A US senator and former presidential candidate,
Sen. John McCain has said that the US military
should rescue the 200 schoolgirls abducted in
Nigeria by Islamist militant group Boko Haram,
even if the Nigerian government disapproves.
In an interview with the Daily Beast newspaper,
the senator set aside the usual diplomatic tact
when he said that the US should feel no
compunction to withhold sending special
operations forces to find the kidnapped girls –
especially in a country led by “some guy named
Goodluck Jonathan.”
“If they knew where they were, I certainly would
send in US troops to rescue them, in a New York
minute I would, without permission of the host
country,” McCain said on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t
be waiting for some kind of permission from
some guy named Goodluck Jonathan,” he
declared, in reference to Nigeria’s president.
Read the report below:
"As he suggested last week in a CNN
interview, McCain insisted that if he
were US president, his administration
would have prepared special forces
ready to enter Nigeria if a rescue
opportunity was apparent. His rationale
for military intervention rests with the
United Nations charter, he said, since the
mass abduction was akin to “crimes
against humanity.”
“The United Nations Charter recognized
crimes against humanity, this fits into
the category of crimes against
humanity, and that gives any nation the
license if they can to stop a crime against
humanity, the same reason we should
have if we could have freed the people
at Dachau or Auschwitz,” McCain said.
Yet, as The Daily Beast points out, the
UN Charter “does not explicitly mention
crimes against humanity.” But the news
website found that the Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court
Explanatory Memorandum does,
indicating that crimes against humanity
“are particularly odious offenses in that
they constitute a serious attack on
human dignity or grave humiliation or a
degradation of human beings.”
McCain said the US need not receive
permission from the Nigerian
government, as Abuja would give
thanks to any American effort that ends
up saving the young girls.
“I would not be involved in the niceties
of getting the Nigerian government to
agree, because if we did rescue these
people, there would be nothing but
gratitude from the Nigerian
government, such as it is,” he said.
The Nigerian government has been
reluctant to work with Washington in
recent years in countering Boko Haram,
the Obama administration has said. The
fractious relationship was a key reason
why the US State Department did not
officially label the Islamist group as a
terror organization in 2011 and 2012.
The Obama administration said Tuesday
it will not negotiate with Boko Haram to
retrieve the girls.
“We, as a matter of policy, deny
kidnappers the benefits of their criminal
acts, and that includes ransoms or other
concessions,” White House press
secretary Jay Carney said.
Following initial resistence, the Nigerian
government now says it will negotiate
with Boko Haram. A spokesman for the
militant group said it would not return
the girls unless the government released
“our brethren.”
The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday
that Boko Haram is set to release a list of
its members and members’ relatives that
it wants freed in one-for-one exchanges
for its hostages. The list – and the name
of the Islamic cleric the group has
sanctioned to negotiate on its behalf –
will be announced on Wednesday.
“In total, the numbers to be released will
probably be equal to the number of the
girls currently held,” a source told The
Telegraph.
The State Department said Monday that
the US has sent manned surveillance and
reconnaissance aircraft to assist Nigeria
with the search effort. The US has also
sent 27 security advisors to Nigeria. The
State Department has also said that the
US is seeking United Nations sanctions
against Boko Haram.
“If we rescued these young girls, it
would be the high point of the [President
Obama’s] popularity,” McCain said.
The top Republican on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob
Corker, told The Daily Beast he would
only advocate the use of US forces if the
Nigeri
an government approved."
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