Bachmann staffer was arrested on terrorism charges in Uganda
The Atlantic‘s Garance Frunke-Ruta reports: Peter E. Waldron spent 37 days in the Luriza Prison outside Kampala, where he says he was tortured, after being arrested along with six Congolese and Ugandan nationals for the weapons, which were described variously in news reports as having been found in his bedroom or a closet in his ...
The Atlantic's Garance Frunke-Ruta reports:
The Atlantic‘s Garance Frunke-Ruta reports:
Peter E. Waldron spent 37 days in the Luriza Prison outside Kampala, where he says he was tortured, after being arrested along with six Congolese and Ugandan nationals for the weapons, which were described variously in news reports as having been found in his bedroom or a closet in his home. The charges, which could have led to life in prison, were dropped in March 2006 after a pressure campaign by Waldron’s friends and colleagues and what Waldron says was the intervention of the Bush administration. He was released and deported from the east African nation, along with the Congolese. On Saturday, Waldron told The Atlantic in Ames that he was a staffer for Bachmann and responsible for her faith-based organizing both in Iowa and South Carolina. But he also declined repeatedly to give his name.[…]
One Ugandan paper alleged he was working with Congolese rebel militia members to capture Joseph Kony, the leader of the Ugandan guerrilla group the Lord’s Resistance Army, and claim a $1.7 million bounty on his head being offered by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but that planning for the operation was botched, leading police to Waldron’s house and the guns. But the Kampala Monitor reported that the inspector general of police "told a news conference Waldron was suspected of links to a group in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and ‘planned to set up a political party here based on Christian principles.’"
Franke-Ruta’s report gives a number of conflicting accounts from various sources about just what Waldron was up to. Neither the organizer nor the Bachmann campaign were willing to elaborate.
U.S. evangelicals have a long and controversial history of activity in Uganda, much of it tied to efforts to support a now-tabled law mandating harsh penalties for homosexuality.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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