(Updates) #BringBackOurGirls with #SomeHelpFromOurTroops

Update II:

Fox News and others are claiming that a “Leahy Law Makes It Harder To Bring Back Our Girls.”

You see, they claim, “a 1997 law known as the Leahy Amendment is complicating the joint effort with Nigerian forces. The law, named for its sponsor, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., bars U.S. forces from working with militaries, or units within them, accused of chronic human rights violations. In the past, U.S. military brass have complained the law has prevented them from training foreign soldiers.” Fox News adds, “In Nigeria, it appears to be limiting what forces on the ground can do to help find the children.”

Power Line, observing that “an obscure law called the Leahy Amendment makes the project more difficult than it should be,” adds:

The Leahy Amendment, passed in 1997 thanks to the persistence of Sen. Patrick Leahy, bars U.S. forces from working with militaries, or units within them, accused of chronic human rights violations. It appears to have been adopted through procedural maneuvering, rather via a free-standing up-or-down vote. It was also adopted during the innocent era predating 9/11.

Power Line sneers, “It would be nice to be able to combat foreign terrorists and criminals, not to mention rescue innocent girls, without one hand tied beyond our back. But the Leahy Law too often interferes…”

And, oh yes, because of “Senator Leahy’s desire to feel good about himself” back in 1997 it may well be, 17 years later, “more difficult to ‘bring back our girls.’”

Of course, it is the constant Democratic drumbeat about human rights that is now screwing up the rescue of the Nigerian girls, notwithstanding Ann Coulter’s #valiantefforts to bring the world’s attention to this crisis.

Perhaps, if we go back far enough, we can find some other well-intended, naive, feel-good Democratic law that keeps us from invading every country that looks at us the wrong way and blame that law — and Democrats — for all our international problems.

Update:

After Gen. David Rodriguez, head of US Africa Command, flew to Nigeria to hold talks; after the U.S. had already deployed a team of 30 specialists from different agencies, including 16 military personnel, to help in the search for the kidnapped schoolgirls; after the U.S. confirmed that it is flying manned surveillance aircraft over the country and sharing commercial satellite imagery to aid the hunt for the abducted girls and after the Pentagon has left open the possibility that it would provide drones to aid in the search, Senator John McCain says the U.S. should send in special forces to rescue the kidnapped girls —whether the Nigerian government gives permission or not, according to the Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast:

“If they knew where they were, I certainly would send in U.S. troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country,” McCain told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan,” he added, referring to the president of Nigeria.

Read more about what McCain would do “in a New York minute” here.

Also read here about the numerous attacks the Boko Haram has launched in Nigeria and about the counterterrorism history and assistance by the U.S. to Nigeria.

Original Post:

Never mind Ann Coulter’s mean-spirited #comments. Americans, including the First Family — yes, they are Americans, too, Ann — all Americans care about the safe return of the kidnapped Nigerian girls and a few brave Americans are doing something about it, instead of merely #BashingMichelle.

According to the Defense Department, 16 of our troops from the U.S. Africa Command have joined a team led by the State Department at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to help in finding the kidnapped girls.

The group of 16 military personnel includes experts in communications, logistics, civil affairs, operations and intelligence.

They are part of a total of “50 or 60 military personnel assigned to the embassy there as part of the country team,” says Pentagon Spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.

The Washington Post reports that the United States is conducting surveillance flights over Nigeria in the search for the abducted schoolgirls and “is considering the deployment of drones to the region to bolster the effort.”

It also provides a slightly updated/revised account of the team in place in Nigeria:

Additionally, the administration has all but one of the 27 experts and security officials assigned to the mission already in place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, officials said. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the team includes five State Department officials, 10 Pentagon planners and advisers who were already in Nigeria, and seven more sent from the U.S. military’s Africa Command, along with four FBI experts in safe recovery, negotiations and prevention of kidnappings.

And:

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] assets over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” a senior administration official said Monday evening.

A senior Pentagon official said that the United States has not mobilized drones to aid the search but that commanders in Africa are exploring whether to do so. The official, who like the other administration officials was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly, said drones in the region would be diverted from the hunt for warlord Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The United States has drones at three military outposts in Africa — in Djibouti in the eastern Horn of Africa, where both armed and unarmed aircraft are based, and in Ethiopia and Niger, which shares a long border with Nigeria. The U.S. Air Force began using unarmed drones from Niger early last year on surveillance missions in search of al-Qaeda fighters and guerrillas from other groups in north and west Africa.

The United States also is likely to provide help monitoring and intercepting communications among members of Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group that seized the girls.

Finally:

U.S. officials cautioned that the mission to find the schoolgirls would not be easy.

“When we talk about assisting in the effort to locate the girls, we are talking about helping the Nigerian government search an area that is roughly the size of New England,” Carney said. “So, this is no small task. But we are certainly bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist the government.”

[..]

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki suggested that the United States would oppose the payment of any ransom for some or all of the girls, but she said the Nigerian government is making its own decisions. The head of Boko Haram suggested over the weekend that the group would negotiate for ransom or trade.

“The United States policy is to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, including ransoms or concessions,” Psaki said.