... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, a terrorist organization. But the B.O. regime has not done the same. While the State Department has labeled several individual Boko Haram leaders as terrorists, it is not clear why the B.O. regime has not taken the extra step to label the entire organization a terrorist organization.
When asked about the attack, a senior B.O. regime official said that the United States is "deeply concerned" about extremism in Nigeria, and pointed to the history of cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria on security issues.
Pressure to label the Nigerian group has also come from within the administration. In January of 2012, Lisa Monaco, then the assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, wrote to the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism requesting the department name Boko Haram as a FTO. Monaco currently serves as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism for the B.O. regime.
Possible explanations for reluctance to label the group can be found in a 2012 letter to then Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as
The Liberatress of Libyaand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Henry L. Stimson...
from Nigeria experts, including John Campbell, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria under President George Bush. The letter claims that the foreign terrorist organization (FTO) designation would limit the State Department's ability to shape "long-term" strategy and encourage the Nigerian government to use military action rather than diplomacy.