Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told Euronews the CIA and Israel’s national intelligence agency, the Mossad, took part in the creation of the Islamic State and Boko Haram. He also suggested forces not focus on military action against the radical Islamic terrorist groups, since violence could cause more extremism.
“I said CIA and the Mossad stand behind these organisations,” he claimed. “There is no Muslim who would carry out such acts.”
Despite his claim, he proposed forces communicate with the groups on an ideological level.
“Our policy has been largely successful,” he asserted. “After we arrest these young people we bring a group of young scholars to engage in dialogue with them about their thoughts, and we succeed to bring a lot of them back from their radical ideas.”
His remarks come just a few days after members of the Islamic State slaughtered 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt in Libya because the men were Christian. Boko Haram kidnapped over 300 schoolgirls in April with many still missing, and have taken thousands of lives since 2009.
In July 2008, the International Criminal Court indicted al-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and rape in Darfur. The arrest warrant was signed on 2009, but the man is still free because the Arab League and the African Union condemned the warrant. He visited Egypt and Qatar, but both refused to arrest and hand him over to the ICC. He visited ICC member Chad in 2010, but the country also refused to turn him in.
The Obama administration maintains surprisingly friendly relations with the al-Bashir government. The White House invited Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti and Dr. Ibrahim Ghandur, the deputy chairman of the National Congress Party, to the National Prayer Breakfast in early February. Both men allegedly worked with al-Bashir to commit what the ICC has deemed mass genocide in Darfur. Karti was the commander of the Popular Defense Force, which raided villages in South Sudan and took women and children as slaves.