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made for mines. social networks never forget. so i searched in my personal archives. 2012. march. had i liked or shared the most viral video in history 100000000 views in just 6 days. and my 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 torrijos war criminal in central africa. joseph coney.

this is the guy just coney. the battle. for 26 years tony has been kidnapping children into is rubble. turning the girls into sex slaves. the video was meant to shock to outrage people's faces. to bring joseph kony to justice 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 is 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 on friday. in the morning when they came to. i want desolate in the rain. and the 2nd night i was given some simple training music done and i think that.

whether i like it or not oh i don't. know so i have to tough and when i say partial . 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 than uganda and i started telling how i was a for much i was told 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 in the boys i'm sorry but when the filmmaker was so distillery. they

contacted me and definitely i would see this story of how they wanted to talk aboard the car and they said wait a minute you want to talk about war there's a war we know then uganda. but because that one days too i drove with them to the north. there were a lot and. they're so russian what we've been. was we had a family member. with children. and that's how everything started. what they 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 looked like a joke. since then the 9 kids have grown up and they're in geo is now based in washington like all successful mob years. because it's just we could just leave it's 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 24 teams my colleagues request for an interview was declined it took dozens of. e-mails and months of waiting before i got the green light. to new remember what was the objective of the consensus to do any part of my work

6100000000 people have now what'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 advisors was an outcome of that strategy ready for the videos explicit aim was to provoke the u.s. into sending troops after coni. training 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. hugely 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.

there is a 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 document at 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 because we just wanted to understand. no photos you know on camera and 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 engage in. morning. care in a way colonel the only only measure of the us forces that are. in regional to force in the el rey bringing the hour a go they will hear our message today and they'll understand it's time to talk about. this next few weeks so it's for us. things to. the bush is 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 advisers 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. my family remained mostly in the. father was prime minister. until that government itself was overthrown by the hard. work to get. us 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 the money was going to finance another i genda. who are 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. africa this meant to intervene in a 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. force says 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. are now. back to great help and you. will get that. 1000000 they're going out and you know. they're. going on here. 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 operation. 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. i don't think it was a match was addressed to the colonel of the american armed forces. mark feels some this is mark pearson. apparently he's a cultural advisor. but what would a cultural advisor be doing and. going and why entrust

a cultural advisor 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 gem 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 is really

running the country. you know where we must have any power in a coup in 1906 to consolidate his grip on power he purge the country of many rebel groups. joseph. however was spared. the creation of the state. only a member of the opposition would talk to me about this angle of the story. as president but it will have been my dentist so on i come from to do so meaning to do that on was a creation of the government and to find that the bill the way that i had to stay did with those for the well as they were trained it will get us back to the one place that never came in about it so clearly we're going to see. it you don't

you would have been a bad fit in life and it didn't have the power as even without it in about bottoms of them. without those of course. the ugandan administration would not be able to make the justification but it needs more build trust systems from the united states it 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 koni the ugandan army committed horrific atrocities inside its own country. between 19062004 most of any as 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 koni belonged and which had dominated the previous government. young monk all of which i 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 shut in a cave for the zealotry mothers it for taught to hate and it told to go and say shut up you can do anything well to do this and do. this very incident was detailed in 1991 amnesty international report.

we haven't a single instant where the u.p.d. i was accused of intentional going through intimidation and the massacre in people are you familiar with the 2005 human rights watch report about this conflict. human has no human rights watch. no you know. because in their 2005 report which is the most exhaustive they refer to torture. rape. willing 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 impossible to have our own human rights commission. but you do agree that for instance in this 2005 report by human rights watch the world's a pretty strong wing full killing torture this is not lights where humanity

sports. some of them. some of them just one look at this are not verified yet we have cases over matter. medical groups of people. and international. why was the united states desperate to support the ugandan regime. 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's true that made it one on president you wouldn't say that for too long today as this big you learn not to fame so much. $21.00 to $0.30 a mile that american officials can progress in to support the plane with the fruits

of the lord. if you need somebody to be involved to help in fighting. terrorism and 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 so great it does you know we've been gone bad so. and can't weigh in on me when too late i quoted a couple of. open the show the way they stayed in talked over a bit that many times get the black and i made is that been about the how but it could double that and what the bleep drop since the incident so you and i because. a medic that made it so when we screwed it. he has work on one side.

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 the war orphans or so on or do they really do and. those are the sorts of questions that always are occur in my mind. i can across from 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 all the security information for the southeast of the central african republic. in this room. every day we have a security round in the morning and another in the afternoon don't have any. in concrete terms it was nothing more than a network of informants scattered through dozens of villages and 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 than the military because the radios were all over the community. and then that information. this is so it was full on total. in the.

most of the information would come to the invisible radio network. that mr sawyer and i knew about it was how forceful the entire. but i don't know how it would have been between the nonprofit. information to the military so we were kind of. at the end of the to look to us if we were the voice of. the n.r.a. why children if you're feeding the military for them and go on get them. to the children. to do your good and she told me she fell through an uncomfortable with sharing information with a new trick. that's very interesting i was not in a position of leadership that i am now at the time when jolie 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 the context of a civil conflict or intercommunal conflict and so in that context supporting essentially law enforcement in the protection of civilians we felt like 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 in armies. invisible children however has always collaborated with the ugandan army and regime. so so just like in february 2009 at the time the most of any government claimed there was

a conspiracy afoot to overthrow it. patrick koma cash who had worked for invisible children in its early days was accused of being part of a plot. to do i was a place too. for me. i was supposed to. have been. i've never seen in my life before. i remember one days and i was. down there. and one that day for. patrick was eventually cleared of all charges but who denounced him the answer was hidden in a secret diplomatic note written by the u.s. ambassador himself in 2009 later published on the wiki leaks website. 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 are. called. somebody there. was so much. investigation. from. you know him. no no i i i do know who he is i don't i can't recall. if i heard his name that might have been back in 2000. do you know what evidence or

. no i don't he says that it is been 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 the guy there is substantial evidence that's actually invisible children have that's i'm david simple for the year in the military and 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 you see. i i have no information about

that situation at all i obviously anyone who acts who would experience something horrible like that is it is unacceptable i have no information on that situation. another thing that bothered me about the kone 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. who are you to end a war i'm here to tell you who are not. here's the copy that was put out by truth wins out of the ok words organization i was working . for this audio i found a pearson russell at the gathering in 2000. the 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 orphans and stuff. passed. by . and. it's historic and that's really what this has been all. well i was surprised that he would use the word chosen horse even at. a conference such as out of a joke or 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. true. so i. can't comment on what jason might have not said but i can say very content and 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. they say their funding comes from young people who give a few dozen homes. as invisible children became better and better known they were able to get small donations 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 of

unshackled philanthropy is that gave them seed money. this is the 1st year they're a foreign language as it is is the list of donors that's really you know it's a lot of churches a yellow church has a lot of ministries so here's the big one the provision 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 in 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 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 and that folks on at the prevention into neuroscience

programming so that's not that's not that. hi i'm sorry to say she. could we go to invisible children web sites you know to see what they're publishing you know in terms of the looks you know they'll be interesting because i haven't looked at it. i think it's probably still with this. they're getting half a $1000000.00 from someone no names and it was you know. when you when you go to do some daughters in your thoughts for. we can say that we can see that there was amounts of money for instance house a $1000000.00 from someone but we don't know we don't know who it is we came up with one you know. i could send you because yeah because it's so interesting. and good luck getting done with a few days after the interview but 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. i'm an 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 furze 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 going to be with bibles it was for congressman 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'll recruit for the fellowship in the autocrats where he must have 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 was on my mind you know paula if you like to thank you for writing. inhofe was one of the stars of the coney 2012 video. with all the problems that are out there no one is more severe than when the mutilation takes the lives of the little kids. let's listen 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. areas. his interest in uganda goes back many years. and 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 the 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. me 2012 was just part of a much more complex story. incidentally what happened right after the videos of viral success. once its makers collected $70000000.00 in donations. that. also according to 12

when i was c.e.o. decided that there was no funding coming in i mean 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. even if the coronavirus is sending football into a force to break. us we will still be bringing you the stars made. of the stories in this country surrounding our favorite sports team. because we won't match the soccer finally stop just yet. because.

90 minutes on d w. passive drama competition is why the marketing numbers have is here to fight back into english thanks mike. fans crimes. only. because we put paul. 2 calls on you tube joining us. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll all miss. just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can

also find us and dot com slash science. this is d w news coming to you live from berlin britain's prime minister shuts down his country boris johnson says implement measures that others have taken longer go instructing people to stay at home in a bid to stop the spread of the corona virus along the last for at least 3 weeks and a warning from the world health organization good.