Officials: US to offer $5 million bounty on Kony

[DonViejo]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the Obama administration will offer up to $5 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of Lord’s Resistance Army chief Joseph Kony, two of his top aides and a Rwandan rebel leader suspected of crimes against humanity.

The State Department will announce the bounties on Wednesday, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the move. The money is being offered under a provision in the War Crimes Rewards Program authored by Secretary of State John Kerry when he was a senator.

Kony is accused of ordering widespread atrocities during a brutal campaign for power that originated in Uganda in the 1980s. He is now believed to be hiding in the Central African Republic.

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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/03/officials_us_to_offer_5_million_bounty_on_kony/

[Crowman1979]

1. All this because of a public-masturbating closeted fundie who scammed people out of their money.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. No; everyone, including the US government, was aware of Kony well before that

United States

After the September 11 attacks, the United States declared the Lord's Resistance Army a terrorist group.[32] On 28 August 2008, the United States Treasury Department placed Kony on its list of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists", a designation that carries financial and other penalties.[33]

In November 2008, U.S. President George W Bush personally signed the directive to the United States Africa Command to provide financial and logistical assistance to the Ugandan government during the unsuccessful Garamba Offensive, code-named Operation Lightning Thunder.[34] No U.S. troops were directly involved, but 17 U.S. advisers and analysts provided intelligence, equipment, and fuel to Ugandan military counterparts.[34] The offensive pushed Kony from his jungle camp, but he was not captured. One hundred children were rescued.[34]

In May 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act,[35] legislation aimed at stopping Kony and the LRA. The bill passed unanimously in the United States Senate on 11 March. On 12 May 2010, a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill was agreed to by voice vote (two-thirds being in the affirmative) in the House of Representatives.[36] In November 2010, President Obama delivered a strategy document to Congress, asking for more funding to disarm Kony and the LRA.[37] In October 2011, President Obama authorized the deployment of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa.[38] Their goal is to help regional forces remove Kony and senior LRA leaders from the battlefield. "Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense," President Obama said in a letter to Congress.[39][40]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kony#United_States

[Posteritatis]

4. Some of us knew about him even before Bush was in office. (nt)

[Paul E Ester]

2. Uganda has suspended the hunt for fugitive warlord Joseph Kony - also todays headline

Uganda has suspended the hunt for fugitive warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army fighters, blaming hostility towards foreign troops by Central African Republic rebels who seized power last month.

About 100 U.S. special forces helping with intelligence and logistical support also called off operations temporarily, a U.S. embassy official said, but it was not immediately clear if troops from other countries in the regional force were also giving up the search.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He and his commanders are accused of abducting thousands of children to use as fighters in a rebel army that earned a reputation for chopping off limbs as a form of discipline.

Uganda provides more than 3,000 troops of a 5,000-strong African Union force hunting Kony and his fighters, thought to be hiding in jungles straddling the borders of Central African Republic, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/03/us-centralafrica-rebels-uganda-idUSBRE9320QW20130403