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Obama sends 80 U.S. troops to Chad to help search for Nigerian schoolgirls

May 22, 2014 10:36 am By Robert Spencer

Mothers of Nigerian abducted schoolgirlsThis move is an absolute masterpiece of style over substance. The girls were not from Chad, but from Nigeria. Does the U.S. government have any reason to believe that they are now in Chad? No, this isn’t based on any new intelligence. These 80 troops will fly reconnaissance missions to look for the girls. But what does a kidnapped schoolgirl who has been forcibly converted to Islam and married to a jihadist look like from the air? They know the girls have been dispersed, which only emphasizes that this initiative is about as useful as Michelle Obama’s hashtag campaign.

“80 U.S. troops in Chad will aid search for abducted Nigerian girls,” by Faith Karimi and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN, May 22, 2014:

(CNN) — The United States deployed 80 members of its armed forces to Chad to help in the search for the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, the White House said Wednesday.

“These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area,” it said in a letter.

“The force will remain in Chad until its support in resolving the kidnapping situation is no longer required.”

President Barack Obama informed the House speaker and the president of the Senate of the move.

The forces will be involved in maintaining aircraft and analyzing data, but because they are armed, the President is required by law to inform the speaker of the House, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

“These are not combat infantry troops that we put into Chad,” Kirby told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on Wednesday. “These are folks that are there to support the reconnaissance mission.”

Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls last month from a school in northern Nigeria. Officials have speculated that the militants may have transported them to neighboring Chad or Cameroon, but it’s not clear where the girls are or whether they’ve left Nigeria.

So why are troops deploying to Chad?

“Just geographically, Chad’s a great location to do this from,” Kirby said, adding that the United States has a good relationship with its government.

Reconnaissance flights will be searching an area roughly the size of West Virginia, he said, that includes parts of Nigeria and other countries.

The deployment is not based on any new intelligence leads, a senior administration official said.

“The truth is, we don’t know exactly where they are,” Kirby said. “We still believe that they’ve broken up into small groups and dispersed.”…

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Boko Haram, Chad, Nigeria Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    May 22, 2014 at 10:40 am

    Every single Boko Haram supporter will have to be apprehended, killed or jailed. Western countries have to realize that Islam teaches slavery and misogyny. How much are Western women going complain about that? Western women are living in a fool’s paradise, thinking that they are safe from Islamist misogyny.

    They are not. It’s coming to all Western countries. It is beginning now. Have they not noticed?

  2. mariam rove says

    May 22, 2014 at 10:55 am

    80 troops. Another Obama joke. That said Chad neighbors Nigeria and I think the reason they are in Chad from an article I read the other day, Chadian military is one of the best trained militaries in Africa. M

  3. Jay Boo says

    May 22, 2014 at 11:31 am

    Obama’s Muslim brotherhood buddies know where Boko Haram bought their weapons on the cheap because they still have all the receipts.

  4. Rinzai says

    May 22, 2014 at 11:43 am

    Shillary must be striken with shame… not.

  5. Mr. Squat says

    May 22, 2014 at 11:54 am

    What a waste of resources.

  6. Salah says

    May 22, 2014 at 12:38 pm

    OT
    When it comes to Islam, never trust polls.

    Pew Research Center: 54 percent of Egyptians find el-Sissi favorable, showing deep divisions.
    http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/05/22/poll-only-slight-majority-in-egypt-backs-el-sissi

    Next week: Presidential elections in Egypt.
    My own personal estimate results: Sissi…between 75% and 85%….AT LEAST.

    Now it’s Salah against the Pew. One of us will prove to be SPECTACULARLY inaccurate.

    • RodSerling says

      May 22, 2014 at 2:56 pm

      Salah,

      Thanks for the tip re Pew’s poll.

      The parts of it that are relevant to Islam indicate that there has only been a minor change (approx 11%; see Q40) for the better among Egyptians’ in their views of Islam in the laws of the land. It does not show a sea change rejection of Islam by Egyptian Muslims, as you’ve been claiming. The vast majority of Egyptians still want laws to be influenced by the Qur’an and/or Islamic principles. Only 16% oppose that, and probably much of that 16% consists of non-Muslims of various sorts.

      Here are links to the study:

      http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/05/22/one-year-after-morsis-ouster-divides-persist-on-el-sisi-muslim-brotherhood/

      pdf, with questionnaire, see especially responses to question 40.
      http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2014/05/Pew-Research-Center-Egypt-Report-FINAL-May-22-2014.pdf

      • Salah says

        May 23, 2014 at 2:23 am

        From A to Z, nothing but lies and/or total incompetence. Sorry to disappoint you.
        I’m sure Sisi will be the winner, but this is not of any great importance. What matters is the people’s will. By participating and voting in unprecedented numbers (which I’m sure is going to happen), the Egyptians are sending a message to the whole world that THIS is exactly what they want (the road map, the constitution, the ouster of the MB, etc.) They are telling the West: Hey, it is not a military coup, it is the people’s will.
        Egyptians have never ever been THAT united.
        When this Pew center claims that they are “deeply divided” it is totally misleading the West, to say the least.

        As for “The vast majority of Egyptians still want laws to be influenced by the Qur’an and/or Islamic principles.”, I agree, it’s still a Muslim country. But sharia has been reduced to its minimum and applied only in personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance etc. Egypt has never seen one single case of stoning, amputation or any corporal punishment.
        Egyptians understood that the MB were planning to fully implement sharia. They threw them out.

        Now, guess what, looks like we have a new Sisi in neighbouring Lybia!

        • RodSerling says

          May 23, 2014 at 1:54 pm

          Salah,

          “From A to Z, nothing but lies and/or total incompetence. Sorry to disappoint you.”

          Disappointed by what? That you don’t engage with the evidence? That you don’t understand the difference between Pew’s questions re Sisi and others versus voting in a head-to-head contest between two people. Plenty to be disappointed by, but it’s enough for me to point to the evidence that refutes, once again, your incessant, impervious-to-data fantasy-based optimism re changes in Islam and Muslims.

          “But sharia has been reduced to its minimum and applied only in personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance etc.”

          That is nonsense.

          1. Even western countries such as the U.K. have more sharia than that. Egypt still punishes people for expressing any criticism whatsoever of Islam or Muhammad, still punishes apostasy, etc.; almost all girls have been subjected to FGM, and so on.

          2. Sharia in personal matters such as those you listed = inequality and persecution of women and non-Muslims.

        • RodSerling says

          May 23, 2014 at 2:01 pm

          Salah,

          “Egyptians understood that the MB were planning to fully implement sharia. They threw them out.”

          That’s not mainly why they were thrown out. If they were thrown out mainly for that reason, we’d see a commensurate drop in the support for Islamic law (or increased opposition to Islamic law). The decline in support for the MB was by 25%, while the increase in opposition to Islamic law was only by 11%. Again, take a look at the data instead of relying on your own anecdotal impressions. Support for the MB declined mostly along with a general decline in support for various leaders, authorities, and institutions. Support for the Salafists (al-Nour) remains pretty much the same.

        • RodSerling says

          May 23, 2014 at 2:47 pm

          Salah,

          “I’m sure Sisi will be the winner, but this is not of any great importance.”

          Again, you don’t seem to understand the difference between what Pew asked, and what will be asked of Egyptian voters in the upcoming election. The Pew poll doesn’t say Sisi will lose a head-to-head contest with Sabahi. If anything, if one wanted to take Pew’s data on the individual questions re Sisi and Sabahi, respectively, and try to use them to estimate the results of a head-to-head contest between Sisi and Sabahi, the estimate would be roughly consistent with your prediction. And yet you are treating the Pew data as though you disagree with them.

        • RodSerling says

          May 23, 2014 at 3:19 pm

          SAKOVKT,

          You are conflating support for Islam with support for the MB, in a context, Egypt, in which all the major parties are pro-Islam. The MB are not even the most “Islamic” of the major parties; Al-Nour (the Salafists) are more Islamic than the MB; and Al-Nour’s popularity has remained pretty much the same. Al-Sisi is pro-Islam. A vote for Al-Sisi is a vote for more of the same: Islam. There’s no indication that Egypt will be any less Islamic under al-Sisi than it was under Mubarak.

          It’s still the case that the vast majority of Egyptians (see my refs above) want Islamic law, and even more so of course among Muslim Egyptians.

    • RodSerling says

      May 22, 2014 at 4:14 pm

      “Pew Research Center: 54 percent of Egyptians find el-Sissi favorable, showing deep divisions.[…] Next week: Presidential elections in Egypt.
      My own personal estimate results: Sissi…between 75% and 85%….AT LEAST.”

      Invalid comparison. Pew in this poll didn’t ask people to choose between Al-Sisi and Sabahi in direct head-to-head contest.

      • RodSerling says

        May 24, 2014 at 11:54 am

        SAKOVKT,

        Both the U.K. and Egypt over the past few decades have become more Islamic. Between 2011 and 2014, only about 10 or 11% of Egyptians have changed their minds from being in favor of Islamic law to opposing it. Again, probably a big chunk of that 11% consists of non-Muslims of various kinds. You are looking at maybe 5 to 7% of Egyptian Muslims, max, who were probably already weak or nominal Muslims anyway, now opposing Islamic law. Unfortunately, this small a percentage of change appears to be little more than a minor hiccup in a longer and wider trend of increasing Islamization across the Islamic world over the past approximately four decades.

        It’s certainly not what Salah says–that Egyptian Muslims are for the most part rejecting Islam. The vast majority of Egyptians–79% as of 2014–want Islamic law, and that percentage is almost certainly higher among Egyptian Muslims.

  7. karpenter says

    May 22, 2014 at 12:42 pm

    This Had To Be Planned With Studious Deliberation.
    Which Is Why They Are HOT ON IT
    …A Month Later

  8. SKevin says

    May 22, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    OT Ruh-roh……

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Man-Kills-Wife-Wrong-Meal-Lentil-Goat-Arrest-Court-Prosecutor-260284021.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_NYBrand

  9. duh_swami says

    May 22, 2014 at 1:30 pm

    Send Americans, Boko needs target practice…smart.

  10. tpellow says

    May 22, 2014 at 2:33 pm

    “Boko Haram: behind the violence”

    http://mondediplo.com/blogs/boko-haram-behind-the-violence?

  11. BW022 says

    May 22, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    There are 168 million people living in Nigeria. It is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet. Children go missing in New York… never to be found again despite tens of thousands of police, news, media, access to government records, school alerts, etc. How do you expect 80 troops in Chad to find 80 girls somewhere in among 168 million people in a country nearly a million square kilometers?

    Hey… if they break into groups of two, search one square km a day… they’ll be done in only 70 years or so!

    Do they even have pictures of these girls? Could your average US soldier even recognized one if she walked up to him? Can you even hope to spot missing children in using drones? Do they search for missing children in the US by flying drones over Seattle or Dallas?

    The only thing sadder than the fact they are doing this for silly publicity… is that people actually buy this slop.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      May 22, 2014 at 6:08 pm

      Re “Do they even have pictures of these girls? ”

      The girls were attending high school.

      I would say there’s a good chance that there are “class photos”, and quite probably family photos as well. These kids were literate Christian kids from literate Christian families.

      • Semeru says

        May 22, 2014 at 11:53 pm

        There are also moslem girls among the kidnapped. In the above picture is a photo of there mothers.

        • dumbledoresarmy says

          May 23, 2014 at 6:26 am

          So?
          The majority of the girls were Christian. Why else would the obscene Boko Haram Islamothugs – who are *exactly* emulating the vile example of mohammed – be boasting about having “converted” them?

          I also seem to recall a report, from a girl who had escaped, saying that such Muslim girls as were among the kidnapped were *treated better than the Christians**.

          Anything to say about that, O blower of smoke, thrower of sand and assiduous Defender of Islam?

  12. BW022 says

    May 22, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    There are 168 million people living in Nigeria. It is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet. Children go missing in New York… never to be found again despite tens of thousands of police, news, media, access to government records, school alerts, etc. How do you expect 80 troops in Chad to find 80 girls somewhere in among 168 million people in a country nearly a million square kilometers?

    Hey… if they break into groups of two, search one square km a day… they’ll be done in only 70 years or so!

    Do they even have pictures of these girls? Could your average US soldier even recognized one if she walked up to him? Can you even hope to spot missing children in using drones? Do they search for missing children in the US by flying drones over Seattle or Dallas?

    The only thing sadder than the fact they are doing this for silly publicity… is that people actually buy this slop.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      May 22, 2014 at 6:05 pm

      *I* would start with the mosques.

      I would identify *every* known mosque – especially the bigger ones – within a radius of 50, 100, 200 miles of the site of the kidnapping. Madrasas, too.

      Start with those on the outermost perimeter and work inward. Interrogate *every* known Islamic “cleric”.

      If one is going to use drones: **watch the mosques**.

  13. RonaldB says

    May 22, 2014 at 6:40 pm

    The US should not be sending troops to this area, period.

    Granted, it’s a publicity stunt, but it’s possible that Boko will capture one or more servicemen. That will get them excellent leverage over the US. It’s not likely the US would simply refuse to negotiate.

    The US should simply stay out of the affair. Possibly, the reason for being in Chad is that Nigeria refused to accept the presence of US troops on their soil. The would be smart of Nigeria. It’s pretty obvious that the only way to eradicate Boko Haram is to eradicate it.

    Remember the line from Tom Paxton’s “The draft dodger rag”…”If you ever have a war without blood and gore, I’ll be the first to be there.”

    It’s the same with counter-insurgency. The US, with it’s faux-scruples on handling vicious groups like Boko Haram, would only get in the way. It’s got to be a Nigerian issue. Either they get serious or they don’t. If they’re serious, likely the Nigerian leaders will find an international warrant on their heads. This happened in Bosnia and Kosovo, where international forces, led by the US, actually supported the fight by insurgent communities. Granted, the issues were complex and convoluted, but we should be at the point of realizing that countries have got to sort out their own issues, without the bungling help of bureaucratic overseers.

  14. islamisdeath says

    May 22, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    Blowing smoke into the eyes of the brain dead left so he can continue his heinous agenda with their blank eyed, shrill voiced support!

    Hope none of the guys he sent say or do anything the demonic muslims find offensive or the snake headed demon obama will have them court martialed and thrown in prison.

  15. Robbo34 says

    May 23, 2014 at 9:19 am

    They may as well send 1 blind Collie dog to search The Arctic for these girls. You would swear this was some kind of joke.

  16. Jan Sobieski says

    May 23, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    80 person rescue or just a location team? What are their RULES OF ENGAGEMENT? What if one of our boys injures or kills one of islam’s holiest jihadists who are merely following the dictates of ped Mo’ and his creation, aller?

    If the aim is not too free the girls AND make it IMPOSSIBLE for these “harem bozos”to ever commit another atrocity, then what is the use of this hashtag and bandaid approach on a worldwide problem — islam?

  17. Mirren10 says

    May 24, 2014 at 8:22 am

    ”If the aim is not too free the girls AND make it IMPOSSIBLE for these “harem bozos”to ever commit another atrocity, then what is the use of this hashtag and bandaid approach on a worldwide problem — islam?”

    No use at all.

    But as has been said by others, above, this is merely a cynical self-serving publicity stunt. Obama cannot afford to ignore the international outcry, but neither is he prepared to do anything concrete. He **loves** mohammedans and islam.

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