CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – DEFENSE
March 9, 2012 – 2:23 p.m.
Kony Video Brings New Edge to Commander’s Request for Africa Resources
By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff
The commander of the U.S. military in Africa and a senior senator are worried that U.S. forces lack the spy planes they need to find and fight terrorists on the continent and hunt down the man who has suddenly become the world’s most wanted, Joseph Kony.
Some 100 U.S. military personnel are in central Africa to help local forces find Kony, a warlord who has plagued the region for more than two decades. A popular new online video released this week is focusing the world’s attention on Kony, whose group has kidnapped children and used them as soldiers and sex slaves.
In testimony earlier this month that attracted little notice, Gen. Carter Ham, chief of U.S. Africa Command, suggested to lawmakers that he needed more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance planes to accomplish his missions, including to find Kony.
Now, Sen.
“It upsets me when Africa is ignored,” Inhofe said in a March 8 interview.
Kony, the leader of a group called the Lord’s Resistance Army, is said to be responsible for murdering and disfiguring thousands of people and making refugees of hundreds of thousands of people. He is also the subject of a video — produced by a group called Invisible Children and released online March 5 — that has exploded across the Internet, with more than 50 million views.
Request for Surveillance Planes
President Obama notified Congress last October that he had authorized sending 100 U.S. military personnel to Africa to help militaries in the region get Kony.
But it now appears the chances of success for that mission — as well as the campaign to capture or kill terrorists in the region — could be in question due to Africa Command’s lack of surveillance assets. Such planes are in limited supply but in high demand in other parts of the world, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Under questioning from Inhofe at a March 1 Senate Armed Services hearing, Ham said: “With regard to assets, I have the assets I need — with one exception that if you allow me to answer in a classified form. The challenge for us right now, particularly with reconnaissance, is the ability to reach all of the areas we need to reach to be able to observe or try to collect and identify where the leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army are operating.”
A base in South Sudan, Ham added, “is so important because it will allow us to extend and have the reconnaissance aircraft operate for longer periods of time in the areas in which we think the Lord’s Resistance Army is operating, again, particularly in Central African Republic and the northern reaches of the Republic of South Sudan.”
Inhofe said in the interview that Ham’s need for more surveillance planes in the hunt for Kony or other missions is driven by problems unique to Africa — notably its vast size and the inaccessibility of much of its terrain.
Aides said Ham’s needs could include everything from unmanned Predator surveillance planes to a new surveillance plane, a twin-engine turboprop called the MC-12 Liberty that takes video and has infrared sensors. The area where Kony is believed to be located spans some 1,000 square miles, they said.
Kony Video Brings New Edge to Commander’s Request for Africa Resources
Lawmakers are increasingly concerned about the growing presence of terrorist groups in Africa.
“As al Qaeda’s senior leadership continues to be degraded through sustained military pressure, al Qaeda’s franchise groups, especially those in Africa, are expanding their ambitions and capabilities,” said Sen.