State Department ignores lawsuit over records linking Boko Haram and Clinton Foundation

Abubakar Shekau, centre, the leader of Boko Haram, Nigeria's Islamic extremist group. Boko Haram fighters have shot or burned to death about 90 civilians and wounded 500 in ongoing fighting in a Cameroonian border town near Nigeria, officials in Cameroon said. (AP Photo/Boko Haram

)A conservative group is suing the State Department in an effort to find out whether the agency's refusal to place Boko Haram on the terrorist watch list while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state had anything to do with the fact that a high-level Nigerian official was a major Clinton Foundation donor and close friend of the former president.

Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit, brought the case to court after the State Department ignored its request for records about the Chagoury Group, a sprawling Nigerian company headed by a Clinton friend and financial supporter of Clinton causes, Gilbert Chagoury.

Chagoury donated between $1 million and 5 million to the Clinton Foundation, donor recordsshow.

More than 30 days have passed since Citizens United first filed the lawsuit without a response of any kind from the State Department.

David Bossie, president of Citizens United, said it was the first time he'd seen the State Department completely ignore a case against it in federal court.

"These proceedings are important that both sides take them seriously," Bossie said. "I have no idea what the judge will do, but I believe the judge will order a hearing to find out why the government did not respond."

"Federal judges, I don't think, look kindly on people who ignore the court's workings," he added.

In January 2010, Chagoury was removed from a private jet and questioned by federal agents for hours because his name had been added to the no-fly list, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Although he was removed from the list before the U.S. government issued a formal, written apology, it is still unclear why he received that designation in the first place and how he was able to get his name off the no-fly list.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., wrote a letter to Kerry in March raising concerns that Chagoury may haveattempted to influence Clinton's decision about whether to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Obama: Climate change contributed to rise of Boko Haram, Syrian civil war

President Obama on Wednesday used his commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to lecture graduates on climate change, and said climate change has already contributed to several armed conflicts around the world that have led to involvement by the U.S. military.

"I understand climate change did not cause the conflicts we see around the world, yet what we also know is that severe drought helped to create the instability in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram," Obama said in his speech.

"It's now believed that drought and crop failures and high food prices helped fuel the early unrest in Syria, which descended into civil war in the heart of the Middle East," he added.

Obama spoke broadly to graduates for about 10 minutes, and drew applause at several points as he recounted some of the history of the Coast Guard and highlighted some of the graduates.

But he then spent more than 15 minutes, more than half his speech, reciting his views on climate change as graduates sat quietly and listened.

"As a nation, we face many challenges, including the grave threat of terrorism, and as Americans we will always do everything in our power to protect our country," he said. "But even as we meet threats like terrorism, we cannot and we must not ignore a peril that can affect generations."

"The science is indisputable. The fossil fuels we burn release carbon dioxide, which traps heat, and the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are now higher than they have been in 800,000 years."

Via: Washington Examiner

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