Is Hillary Guilty?
I have watched portions of the Republican National Convention. I saw Governor Chris Christie attack Hillary’s record as Secretary of State.
He was speaking on Tuesday evening. He was acting as the prosecutor against Hillary Clinton so the audience, “and you at home in your living rooms,” he said, could decide if she is guilty of several instances of poor judgment.
He said she was responsible for “an Al-Qaeda affiliate’s capture of more than 200 young women in Nigeria.” That’s only one of about seven instances he describes.
He asks the convention audience, is she guilty or not guilty? “Guilty,” they shout. They then start a chant, “Lock her up.”
He said Hillary was guilty of the Chibok girls’ kidnapping because Boko Haram was not put on the terrorist watch list until 2013 (several months before the kidnapping).
CBS News disagrees with his claim.
“The Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler in 2014 looked into the accusation in a Fact Checker column and suggested that while technically, Clinton issued the terrorist designation, the process is a complex one with a lot of input from a lot of competing interests. The decision, Kessler said, ‘was resolved before it ever reached her level.'”
“The official in charge of the Africa region, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, preached caution, according to the Post, because Nigeria, which has good relations with the U.S., ‘was adamantly opposed to the designation.’ Nigeria feared that formally calling Boko Haram a terrorist organization would raise its stature and its strength.”
In the end Boko Haram was added to the terrorist list. The article concludes, “although Kessler concluded that [State] could have acted more quickly, there is no evidence that putting Boko Haram on the terrorist list any sooner would have prevented the kidnapping of the schoolgirls.”
Nor were his comments popular in Nigeria. “Oby Ezekwesili, a former federal minister and vocal leader of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, said the use of the kidnapped Chibok girls to gain political points was insensitive. Many other Nigerians echoed her thoughts on social media.”
Did you agree with Christie?
Tamir Rice
On Facebook I found this powerful story of how Tamir Rice’s killing disappeared from public view. My friend Ike Anya posted the link from GQ.
Do you remember? Tamir, age 12, had a toy gun on the playground in Cleveland. Someone called in to 911 to report his activity. Two police officers went to the scene. One of the officers shot and killed Tamir, without apparently giving him time to show it was a toy gun.
Did the prosecutor play the role he should have with the grand jury?
The GQ story explains that one of the key people who appeared before the grand jury was Roger Clark. He had retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after 27 years and is an expert in police shootings.
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