State Dept. Wishes 'RIP' to Living Captives of Terrorists, Then Apologizes

    The year began on a rough note for the U.S. state department's Think Again, Turn Away anti-terror program. On January 1, the state department used the program's official Twitter account to tweet a photo collage accompanied by the message, "Entering 2015, taking time to honor some of terror’s many victims of 2014 and their families – RIP." However, none of the individuals appearing in the photos are believed to be dead, but rather held captive by terrorists.
    The tweet, since deleted, appeared as follows, and is archived here:

    The photo collage was part of a feature on December 17 on Al Arabiya New's English website entitled "Remembering 2014’s captives still held by extremists." Per the caption on the photo that accompanied the article, those included in the collage (a collection of Reuters, AFP, and YouTube images) are (clockwise from top left): Nigerian school girls, a captive Lebanese soldier's mother, American journalist Austin Tice, British journalist John Cantlie, and Yazidi women and children. 

    The first paragraph of the Al Arabiya article notes:

Thousands of people, mostly women, continue to be held captive by Islamist militant groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front, and Nigeria-based Boko Haram.

    The state department's error was apparently first noted by the Daily Beast's senior national security correspondent Nancy Youssef, who tweeted the following two messages to the state department within a day of the original tweet:

@ThinkAgain_DOS Thanks for the post post but Austin Tice, in the upper right, is alive and needs his govt's help to secure his release.
— Nancy Youssef, نانسى (@nancyayoussef) January 2, 2015

@ThinkAgain_DOS Also,John Cantlie, in the bottom right, is a Brit and alive. Perhaps you could post photos of Somers, Foley, Sotloff, Kassig
— Nancy Youssef, نانسى (@nancyayoussef) January 2, 2015

    The morning of January 2, the state department posted the following two tweets apologizing for the mistake:

(1/2) We sincerely apologize to the families and friends of people mistakenly pictured in a tweet as 2014 terror victims ...
— Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS) January 2, 2015

(2/2) ... who we believe are still alive, including Austin Tice.
— Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS) January 2, 2015

    A state department spokesperson replied to an email seeking additional information by repeating the tweeted apology, and then added:

We are assessing internal processes and will continue to work diligently to review and authenticate the information we post. 

CSCC and its English language “Think Again Turn Away” campaign have been actively and intensively engaged in an online effort against ISIL and other extremist organizations.

    The Think Again, Turn Away campaign has been controversial since its inception in 2014 for its shocking photos of terrorist atrocities. The stated goal of the campaign is to "expose the facts about terrorists and their propaganda" to try to discourage disaffected youth in the Arab world from joining terrorist organizations.


Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

U.S. Consulate in Nigeria Asked Clinton State Dept. Why Boko Haram Wasn't Called 'Terrorist Organization'

    Boko Haram, the militant group responsible for the recent kidnapping of 276 girls in Nigeria, was not designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the State Department until November of 2013 despite a long record of violence.  Hillary Clinton has now come under fire, as reported by Josh Rogin at The Daily Beast, for resisting calls for the FTO designation for Boko Haram during her tenure as secretary of state.  Rogin says that "[t]he refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen senators and congressmen."  But in 2012, even U.S. State Department diplomats in Nigeria seemed mystified about why the government was "reluctant" to issue the designation.

    On September 20, 2012, then Bureau of African Affairs Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson appeared on a State Department "Live at State" webchat regarding "U.S. Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa."  Questions from journalists and other individuals via webchat were posed to Carson by the host, Holly Jensen. At one point, a question was asked by the "U.S. Consulate in Lagos [Nigeria]":

MS. JENSEN: The U.S. Consulate in Lagos wants to know: Why is the government reluctant to designate the Boko Haram sect as a foreign terrorist organization? 

AMBASSADOR CARSON: Thank you very much. We look at the issue of Boko Haram as a major concern not only to Nigeria but also to Nigeria’s neighbors and Niger and Cameroon and Benin as well. Boko Haram, we believe, is not a homogenous, monolithic organization, but it is comprised of several different kinds of groups.

    Carson went on to note that while the organization itself was not designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, three individuals within Boko Haram were designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists in June 2012:

We have, indeed, recently designated three individuals in Boko Haram as individuals who are involved in terrorism, and we have done so because we believe those three individuals have established contacts with foreign terrorist organizations, have gone out and sought to get financing from foreign terrorist organizations, and have tried to establish broader networks and relationships with them.

     In his Daily Beast report, Josh Rogin said that Johnnie Carson "defended the decision to avoid naming Boko Haram a terrorist organization in a Wednesday phone call with reporters."

[Carson:] “There was a concern that putting Boko Haram on the foreign terrorist list would in fact raise its profile, give it greater publicity, give it greater credibility, help in its recruitment, and also probably drive more assistance in its direction[.]”

    But in the September 2012 webchat, Carson seemed to suggest that the State Department did not even consider the "Boko Haram movement," as he called it, to necessarily be a terror organization, but rather several groups simply "focused on trying to discredit the Nigerian Government":

But we believe that the bulk of the Boko Haram movement is – they’re focused on trying to discredit the Nigerian Government, trying to do everything in its power to show that the government is ineffective in the defense of its people and in the protection of government institutions, so we have not designated the entire organization. We constantly keep that under review, but we have, in fact, designated the three top leaders in Boko Haram who we believe to be out establishing broader terrorist networks and who have a broader jihadist agenda that goes beyond simply discrediting the Nigerian Government.

    In any case, the State Department eventually applied the FTO designation to Boko Haram under secretary John Kerry.  But questions remain about why Hillary Clinton's State Department fought so hard against the designation contrary to the opinions of not only the FBI, CIA, the Justice Department, and lawmakers, but apparently of State Department personnel on the ground in the country where Boko Haram was carrying out its campaign of violence.


Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.  
Note: Jim Geraghty at National Review and Ed Morrissey at Hot Air each referenced the post, and Josh Rogin tweeted a link. 

Pentagon's Counter-IED Force to Shrink by Two-Thirds This Year

    News broke this week that under a plan released by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the United States Army will be reduced to its smallest force since before World War II.  Though not directly related to that plan, another announcement this week by the Defense Department gives a foretaste of what those cuts may look like.  Plans are underway for massive cuts to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), the organization that has led military's efforts to combat the weapon of choice among insurgents and terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. JIEDDO's current staff of 3,000 will be reduced to 1,000 by the end of this fiscal year, and further plans could see the number fall as low as 400 down the road.

    Army Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson, the director of JIEDDO, said guidance from then-Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called on him to "scale JIEDDO down" and draw up plans for what "an 'enduring' JIEDDO might look like in the future."  The Army News Service reports:

"There is a full appreciation that JIEDDO functions should endure. The key is that it be scaled to what the nation can afford," Johnson said. "And we have to be smart as to how we structure it so it can be rapidly expanded as necessary based on the nature of the threat and the challenges we are going to face in the future."... 

Johnson said he will spell out to the deputy secretary what could be done with 400 personnel, and what risks are associated with it. 

"There are certain parts of an organization like this that if you reduce it beyond a point, it could take six months, a year, even longer to re-establish it," he said. "And in that time period, our soldiers and Marines in the field are suffering from the effects of IEDs, and it ends up costing us more to try to fix the problem without necessarily having the sophistication of understanding the entire system of systems."

    Lt. Gen. Johnson was positive about the coming changes, but expressed some concerns as well.

Some parts of JIEDDO can't be easily scaled. One of the areas he's looking to protect, Johnson said, is the intelligence integration functions of JIEDDO. 

"My concern is, right now, we have a fairly persistent look at the organizations that most commonly use IEDs," he said. "If we were to take our eyes off, what are the chances that there would be an adaptation or permutation in the way they use IEDs that we didn't anticipate, and how long for us to catch up?" 

    JIEDDO has worked with other countries, such as Pakistan and Colombia, to help then deal with their own threats from IEDs, and was even involved in discussions after the Boston Marathon bombing to see what lessons could be learned from that domestic attack.
    News of the reductions first surfaced in October 2013.  At the time, Johnson was also positive about adjusting the size and scope of the organization, but was adamant about its continuing mission:

The future is important because the IED fight is far from over, he said.  

“In the last 12 months, there were more than 14,000 IED-related events outside of Afghanistan causing more than 32,000 casualties,” he said. “These weapons have been used by threat networks and criminal entities around the world and even here at home as we saw recently in the Boston Marathon bombings.”  

“The inevitable next fight is somewhere in our future,” he said. “We must be able to rapidly posture for that fight. We must continue to lean forward and stay abreast of how our enemies are using IEDs and what new tactics and technologies they are employing. This will allow us to develop the capabilities to defeat the IED, the tactics to attack enemy networks and train our forces so they are prepared for the IED environments we will face in the future.” 

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard. 

What Happens in the Middle East Stays in the Middle East

    White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked this week about the Obama administration's reaction to Iran's foreign minister laying a wreath at the tomb of an infamous Hezbollah terrorist in Beruit, Lebanon.  In response, Carney quoted the statement issued by National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden:

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I’d say a couple things.  On the matter of the Iranian foreign minister honoring Imad Mugniyah, the United States condemns the decision taken by the Iranian foreign minister to place a wreath at the grave of a former leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah responsible for heinous acts of terrorism that killed hundreds of innocent people, including Americans.  The inhumane violence that Mugniyah perpetrated and that Lebanese Hezbollah continues to perpetrate in a region with Iran’s financial and materiel support has had profoundly destabilizing and deadly effects for Lebanon and the region.
The decision to commemorate an individual who has participated in such vicious acts and whose organization continues to actively support terrorism worldwide sends the wrong message and will only exacerbate tensions in the region....

    But then Carney went further to put the incident in the context of the administration's current diplomatic engagement with Iran:

So our disposition has not changed on these matters.  And that's why it’s so important to be clear that the actions that Iran takes, the steps it takes to either comply with or not comply with commitments it makes are what we judge Iran by -- not by statements meant for a domestic audience or by promises rather than action.  So we’re going to press forward. 

    Notice two things in Carney's response.

    First, there is the odd wording of Hayden which Carney quoted: "the United States condemns the decision taken ... to place a wreath..."  Why "condemn the decision" as opposed to condemning the action itself?  The administration is finding fault with Iran's decision-making process first and foremost that "sends the wrong message" rather than its commemoration of a dead terrorist responsible for the deaths of scores of Americans and others.

    Second is Carney's assertion that the United States does not judge Iran "by statements meant for a domestic audience."  Carney seems to be implying that the wreath laying was meant for domestic consumption in Iran and the broader Arab Middle East, and that the Obama administration is not going to judge Iran on such things, but only on actions specifically related to the recently announced nuclear deal.

    The unconscionable action of the Iranian foreign minister demanded unequivocal condemnation by the United States and perhaps even that the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism be made to pay a price for pouring salt in decades-old wounds.  Instead, Iran was criticized for bad PR.  For years, the enemies of Israel and the U.S. have had one message (in English) for the West, and another (in Arabic) for domestic audiences.  The Obama administration essentially reminded Iran to stick to the script.

State Department Withdraws Anti-Terror Ad After Pressure From ACLU, CAIR, SEIU, Others

    The State Department yielded to pressure from a coalition of Seattle and Washington State politicians, community groups, and advocacy organizations and agreed to withdraw at least one ad in the department's Metro bus ad campaign in Seattle promoting the “Rewards for Justice” campaign. The program pays rewards to individuals who provides leads about the location of wanted terrorists.
    Congressman Jim McDermott, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, and King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski joined forces with others in the community, as well as organizations like the ACLU and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), to raise concerns about the ads.  Mayor McGinn reported at least some success in their efforts [emphasis added]:

[Arsalan] Bukhari [of the Council on American-Islamic Relations] worked with the ACLU of Washington State to convene a meeting that included Magdaleno Rose-Avila and Sahar Fathi of our Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. After a productive meeting, the lead investigator for the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” program, Tim Corso, acknowledged our concerns with the ad that featured the language “Global Faces of Terrorism” along with photos of men from the Philippines, Somalia, Russia, Sudan and Algeria. He has agreed to take down this particular ad and to work with community advocates in doing outreach in Seattle going forward.

    Mayor McGinn expressed optimism that Seattle's opposition would make a difference elsewhere as "Seattle is the first city to receive these ads and the recommendations provided by the community will drive how the program is implemented in other cities across the country."  In addition to the ACLU and CAIR, the mayor credited a long list of organizations who participated in the efforts which also included the Service Employees International Union:

This was made possible through the collaborative work by the many community advocates who came together on this issue: in particular (and in no specific order), the American Civil Liberties Union – Washington, Council on American-Islamic Relations (Washington Chapter), Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, Office of King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski, Office of Congressman Jim McDermott,  Minority Executive Directors Coalition, Mothers for Police Accountability, the Seattle Human Rights Commission, Consejo Counseling and Referral Service, SEIU Healthcare 775NW, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Faith Action Network (Seattle).

Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.