They’re Back! Discredited Makers Of KONY2012 Plot DC March And Soil Dr. King’s Legacy

Allimadi: These are self-appointed experts. They’re not accountable to people in Africa. People in Africa don’t care for them. They may fool some people in the United States, but luckily there are Africans in the Diaspora who will challenge them at every stage and continue to expose their propaganda.

[Global: Africa]

Frequent Black Star News readers know the hunt for Joseph Kony, a.k.a, KONY 2012, as the cover for military operations to secure East and Central African oil and other resources.  A week before the KONY 2012 campaign’s attempt to make a comeback with their MOVE: DC March on Washington, I called Black Star Editor Milton Allimadi, and asked him to respond to their new video, on KPFA Radio.  Invisible Children (IC) co-founders Jason Russell and Jedediah Jenkins tell their Youtube audience that the most important thing to bring to their November 17th march and rally in Washington D.C. is the KONY 2012 T-shirt that they’re selling online.

 (IC’s original KONY2012 had 93.7 million views on YouTube. Invisible Children lost credibility  after The Black Star News published U.S. embassy memos made available by Wiki leaks, showing how Invisible Children shared intelligence with Uganda’s brutal military and also offered to help the regime’s publicity.  IC’s subsequent video, KONY2012: Part II Beyond Famous had only 2.5 million views; and, the recent IC video, MOVE, had a mere 26,000 views).
 

This is the KPFA Radio News transcript:   transcripts

KPFA EVENING NEWS ANCHOR ANTHONY FEST:
KONY 2012 is back. Kony 2012 is an Internet campaign calling for escalating U.S. military operations to hunt down the minor East African warlord Joseph Kony. Invisible Children, the non-profit that launched KONY 2012 on Youtube, has posted a new Youtube video to promote a rally and march in Washington D.C. this coming weekend. KPFA’s Ann Garrison has the story.

KPFA/ANN GARRISON: Images of Dr. Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice appear in Invisible Children’s latest Youtube video, as the organization’s co-founders Jason Russell and Jedediah Jenkins, promise that their upcoming march and rally will be their generation’s chance to join in something just like that. Here’s Jason Russell:

JASON RUSSELL: On November 17th, thousands upon thousands of us are going to rally in Washington D.C., like those famous historical pictures you’ve seen that changed the world. We’re going to march and surround the White House. Then we’re gonna rally at the Washington Monument. OK? It is going to be so hugely epic. This is our generation’s chance to represent what we care about.

KPFA: Russell and Jenkins also promised a global dance party and a global summit on the LRA, featuring 10 international leaders, who, they say, will show up if thousands of young people register in advance and arrive, preferably wearing one of the KONY 2012 T-shirts that they’re selling online for $20.

KPFA asked Ugandan American Milton Allimadi, Editor of the New York City-based Black Star News, what he thinks of Invisible Children using Dr. King’s image in their campaign. 

MILTON ALLIMADI: I think it’s completely repulsive. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, and they need to apologize, to the King family, first of all, and then to the American public.

KPFA: This new video also features an image of John Prendergast, former Clinton National Security Council Advisor, and ENOUGH Project Co-founder, as Russell and Jenkins promise a Global Summit on LRA Violence. And Prendergast, writing in Foreign Policy earlier this year, called on President Obama to “unleash the dogs of war and let them hunt” – for Joseph Kony. Three days after the election he called for more U.S. Special Forces, logistics, and intelligence.

Whether Invisible Children makes a comeback or not, do you think Prendergast and his ENOUGH Project will get their way? 

MILTON ALLIMADI:
No, they will not get their way. Nobody cares about Prendergast and the ENOUGH Project. President Obama is not a fool. This is not the time for the United States, which is dealing with a massive deficit, to be involved in any escalation of military operations anywhere in the world, especially not in Africa.

These are self-appointed experts. They’re not accountable to people in Africa. People in Africa don’t care for them. They may fool some people in the United States, but luckily there are Africans in the Diaspora who will challenge them at every stage and continue to expose their propaganda.

KPFA: Thank you, Milton Allimadi, Editor of the New York City-based Black Star News. For more on Kony 2012 and U.S. troops in East and Central Africa, see blackstarnews.com and sfbayview.com. For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I’m Ann Garrison.

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