Tag Archives: Patrick Henningsen

Kony 2012 Redux

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PHONY 2012

Two years ago it was difficult for most of us online to avoid the KONY 2012 viral video. It was a slickly produced ad by the Invisible Children advocacy group for their campaign to assist efforts to capture or kill Joseph Kony, leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (a militia infamous for using child soldiers). The video spread rapidly through social media, getting millions of views. Criticism and suspicion towards Invisible Children spread just as rapidly as people spoke out against the group’s methods and started noticing how the majority of their money went towards advertising, staff, and transportation rather than children of Uganda. Many also questioned the group’s motives, pointing out that Kony hasn’t been seen for years and how Uganda happened to be a source of natural resources the U.S. government has an interest in such as oil and valuable minerals. Uganda’s President and friend of Obama, Yoweri Museveni, has also used child soldiers and was the focus of a recent Human Rights Watch report uncovering his government’s high-level corruption. Possibly as a result of the public pressure, about two weeks after the release of KONY 2012 leader and co-founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, had a very unusual and scandalous public breakdown.

Despite the rapid loss of much of their public support following the incident, Invisible Children’s campaign still impressed the U.S. government enough to extend a military advise-and-assist mission to central Africa the following month (if we are to believe their stated motives). In addition, the European Union established a Joint Operations Centre to assist central Africa’s counter-LRA regional task force in a show of support (again, if we take them for their word). Congress also passed the Rewards for Justice Bill authorizing $5 million for information leading to Kony’s capture in January 2013.

Just last Sunday, the Obama administration announced the deployment of about 150 Special Operations troops and military aircraft to Uganda, ostensibly to search for Joseph Kony. According to the Pentagon, at least four CV-22 Osprey aircraft will arrive in the country by midweek, together with refueling planes and Special Operations forces airmen to fly and maintain them.

For more information on Kony, Invisible Children and the recent troop surge, read Patrick Henningsen’s report at 21st Century Wire: KONY 2014: Obama Orders New Troop Surge to ‘Find Ugandan Warlord’

European Television’s Double Standards

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Lately I’ve been enjoying the program “Double Standards” on the Press TV YouTube channel. It’s a London-based news and satire show hosted by Afshin Rattansi. While it may not be as consistently funny and polished as “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”, it is on occasion more fearless in its choice of targets and strength of its critiques, as shown in this clip from a recent program on bankers and government lackeys:

Their interviews are also usually more politically substantial, such as this clip from last year featuring Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire discussing the European Commission and UK’s Ofcom regulator’s decision to ban Press TV from European satellite and cable broadcasting:

Pro-War “Expert” Gets Busted for Lying

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All war mongers depend on lies and deception to rally public support. A classic example is the false testimony which helped trigger the first Iraq War. Elizabeth O’Bagy is another such shill who has been quoted by John Kerry and John McCain to support the case for war. Though the lie she got called out on was about academic credentials, not any of the lies to start another war, her background reveals some of the behind-the-scenes players influencing U.S. government policy. Among the findings uncovered by Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire:

  • Before getting fired, O’Bagy was a “senior research analyst” at Washington’s heavily pro-Israeli and neoconservative think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
  • The ISW was founded by Kimberly Kagan, a devout neocon, whose fellow experts elevate U.S. military intervention, and provide policy research back-up for U.S. State Department, CIA, AIPAC and large national security defense contractors. The ISW’s board of directors is led by William Kristol. This type of organisation is a nexus which brings together, among other things, support for the Syrian opposition, anti-Castro in Cuba, and pro-Israeli activities.
  • O’Bagy is also policy director at an even more questionable Washington DC outfit – a pro-rebel, money-raising and policy promoting nonprofit organisation known as the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). Exactly how much money SETF has collected to date (or where it has been spent) is unknown, but following the O’Bagy incident, O’Bagy and the group’s Communications Director Cassie Chesley – have both been pulled down from the SETF website. According to the SETF, Syrian opposition agents have been coordinating with operatives in Washington through “field work” since November 2012, including building parallel government structures inside rebel-held areas in Syria.
  • O’Bagy was a key defender of alleged CIA American al Qaeda fighter recently detained by the FBI for working with al Qaeda in Syria, by working to shift opinion over his jihadist affiliations.
  • One of O’Bagy’s mentors is none other than Michael Weiss, Research Director at the British-based Henry Jackson Society, a key Israeli and neoconservative foreign policy think-tank.

Read the full article here: http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/09/14/kerry-and-mccains-fake-phd-syria-expert-obagy-is-neocon-and-israeli-linked-operative/

Though O’Bagy’s voice may be absent from the public discourse (at least for now), there are undoubtedly plenty of others like her who are well compensated by powerful think-tanks and special interest groups. Some might also be a part of government programs such as Operation Mockingbird.