the lra moved out of northern uganda completely. now operating in small groups across the democratic republic of congo and the central african republic in south sudan. while weakened lra leader joseph kony and other top commanders are at large and they direct the leaders to commit despicable atrocities and with the consensus of regional governments we have deployed a small number of u.s. military personnel to the lra-affected area to advise and assist the regional forces who are pursuing the lra. the personnel deploying under this mission will travel out to field locations with the regional forces where they will work in an advisory and liaison role. these u.s. personnel which are primarily army special forces will engage in the lra counter-effort to restrainen information-sharing, operational training and overall effectiveness. while the department of defense isn't in the lead with the other pillars of the president's strategy our advisors working alongside regional forces will be sensitive to the challenges of civilian protection

. -- from northern uganda in the 1990's. it has killed and mutilated tens of thousands of people. john kony was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and the tribunal at the hague. connie is also dignity -- kony is also designated as a special global terrorist. some 3000 fighters originating out of uganda, now more prevalent in central africa -- i mean, the united states the ploy's 100 military advisers to happen to be special forces. i think we should call this what it is. it is a killing capture mission. i would ask you to comment on that. >> congressman, i think we certainly are trying to enhance the capacity of our partners to capture or kill joseph kony and other commanders, but they will be doing the actual military mission on the ground. we will be advising and assisting them so that they will be more effective in doing it. yes, i do not disagree with you in terms of one of the end results, if it works, but i think it makes sense from the united states point of view to enable partners to act when they have the capacity to do so. as we've said, they have some c

for 25 years he's been in northern uganda but he's been in other countries, too, rwanda, now the new country of south sudan, the stran african republic and the congo. those five countries is where he's been. this is what he does. rush limbaugh the other day three or four days ago was commenting that nobody knows what the l.r.a. is, the lord's resistance army and nobody knows so i'm here to tell you and tell you why those troops were sent over. it was not president obama, it was me that did it. we passed the law requiring that to be done. let me explain why. i've been active in africa for many, many years. 15 years ago, i was in northern uganda in an area called zulu and found a guy named joseph kony. this is joseph kony. he's a spiritual leader. and what he does is he goes into the villages and he abducts hundreds thousands of young kids, usually between the ages of 11 and 14. and then he takes the girls and sends them into prostitution, but the boys he trains to be soldiers. now, we're talking about kids, 11 to 14 years old. so he -- he puts them into -- teaches them out to use ak-4

me who is a rebel leader of the lord's resistance army rebel force that has been operating in northern uganda now for nearly two decades so the policy of targeted assassination is very much a part of the u.s. foreign policy which was the after the continent why would why is focusing back in on libya again and why is america giving so much credence to the n.t. say they're talking to them almost as if they've already been elected and of course they haven't they are only interim leaders or is that a foregone conclusion. well this is a very serious concern on the part of people in the african union as well as people here in the united states are there has been no i like sions there is no legitimate basis that the m.t.c. rebels have for killing out what they're doing right now inside of libya itself also they were the force that we utilized to provide legitimacy for regime change in libya they would never have been able to take control of tripoli and other areas of the country that they control if it not been for the extensive air power and the sea power that nato has executed over the last seven

recently became independent an independent state so the sudan has significant oil fields as there is northern uganda now i think southern sudan is not in a position to defend itself militarily against the regime in khartoum and we've already seen some incursions from the regime in khartoum i think the united states is worried that cartoon might eventually launch a full scale war and southern sudan will not be able to defend itself the u.s. is protecting its interests and primarily i see it as oil ok. red it comes at a very unfortunate time when indeed it does because the ugandans right now are actually carry outside interrupt you carry a gun there's a more focus right now on getting yes i meant to say that uganda the more focus right now in getting rid of their own dictator you know what he was signing who's been finance and supported by united states for almost twenty six years now if you take a poll i would suspect that most ugandans would prefer that the u.s. not stand in their way as they try to remove most of any from power and then eventually go after years of crime after all this thread and i

the lra's moved out of northern uganda completely.d, lra leader joseph kony and other top commanders remain at large, and they continue to direct the group's members to commit unspeakable atrocities. so consistent with the lra act and with the concept of the regional governments, we have deployed a small number of u.s. military personnel to the lra-affected area to advise and assist the regional forces who are pursuing the lra. the personnel deploying under this mission will travel out to field locations with the regional forces where they will work in an advisory and liaison role. these u.s. personnel, which are primarily u.s. army special forces, will collaborate with the regional militaries engaged in the counter-lra effort to strengthen information sharing, operational cooperation and overall effectiveness. while the department of defense suspect in in the lead with regard -- isn't in the lead with regard to the other pillars of the president's strategy, our advisers working alongside regional forces will be sensitive to the chall

last year we passed the lra resistance disarmament in northern uganda. the president announced that the troops will follow the letter of the law. i strongly support the president's action. we must eliminate the murder. i go after this would chaining the groups in uganda. >> thank you very much for that eloquent statement. i will now yield one minute to any members who wish to make opening statements. he is recognized for one minute. >> thank you for completing this hearing. u.s. forces are engaged in more than 50 countries around the world. they're providing support in more than 20 african countries alone. they're concerned about our military presence throughout the world. i am hopeful that this limit said -- this limited mission that has been approved by the house and senate on multiple occasions is critical to our security as well as global stability. i fear there is widespread mis- information about the current mission even in defense of the lord's resistance army. we know that the lra has terrorize central africa from more than 25 years. its leader ko

last year we passed the lra resistance disarmament in northern uganda. that the troops will follow the letter of the law. i strongly support the president's action. we must eliminate the murder. i go after this would chaining the groups in uganda. >> thank you very much for that eloquent statement. i will now yield one minute to any members who wish to make opening statements. he is recognized for one minute. >> thank you for completing this hearing. u.s. forces are engaged in more than 50 countries around the world. they're providing support in more than 20 african countries alone. they're concerned about our military presence throughout the world. i am hopeful that this limit said -- this limited mission that has been approved by the house and senate on multiple occasions is critical to our security as well as global stability. i fear there is widespread information about the current mission even in defense of the lord's resistance army. we know that the lra has terrorize central africa from more than 25 years. its leader kony is guilty of unspeakable c

i've been up to northern uganda during the height of the conflict.ild who was left for dead on the side of the road where her family was slaughtered and her brothers taken off to fight. that is one of the most brutal, horrific conflicts on the planet, and through the concerted efforts of countries in the region, particularly uganda with american support over many years, they have shrunk enormously the size of the lords resistance army. there is a remnant of a few hundred that are still marauding around the central african region including in south sudan, congo, central africa, congo, parts of uganda. the president took the decision on a bipartisan piece of legislation coming out of congress that if we could help through advice and assistance, not putting americans into combat, to help the countries of the region end this threat once and for all, then that was a worthwhile investment. we need to make the distinction where we send advisers and trainers which we have in many different parts of the world that are not engaged in combat, as is the case her

uganda. i went up to gulu, g-u-l-u. gula is in the northern part of uganda. senator mike enzi was with me at this time. we went up and we looked at and we saw a lot of these kids that came back and had been mutilated. and went down and talked to president kigami. he is in rwanda. rwanda in 1994 is where the greatest, the most devastating murder of genocide in recorded history in africa took place, killing 800,000 people, using machetes, torturing to death. and they had the same problem down there. if you go over to the d.r.c., democrat republican congo. that's joe kibila. he's very much concerned. the capital of d.r.c. is way over on the western side. it's several time zones over to the eastern side where joseph kony was killing these kids at that time. in fact, there's one city over there, the major city is goma. we were in goma shortly before he escaped and went north to the central african republic and back up to south sudan. i had occasion to be in south sudan last week. it's a new country. p tofs kind of an exciting thing -- it's kind of an exciting thin

it emerged from northern uganda in the 1990s. since that time has murdered, killed, mutilated tens of thousands of people coney was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and the tribunal at the hague. coney is also designated as a specially designated global terrorist. some 300 fighters originating out of uganda, now more prevalent in central africa. i mean, the united states deploys 100 military advisers who happen to be special forces. you know, i think we should just call this what it is. it's a kill and capture mission. i would ask you to comment on that. >> well, congressman, i think we certainly are trying to enhance the capacity of our partners to capture or kill, but they will be doing the actually military mission on the ground and advising and assisting them to be more effective in doing it, so, yes, i don't disagree with you on terms of the end results of this if it work, but i think it makes sense from the united states point of view to enable partners to act when they have the capability to do so. they

northern coastal. washington is to deploy around one hundred special operations troops to uganda to help local forces fight the lord's resistance army widely considered a terrorist group regional authorities have been trying to get rid of the leader of the organization for decades but writer and journalist and garrison says the interests of the u.s. go beyond fighting extremists in the region. it's of that oil and other resources this area is so huge the resource rich hugely oil rich southern sudan or western uganda north eastern congo huge oil field what happened last time in two thousand eighteen thousand and nine the guinean two thousand and the us advised something close operation lightning thunder contributed a million dollars worth of fuel satellite organized interacted this operation into north eastern congo where there had just been these huge oil discoveries the result reported by i.p.s. institute for policy studies was six thousand casualties one hundred eighty thousand refugees and when you talk in this region about one hundred eighty thousand refugees you need to go on and ask her maid of those

uganda. my parents were born in east africa but their parents, my grandparents on one side come is from the northernindia state and on my mother's side from southern -- their family with hundreds of thousands of others were brought to east africa by the british to make colonial railroads and that is where my sisters and i were born and we were booted out by at cell of islam in 1972, came to canada as political refugees and that is where i am from. >> this country and i'm in american dollars whatever the question is financially in the world, hugh that supported the change in egypt and libya, what perspective should week american voters take in terms of supporting any action if the libyans and elect somebody who get themselves together? it doesn't seem to happen that way. the people outside the st. that are not acted emissions or purists or whatever. the problem is we want to know where to put our dollars. >> it is an interesting question. as part of the trip i made to cairo in may of 2005 i spoke with a number of young democracy activists. this is not very much discussed in our newspapers. the money

uganda. i went up to gulu, g-u-l-u. gula is in the northern part of uganda. senator mike enzi was with me at this time. we went up and we looked at and we saw a lot of these kids that came back and had been mutilated. and went down and talked to president kigami. he is in rwanda. rwanda in 1994 is where the greatest, the most devastating murder of genocide in recorded history in africa took place, killing 800,000 people, using machetes, torturing to death. and they had the same problem down there. if you go over to the d.r.c., democrat republican congo. that's joe kibila. he's very much concerned. the capital of d.r.c. is way over on the western side. it's several time zones over to the eastern side where joseph kony was killing these kids at that time. in fact, there's one city over there, the major city is goma. we were in goma shortly before he escaped and went north to the central african republic and back up to south sudan. i had occasion to be in south sudan last week. it's a new country. p tofs kind of an exciting thing -- it's kind of an exciting thin