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Michele Bachmann’s Problem With Uganda, Terrorism And “Kill The Gays”

18 August 2011
by Bridgette P. LaVictoire

Anderson cooper recently took on Michele Bachmann’s habit of running from questions about her anti-gay beliefs. Cooper even pointed out that Bachmann is likely trying to dodge these questions because of her campaign for President. It may end up not being quite as easy for Bachmann to dodge what is starting to emerge about some of the people she currently associates with.

First of all, here is Cooper taking on Bachmann over her avoidance of her anti-gay record:

Back during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, a great deal was made about the brief association between President Barack Obama and former Weather Underground member William Ayers. The two met briefly at some function or another, but were hardly friends, and had not spoke to each other in decades. What is more, this meeting came decades after the Weather Underground stopped really existing.

Revelations that Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, though, has been consorting with a man who was arrested for possession of assault rifles and ammunition in February 2006 and spent 37 day ins Luriza Prison in Uganda may be harder to shake. What is more, evangelical organizer Peter E. Waldron helped Bachmann win the Ames Iowa Straw Poll this past Saturday.

Waldron was charged with terrorism ahead of Uganda’s first multi-party elections in twenty years and it was only after the intervention of the Bush Administration and pressure from his friends and colleagues that secured his release. He was then deported from Uganda. “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.”

The Atlantic did ask Alice Stewart, the press secretary for Bachmann’s campaign, about Waldron, and they were told in an email that “Michele’s faith is an important part of her life and Peter did a tremendous job with our faith outreach in Iowa. We are fortunate to have him on our team and look forward to having him expanding his efforts in several states.”

They also wrote:

Waldron, a Republican operative since the late 1980s, had been in Uganda since 2002 and was at the time of his arrest working for the “Africa Dispatch” newsletter and, according to reports in 2006, working on a pilot study of a new health-care information technology management system.

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.’”

At the time, people claimed that his detention was proof of Christian persecution in Africa. Dave Racer, who worked to free Waldron in 2006, has stated that he has no knowledge as to the veracity of the allegations against him or if the counter-claims were true. All he understood was that there was “an allegation that Peter was involved in gun-running, I believe he was accused perhaps of fomenting some uprising against [Ugandan] President Museveni.” He also said “It’s not possible from here to know what was fact. There’s just no way to know. From here, it looked like he was a victim of political persecution.”

However, Racer is no longer certain. As years passed along, he can only say “I have no knowledge of what really happened.”

Still, the problem with this story is not just that Bachmann is tied to this suspected terrorist, but also to Martin Ssempa, one of the leaders in the “Kill the Gays” movement in Uganda. Quoting Lucas Grindly, Mediate stated

Ssempa is well known for inflaming violence against gay people in Uganda, even screening gay porn to incite backlash. While no one is reporting that Waldron actively helped push for the “Kill the Gays” bill that is even now still being considered by the country’s parliament, Rice says that Waldron regaled Ssempa’s congregation with stories and seemed like a minor celebrity. Waldron spoke about his time in the military (which Waldron strongly implied was CIA related), his visit to the White House, and he bragged about being cozy with the Ugandan president.