Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Kony Kon

"The Establishment-Funded "Anti-Establishment" Charity

It has been revealed that indeed Invisible Children has been working with USAID, a US government agency that helps lay the groundwork for what could best be described as a modern-day imperial administrative network. It is now also revealed that Invisible Children attended the 2010 US State Department and Fortune 500 sponsored Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM) summit in London.

AYM (also called Movements.org) it was reported, played a central role in preparing armies of US State Department funded, trained, and equipped activists to carry out the so-called "Arab Spring" years in advance. Much like KONY 2012, the Arab Spring took many by surprise and in the wave of confusion, entire nations were upturned and US proxy regimes installed. Tunisia and Libya are now full fledged client states of Wall Street and London, while the fates of nations like Egypt and Syria still hang in the balance.

Unlike the "Arab Spring" however, the KONY 2012 scam has collapsed almost as fast as it first swept the globe. And as it falls, it is taking with it the credibility of all who participated in it and promoted it, including the deceitful International Criminal Court (ICC) and its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, as well as Hollywood and the corporate-media who did all in their power to lie, manipulate and make fools out of millions once more in the pursuit of perpetuating the imperial ambitions of Wall Street and London....

--MORE--"  

"Group’s video may aid hunt for militia" March 09, 2012|By Jason Straziuso and Rodney Muhumuza

KAMPALA, Uganda - If Joseph Kony lived in relative anonymity before this week, he is a Web star now.

A video about the atrocities carried out by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has gone viral, racking up millions more views seemingly by the hour.

The marketing campaign is an effort by the California-based advocacy group Invisible Children to vastly increase awareness about a jungle militia leader who is wanted on charges of atrocities by the International Criminal Court and is being hunted by 100 US Special Forces advisers and local troops in four Central African countries.   

Related: Lord Have Mercy in Uganda

The 30-minute video, released Monday, had more than 32 million views on YouTube by Thursday. The movie is part of an effort called KONY 2012 targeting Kony and his militia.

“Kony is a monster. He deserves to be prosecuted and hanged,’’ said Colonel Felix Kulayigye, the spokesman for Uganda’s military.

Kulayigye said Kony’s forces - once thousands strong - have been so degraded that he no longer considers Kony a threat to the region. Because of the intensified hunt for Kony, his forces split into smaller groups that can travel the jungle more easily.

Analysts estimate that the Lord’s Resistance Army now has only about 250 fighters.

THAT'S IT? And all the empire's horses and all the empire's men.... ?????

Still, the militia abducts children, forcing them to serve as soldiers or sex slaves, and even to kill their parents or each other to survive. The militia now operates in Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.

Oh, they are in Sudan, too?

Jolly Okot was abducted in 1986 by the militia group that later became the militia. Okot, 18 at the time, could speak English so was valuable to the militants. She was also forced to have sex.

Today, Okot is the Uganda country director for Invisible Children, in charge of 105 employees. She said the group is helping 800 people affected by Lord’s Resistance Army violence to attend high school and university. She said the program has given hope to children who previously dropped out of the education system.

“I’m so grateful that the world has been able to pay attention to an issue that has long been neglected,’’ Okot said. “I think it is an eye-opener and I think this will push for Joseph Kony to be apprehended, and I think justice will get to him.’’

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said it has been hard to raise public awareness about Kony since issuing his warrant in 2005.

--more--"

"African Union force to join hunt for Kony" Associated Press, March 24, 2012

ENTEBBE, Uganda - The African Union said Friday it will send 5,000 soldiers to join the hunt for war criminal Joseph Kony, a new mission that comes amid a wildly popular Internet campaign targeting the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The mission is to be launched in South Sudan on Saturday and will last until Kony is caught, United Nations and African Union officials said at a news conference in Uganda.

“We need to stop Kony with hardware - with military hardware in this case,’’ said Francisco Madeira, the African Union’s special envoy on the Lord’s Resistance Army. “We are on a mission to stop him.’’

Friday’s announcement comes in the same month as an Internet movie campaign by the US-based advocacy group Invisible Children sought to make Kony “famous’’ so that policy makers would make it a priority to remove him. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times.

Abou Moussa, head of the UN’s office in Central Africa, said soaring international interest in Kony had spurred regional efforts to eliminate the Lord’s Resistance Army.

“The awareness has been useful, very important,’’ he said.

The hunt for Kony has primarily been carried out by troops from Uganda, who received a boost last year when President Obama deployed 100 US soldiers to help regional governments in the mission. American soldiers are now based in Uganda, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Congo.

The officials meeting in Uganda on Friday did not say where the funding for the mission was coming from.

--more--"  

Also see:  

Cutting Through the African Bush  

It's thick, but well worth it!

"Uganda is slowly opening up to having dialogue about gay rights" by Rodney Muhumuza  |  Associated Press, March 25, 2012

KAMPALA, Uganda - Uganda’s homosexuals have been in the spotlight since a parliamentarian introduced a tough antigay bill in October 2009. World leaders condemned the proposed legislation, though many in Uganda applauded it.

Still, Frank Mugisha carries a sense of optimism that is slowly germinating within the tightly knit gay community. The mere fact, Mugisha said, that Ugandans are now having a national conversation on gay rights is itself an achievement. In the past, the subject was taboo.

“We see a shift in public opinion, and I guess it’s because many Ugandans are talking about homosexuality a lot,’’ he said. “There are some local leaders who are now willing to meet and talk to us. The only problem we have is the belief people have that we are promoting homosexuality and recruiting children.’’

Activists believe the controversial law will never pass, and now they are pursuing legal action they expect will make it too costly for people to be hostile to gays.

Sexual Minorities Uganda, with help from the New York-based advocacy group Center for Constitutional Rights, filed suit last week against a Massachusetts pastor in US federal court. The lawsuit accuses Scott Lively of being the intellectual force behind the antigay bill.

Lively, who is based in Springfield, gained worldwide prominence in March 2009 when he traveled to Uganda to address the Parliament on “exposing the homosexuals’ agenda.’’ He told lawmakers that “the gay movement is an evil institution that’s goal is to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.’’

A week after the conference at which Lively spoke, a bill was introduced that would allow gays to be executed under certain circumstances in Uganda.

The court complaint asserts that Lively issued a call in Uganda to fight against a “genocidal’’ and “pedophilic’’ gay movement, “which he likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers.’’ The suit asks for a judgment that his actions are illegal and violate international law and human rights.

Lively says his words were taken out of context and denies any wrongdoing.

Sexual Minorities Uganda believes that if it wins the suit, other American evangelicals it accuses of spreading antigay propaganda would stay away from Uganda....

The lawsuit against Lively is part of wide-ranging legal action that local gay groups are considering against individuals they consider hostile to the rights of homosexuals....

--more--"