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Boko Harum leader Abubakar Shekau (courtesy AP)

“The militants arrived in Toyota Hilux pickup trucks — commonly used by the military — and told the civilians they were soldiers ‘and we are here to protect you all,’ the same tactic used by the group when they kidnapped more than 300 girls from a school in the town of Chibok on April 15,” foxnews.com reports. “After people gathered in the center on the orders of the militants, ‘they begin to shout ‘Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar’ on top of their voices, then they begin to fire at the people continuously for a very long time until all that gathered were all dead.'” Is this story on cnn.com‘s home page? As of this writing . . .

no. cbs.com? Nope. Etc. And yet, when the First Lady makes doe-eyes at the camera with a hashtag plea to return “our girls,” the Obama administration’s media cheer leaders are all over it. Hundreds of innocent people massacred? Not one word. Interestingly, on today’s New York Times front page we learn that . . .

The State Department is financing a new 24-hour satellite television channel in the turbulent northern region of Nigeria that American officials say is crucial to countering the extremism of radical groups such as Boko Haram. The move signals a ramping up of American counterinsurgency efforts to directly challenge the terrorist group, which abducted nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls in April.

State Department officials acknowledged that setting up an American-supported channel could prove challenging in a region where massacres, bombings and shootings by Boko Haram are common, and where the American government and Western educational programs are far from popular. The group has been known to attack media organizations in Nigeria.

The new television channel, to be called Arewa24 — arewa means north in the Hausa language — is financed by the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, and it is expected to cost about $6 million. State Department officials would discuss the program only on the condition of anonymity, and offered sparse information about it. But details have emerged in publicly available contracting documents and in interviews with people familiar with the effort.

So, Nigerians are getting mowed down by terrorists armed with automatic rifles and the U.S. State Department is spending $6m (and the rest) to start a TV channel showing what? The A-Team? How about spending $6m to provide semi-automatic rifles to disarmed villagers so they can shoot the terrorists shooting them?

As I said before, that would create a shift in political power and our allies – the Nigerian government – wouldn’t stand for that. And we stand for our allies – not for the natural right for all people to armed self-defense. Real politik, moral bankruptcy or both. We report, you decide.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. Black people killing other black people equals no media coverage, especially those not in the United States. Now who are the racist again?

    • Don’t forget the ‘poor’ part =/ If you don’t got money, then you don’t rate coverage.

      [s] MSM FtW [/s]

    • Yup. Poor black people killing each other barely qualifies as news when it happens in the US (how many died in Chicago last week?), it’s not going to register at all in the US media when it happens in Africa.

      I’m not saying that’s how it should be, I’m saying that’s how it is.

  2. The only problem I see with arming the citizens is that is the attitude we took in Afghanistan and the result was the Taliban. However, the possibility of the resulting government being hostile to us shouldn’t remove their right to self-determination. So arm them? I say yes

    • I think our major mistake there wasn’t arming the Afghans, it was not helping them rebuild after the Soviets pulled out.

      • Trajan’s experience with Dacia might tend to disagree.

        (there are some places that will screw with you if you don’t ‘help’ them and if you DO help them, they’ll take that help and use it to screw with you even more)

      • As I pointed out in other posts, Afghanistan was in no mood to ask for our help in “reconstruction”. The usual power brokers were wiped out during the War, leaving a generation of hardline warlords who didn’t know how to govern during times of peace. Most didn’t even know we were the ones funneling weapons to them since we were happy in letting the Pakistanis take all the credit.

    • The Taliban were there before 9/11. OBL radicalized the mujahadeen the CIA had trained to fight the Soviets. After 9/11 Bush demanded the Taliban give up OBL
      . They refused, so Bush sent the Specops folks in to find OBL with the aid of tribes opposed to Talibaln rule. OBL fled to the the mounatain area caves, and US forces narrowly missed capturing him at Tora Bora, after which he fled to Pakistan, were he was sheltered by the ISI.

      The Taliban were kicked out by the US and Afghans elected Karzai, who has proven to be crazy and corrupt. But the war in Afghanistan was essentialy over, while we were winning the war in IRAQ to remove the genocidal monster Saddam Hussein, and help the Iraqis create a democratic govt. Another successs, until Obama turned that into the bad war, and spun the Afghan war as a good war to prove his bravery as a hawk.

      So Obama threw away the success of Iraq and all the equipment we left behind, and base we could have maintained to help that fledgling Iraqi democracy, just a short drive from the real center of evil, Iran, the community organizers of OPPRESED MUSLIMS, sponsoring terror war via its proxies in Hezbola, Hamas, and starting problems again in Iraq among the Shia, who elected Irans puppet Maliki.

      Now the failure of repeat adventures in Libya, Eqypt, and Syria by the same brilliant strategy coming out of State and the WH is provin out once again, that the kids Obama and Jarrett surround themselves with have no clue what we they are doing. And with nitwits like Hillary, JFin Kerry, Susan Rice, and Chuck Hagel, Obama is repeated the pattern thats worked for him since Harvard Crimson days, hire people dumber than he, and respond to any criticism, with cries of RAAACIIISSST!

    • I think it is arrogant to say that the Taliban resulted from American attitudes, instead of dysfunctional local culture.

      I also think that the biggest mistake we made in Afghanistan was supporting the Mujhadeen. We should have let the Soviets just have their way and not gotten involved.

  3. No coverage because it isn’t shocking. This kind of killing has been taking place for a long time in Africa. Nobody can stop it, nobody cares because there isn’t money involved for the peacemakers.

  4. The DC crowd is so completely out of touch. They cannot comprehend poverty or fear. And truth is only something to be generated through spin and PR – not facts to be reported.

  5. Pretty sure BH has automatic weapons to spare, as well as RPGs and improvised explosives, and I could go on. In fact I know they have these things.

    The only thing animals Like Boko Horum understand is force, and not equal force, but overwhelming force that crushes them, these people cannot be reformed, they really can’t be reasoned with, I they will never change thier beliefs, they will never change how the view these United States. These people should be hunted like feral dogs to the ends of the earth and put down like the animals they are.

    • You make it sound like you think Robert was suggesting arming the “BH”.
      He was suggesting arming his victims.

  6. Robert I think them fellers in Boko Haram probably have full autos.

    Now my other point why the hell are we funding a friggin TV channel in an area where electricity is a luxury?

    • Boko Haram is a person, not a place.
      Robert was not suggesting arming the murderers.
      He was suggesting arming the murderees.

      Did you not understand that?

  7. Strange. Every day the extreme leftists at DC always say that anything even remotely violent turns innocent children into sick, twisted killers, like video games, guns, and TV. So what’s the solution in countries where poverty and violence occur every day? Show them our evil, corrupting, violent television. Instead, we should be helping them defend themselves against militia groups that are better equipped than the government!

  8. Because Boko Harum is the Kony 2012 of 2014! Kony had been dead for maybe five years, and I don’t know if this guy even exists! Year from now, they may claim he’s Osama bin Laden!

    They’ll probably blame him for “global warming” in July… which will be chilly!

  9. “Boko Harum Murders Hundreds of Nigerians. Where’s the Coverage?”

    I think you meant ‘Boko Harum Murders Hundreds of Christians…’ The rest should be self explanatory.

  10. How many times has a US administration backed a gang of insurgents who were challenging the current ruler of a country that the US administration was interested in annexing, so they arm the insurgents, who throw a coup, and when the Americans come marching in, expecting to be hailed as the new saviors, meet another group of the same kind of thugs that the US administration had just helped topple.

    The US should be required to obey the 3S rule:Don’t go into stupid countries where stupid people are doing stupid things. Yeah, my heart bleeds for the 300 little girls, but it really isn’t my place to do anything about it.

    • I think the different in this case goes beyond semantics. Arming one (or more) warring factions in an uprising and having them come back to bite the hands that fed them is one thing. To offer the tools of self defense to civilians in order that they might stop being massacred is quite another.

      I’ll bet more than a few retired vets wouldn’t mind an African safari to hunt these animals…

      • Well, if you know of a way to sell them legally, go for it. But don’t tax my paycheck to give them freebies, and for GAWD’s sake, don’t send the military!

        It’s time to END the wars, not look for excuses to start even more!

    • Thats right Rich- its not your place. Better to lay out some simple minded false equivalents, and pooh pooh anything concrete that could save the lives of hundreds and thousands of innocents, mostly young girls.

      Thats what the left said during Stalin’s purges of his own returning vets, and the starvation and slow genocide of the kulaks, about the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, and their Killing Fields, and the horror of Rwanda, and even the glorious ANC latest abuse of power in Marikana.

      Its as if the left doesnt want to face up to its kumbaya mentality and lets give peace a chance tactics…and the brutally predictable outcomes.

      http://libcom.org/library/states-brutality

      • Let’s focus on fixing America’s problems before we spend billions of dollars and who knows how many lives going and being The Knight in Shining Armour to all the downtrodden peoples of the world, most of whom would just as soon spit in your face anyway, OK?

      • What’s with the “mostly young girls” line?
        Do you have any information on that?

        I was under the impression that it was actually MOSTLY men being killed.

        Yes, protect the young, protect the women….. but this whole thing everyone is doing now where anything that involves a “poor woman” is overblown…. Is getting old.

  11. +1 Gov. 700 Club, Hal Lindsay and others cover this. Muslim’s murdering Christians…and the Farago tribe.

  12. They gonna use that TV station to broadcast Obama’s red line.

    See this redline? I dare you to cross it… ok, see that one, now I double dare you…

    Ok, never mind. Now, this line here- all you Christians need to run over here right quick to the other side of this red line, and we’ll get back to you on those soldiers and all that we promised last month…

    While you are at it, heres some rape whistles and emergency burkhas for your little girls and wives. Remember the narrative – its only work-place violence stimulated by social justice seeking community organizers of the religion of peace.

    • Excellent comment.
      I wish you could “like” or whatever on here.
      You just won the internet for today.

  13. Sending in weapons to the disarmed populace, I could agree with, but at least DC’s not sending in troops like in Afganistan. TV is a child’s answer to being bored, not a country’s answer to a raging, violent, militia that brutally murders innocent schoolgirls.

  14. “Intell” today is that the tribal barbarians didn’t sieze the little girls for hostages. Plan was to force convert them (convert or die) to Mohammedaism and impregnate them in order to enlarge the tribe. According to girls that escaped (and who a month later neither the Nigerian govt no US “advisors” have interview).

    All is shocking. Shocking I say.

    Medievil barbarians right out of the Dark Ages, I mean religion of peace and brotherly love.

  15. Piers Morgan’s available. Perhaps they could hire him and his show to convince the Nigerians of the uselessness of self-defense firearms?

  16. Radical terrorist Muslims killing Christians, raping and torturing young Christian girls/women, selling Christian women/girls into slavery does not warrant coverage by the leftist news media? Ongoing murders almost daily does not warrant coverage? Most news sources will not truly report the truth about it even if they do cover it.

  17. These scum are feral animals, and should be treated as such. They and everything they stand for should be RAZED.

  18. The first I heard of this was on NBC News this morning. Hmmm.

    In any event, arming the populace is a relatively good idea, but things will most definitely get worse before they get better, when the armed townsmen go out seeking revenge and slaughtering every Muslim they can lay their hands on. The Nigerian Army, despite f US training, is corrupt, inefficient, and poorly led. They cannot be relied upon to protect the people, and have fled numerous times in the face of a concerted Boko Haram offensive. The corruption deprives the men of adequate equipment, while their leaders live in luxury. The government is corrupt. The oil companies are corrupt. None of them can afford to allow the citizenry to be armed, because they would be overthrown, and they know it. The Nigerian government will not allow us to arm the citizens. The Nigerian Army will not allow us to arm the citizens. The Oil Companies will not allow us to arm the citizens. And the last thing American citizens want is for our country to become embroiled in yet another insurgency campaign that we cannot win because the host governments will tie our hands behind our backs.

  19. I wouldn’t have an issue with SEAL Team 6 taking out this murderer and his cohorts. My earlier comment was indeed sarcasm.

    @Rich,
    Although this is not a US problem per se, I take issue with murder, kidnapping, rape, and religious coercion wherever it may be. Many Americans simply don’t give a shit if those crimes happen outside of our borders. Murder and mass murder are examples of moral depravity no matter where they occur. I’m not saying that this incident should cause us to enter another costly and ineffectual US war. But a little international justice via the SPECOPS community might be just what the doctor ordered.

  20. I mentioned this to my gf today about why isn’t this bigger news. Assembling people in a crowd and then mowing them down. It’s rediculous this isn’t front page news. F boko haram. They should get droned.

  21. Coverage of the Nigerian crisis, might give people in the U.S. the idea that being disarmed maybe isn’t such a good idea. Can’t have that. The extensive persecution of Christians in African Nations, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East cannot be covered as it should be because that might give Christians in the U.S. worrisome ideas about how they are being treated in this Country today. Can’t have that. There is no threat from Islamic Terrorists because Obama personally killed Osama bin Laden and broke-up Al Qaeda.

  22. “told the civilians they were… ‘and we are here to protect you all”

    Funny how how from first world countries to third world, from politicians to zealots, the playbook is the same.

  23. Reminds me of what happened in my homeland. “we will protect you”, “we won’t harm you”. Then they mow you down when you are gathered, remember a guy I know survived because he was late to his own execution. They said it was “meeting” or a “peace-talk”. Another survived because a dead guy fell on him and he hid under the dead guy.

    The world doesn’t care if money isn’t involved or people they dislike are involved. Reminds me of the song “World is a Ghetto”, especially the beginning of the second verse. Though you guys don’t listen much to rap so you probably don’t know what I am talking about.

  24. Until those who are directly affected stand up to help themselves, all the money in the world will not “fix” the problem. I have to agree with others, it’s NOT our problem. There are private security forces out there that would gladly accept their oil money to take care of the problem. When they send FREE oil here to the US then we should consider helping them. Sure some are going to say but it’s for the children….

  25. It is not right, it never has been. But it has been going on for hundreds of years. The slave market was driven by the same thing. Most people just see it as the everyday norm for Africa at this point. The few that have tried to help eventually all give up because of lack of support, the others have just given them food and supplies which are quickly taken by the armed thugs.
    So yes given them weapons! Yes, many more will die, but at least they will die fighting and not just be round up and slaughtered like sheep. Send them some MRAPs and ARs instead of giving them to police depts. lol It will take an army to truely knock down these rebels. Their numbers are in their power, join us and you will have money, food, and supplies in a place that has neither, you don’t have to work just point this gun and pull the trigger and if you don’t join we’ll just kill you. Its the same logic that gets thousands of young Americans to join street gangs. They are driven by poverty and finding an easy way to fill their needs.

    • You can go ahead and ship them all the guns you want, but I will fight you to prevent you from doing so on my damn dime!

      In Other Words, Spend NO tax money supporting ANYBODY!

  26. Rich, you would have been standing there going 6 million Jews dead, but don’t spend my tax money to stop it?.. In order for evil to succeed it takes good men to stand there and do nothing… I’m going to make the leap that you are a good man.

    • Well, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume that your 6 million jewish strawmen don’t prove that you’re a bloodthirsty warmonger.

      IT IS NONE OF OUR DAMN BUSINESS! Those are sovereign countries, and the citizens had just as much opportunity as you or I to nip it in the bud if they’d woken up in time. My function on Earth is NOT to bail out those who will not take care of themselves.

      And right now, we all have a LOT more important things to deal with than Nigerian thugs and their victims, namely, stopping the Communist takeover of the good ol’ U S of A.

      • Rich, I understand your frustration, and I am reminded of Joshua Goldbergs oped in National Review a couple months back, which boiled down to F’ em. But that was about trying to help the Muslims stop killing on another over their differences, which boil down to who is in charge of ole Mo’s holy word, his great great grandkids, by blood (sunni) or some rag tag desert mystic du jour (shia). And frankly, I agree. These folks have been killing one another over the same argument since the seventh century, and since Islam is a dealth cult anyway, all I’ d be willing to do is step back and pass the popcorn.

        However, its a global economy, and the US has strategic interests in energy, free sea lanes, natural resourses, and so on, and you can read your history book to remember why isolationism doesnt work, and costs far more in the end, (ww2) if you arent proactive.

        Using specops in Africa would be to enable Chrisrians to defend themselves from murdering jihadists masquerading as some kind of political party : Boko Haram.

        We are in the Long War, free men vs domination. Thats what Islam is, and why its so naturally attractive to Progtards of all stripe, who have the same urge, to believe they and their ideas, like gun control, justify dominating others.

        • “the US has strategic interests ….”

          That’s such a horrid excuse for plunder. Plunder is what you’re advocating here. And hon-intervention, refraining from pillage and plunder, is NOT “isolationism.” Keep the military at home – there isn’t even supposed to BE a standing army! – and let other countries run their own selves. Protect OUR borders. If they attack us HERE, then defend to the death. But it is WRONG to initiate force for any reason.

          Non-intervention is NOT isolationism.

          All those “strategic interests” you’re so glib about, don’t you realize it’d be about a thousand times cheaper to just BUY the tin and lithium and crap than trying to steal it, which is what “protecting our strategic interests” amounts to.

  27. “Thanks for watching Arewa24m and remember, if you see something, say something. If you can’t find the CIA station chief at his office here (points to map). Try the safe houses here, and here. Also, feel free to drop in on his lovely wife and two children at their home here. The armed security has been pulled because, there’s no necessity, and it’s soooo far.”

  28. Actually I read about it first on CNN, the day on the sixth first thing in the morning with my coffee. Not everything makes banner headlines and the unfortunate thing about Africa is that there is always big news there. The huffington post and the The New York Times covered it too. Do some actual checking before you post please.

  29. Sad to say, Africans slaughtering other Africans isn’t news. When Africans actually get along without killing each other by the tens of thousands, that’s news.

    For over a thousand years, Europeans took great pleasure in killing each other wholesale. It seems the same disease affects Africans, and for even longer than a millennium.

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