Transcripts For DW Operation Kony 20240712

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social networks never forget. so i searched in my personal archives. 2012. march. that i liked or shared the most viral video in history 100000000 views in just 6 days. and i name is jason russell and this is my son. it was the story of a young american director jason russell who hoped his 30 minute video would facilitate the capture of a new tory as a war criminal in central africa. joseph coney. this is the guy. to cody. with the battle. for 26 years tony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group. turning the girls into sex slaves. the video was meant to shock to outrage people's faces. to bring joseph kony to justice russell even set up a private n.g.o.s called invisible children. it's internet campaign kone 2012 was a runaway success. among those who circulated the video for a few of my friends. until recently i had forgotten all about the video and about joseph koni himself. then 2 journalists from our team entrusted me with this hard drive with footage shot in africa in 2014. the starting point for my investigation. i set out in pursuit of the most infamous war criminal on social networks and of invisible children begin g.-o. that want to stop them my 1st port of call was good in northern uganda joseph coney's native region. i took the same roads that the directors of coney 2012 took and met the same people. former child soldiers of the n.r.a. the brutal rebel group headed by joseph kony. from the late 1980 s. the warlord raided villages here to replenish his ranks with new recruits. it was. frightening. in the morning when they came to our village. i would desert in the rain. and the 2nd night i was given some simple training music down and i think that. and i realized that when i make it or not i don't. know so i have to tough and i say. the 3 filmmakers from invisible children turned up here in gulu in 2003. i was able to track down the woman who served as their guide at the time. and then i walked a lot of charity organizations and i went to the u.s. to talk about the war in northern uganda and i started telling how i was a for much i was sold and then how many kids will be abducted here and that is where i received a lot of people. very ignorant about the war and when the boys so i always called them the boys i'm sorry but when the filmmaker was so distillery. they contacted me and definitely i would see their story of how they wanted to talk aboard about the car and this it wait a minute you want to talk a book war is a wall then uganda. but because they were naive to. i drove with them to the north. lot and. they're so russian we've been. those were defeated. by one point being the children. and that's how everything started. one day did they made a lot of small videos about. some of the victims of the war. and of course the final the 12 documented was going to 12. bringing it out in top 10 minutes. a war that had lasted for more than. many people even look like a joke. since then the ninety's kids have grown up and they're in geo is now based in washington like all successful mob iest. like because it's just good just relief to just the year before i could talk to the president of invisible children you can let me know if my hair will be a problem at any point and i knew that. there was an endless back and forth of negotiations in 2014 my colleague's request for an interview was declined it took dozens of. emails and months of waiting before i got the green light. remember what was the objective of the greens as well as they do any part of my work 6100000000 people have now it's the main objective of the campaign was to push the u.s. government to remain committed to implementing its counter eller a strategy and then the deployment of the advisers was an outcome of that strategy ready for the videos explicit aim was to provoke the u.s. into sending troops after coni. train track him in the fast jungle in order to find him the us government has to deploy them that's where the american advisors come in not for self defense but because it was right. politically speaking it was hugely successful. shoots lead successful not really 2 years before coney 2012 became a global internet sensation invisible children was already lobbying the oval office as this photo from 2010 clearly shows. the greatest small number of u.s. forces i ordered the small number of american advisors to help uganda and its neighbors pursue the l.r. the removal of joseph kony from the battlefield sincerely. it's just a small step from garnering likes to dispatching troops. in the 21st century a video can start a war. but that's the americans helicopter visibility or says the videos on my hard drive documented the u.s. operation it featured some members of the 100 strong special forces team deployed by obama. may we have just a question with you this is a good sign we just wanted to understand no no photos go on camera or i don't know . somewhat surprisingly and invisible children can can be seen on the footage. surprising because my colleagues shot the material in 2014 in the eastern central african republic by then it had been almost a decade since joseph coney's militia had abandoned their base in uganda. the remnants were holed up somewhere in a vast neighboring area between the democratic republic of congo south sudan and the central african republic. here in obo hundreds of kilometers east of the war torn capital bangui is where the americans claimed that coney and his troops were hiding. on the ground my colleagues realized that not only was invisible children behind the deployment of u.s. army advisers the american n.-g. o. was also hosting military meetings. specifically for the u.s. special forces directing operations in the hunt for kone and their allies the ugandans who are carrying out their orders now we can get your. mortgage. and your care in the way colonel lately i'm the mayor of the u.s. forces that were. in regional task force in the el rey bringing me ellerey. they will hear our efforts today and they'll understand it's time to vote. for us. to. he's still in the bush right but his organization is coming out of the bush it's as you know this is a gigantic area here and to find one person that does not want to be found is very difficult. fast forward 4 years by now the u.s. operation was over the army advisors had returned home having failed to capture kone. but why end a manhunt when the target is still at large. had the most powerful army in the world been looking in the wrong place. or did the mission have other objectives. as my family remained mostly in the. father was prime minister. until that government itself was overthrown by the party backed you. up to 6 years of intervention right they didn't get it right where they even looking for him of course not they were not looking for corn and in fact it's hard to say it's even a success or failure since i believe 100 percent that was never the objective anyway. this operation was cost more than $700000000.00 is that possible it only makes sense if that money was going to finance another agenda. for the soldiers we filmed in 2014. what was the true nature of their mission. they were there under the banner of the pentagon's africa command africa. but it's not only a military command. according to this recently declassified internal document afrikan comprises both military personnel and civilians protecting u.s. interests in africa is one of its goals. which interests diplomatic and military but also economic financial as well as intelligence above all africa operates in the gray zone between traditional war and peace. what. africa is meant to intervene in the humanitarian role so that is the official narrative. but the more geo political narrative is that the u.s. would be able to start sneaking in u.s. forces through uganda and then spread it into the region to counter other interest in africa. in 2014 the people of oboe rarely saw u.s. army rangers on patrol. what they did see though was their aircraft their helicopters and their drones. back to great helping to bring ok. really they're going out. there. during. a one off your theory. without the excuse of hunting down a war criminal the u.s. military would never have been allowed to conduct an airborne operation over such an unstable strategic area. thanks to operations. tony it was able to map the area and install g.p.s. beacons. for in military terms gather intelligence. thanks but central africa is not just a region of military interest. it's also rich in gold and diamond reserves along with businessmen ready to exploit them. this man for example on the left. he appears in footage shot in 2014 at a security meeting in obo. that day he was handed what was clearly a confidential map. he refused our requests to film it and with good reason. we have the map was addressed to the colonel of the american armed forces. said mark fields some this is mark pearson. apparently he's a cultural adviser. but what would a cultural advisor be doing and. goes and why entrust a cultural adviser with an american military map. 4 years later i looked into who mark pearson really was. before following the american military into the area he was employed by jim diamond's a multinational diamond operation. it boasts turnover of some 300000000 euros with mines and prospecting projects all over africa including one in the central african republic. but the only area of diamond exploration officially declared by the company is in the west of the central african republic one and a half 1000 kilometers away from mobile on the other side of the country. so what was one of jem diamonds former employees doing here in a region that harbors a wealth of gold and diamond deposits. in kampala the ugandan capital i needed to find out more about who was really running the country. you know wary most of any seized power in a coup in 1906 to consolidate his grip on power he purge the country of many rebel groups. joseph coney's however was spared. the creation of the state. only a member of the opposition would talk to me about this angle of the story. when as president but it will have been my dance of calling i come from to so many days that go on was a creation of the government. that will. have that i had to state power with those for the well as they were trained it was devastated you want guys that never came in and wanted to create a bit of interest in what it is you don't you would have been bad if they like and it didn't have the power as you know about it about 4 times of them. without gross of course. the ugandan administration would not be able to make the justification but it needs more build trust systems from the united states that means needs more weapons and it needs more financial resources and diplomatic partnership with the united states how would you be able to make that narrative without the presence of course of course. that brings us to the least known and least documented part of the story on the pretext of driving out joseph county the ugandan army committed horrific atrocities inside its own country. between 19062004 most of any is army engaged in a bloody crackdown in northern uganda. officially it was hunting down the l r a. son officially it was crushing resistance to his move from the actually people the ethnic group to which joseph coney belonged and which had dominated the previous government. did my bit to young monk or the church was complaining a lot i'm talking about i'm. one army uniform on him and they came back and said this one of the rebels want to show you today that desire would be with a war so they take in ladies others they don't because on battery and the shutting it take it for the zealotry mothers it from top to head and it told to go and say shut up you can do anything well do this and do. this very incident was detailed in the 1991 amnesty international report. we haven't a single incident where the u.p.d. i was accused of intentional image and i'm asking people are you familiar with the 2005 human rights watch report about this conflict. no human rights watch. you know. because in their 2005 report which is the most exhaustive they refer to torture. rape. full killings. on both sides on the r. a side and also on your beauty of sites so it's not in the case of possible to have our own human rights commission report but you do agree that for instance some 2005 report by human rights watch to the world's a pretty strong willing full getting raped. this is not blights where she went to see. some of them. some of them just one little reason not to verify yes we have cases over matter matter of what goes on mother groups of people. and intentional. why was the united states desperate to support the ugandan regime at all costs despite its abuses despite the authoritarian rule of most of any president for more than 3 decades or was it because the agent ugandan autocrat was providing a few services to his american godfather. it is true that that may have gone wrong president you wouldn't say that for too long today as this big to fame so might. 212 for being sent from either american officials can progress in parliament to support the probe of troops abroad . if you need somebody to be involved to help in fighting. terrorism in a place like somalia which is celtic and it was so many is willing to do that sending ugandan soldiers to. i think that's a very easy decision for us to make regardless of anything else that was somebody does you know we've been gone bad so. and can weigh in on me when too late to have a quote that a couple of. the show the way they stayed in top job or did i mean it comes get the blind i didn't know maybe it's been about the how but it could double that and what the blink since the instrument so you and i because. a medic that made it so when we screwed it. he has become one so. none of this was mentioned in the county 2012 video. not a word about the ugandan regime about president museveni for about the war crimes committed by his army. why not. and what exactly was invisible children's role. when they say they're helping the widows or orphans or so on what are these really do and. those are the sorts of questions that always occur in my mind. going across them probably about 2 years before their big viral video and. i found their website and look at them and read what they said they were doing. so something about it felt very off to me. their level of access to the region of northern uganda is around 2005 northern uganda was completely sealed off by the ugandan army the only people who got in especially people with camera gear sophisticated camera gear such people did not get into northern uganda without the express permission of the ugandan government jason russell and his team they were in there because the ugandan government want them to be in there so why. the small in geo was purportedly working to save orphans when in fact it was promoting one of the most corrupt regimes in africa. this is a radio h.q. where we coordinate older security information for the southeast of the central african republic. the zoo. every day we have a security round in the morning and another in the afternoon the afternoon. in concrete terms it was nothing more than a network of informants scattered through dozens of villages they were responsible for reporting the movements of active armed rebels without really knowing whether there were any small isolated l r a groups among them or not. and they did that was more information. because the radios were all over the community. that information. this is so it was a long title. in the meeting. most of the information would come to the invisible. mr i knew about it was how for for the entire. but i don't know how it would have been between the non profit. information to the military so we were kind of. at the end of it in the loop thus if we were the voice of. the n.r.a. why children if you're thinking the military before them and go on get them. to the . door you're good it's all me she fell through the uncomfortable with sharing information with a new trick. that's very interesting i was not in a position of leadership that i have now at the time when joy i was working with invisible hand in that role but my understanding was that that was not her sentiment previously so i. only recently i owe. my understanding is that that was not a sentiment that she held. at the time that these programs are being developed the concept of neutrality with the l r a is very different than in a context of a civil conflict or intercommunal conflict and so in that context supporting essentially law enforcement in the protection of civilians we felt it was very important. except that in the code of ethics for n.g.o.s recognized by the un neutrality is non-negotiable in fact a non-governmental organization should always be independent of governments enormous. invisible children however has always collaborated with the ugandan army and regime. so just like in february 2009 at the time the most of any government claimed there was a conspiracy afoot to overthrow it. who had worked for invisible children in its early days was accused of being part of the plot. i was a place too. indeed for me. i was supposed to. have been. never seen in my life before. and a member one day said i was in. prison on those who are down there. and when i go for a life. patrick was eventually cleared of all charges but who denounced him the answer was hidden in a secret diplomatic note written by the us ambassador himself in 2009 later published on the wiki leaks website. here number 4 they say they foiled a plot against the ugandan government and were looking for someone. they say he was then arrested thanks to a tip off from invisible children. even the american ambassador implies that the organization does the leg work for ugandan forces. by then i don't i was not working with him. and i didn't know what up. from the i quote. somebody there. was so much. investigation. from. you know him. no no no i i i do know who he is but i don't i can't. if i heard his name that might have been back in 2007 or something very early do you know what happens or. no i don't say is that it is being arrested. because invisible children that it's i gave you both to the ugandan security forces i have no information about that. how do you feel about doubts about so that's was a question of them would have to be able to to do so well i have i have no way of knowing if that's true at all i sorry it is i mean of met the guy there is substantial evidence that's actually invisible children have that's i'm david supposed to be you than them but a tree on the arrested him and the guy was tortured for 3 months and then he was cleared because he didn't do anything how would you feel about that is that. i i have no information about that situation at all i obviously anyone who acts who would experience something horrible like that is is unacceptable i have no information on that situation. another thing that bothered me about the coney 2012 video was the evangelical rather messianic tone adopted by jason russell. the founder of invisible children seems to regard himself as something of a pastor his speeches are sermons. more you know and a war i'm here to tell you who are not. here's the copy that was put out by the truth wins out of the gay marriage organization i was working. on for this audio i found a pearson russell at the gathering in 2000. gathering is the biggest community of christian fundamentalists philanthropists in the united states. doesn't own when it and so with this movie we are able to be the trojan horse in a sense going into a rout saying guess what life's about our sins and stop. by . and scott's his start and best believe that one has to. well i was surprised that he would use the word chosen horse even at. a conference such as that of a joker christian donors i was surprised that he went that far to it minute that is is that they visible children was. perpetrating some some deceit. is it it's. it's true. so i. can't comment on what jason might have not said but i can tell you we are in no way a religiously affiliated organization. all of this was funded by an army of young people who put their money toward their belief in the value of all human life they gave a few dollars a month of what little they have. to funding comes from young people who give a few of those a month. as invisible children became better and better known they were able to get small donations by by presenting themselves as more or less a secular. non-profit which was doing great things in africa but that's not where they started they they started with money from the. giant fundamentalist haven't chuckled philanthropies they gave them seed money. this is the 1st year there are foreign languages of this board is the list of donors that's really. a lot of churches and yellow churches a lot of ministries so here is the big one the prohibition foundation which is a subsidiary of the national christian foundation and so this form lists. $350000.00 and i think they're one of the biggest grants they got in 2007 and the national christian foundation it's a fundamentalist christian philanthropy they say in their statement of belief that the bible is the infallible inerrant word of god and that we're about essentially extending the kingdom promoting the kingdom are our kind of the christian kingdom throughout the world and. we are. non-profit organization that's completely secular that folks on at the prevention into neuroscience programming so that's not that's not the. part of our innovation i mean. could we go to invisible children web sites you know to see what they're publishing now in terms of a look at risk you know that'll be interesting because i haven't looked at it. i think it's probably still with this. if you're getting half a $1000000.00 from someone. and it was yeah i mean. when you when you go to do some daughters in your thoughts for. we can say that we can see that there was a amounts of money for instance house a $1000000.00 from someone but we don't know or we don't know who it is unfortunately a nothing on you know. i could send you because again because it's so interesting. to google up and down with a few days after the interview that the ship the invisible children press officer who cut in during the interview sent me this clarification. it guarantees that donations are from private foundations with no religious affiliations will use. when he's going to reply that i would like to believe there is no religious connection for me but need to check for myself. could i have the names since then i've had no word from invisible children. but it doesn't end there the involvement of another more powerful entity in uganda raises the question who was really behind kone 2012. on the author of 2 books about an american fundamentalist organization with deep involvement in uganda. the family or the fellowship as it's known is the oldest and arguably the most influential christian conservative political organization in the united states. the organization the furs and terry very low profile the more invisible you can make your organization the longtime leader and on the same the more influence it will have he liked to refer to it as the christian mafia. located close to congress this unremarkable red brick building belongs to the fellowship. its members meet here in private to talk about jesus and business. but it won't open its doors to outsiders. its membership was not for the masses they weren't doing any big revivals it was for congressmen business leaders government leaders and they play a major part and facilitating u.s. relationships with authoritarian figures around the world that's what they admire this they when they look at christ they don't see a model of love or compassion primarily they see strength. could there then be a more i do. we're screwed for the fellowship than the autocrats you're wary most of any. call for a terry and vehemently homophobic and evangelical. the family looks at the 70 as their key man as they put it in uganda but also as their one of their key men in africa and one of the key men globally saying come to us pray with us. do business with us and they really take credit for forging that relationship at the beginning and turning the 70 into the american sphere of influence where he has remained as a powerful regional proxy ever since. in washington i was particularly interested in one member of the fellowship. a senator named jim inhofe known for his interest in african affairs. on. the bottom on honor and you know paul what if what michael thank you for writing. inhofe was one of the stars of the coney 2012 video. for all the problems that are out there no one is more severe than one in the middle ages and takes the lives of the little kids. so soon it's on to this senator jim inhofe from oklahoma must be pretty close to the ngo because in one of the other videos we have we see him taking part in one of the n.g.o.s protests. there he is going to his interest in uganda goes back many years. in this press release from 2006 he was already raising the alarm about what he called northern uganda as terrorist group the l r a. when i go he says i'm doing my jesus thing when he goes and meets with foreign leaders he says i'm a u.s. senator i'm a conduit to u.s. power and money if you want to get there you go through me and you go to jesus. the senator will not answer our questions what's clear is that for decades a radical fellowship has been pulling strings behind the scenes to get uganda to advance u.s. interests. tony 2012 was just part of a much more complex story. incidentally what happened right after the videos of viral success. once its makers collected $17000000.00 in donations. after calling friends of 12 when i was c.e.o. decided that there was no funding coming in and we made the decision to close the invisible children in uganda. the moral of this story. is that there isn't one. in 2017 the u.s. government's development agency usaid awarded $24000000.00 in grants to invisible children to fund a 5 year mission in the democratic republic of congo. today invisible children gets most of its funding from the us government. to me a founder member of the invisible today and i'm the one who led to them to get this story i felt. that this is our story that went out there and it was being managed by someone else that is why i chose to continue with it. electric emission free assistant a sustainable future of mobility the wheel is. worth at least a while so that 19 years to be fleeting is a brake on the developments of ordinary cars for believing one are back on the block there really are no alternatives. made in germany. on the. beethoven invented jazz scene. in his it is about a 60 minute. roger. soon the romance of stolen beethoven. of course the subconscious always one thing is clear. plato is wildly popular. and she assured her. i love you sure. but how did the mood sound with the biggest composer of all time i can't even begin to imagine a world class horn player singer willis on a musical journey of discovery. without beethoven. this week. this is the wu news live from berlin the european commission president also a funded lot and gives a wide ranging 1st state of the union speech from migration to digitise ation to a new european health union and bigger cuts to greenhouse gas emissions cham fund aligned to bring together a divided e.u. to realize vision also on the show israel signs a historic agreement at the white house with baryon and of the united arab emirates to stablish inc diplomatic for the.

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