International lawyer Barry Grossman says that Boko Haram in Nigeria was not described as a terrorist group by the United States.
“This movement that is called Boko Haram was not declared a terrorist organization by the Clinton administration or by Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state,” Grossman told Press TV on Sunday.
The US State Department has been accused of resisting calls to list Takfiris in Nigeria as a terrorist group during former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s tenure.
A US media report has quoted an unnamed official as saying the State Department under Hillary Clinton argued in 2012 that adding the group to the terrorist list would cause more harm than good and would make US interests a target of the group’s attacks.
The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that other US government agencies, including the CIA, along with several members of Congress had called on the State Department when Clinton was secretary of state to officially designate the Nigerian group a terrorist organization.
The extremist group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.
After Clinton stepped down and John Kerry took office, the US designated Boko Haram as a terrorist organization.
“Since then somehow seriously it has been designated by the United States as an organization and as a terrorist organization,” Grossman said.
The group abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria on April 14. Washington announced that it is ready to help the Nigerian government find the girls.
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