CHIBOK: US flying ‘manned’ missions to track down Abducted girls

(AFP) – The United States was Monday flying
“manned” missions over Nigeria to track down
more than 200 abducted schoolgirls as experts
pored over a new video seeking clues to where
they are being held.

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery
with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR
(intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance)
assets over Nigeria with the government’s
permission,” a senior administration official said,
asking not to be named.

It was not immediately clear what kinds of aircraft
were being deployed, nor where they had come
from.

But a new video released by the Boko Haram
group purportedly showing about 130 of the girls
was being carefully studied by American experts
in the hope it might yield vital clues as to where
they are being held.

“Our intelligence experts are combing through
every detail of the video for clues that might help
ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls,”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said
earlier Monday.

“We have no reason to question its authenticity,”
she added of the video.

In the video, the Islamic militant group’s leader
Abubakar Shekau said the girls may be released
once Nigeria frees all the Boko Haram prisoners it
has in custody.

But that proposal has been rejected by the
Nigerian government, and Psaki recalled that the
US policy is also “to deny kidnappers the benefits
of their criminal acts, including ransoms or
concessions.”
A 30-strong US team arrived on the ground last
week in Nigeria to help growing efforts to find the
girls aged between 16 to 18, snatched from their
boarding school in the northeast of the country
on April 14.

The White House said the team included five
State Department officials, two strategic
communications experts, a civilian security expert
and a regional medical support officer.

Also on the manifest are 10 Defense Department
planners already in Nigeria, seven extra military
advisors from US Africa Command and four FBI
officials expert in hostage negotiations.

“We are talking about helping the Nigerian
government search an area that is roughly the
size of New England,” White House spokesman
Jay Carney said, referring to the region in the US
northeast.

“So this is no small task. But we are certainly
bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist
the government.”
Psaki stressed the Nigerian authorities were “in
the lead” during the investigation.

The girls’ plight has triggered a storm of outrage
across the United States, and First Lady Michelle
Obama on Saturday for the first time delivered
her husband’s weekly address to the nation to
say they were both “outraged and heartbroken”
by the kidnapping.

“This unconscionable act was committed by a
terrorist group determined to keep these girls
from getting an education — grown men
attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young
girls,” she said.