 
Terrorist Organization by the U.S. government are: 1) it must be a 
foreign organization, 2) it must engage in terrorist activity, and 3) 
it must threaten the security of United States nationals, U.S. national 
security or the economic interests of the United States. Clearly, Boko 
Haram/Ansaru meets that test. This was why I introduced H.R. 3209 last 
year to urge the Administration to declare Boko Haram a Foreign 
Terrorist Organization.
  The proliferation of voices speaking for Boko Haram and the new 
faction lead some to believe this is not a coherent organization, but 
we have learned that it is actually a very sophisticated organization 
operating in cells disconnected from each other but coordinating at a 
high level. Some also believe this group is purely a domestic terrorist 
group operating in Nigeria. We found that to be a false assumption as 
well.
  Boko Haram/Ansaru does wage attacks on the Nigerian government and 
other domestic targets. Nevertheless, their actions prove their 
participation in the global jihad movement that wages violent war 
worldwide to establish their skewed version of Islam as the prevailing 
religion globally. Various actions, such as the bombing of the United 
Nations Abuja office in August 2011, and numerous statements from Boko 
Haram spokesmen indicate their international intent.
  This international focus has been confirmed by American and Nigerian 
intelligence information. In fact, there was at least one American 
present during the U.N. bombing, which if the Administration had 
acknowledged that at the time, would have created pressure to use the 
FTO designation then. As recently as the Foreign Affairs Committee 
hearing on May 21st, Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, 
Democracy, and Human Rights Sarah Sewell would neither confirm nor deny 
that fact. In fact, the State Department has refused to confirm what we 
now know to be true since the 2011 U.N. building bombing. When then-
Assistant Secretary of State Johnny Carson told us in our July 2012 
hearing on Nigeria that Boko Haram's attacks were caused mostly by 
animus against the Nigerian government, he was wrong in his 
apportionment of cause and effect. There is tremendous animus toward 
the Nigerian government and an effort to embarrass President Jonathan. 
However, Boko Haram is determined to convert or kill Christians and 
Muslims they believe oppose them.
  Poverty did not create Boko Haram--religious fanaticism did. Still, 
underdevelopment in northern Nigeria provides fodder for a level of 
discontent with the federal government that provides at least tacit 
northern support for anyone opposing the government. If northern 
Nigeria were its own country, it would be among the poorest, least 
educated, least healthy countries in the world.

[[Page E989]]

  Largely due to the terrorist violence in the North, an estimated 3.3 
million Nigerians are displaced--making Nigeria the world's third 
largest displaced population, behind only Syria and Columbia. Many of 
those displaced people are farmers, which will certainly disrupt the 
next harvesting season and further impoverish Nigeria's suffering 
people.
  Yet the blame for the perennial lack of development in northern 
Nigeria should not be heaped on the federal government alone. We have 
been told that northern states have money for development, and one 
national legislator from the north acknowledged that each member of 
Nigeria's Parliament has at least $1 million dollars (not Nigerian 
naira) at his or her disposal to use for constituent services. National 
and state governments in Nigeria have to be pushed to do more on 
development with money they already have. It is imperative that we 
provide the training and support for Nigerians to develop their own 
capacity to help Nigeria to end the Boko Haram threat. The Leahy Law, 
which forbids U.S. support for military and security forces involved in 
human rights violations, is seen as an obstacle to achieving that goal. 
We need to examine this matter further if our assistance is to be 
effective.
  We also need to ensure that our investigative capacity under the 
Foreign Terrorist Organization designation is sufficient to identify 
those providing material and other assistance to Boko Haram. Without 
this element, our sanctions on Boko Haram and its leaders will not be 
effective.
  The Boko Haram crisis is complex, but it can be understood and 
tackled effectively if we know the relevant facts. We had witnesses at 
the hearing I held who shed significant light on this situation so that 
we are better able to proceed in helping to end this threat to Nigeria, 
its neighbors, and the international community.

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