[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 2337-2338]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               BOKO HARAM

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 26, 2016

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in 2010, we saw a similar dip in Boko 
Haram's capability. Its founder was killed and many of its fighters 
wiped out. Boko Haram went into hiding and all was quiet, but that 
quiet did not last. Boko Haram regrouped, appointed a new leader even 
more radical than its founder, and came back deadlier than ever. We 
can't let that happen again. Boko Haram is still capable of launching 
deadly asymmetric attacks throughout the Lake Chad Basin. My staff has 
been tracking their attacks. There is hardly a day that goes by when 
there is not some sort of Boko Haram attack that kills innocents.
  Over the past few years, relations between Nigeria and the U.S. have 
been strained. Joint military trainings were cancelled and the U.S. 
hesitated to supply weapons to Nigeria's military citing concerns about 
human rights abuses.
  It took the United States 11 years to designate Boko Haram as a 
foreign terrorist organization. Finally on November 12, 2013, the night 
before this Subcommittee and the Africa Subcommittee held a joint 
hearing on why Boko Haram was not on the FTO list, State Department 
called to say it was designating the group. That was an important step 
but there are questions about the implementation of the designation. It 
does not seem that all the tools that a designation carries are being 
brought to bear on the group, especially when it comes to stopping its 
financing.
  The U.S. has started to do more to help Nigeria combat Boko Haram 
since the election of Nigerian President Buhari in late May of 2015. 
Infantry training has been restarted and we are seeing an increased 
level of cooperation between AFRICOM and the Nigerian military. In 
October, the Administration announced that it was sending troops and 
drones to Cameroon as well as surveillance aircraft to Niger. But like 
the FTO designation these are steps that should have been taken years 
ago, before Boko Haram was allowed to become more lethal than ISIS. Now 
we must do more to support our African partners to stamp out this 
Islamist menace once and for all.
  The fight against Boko Haram is essential to U.S. national security 
interests. In ISIS, we

[[Page 2338]]

have already seen what happens when we underestimate a terrorist group. 
While Boko Haram may not have the capability to attack the United 
States today, neither did al Qaeda in the years prior to 9/11. We 
cannot wait for an attack to happen on American soil before getting 
serious about destroying those who want to destroy us. Now is the time, 
when it costs far less blood and treasure, to stamp out Boko Haram.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________