Crock-work Carnage
My guest today , Maurice Carney, is the executive director of Friends of the Congo. Carney is quoted as saying, “The Rwandan government has acted as a major destabilizing force in the east of the Congo since 1996. However, as a staunch ally of the United States and the United Kingdom, the Rwandan government has benefited tremendously from the diplomatic cover and protection that accompanies its relationship with such powerful nations."His remarks to the press echo the message he articulated in the film, ‘Crisis in the Congo’ - a riposte to the outrageous agitprop of 'Kony 2012', perhaps the world's best example of the world’s worst filmmaking. ‘Kony 2012’ appeared to feature a very large, very white, very American couple being lead along a lane by a much smaller ‘African Friend’ who was explaining what the ‘godless’ Kony’s nutty, drug-addled army of terrified children had been up to – whatever it was, it isn’t any longer. Kony hasn’t been on the scene since 2009. Racist? With a capital ‘R’. Rightwing Christers who would like to see gays executed and women enslaved? That’s our junior league ‘auteurs’ - ‘Crock-work Carnage’ anyone?
This from the BBC: "The UN says it has evidence that a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being fueled by recruits and support from neighboring Rwanda." Human Rights Watch reports that "Rwandan army officials have provided weapons, ammunition, and an estimated 200 to 300 recruits to support Ntaganda’s mutiny in Rutshuru territory, eastern Congo." A leading Congolese newspaper, Le Potentiel notes "The mutiny underway in the eastern DRC receives support in manpower and logistics from Rwanda, in the face of astonishing passivity from the international community (U.S., Britain, EU, etc.)." “Passivity” does not describe the very active, muscular role the UDS military is playing in arming, aiding and abetting the Rwandan depredations in the eastern Congo.
Meanwhile, back in The Land of the Free, Home of the Brave...
Salon: Whistleblowers vs. Leakers
Summary: Salon’s David Sirota makes the important distinction between “selfless whistleblowers and self-interested leakers” in this column. The Obama administration has come down hard on intelligence whistleblowers, but is also allegedly strategically leaking its own national security information for political purposes.
Key Quote: Over the last few years, whistle-blowers and whistle-blower enablers like Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and the New York Times’ James Risen (among others) have publicized corporate and governmental wrongdoing at great risk to their lives and careers. These were courageous acts of self-sacrifice on behalf of larger ideals.
At the same time, Obama administration aides have selectively leaked secret information exposing such wrongdoing (in this case, the president engaging in due-process-free executions) — but at little risk to their lives and careers (except perhaps for some momentary partisan blowback over their willingness to go to such lengths to protect their boss). These were craven acts of self-preservation aimed not at protecting ideals, but at burnishing the president’s political image. And while President Obama on Friday vehemently denied that his administration has been strategically leaking this information, the facts, to put it mildly, suggest otherwise.
- KBOO