{"id":199300,"date":"2021-11-15T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=199300"},"modified":"2021-11-12T05:33:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T05:33:01","slug":"limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-rwandan-cia-asset-paul-kagame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-rwandan-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLimited Hangouts:\u201d Western Intellectuals Whitewash Horrific Crimes of Rwandan CIA Asset Paul Kagame"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_199301\" style=\"width: 706px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/kagame-clinton-blair-africa-rwanda.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-199301\" class=\"wp-image-199301 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/kagame-clinton-blair-africa-rwanda.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/kagame-clinton-blair-africa-rwanda.webp 696w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/kagame-clinton-blair-africa-rwanda-300x185.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-199301\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cartoon mocking Tony Blair and Bill Clinton\u2019s worship of Kagame in the 1990s.<br \/>[Source: medium.com]<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Admitting Lesser Crimes to Conceal Major Ones Is Called a \u201cLimited Hangout\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>11 Nov 2021 &#8211; <\/em>In the intelligence community, a \u201cLimited Hangout\u201d occurs when the conspirators put out part of the truth in order to hide the whole truth. Conspirators only do limited hangouts when desperate, since doing so often will reveal that they were previously either lying or covering up bigger truths.<\/p>\n<p>If Western neocolonialism in Africa can be seen as a conspiracy of sorts, then the new book by Michela Wrong,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.publicaffairsbooks.com\/titles\/michela-wrong\/do-not-disturb\/9781610398435\/\" ><em>Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad<\/em><\/a>, fits the mold of a limited hangout perfectly. It presents the partial truth about Paul Kagame\u2014that he has been running an international, decades-long, successful campaign of assassination all over the world, from Kenya to South Africa and beyond.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\">\n<ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28240 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?resize=484%2C750&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?w=484&amp;ssl=1 484w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?resize=194%2C300&amp;ssl=1 194w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?resize=150%2C232&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?resize=300%2C465&amp;ssl=1 300w\" alt=\"Do Not Disturb by Michela Wrong | PublicAffairs\" width=\"484\" height=\"750\" data-attachment-id=\"28240\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?fit=484%2C750&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"484,750\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?fit=194%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/do-not-disturb-by-michela-wrong-or-publicaffairs.jpeg?fit=484%2C750&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28240\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">[Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.publicaffairsbooks.com\/titles\/michela-wrong\/do-not-disturb\/9781610398435\/\" >publicaffairsbooks.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28241 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?resize=500%2C750&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?resize=150%2C225&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?resize=300%2C450&amp;ssl=1 300w\" alt=\"Michela Wrong \u2013 HarperCollins Publishers UK\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" data-attachment-id=\"28241\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?fit=500%2C750&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"500,750\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?fit=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/michela-wrong-harpercollins-publishers-uk.jpeg?fit=500%2C750&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28241\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Michela Wrong [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/harpercollins.co.uk\/blogs\/authors\/michela-wrong\" >harpercollins.co.uk<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<p>But in the process, it covers for bigger truths: that Kagame\u2019s organization, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), has been committing genocidal violence for decades, both in Rwanda and in the DR Congo; that these murderous campaigns have been fully supported by the U.S., UK, and international institutions; and that journalists and academics have been supportive of Kagame and the RPF all through the decades of their worst crimes, showing callous indifference to mass murder, writing deceptions on behalf of the worst criminals, and encouraging the worst in their Western readers.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why was Michela Wong\u2019s book written?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To understand the purpose of\u00a0<em>Do Not Disturb<\/em>, let me start with some notes on the role played by Western journalists in the system that governs Africa. The starting point is Africa\u2019s place in the global economy, characterized by the depression of African economies and sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Since European colonizers partitioned Africa into zones from which they would steal wealth and murder natives in the late 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, the whole continent has been subjected to an endless series of financial, political, and military assaults with a view to keeping its countries divided, weak, and exploited. Having put Africa into that desired state, there are careers to be made there: for mercenaries and traders; and, after independence in the 1960s, for aid workers and writers too.<\/p>\n<p>The role of Western Africa experts (aka Africanists)\u2014whether they are academics, journalists, aid industry professionals, or employees of non-governmental organizations\u2014is to maintain the ideological mood in the West in the correct state, one that facilitates the continued plunder.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28242 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?resize=500%2C328&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?resize=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?resize=150%2C98&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Map Description automatically generated\" width=\"500\" height=\"328\" data-attachment-id=\"28242\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/map-description-automatically-generated-13\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?fit=500%2C328&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"500,328\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"map-description-automatically-generated\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?fit=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/map-description-automatically-generated.jpeg?fit=500%2C328&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>African land grab. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wired868.com\/2018\/01\/17\/claudes-comments-truth-africa-africans-diaspora-depiction-western-media\/\" >wired868.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This mostly means keeping Africa off the news agenda: This is done by keeping the total amount of coverage to a minimum and emphasizing the fact that, despite the Western obsession with Africa and Africans in general (and the obsession of these experts in particular), Africa is an unimportant place, a backwater, eternally poor and in need of help.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28243 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?resize=696%2C452&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?resize=300%2C195&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?resize=768%2C499&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?resize=150%2C98&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?resize=696%2C452&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"Cartoon: western media (large) by Popa tagged 09,1108\" width=\"696\" height=\"452\" data-attachment-id=\"28243\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?fit=900%2C585&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"900,585\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?fit=300%2C195&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cartoon-western-media-large-by-popa-tagged-091.jpeg?fit=696%2C452&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>[Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.toonpool.com\/cartoons\/western%20media_30592#img9\" >toonpool.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I also have a hypothesis that deliberately bad writing by these high-profile Africanists\u2014whether in academic or NGO jargon or the use of cliches that insult the reader\u2014is also used to turn Westerners off of Africa, and that\u00a0<em>Do Not Disturb<\/em>\u00a0is an example.<\/p>\n<p>When Africa does appear, it is important that Africans be presented as savage, sub-human caricatures. This is done by invoking the whole colonial imagery that has been drilled into Western audiences for generations, since they were children.<\/p>\n<p>The only real knowledge and expertise on Africa comes from Western experts\u2014who make sure they cite one another extensively and discredit African voices\u2014through discrediting entire populations, as you\u2019ll see, when they cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n<p>For an Africanist, though, there is a challenge in doing all this during a \u201climited hangout\u201d operation. It is not in convincing readers about Kagame\u2019s assassination program, about which the facts are clear. The challenge is in doing so without undermining one\u2019s own credibility. The challenge is answering the reader\u2019s question: If Kagame is so bad, why did you tell us he was so good?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29374 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=696%2C621&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=1024%2C913&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=300%2C267&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=768%2C684&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=150%2C134&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=696%2C620&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?resize=1068%2C952&amp;ssl=1 1068w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?w=1112&amp;ssl=1 1112w\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"621\" data-attachment-id=\"29374\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/1z2k8h4hkeb6cygzinn-x3q2x\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?fit=1112%2C991&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1112,991\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?fit=300%2C267&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1z2K8H4hkeB6CYGzinN-X3Q@2x.jpeg?fit=696%2C621&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>A good guy gone bad according to Wrong. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100997881256335\/photos\/with-scientific-elections-in-uganda-will-criminal-paul-kagame-still-sponsor-his-\/302257067797081\/\" >facebook.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The solution arrived at in Michela Wrong\u2019s book is remarkable. Wrong, and the other Westerners who once celebrated Kagame\u2019s crimes, were dupes, fooled by the bedeviling complexity and stress of Africa itself. They were fooled because they believed Rwandans, and Rwandans lie. At various points in the book, Wrong literally says lying is a Rwandan national trait, a national pastime.<\/p>\n<p>Now Kagame himself has condemned the book and right-thinking Western people in the small community that has some interest in Rwanda or DR Congo have lined up: Will you be taking Wrong\u2019s side, or Kagame\u2019s?<\/p>\n<p>The fact that the book has polarized the debate this way\u2014leaving the worst RPF crimes, most of the propaganda structure facilitating neocolonialism in the region, including the innocence of the West in the whole thing\u2014is a master class of Africanist writing. Michela Wrong has shown how it is to be done.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28245 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?resize=696%2C464&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?resize=696%2C464&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?resize=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1 600w\" alt=\"Prince William, Paul Kagame - Prince William and Paul Kagame Photos - Audiences At Buckingham Palace 2020 - Zimbio\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" data-attachment-id=\"28245\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1024,683\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/prince-william-paul-kagame-prince-william-and-p.jpeg?fit=696%2C464&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Paul Kagame with Prince William at Buckingham Palace in 2020. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zimbio.com\/photos\/Prince+William\/Paul+Kagame\/XHyFVXosd0F\/Audiences+Buckingham+Palace+2020\" >zimbio.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>But it has become nearly impossible to whitewash Kagame\u2019s crimes any longer<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On September 20, 2021, the last illusions for many about Kagame were dispelled when\u00a0Paul Rusesabagina,\u00a0who was portrayed in the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/20\/world\/africa\/hotel-rwanda-guilty.html\" >Oscar-nominated movie \u201cHotel Rwanda,\u201d<\/a> was found guilty of supposedly forming and funding a group that carried out terrorist attacks in Rwanda and sentenced to 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28246 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?resize=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Paul Rusesabagina arriving at court in Kigali, Rwanda, last October. He was tried on nine charges, but has refused to attend his trial since March and did not appear for the verdict on Monday.\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-attachment-id=\"28246\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?fit=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/paul-rusesabagina-arriving-at-court-in-kigali-rwa.jpeg?fit=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Paul Rusesabagina arriving at court in Kigali, Rwanda, last year during his \u201cshow trial.\u201d [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/20\/world\/africa\/hotel-rwanda-guilty.html\" >nytimes.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rusesabagina was once praised for sheltering more than 1,200 people in the hotel he managed during the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/06\/world\/africa\/rwanda-genocide-25-years.html\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">genocide in Rwanda in 1994<\/a>\u00a0that killed as many as one million people, but gradually became one of the most high-profile critics of Kagame, calling out the president for his increasingly repressive rule.<\/p>\n<p>Rusesabagina\u2019s case has been something of a turning point in the U.S. media, which for years depicted Kagame as Rwanda\u2019s savior\u2014a man who allegedly stopped genocide and then engineered an economic miracle.<\/p>\n<p>Now, however, it seems he is to play the role of the archetypal African dictator whose persecution of Rusesabagina epitomized his tyrannical side.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Criticism of Kagame has its limits <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While the romance with Kagame has ended, the U.S. media along with popular authors like Wrong have continued in many ways to treat Kagame with a soft touch.<\/p>\n<p>Out of bounds is <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/04\/06\/still-unsolved-the-great-crime-that-triggered-the-1994-rwandan-genocide\/\" >any dissection of the circumstances (as CAM reported)<\/a> in which he had come to power in Rwanda\u2014by invading Rwanda illegally from Uganda in 1990, sabotaging peace agreements and likely shooting down the Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana\u2019s aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>Also out of bounds is any discussion of (a) how Kagame had distorted the truth surrounding what happened during the Rwandan genocide, (b) used U.S. and UK aid money to facilitate his invasions and plunder of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and (c) the imposition of a quisling regime that favored Western-based multi-national corporations.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28247 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?resize=602%2C330&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?w=602&amp;ssl=1 602w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?resize=300%2C164&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?resize=150%2C82&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?resize=600%2C330&amp;ssl=1 600w\" alt=\"rpf - GLPOST\" width=\"602\" height=\"330\" data-attachment-id=\"28247\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/rpf-glpost\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?fit=602%2C330&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"602,330\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"rpf-glpost\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?fit=300%2C164&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rpf-glpost.jpeg?fit=602%2C330&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Kagame inspects rifles of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) troops who have carried out systematic war crimes for the last three decades. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/glpost.com\/tag\/rpf\/\" >glpost.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Establish yourself and your credentials<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Above all, the first task of an Africanist writer is to establish that Africanists are\u00a0<em>the<\/em>\u00a0authority on the topic, not Africans. Acknowledging (some) African\u00a0<em>lived experience\u00a0<\/em>is acceptable, especially for (some) victims; accepting African intellectual\u00a0<em>authority<\/em>\u00a0over the issues is not. So you can search Wrong\u2019s book in vain for African writers on the region like Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Olivier Nyirubugara, Abdul Ruzibiza (mentioned once), Marie B\u00e9atrice Umutesi, Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, Amadou Deme, Paul Rusesabagina.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\">\n<ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28248 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?resize=266%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?w=266&amp;ssl=1 266w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?resize=150%2C226&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja | Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies\" width=\"266\" height=\"400\" data-attachment-id=\"28248\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?fit=266%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"266,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?fit=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja-or-department-of-african.jpeg?fit=266%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28248\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/aaad.unc.edu\/faculty-staff\/georges-nzongola-ntalaja\/\" >aaad.unc.edu<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28249 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?resize=294%2C499&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?w=294&amp;ssl=1 294w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?resize=177%2C300&amp;ssl=1 177w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?resize=150%2C255&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Marie B\u00e9atrice Umutesi - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia\" width=\"294\" height=\"499\" data-attachment-id=\"28249\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?fit=294%2C499&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"294,499\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?fit=177%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/marie-beatrice-umutesi-alchetron-the-free-socia.jpeg?fit=294%2C499&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28249\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Marie B\u00e9atrice Umutesi. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/alchetron.com\/Marie-B\u00e9atrice-Umutesi\" >alchetron.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<p>On the other hand, fellow Africanists Jason Stearns, G\u00e9rard Prunier, and Linda Melvern are everywhere in the book, as are unnamed Western spies, unnamed Western businessmen, unnamed Western journalists, unnamed Western aid workers\u201474 of <em>Do Not Disturb<\/em>\u2019s footnotes are to \u201cAuthor\u2019s interview, anonymity requested.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\">\n<ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28250 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?resize=500%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?resize=300%2C240&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?resize=150%2C120&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Historian G\u00e9rard Prunier examines Africa's changing demographics - Keough School - University of Notre Dame\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" data-attachment-id=\"28250\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?fit=500%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"500,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?fit=300%2C240&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africaand39s-cha.jpeg?fit=500%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28250\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">G\u00e9rard Prunier [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/keough.nd.edu\/historian-gerard-prunier-examines-africas-changing-demographics\/\" >keough.nd.edu<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28251 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?resize=532%2C451&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 532px) 100vw, 532px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?w=532&amp;ssl=1 532w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?resize=300%2C254&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?resize=150%2C127&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Biography \u2013 Linda Melvern\" width=\"532\" height=\"451\" data-attachment-id=\"28251\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/biography-linda-melvern\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?fit=532%2C451&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"532,451\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"biography-linda-melvern\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?fit=300%2C254&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/biography-linda-melvern.png?fit=532%2C451&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28251\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Linda Melvern [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/lindamelvern.com\/bio\/\" >lindamelvern.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<p>But the Africanist\u2019s\u2014and the journalist\u2019s\u2014authority is not established solely by omission of African intellects. It is also established by outright self-aggrandizement, witnessed whenever Wrong gets into its author\u2019s adventures.<\/p>\n<p>The protagonist of the book, ex-RPF spy chief Patrick Karegeya, driven into exile and then assassinated in 2014, supposedly was \u201ca born iconoclast,\u201d who \u201cliked journalists\u2019 combination of freewheeling lifestyles and moral seriousness, their ingrained irreverence toward the powers-that-be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wrong discusses her subject, Patrick Karegeya, with humanity and sensitivity, emphasizing her own closeness to him and his charismatic effect on others\u2014she sent him books, she had long discussions with him, they knew people in common.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28252 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?resize=640%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?resize=300%2C281&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?resize=150%2C141&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Patrick Karegeya\" width=\"640\" height=\"600\" data-attachment-id=\"28252\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/patrick-karegeya\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?fit=640%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"patrick-karegeya\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?fit=300%2C281&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/patrick-karegeya.jpeg?fit=640%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Patrick Karegeya [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2019\/09\/13\/rwandans-charged-murder-exiled-critic\" >hrw.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Exonerate yourself first<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Having established her credentials though, and set up a story of the RPF and Kagame having \u201cgone bad,\u201d the Africanist has a problem, for the entire Africanist community has spent three decades lionizing the very same men they are denouncing as murderers today. Were Africanists lying then? Are they lying now? Are they stupid?<\/p>\n<p>The solution Wrong has come up with to this dilemma is simple and remarkable. Yes, Africanists were duped. Yes, they were unwitting tools of a murderous regime. But it isn\u2019t their fault, and each of the reasons they were fooled are reasons to trust them now.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rwandans lie.\u00a0<\/em>First, they were fooled because\u00a0Rwandans lie. Wrong uses the Kinyarwanda word for lying, ubwenge, and claims that it\u2019s impossible to translate (because it is so unique to Rwandan culture). She calls her subject, Patrick Karegeya, the \u201cultimate practitioner of the Rwandan art of\u00a0<em>ubwenge.\u201d<\/em> She says journalists had a hard time \u201cworking out where truth ended and spin began, for no one was a more shameless practitioner of Rwanda\u2019s national trait\u2014brass-faced dissembling\u2014than Patrick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Westerners were seduced (literally) into writing accounts favorable to the (almost entirely ethnically Tutsi) RPF, it was because \u201cTutsi culture has always recognized sex as one of the most effective of political tools, cutting usefully across the bureaucratic hierarchy and social barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even when the seduction was not sexual, these Tutsis and their hospitality were hard to resist. A \u201cwarm welcome was extended to writers and researchers passing through. These included the\u00a0<em>New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0writer Philip Gourevitch and academic Samantha Power, future U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who both went on to write best-selling nonfiction books on Rwanda in which the RPF is portrayed in an overwhelmingly sympathetic light.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\">\n<ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28253 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?resize=450%2C547&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?w=450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?resize=247%2C300&amp;ssl=1 247w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?resize=150%2C182&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?resize=300%2C365&amp;ssl=1 300w\" alt=\"Amazon.com: Philip Gourevitch: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle\" width=\"450\" height=\"547\" data-attachment-id=\"28253\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?fit=450%2C547&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"450,547\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?fit=247%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/amazon-com-philip-gourevitch-books-biography-b.jpeg?fit=450%2C547&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28253\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Philip Gourevitch [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Philip-Gourevitch\/e\/B004MOD796\" >amazon.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28254 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) | Twitter\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" data-attachment-id=\"28254\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"400,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/samantha-power-samanthajpower-or-twitter.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28254\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Samantha Power [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/samanthajpower\" >twitter.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Another Africanist, poor Jason Stearns, was, presumably against his fragile will, driven all over town by the intelligence chief of Rwanda, in what is not exactly a model of fair and balanced journalism: \u201cHe took me out on the town, to clubs and bars. Wherever you went everyone knew him, and everyone recognized he was king of that town.\u201d But something about the whole approach jarred.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28255 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?resize=304%2C380&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?w=304&amp;ssl=1 304w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?resize=240%2C300&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?resize=150%2C188&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?resize=300%2C375&amp;ssl=1 300w\" alt=\"Staff | Congo Research Group | Groupe d'Etude Sur le Congo\" width=\"304\" height=\"380\" data-attachment-id=\"28255\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?fit=304%2C380&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"304,380\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?fit=240%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/staff-or-congo-research-group-or-groupe-dand39etude.jpeg?fit=304%2C380&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Jason Stearns [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/congoresearchgroup.org\/about\/staff\/\" >congressresearchgroup.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>The power of story.\u00a0<\/em>Africanists were fooled because of the very power of story, going back to the (Western) classics. \u201cFew narratives possess the seductive power of the RPF\u2019s redemptive tale of humiliated-refugees-reborn-as-crusaders, righteous warriors returning to a lost motherland to save their brothers from the forces of Absolute Evil and then, on the toxic ruins of a racist society, building a spotless, disciplined, tech-friendly African Utopia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were echoes of antiquity in this classic Quest saga: the Exodus of the Bible and Torah, Virgil\u2019s\u00a0<em>Aeneid<\/em>, with Plato\u2019s idealized\u00a0<em>Republic<\/em>\u00a0as its culmination.\u201d The power of story connects to the psychological needs of the storyteller, Wrong explains. \u201cI often think of that wasted briefing as an example of how\u00a0<em>the storyteller\u2019s need to identify Good Guys and Bad Guys, culprit and victims, makes fools of us all<\/em> [emphasis added]<em>.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28256 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?resize=655%2C348&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 655px) 100vw, 655px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?w=655&amp;ssl=1 655w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?resize=300%2C159&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?resize=150%2C80&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Introducing Virgil\u2019s Aeneid\" width=\"655\" height=\"348\" data-attachment-id=\"28256\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/introducing-virgils-aeneid\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?fit=655%2C348&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"655,348\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"introducing-virgils-aeneid\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?fit=300%2C159&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/introducing-virgils-aeneid.png?fit=655%2C348&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>The Tutsi story of reclaiming their lost homeland was viewed through the lens of ancient epic like Virgil\u2019s Aeneid, featured above, where the Trojan hero Aeneaes undertakes a hazardous journey to Italy and would become an ancestor of the Romans. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/history-the-arts\/introducing-virgils-aeneid\/content-section-0?active-tab=description-tab\" >open.edu<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>The power of affinity.<\/em>\u00a0They were fooled, Wrong admits, using quotes from a colleague, because it is easier for Western journalists to identify with their wealthy counterparts in poor countries than with the poor majority.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote is-style-solid-color\">\n<blockquote><p><em><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">An assumption of intellectual affinity was more quietly effective than overt pressure could ever be. \u2018The RPF were likable because they were like us,\u2019 admits Hrvoje Hranjski. As a young Croat who had witnessed the traumatic breakup of the former Yugoslavia, his identification with the Tutsi story was particularly acute. \u2018It\u2019s hard to identify with a Hutu peasant who tills the soil. These guys, you could meet them in bars and discuss films you\u2019d seen, books you\u2019d read. They were in our image\u2014our mirror image\u2014in so many ways.\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28257 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter.jpeg?resize=194%2C183&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter.jpeg?zoom=2&amp;resize=194%2C183&amp;ssl=1 388w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter.jpeg?zoom=3&amp;resize=194%2C183&amp;ssl=1 582w\" alt=\"Hrvoje Hranjski (@hatbangkok) | Twitter\" width=\"194\" height=\"183\" data-attachment-id=\"28257\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"400,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter.jpeg?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/hrvoje-hranjski-hatbangkok-or-twitter.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Hrvoje Hranjski [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hatbangkok\" >twitter.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Poor Hranjski is the fall guy for many of Wrong\u2019s\u2014and other Africanists\u2019\u2014failures. \u201cI totally believed what they were doing in the Congo was right,\u201d recalls Hranjski. \u201cI\u2019d swallowed the line that the Congolese were useless, bickering, and that the Rwandans should be given a shot at running the country. They were colonizers, plain and simple, but we were sympathetic. The Congolese raped and looted, with the RPF there were never any reports of raping and looting, so the argument was, \u2018Look, these guys are not your typical army, they can put your house in order, why don\u2019t you let them?\u2019 In retrospect, it\u2019s amazing what you can rationalize.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28258 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?resize=696%2C443&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?w=760&amp;ssl=1 760w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?resize=300%2C191&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?resize=150%2C96&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?resize=696%2C443&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"A cross marks graves in eastern Congo that were photographed in 1997. A Tutsi soldier, who asked not to be identified, alleged Rwandan Hutu refugees were secretly buried here after being beaten, hacked or shot to death by rebel alliance soldiers. \" width=\"696\" height=\"443\" data-attachment-id=\"28258\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?fit=760%2C484&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"760,484\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?fit=300%2C191&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-cross-marks-graves-in-eastern-congo-that-were-ph.jpeg?fit=696%2C443&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Cross marks mass grave in Eastern Congo where Hutu refugees were hunted down by the RPF. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna39603000\" >nbcnews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Laziness.<\/em>\u00a0They were fooled because of their own sloth-like laziness. \u201cHaving broadly decided at one point that Kagame and the RPF were \u2018the Good Guys\u2019 in Rwanda, \u2018Good Guys\u2019 who had stopped what was self-evidently \u2018A Very Bad Thing,\u2019 many an academic, diplomat, development official, and businessman would cling with a sloth\u2019s viselike grip to that view, pretty much irrespective of events on the ground or any suggestion that the RPF had, in fact, played a part in bringing that Very Bad Thing about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>RPF victims\u2014Hutus and Congolese\u2014are not believable.<\/em>\u00a0Consider the way that Seth Sendashonga, an ex-RPF politician who was killed 16 years before Karegeya and whose assassination was if anything more momentous politically, is treated in <em>Do Not Disturb<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28259 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?resize=696%2C509&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?w=797&amp;ssl=1 797w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?resize=300%2C219&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?resize=768%2C562&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?resize=150%2C110&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?resize=696%2C509&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"A picture containing person, necktie, person, outdoor Description automatically generated\" width=\"696\" height=\"509\" data-attachment-id=\"28259\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?fit=797%2C583&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"797,583\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?fit=300%2C219&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-outd.jpeg?fit=696%2C509&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Seth Sendashonga [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/hapakenya.com\/2016\/11\/17\/the-assasination-of-a-former-rwandan-minister-in-kenya\/\" >hapakenya.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wrong writes:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote is-style-solid-color\">\n<blockquote><p><em><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Seth Sendashonga\u2019s death in a barrage of AK-47 fire.\u00a0A little silvery salamander of shame\u00a0flips over inside me whenever I hear that. If they are honest, any journalist can list a series of stories they realize, in retrospect, they either missed, played down, or misinterpreted. For me, several are associated with Rwanda\u2019s former interior minister \u2026 He is a memory of a job badly done for the simplest of reasons: in the smooth, contoured shape of a widely accepted narrative, his story stood out like a jagged splinter. So the splinter went ignored until it became too painful to bear.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019ll come back to the work done by metaphors about silvery salamanders of shame and stories like jagged splinters.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, consider how Wrong discredits Sendashonga\u2019s testimony of RPF massacres in the 1990s, the better to exonerate herself for suppressing the truth decades ago.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote is-style-solid-color\">\n<blockquote><p><em><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Now here was this former Rwandan minister suggesting, it seemed, that the French might have been largely correct all along. Stumped, I returned to my office and called my boss in London, the Africa editor of the\u00a0Financial Times.\u00a0Why hadn\u2019t Sendashonga said something back in 1995? Why wait till now,\u00a0when the claim smacked of aggrieved revisionism? Whom was I to believe, the 1995 Sendashonga, or this 1996 version?<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28260 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?resize=696%2C464&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?resize=696%2C464&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?resize=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1 600w\" alt=\"FILE - In this May 14, 1994, file photo, a pickup truck carries Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels to front line positions closer to the capital Kig...\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" data-attachment-id=\"28260\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1024,683\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/file-in-this-may-14-1994-file-photo-a-pickup.jpeg?fit=696%2C464&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>RPF fighters in Kigali in 1994 in months preceding the RPF takeover and genocide. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taiwannews.com.tw\/en\/news\/3673296\" >taiwannews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know what to think,\u201d I told my editor. \u201cBut if anyone is in a position to know, it\u2019s him.\u201d \u201cWell, there\u2019s no point agonizing,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no space for Africa in tomorrow\u2019s edition in any case.\u201d In those days newspaper websites were in their infancy, space finite and fiercely fought over. I\u2019d been let off the hook.\u201d The lack of self-awareness by Wrong, who is revising her own story in 2021, to ask \u201cWhom was I to believe, the 1995 Sendashonga, or this 1996 version?\u201d is beyond brazen.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s continue. Wrong presents another Africanist\u2019s (academic G\u00e9rard Prunier\u2019s) view of Sendashonga, who claimed to have been Sendashonga\u2019s friend but also endorsed the RPF view of why Sendashonga had to die\u2014because he was organizing an armed struggle (against the RPF, which had taken power through \u2026 an armed struggle).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote is-style-solid-color\">\n<blockquote><p><em><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">The RPF was hardly in any position to preach, but it had so successfully claimed the moral high ground by this time that Western allies saw its survival as synonymous with Rwanda\u2019s stability. From this perspective, Sendashonga\u2019s death\u2014the first high-profile slaying since Habyarimana\u2019s\u2014seemed less a gratuitous assassination than a case of preventive elimination, rough justice for a rough neighborhood.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Wrong quotes Prunier: \u201c[He] was fed up of always playing the good guy and always finishing last.\u2026 [I]t is probably then that some people in Kigali decided he had crossed the danger line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Westerners are afraid of Rwandans.<\/em>\u00a0Wrong also hints that the reason Africanists have lied about Rwanda for 30 years is because they fear the RPF. Big media ignored the assassination story.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote is-style-solid-color\">\n<blockquote><p><em><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Dissidents offered them the proof, the story was of undoubted interest, they would not run the articles. Bullying, sadly, works.\u201d And the reason she has so many citations to anonymous interviewees, she explains how after an interview with one Westerner about Rwanda she\u2019s told \u201cNo names, please. I want to do consulting work there in future.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>All in all, Wrong deploys a remarkable array of excuses to make sure Africanists are not blamed for lying to their readers for two decades.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Introduce the characters<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Once the narrator is positioned as both an innocent and an authority, she can get on with the job of revealing and interpreting Africa, presenting the story and its exotic characters. And characterization is indeed the first task: setting up the \u201cgood guys and bad guys\u201d needed by the \u201cstoryteller,\u201d using all the tools of nonfiction\u2014and several from fiction. The range of colors and body sizes provides clues about the moral qualities of the African characters.<\/p>\n<p>The subject of the story, the assassinated Patrick Karegeya, was \u201cgap-toothed and medium in height, he could never be described as handsome. But his face was alive with a questing intelligence. His heavy-lidded eyes were disconcertingly light, the amber irises flecked with brown, while his skin was a smooth honey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fred Rwigyema, who was supposed to lead the RPF but who was killed in 1990 leaving Paul Kagame in charge, \u201cwas young, he was beautiful: even at the front, unwashed and unshaven, Fred somehow always managed to look impeccably groomed, parade-ground-ready. Contemporaries recall that no man looked better in uniform. A slim, smooth-skinned, self-deprecating Hector, he was admired by men for his almost suicidal courage in combat and adored by women for his compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28261 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia.jpeg?resize=220%2C227&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia.jpeg?w=220&amp;ssl=1 220w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia.jpeg?resize=150%2C155&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Fred Rwigyema - Wikipedia\" width=\"220\" height=\"227\" data-attachment-id=\"28261\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia.jpeg?fit=220%2C227&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"220,227\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"fred-rwigyema-wikipedia\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia.jpeg?fit=220%2C227&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fred-rwigyema-wikipedia.jpeg?fit=220%2C227&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Fred Rwigyema\u2014a good looking Hector. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fred_Rwigyema\" >wikipedia.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Seth Sendashonga, the assassinated unreliable ex-RPF dissident who Wrong had chosen not to believe when it mattered, \u201cwas a sturdy, well-built man with an impressive mustache. The pajama-like white bou bou he was wearing instead of a suit seemed to underline his sudden joblessness. It said \u2018gardening leave.\u2019 \u2026 The words were reassuring, but the body language was not. He was not sweating, exactly, but his shiny skin hinted at suppressed tension, strong emotions surging below the surface. Every now and then his dark eyes slipped sideways, glancing beyond the compound wall toward the jeep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sendashonga and his wife Cyrie \u201cformed one of those well-salaried, multilingual, highly skilled African couples driven in and out of the metal-fenced compounds in chauffeured white 4WDs, IDs dangling from lanyards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The implication here is that Africans are supposed to be poor, perhaps, not being chauffeured around in fancy cars. When a fat African is encountered, it is always noted\u2014perhaps a hangover from the colonial era when Africans who were not at the edge of starvation were signs of inefficient colonial revenue collection. Assassinated Congolese president Laurent Kabila, for example, was \u201ctubby, well past his prime, and militarily irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28262 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?resize=500%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?resize=150%2C90&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 \/ Kabila, Laurent Kabila (1939-2001) \u2022\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" data-attachment-id=\"28262\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?fit=500%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"500,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Feu Laurent-D\\u00e9sir\\u00e9 Kabila, lors d'un passage en revue des troupes. Photo congoindependant.com (archives)&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Feu Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Kabila, lors d\u2019un passage en revue des troupes. Photo congoindependant.com (archives)&lt;\/p&gt; \" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?fit=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-kabila-1939-2001.jpeg?fit=500%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Laurent Kabila in front of troops. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackpast.org\/global-african-history\/kabila-laurent-desire-kabila-laurent-1939-2001\/\" >blackpast.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One of the two best known RPF dissidents still living (the other being former General Kayumba Nyamwasa) is former RPF spokesman Theogene Rudasingwa, who is described as follows:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28263 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear.jpeg?resize=183%2C276&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 183px) 100vw, 183px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear.jpeg?w=183&amp;ssl=1 183w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear.jpeg?resize=150%2C226&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"A picture containing person, necktie, person, wearing Description automatically generated\" width=\"183\" height=\"276\" data-attachment-id=\"28263\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear.jpeg?fit=183%2C276&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"183,276\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear.jpeg?fit=183%2C276&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-necktie-person-wear.jpeg?fit=183%2C276&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Theogene Rudasingwa [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/category\/Public-Figure\/DrTheogene-Rudasingwa-200984716641650\/\" >facebook.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAmong the RPF stalwarts who ended up in opposition, no one can quite rival Theogene Rudasingwa for his combination of suavity and elegance. \u2018Le beau Theogene,\u2019 Francophone reporters dubbed him at the height of his powers, while their American counterparts preferred \u2018the Gucci Guerrilla.\u2019 Softly spoken,\u00a0surprisingly pale skinned, and gently melancholic, he is a man with a track record of passionate affiliation often regretted and painfully renounced. A lapsed doctor who only recently rediscovered the joys of medicine, he is a dedicated Marxist who came to relish the perks of high office, a Christian who lost his faith but was Born Again, a man who swore off politics only to end up wading back into the fray.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All of these characters are orchestrated, of course, with the villain of the story, Paul Kagame, whose character flaw (of murderousness) was present all along, but who is presented as having started off good but become corrupted by the trappings of power. A former U.S. Ambassador to Uganda says that Kagame when challenged \u201crecoiled and then rebounded, in the way of a green mamba, lashing out to bite another snake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kagame reads the Facebook posts of his political enemies, Wrong reports. He creates fake twitter accounts to troll dissidents. He physically beats his subordinates in working meetings. He is, in short,\u00a0<em>out of control<\/em>. The West has cut this man and his regime altogether too much slack, and perhaps, the implication is, it is time to start thinking about reining him in.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28264 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=696%2C497&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?w=1074&amp;ssl=1 1074w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=300%2C214&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=1024%2C731&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=768%2C548&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=150%2C107&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=696%2C497&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=1068%2C763&amp;ssl=1 1068w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?resize=100%2C70&amp;ssl=1 100w\" alt=\"Praise, protests in Boston greet Rwandan president - The Boston Globe\" width=\"696\" height=\"497\" data-attachment-id=\"28264\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?fit=1074%2C767&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1074,767\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?fit=300%2C214&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/praise-protests-in-boston-greet-rwandan-president.jpeg?fit=696%2C497&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Protests directed against the visit of Paul Kagame to Boston. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/metro\/2012\/09\/22\/rwandan-president-garners-praise-gathering-and-criticism-from-protesters\/dnm84ZGFuOoKfMEGGCcjMO\/story.html\" >bostonglobe.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>But maintain the key elements of the narrative<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The purpose of the book is to unveil the new story for Rwanda and the DR Congo: Kagame was the hero of a thousand hills, but he is now a villain. The heroes are the ex-RPF dissidents who Kagame has been killing off (especially Patrick Karegeya) and those who live in fear of assassination, such as Kayumba Nyamwasa and Theogene Rudasingwa.<\/p>\n<p>But key elements of the old story must remain in place, lest readers believe that the solution could be for the West to leave Africa alone. And the key narrative element of the entire system of U.S. control over Central Africa is that the majority of Rwandans (former Hutus), and the occupied Congolese, are irredeemably evil. For if Kagame is the villain of the story, the Hutus are evil itself, a transcendentally evil force that must be suppressed and can only be suppressed by the West.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28265 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?resize=696%2C551&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?w=926&amp;ssl=1 926w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?resize=300%2C237&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?resize=768%2C608&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?resize=150%2C119&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?resize=696%2C551&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"A picture containing sky, person, outdoor, person Description automatically generated\" width=\"696\" height=\"551\" data-attachment-id=\"28265\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?fit=926%2C733&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"926,733\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?fit=300%2C237&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-sky-person-outdoor-person.jpeg?fit=696%2C551&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>A picture depicts the Eternally Evil Hutu preparing to massacre Tutsi. In Wrong\u2019s work and others like it, the massacres aren\u2019t political \u2013 they are the work of transcendental evil. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/did-machete-imports-to-rwanda-prove-that-the-genocide-against-the-tutsi-was-planned-145374\" >theconversation.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Westerners think of evil, they think of the Nazis. Wrong is explicit that the Hutus are worse than the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>She writes: \u201cIf we are honest, many of us might admit to being capable of pressing a button consigning a disliked acquaintance to anonymous, distant oblivion. Hence the debate about just how much ordinary Germans really knew about the Holocaust, during which Jewish neighbors simply boarded trains, never to be seen again, and how much guilt those witnesses carry.\u00a0Rwanda\u2019s massacres, in contrast, were pre-agreed, public affairs, conducted using the most democratic of tools.\u00a0There was no mystery, no ambiguity about what happened. Killing someone with a machete, sickle, or hoe is a messy, exhausting business; the process leaves no room for subsequent sugarcoating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because it is the majority of Rwandans who are evil, it is democracy that is to be feared. Rwandans (Hutus) are scary because they are evil, but also because they are obedient and because there are too many of them.<\/p>\n<p>Wrong continues: \u201cXenophobic propaganda, broadcast by Rwandan radio stations, certainly played a role, its impact boosted by\u00a0a culture of unquestioning obedience\u00a0toward an all-seeing, all-powerful state that had long peered into every corner of its citizens\u2019 lives\u2014characteristics the Mwami\u2019s court had bequeathed successive Hutu administrations.\u00a0In Africa\u2019s most overpopulated country, plain greed\u2014for livestock, for land, for women, for property, for access to water\u2014was also an undeniable factor. In DRC, hundreds of thousands of hectares of equatorial forest serve as an outlet for aching land hunger. In a dirt-poor, landlocked Rwanda, where every plot was already accounted for, self-betterment always seemed like a zero-sum game: for me to prosper, you must fail.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28266 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?resize=696%2C446&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?w=780&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?resize=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?resize=768%2C492&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?resize=150%2C96&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?resize=696%2C446&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"(Warning: graphic content) Rwandan refugees cross the Rusumo border to Tanzania from Rwanda carrying their belongings, goats, mattresses and cows, May 30, 1994. The bloodshed that claimed 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu lives began 25 years ago on April 7, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira and a French air crew was shot down. REUTERS\/Jeremiah Kamau\" width=\"696\" height=\"446\" data-attachment-id=\"28266\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?fit=780%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"780,500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?fit=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross.jpeg?fit=696%2C446&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Hutu refugees fleeing after RPF takeover in 1994. Wrong\u2019s demonization of the Hutu lent support to the Tutsi extermination campaign. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/news\/picture\/25-years-since-the-rwandan-genocide-idUSRTS2GFUK\" >reuters.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The return of Malthus to the discussion, and of overpopulation, is racist to the core and made even more ridiculous because, when the genocide occurred in 1994, Rwanda\u2019s (supposed over-) population was around 7.5 million whereas today it is more than 13 million.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28267 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript.jpeg?resize=284%2C341&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript.jpeg?zoom=2&amp;resize=284%2C341&amp;ssl=1 568w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript.jpeg?zoom=3&amp;resize=284%2C341&amp;ssl=1 852w\" alt=\"A picture containing person, black, suit Description automatically generated\" width=\"284\" height=\"341\" data-attachment-id=\"28267\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript.jpeg?fit=220%2C269&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"220,269\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript.jpeg?fit=220%2C269&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-person-black-suit-descript.jpeg?fit=220%2C269&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Thomas Malthus [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Robert_Malthus\" >wikipedia.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Wrong pours on the notion of \u201cRwandan obedience\u201d thick: \u201cAs in the past, killing was presented to ordinary Rwandans as a patriotic duty. Out in the provinces, local\u00a0bourgmestres\u00a0and\u00a0pr\u00e9fets\u00a0called public meetings to pull together lists of victims, while Radio Mille Collines urged its listeners on to greater efforts. Their \u2018work,\u2019 as the radio announcers termed it, was made easier by the fact that\u00a0overpopulated, intensely cultivated Rwanda had so little tree cover. On the terraced, denuded hillsides, there was nowhere to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And yet for all that it portrays pre-1994 Rwanda as a surveilled dystopia of obedient subhumans waiting for a chance to genocide their neighbors, <em>Do Not Disturb<\/em> contains some incongruous admissions that post-1994 Rwanda is worse. Quoting one of her favorite unnamed \u201cWestern intelligence officials,\u201d Wrong describes one of the characters recruited into helping the RPF assassinate Karegeya, a young man named Apollo:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApollo owned the $1 million Cine Star cinema complex in Nyamirambo, Kigali\u2019s Muslim district, and enjoyed the freewheeling lifestyle of the playboy businessman, traveling widely in the Middle East and Europe, where he was briefly detained on suspicion of drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>Then in 1994 Rwanda acquired grimly puritanical new masters, and adjustments had to be made. \u201cApollo\u2019s big mistake was not to realize that he was living in a different Rwanda,\u201d says a Western intelligence official who worked in Kigali during that period. \u201cHe\u2019d grown up in a country where you could more or less speak your mind. He didn\u2019t realize he was now in a Rwanda where you were under constant scrutiny.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also describes how the RPF had their own methods for organizing mass murder, from the 1990s on and perhaps even before, in Uganda: \u201cHuman rights investigators registered that the tactics used\u2014UN Special Rapporteur Roberto Garret\u00f3n detailed how radio appeals were used to summon Hutus to meetings in schools and churches, urging those hiding in the forests to emerge for medical care and food\u2014had a chilling familiarity.<\/p>\n<p>The same methods for gathering people in one spot, the better to eliminate them, had been described in the infamous Gersony report. Like a serial killer, the RPF had developed a recognizable modus operandi.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\">\n<ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\" data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:1,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/covertactionmagazine.com\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/11\\\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\\\/&quot;}\">\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28268 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?resize=220%2C316&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?w=220&amp;ssl=1 220w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?resize=209%2C300&amp;ssl=1 209w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?resize=150%2C215&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Roberto Garret\u00f3n\" width=\"220\" height=\"316\" data-attachment-id=\"28268\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/roberto-garreton\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?fit=220%2C316&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"220,316\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"roberto-garreton\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?fit=209%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/roberto-garreton.jpeg?fit=220%2C316&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28268\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Roberto Garreton [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/second.wiki\/wiki\/roberto_garretc3b3n\" >second.wiki<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28269 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?resize=526%2C497&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?w=526&amp;ssl=1 526w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?resize=300%2C283&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?resize=150%2C142&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"The Greatest Humanitarian You've Never Heard Of\" width=\"526\" height=\"497\" data-attachment-id=\"28269\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?fit=526%2C497&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"526,497\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?fit=300%2C283&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youand39ve-never-heard-o.jpeg?fit=526%2C497&amp;ssl=1\" data-id=\"28269\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Robert Gersony [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2021\/01\/24\/the-greatest-humanitarian-youve-never-heard-of\/\" >foreignpolicy.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Continue to cover for RPF crimes<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This, too, presents a challenge. How to showcase a subset of Kagame\u2019s crimes while minimizing their extent, duration, and Western support for them? Presenting Hutus as evil is part of it, to be sure. Another key element is portraying the RPF crimes as revenge, perhaps excessive, but understandable\u2014which is what the RPF dissidents believe. The evil of the Hutus made Africanists embrace the RPF:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCovering the genocide had brought reporters face-to-face with the worst in human behavior. They had seen the splayed bodies, met the gang-raped women. At the few press conferences they staged before fleeing, members of Habyarimana\u2019s government, expressing themselves in flowery French, had come across as thuggish and evasive. No wonder, amid all that horror, the slim puritans of the RPF, with their direct talk\u2014\u2018Never forget, these guys spoke English,\u2019 recalls an aid worker\u2014seemed the incontestable Good Guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RPF massacres, like the one at Kibeho, are explained as revenge and self-defense: \u201cAs the months passed, the new government in Kigali became increasingly irate at the way in which the giant refugee camps in neighboring Zaire were being used as launching pads for cross-border attacks by <em>interahamwe<\/em> and ex-military, recruiting fighters in full view of the aid agencies \u2026 <em>Kibeho camp\u2019s existence felt like an insult<\/em> [emphasis added]<em>.<\/em> On April 18, 1995, when the country had just staged a commemorative reburial of 6,000 genocide victims, several battalions of Rwandan soldiers surrounded it, torching shelters and firing warning shots at the 150,000 Hutus inside.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28270 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?resize=696%2C422&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?w=718&amp;ssl=1 718w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?resize=300%2C182&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?resize=150%2C91&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?resize=696%2C422&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"Kibeho 1995: a massacre forgotten in Rwanda\u2019s 20-year history\" width=\"696\" height=\"422\" data-attachment-id=\"28270\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?fit=718%2C435&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"718,435\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Chris&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?fit=300%2C182&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-y.jpeg?fit=696%2C422&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Survivors of Kibeho massacre after RPF rampage. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jambonews.net\/en\/actualites\/20150422-kibeho-1995-a-massacre-forgotten-in-rwandas-20-year-history\/\" >jambonews.net<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28271 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?resize=696%2C460&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?resize=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?resize=768%2C507&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?resize=150%2C99&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?resize=696%2C460&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"A picture containing outdoor, ground, person, rock Description automatically generated\" width=\"696\" height=\"460\" data-attachment-id=\"28271\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?fit=960%2C634&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"960,634\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?fit=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-person-rock.png?fit=696%2C460&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Australian soldiers carry out wounded survivor in Kibeho. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abaryankuna.com\/kibeho-massacre-australia-witnessing-crimes-committed-by-rpf-commemoration-approaching\/\" >abaryankuna.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The self-defense theme is presented again and again: \u201cThe refugees were being used as both shields and hostages by characters like General Augustin Bizimungu, former Rwandan army chief of staff, who was busy buying weapons from Mobutu\u2019s corrupt military officers and using Congo\u2019s local airports to import ammunition. In camps like Mugunga, thousands of young men were being openly trained in the arts of guerrilla warfare, as the ex-military and <em>interahamwe<\/em> prepared to reinvade.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28272 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?resize=630%2C430&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?w=630&amp;ssl=1 630w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?resize=300%2C205&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?resize=150%2C102&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?resize=218%2C150&amp;ssl=1 218w\" alt=\"A person in a military uniform Description automatically generated with low confidence\" width=\"630\" height=\"430\" data-attachment-id=\"28272\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa-9\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?fit=630%2C430&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"630,430\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?fit=300%2C205&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-person-in-a-military-uniform-description-automa.jpeg?fit=630%2C430&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>General Augustin Bizimungu [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/africa\/general-who-crushed-tutsi-cockroaches-is-jailed-for-30-years-2285527.html\" >independent.co.uk<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe camps sat illegally close to the Rwandan border, and the readiness of the likes of Oxfam, GOAL, Concern, Save the Children, and UNICEF to keep providing a rebel-army-in-training with food, water, and medical treatment violated every principle of international law. But aid officials, outnumbered and thoroughly intimidated, turned a blind eye.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And again: \u201cAn exasperated Kagame made clear in interviews with journalists like myself that if the international community wouldn\u2019t put a stop to the situation, the RPF would. In truth, he and his colleagues had already decided that the only way to neutralize the threat posed by the <em>g\u00e9nocidaires<\/em> involved invading Zaire, breaking up the camps, and forcing the refugees home. The plan possessed the mixture of ruthless brio and strategic chutzpah the world had learned to associate with the RPF, a movement beginning to feel it possessed a military Midas touch.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28273 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?resize=696%2C458&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?resize=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?resize=768%2C505&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?resize=150%2C99&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?resize=696%2C458&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"A picture containing outdoor, ground, people, crowd Description automatically generated\" width=\"696\" height=\"458\" data-attachment-id=\"28273\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/image-49\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?fit=1000%2C658&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1000,658\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;AP&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;FILE - In this May 6, 1997 file photo, villagers watch as Rwandan Hutu refugees are evacuated by train from the Biaro refugee camp south of Kisangani in eastern Congo, then Zaire. The discovery of mass graves prompted investigations that led to a controversial U.N. report published on Oct. 1, 2010 which accuses invading Rwandan troops of killing tens of thousands of Hutus 1996 and 1997. (AP Photo\\\/John Moore, File)&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Image:&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Image:\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;FILE \u2013 In this May 6, 1997 file photo, villagers watch as Rwandan Hutu refugees are evacuated by train from the Biaro refugee camp south of Kisangani in eastern Congo, then Zaire. The discovery of mass graves prompted investigations that led to a controversial U.N. report published on Oct. 1, 2010 which accuses invading Rwandan troops of killing tens of thousands of Hutus 1996 and 1997. (AP Photo\/John Moore, File)&lt;\/p&gt; \" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?fit=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-picture-containing-outdoor-ground-people-crow.jpeg?fit=696%2C458&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Hutu refugees being relocated on Rwanda-Congo border in May 1997 as villagers look on. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna39603000\" >nbcnews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Africanists explain away the RPF\u2019s genocidal violence against Hutus and Congolese. Wrong paints a picture of Hutus as an undifferentiated mass. Present at the event, she makes no attempt to talk to any individual as she watches them walk by. They are not human to her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA week later, Rwanda\u2019s army, commanded by James Kabarebe and Cesar Kayizari, launched a multipronged blitzkrieg on the refugee camps lining Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, encircling the settlements where the g\u00e9nocidaires held sway while leaving open a corridor that led all the way back to Rwanda. The vast majority of Hutu refugees obediently plodded home. After two drawn-out, miserable years, the Great Migration took place in just ten days.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29377 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=696%2C657&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=1024%2C966&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=300%2C283&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=768%2C724&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=150%2C141&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=696%2C657&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?resize=1068%2C1007&amp;ssl=1 1068w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?w=1234&amp;ssl=1 1234w\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"657\" data-attachment-id=\"29377\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/1n4ohs17orpgxj7qmhisn3a2x\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?fit=1234%2C1164&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1234,1164\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?fit=300%2C283&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1N4OhS17ORpGXj7QmHisn3A@2x.jpeg?fit=696%2C657&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Paul Kagame with James Kabarebe [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@david.himbara_27884\/kagame-put-your-security-advisor-general-kabarebe-on-trial-for-preaching-genocide-ideology-407149bd43f8\" >medium.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wrong continues: \u201cI was one of many journalists who stood at Gisenyi\u2019s border post watching that biblical human tide. The Tutsi taxi driver who took me there, his car radio blaring disco, drove through the oncoming refugees with a speed bordering on viciousness. From the Hutu refugees, there was no laughter, no chat, no smiles; but there was no wailing, or sobbing, either. The only sound was the strange, feathery whisper produced by thousands of bare feet brushing tarmac [emphasis added].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wrong tells the story of Kagame\u2019s invasion of the DR Congo and killings running into the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, like this:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome 800,000 Hutus returned, trudging across the border without screening or checks. But it soon become clear that a large group of refugees, a group including the ex-military, interahamwe, and the genocide\u2019s masterminds, had peeled off in the opposite direction, plunging into the equatorial rainforest as they headed for Shabunda in the southwest and Kisangani, the trading city built on the Zaire River.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Rwandan army ruthlessly hunted them down. The RPF wanted the broad mass of the refugees back, but not <em>these<\/em> men. \u2018These are not genuine refugees,\u2019 Kagame told an interviewer. \u2018They\u2019re simply fugitives, people running away from justice after killing people in Rwanda\u2014after killing!\u2019 Women, old people, or children who had walked the red jungle roads alongside the fighters were dismissed as so much collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28275 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?resize=696%2C446&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?w=780&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?resize=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?resize=768%2C492&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?resize=150%2C96&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?resize=696%2C446&amp;ssl=1 696w\" alt=\"(Warning: graphic content) Rwandan refugees cross the Rusumo border to Tanzania from Rwanda carrying their belongings, goats, mattresses and cows, May 30, 1994. The bloodshed that claimed 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu lives began 25 years ago on April 7, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira and a French air crew was shot down. REUTERS\/Jeremiah Kamau\" width=\"696\" height=\"446\" data-attachment-id=\"28275\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?fit=780%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"780,500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?fit=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/warning-graphic-content-rwandan-refugees-cross-1.jpeg?fit=696%2C446&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Hutu refugees after RPF takeover. Many were hunted down mercilessly by the RPF under the claim that they had participated in the 1994 genocide. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/news\/picture\/25-years-since-the-rwandan-genocide-idUSRTS2GFUK\" >reuters.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The seeming concern for \u201cwomen, old people, or children\u201d is reduced by the fact that they had \u201cwalked alongside the fighters.\u201d Why did they do that? Notice too that there is no verb attached to what was done to these women, old people and children\u2014they \u201cwalked,\u201d then they were \u201cdismissed as so much collateral damage\u201d\u2014Wrong has said at the very beginning of the paragraph that they were \u201cruthlessly hunted down\u201d\u2014but creates an entire paragraph of distance between that verb and the object.<\/p>\n<p>Wrong also minimizes and dismisses the number killed like this: \u201cNo definitive death toll was ever possible, but the UNHCR reckoned that some 200,000 people remained unaccounted for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such a statement could of course be made about those killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide too\u2014we know no more about the real number killed there than we do about the number killed in the Congo, how could we?\u2014but neither Wrong nor any other Africanist would dare say such a thing.<\/p>\n<p>Nor would any Africanist dare to call the Rwandan genocide a \u201clow impact conflict\u201d or a \u201cclassic blight of underdevelopment,\u201d but take a look at this: \u201cThe International Rescue Committee estimates that up to 4.7 million Congolese died in the civil war in eastern Congo: civilians for the most part killed not by gunshot, shrapnel, or bombing\u2014<strong><em>for this was a low-impact <\/em><\/strong>conflict [emphasis added]\u2014but by diarrhea, malaria, and malnutrition, classic blights of underdevelopment.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28276 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?resize=500%2C281&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?resize=150%2C84&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"World Report 2021: Democratic Republic of Congo | Human Rights Watch\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-attachment-id=\"28276\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?fit=500%2C281&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"500,281\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/world-report-2021-democratic-republic-of-congo-or.jpeg?fit=500%2C281&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Burned home in Eastern Congo. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/world-report\/2021\/country-chapters\/democratic-republic-congo\" >hrw.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The same goes for the way Wrong, like the other Africanists, implies that some RPF killing would have been acceptable, since Hutus are evil, but the RPF probably did too much killing:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe campaign was utterly brutal, though, in terms of civilian casualties. Journalists covering what became known as the Northern Insurgency saw scores of bodies lined up along road verges and were allowed to visit a network of caves at Nyakinama full of rotting corpses\u2014up to 8,000 were said to have been sealed inside, then grenades thrown in. <strong>It was the usual problem: Were the dead Hutus really \u2018infiltrators,\u2019 as the army claimed, or villagers shot as suspected sympathizers? <\/strong>The often-indiscriminate nature of the killings, coming at a time when young Hutu men in the northwest were constantly mysteriously \u2018disappearing,\u2019 left a permanent stain on General Kayumba\u2019s reputation\u201d [emphasis added] on an ex-RPF dissident\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps the greatest exoneration of the RPF that the Africanists do is by associating the RPF with Israel, protecting Tutsis everywhere the way Israel claims to stand up for Jews. Wrong produces a supposed speech made by Karegeya echoing every Israeli talking point about pre-emptive war doctrine, and it is worth reproducing here whether Karegeya said it or not (as typical for the book, it is a hearsay by an anonymous source), as it reveals the powerful associations Wrong is trying to invoke. Patrick tells Wrong\u2019s source:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are a small and densely populated country. We have a higher population density than any other country in Africa. So we have no space for another war. We just don\u2019t have the strategic geographical depth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because of that every threat will be dealt with preemptively, and extraterritorially, because we do not have room for it to take place on our sovereign territory. So what you call \u2018murder\u2019 is not a crime, it\u2019s an act of war by other means, and if it took place in any other circumstances, we would be congratulated, praised for it.<\/p>\n<p>We have chosen to externalize the battlefield and preempt the threat. Externalizing the war zone is part of that policy and so is buffering. So, because of our relative sizes, we will never leave DRC, for example, until there\u2019s a government in Kinshasa we can trust. Never Again will we allow a mass killing of our people, Never Again will we allow a war on Rwandan territory, Never Again will we allow anyone to lay a finger on a Tutsi head.<\/p>\n<p>There are two countries in the world that have this doctrine, us and Israel. This is how Israel sees things, how Mossad acts, and this is how we see it. We will never allow our enemy to land a blow on us and remain standing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Karegeya also supposedly kept a picture of a dead child on his desk as a reminder of this in-group morality: \u201cOn his desk he kept a heartrending framed photo of a dead Rwandan baby on the ground, encircled by anonymous male boots. It served as both wordless reproach and daily reminder of why he did what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As with Israel, the slightest dissent from the most bloodthirsty aggression is celebrated. Karegeya, for example, apparently felt badly while running the occupation, plunder, and genocide of the DR Congo, quoted as saying: \u201cI expressed to President Kagame privately and later on in a meeting with other senior officers that Rwanda\u2019s invasion of Congo was quite unnecessary, as it would result in the loss of innocent lives and resources of which we could not afford at the point in time.\u201d A noble heart. When they kill Palestinian children, the Israelis claim to be \u201cshooting and crying.\u201d Karegeya apparently was \u201clooting and crying.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28277 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?resize=150%2C113&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?resize=265%2C198&amp;ssl=1 265w\" alt=\"Rwanda's Formula for Success: Murder Your Neighbors and Steal Their Wealth - Global Research\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" data-attachment-id=\"28277\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?fit=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"400,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?fit=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-formula-for-success-murder-your-neig.jpeg?fit=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Protester calls out Kagame for crimes. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/rwandas-formula-for-success-murder-your-neighbors-and-steal-their-wealth\/5375422\" >globalresearch.ca<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Why write so badly?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Wrong\u2019s skills as an Africanist writer are evident not only in her taking up such a difficult challenge but also in her implementation of it. She humanizes Karegeya and her other subjects and she makes a murderous imperialist proxy\u2014the RPF\u2014seem like a good organization \u201cgone bad\u201d because of the ambitions of Kagame alone, forcing her favorite RPF dissidents into their various tragic plot arcs.<\/p>\n<p>The question arises then of why she writes so badly at times, since it must be by design. What is the role of these awful metaphors inserted into the text?<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u201cThe first domino in a long column of mahogany and ivory that would eventually lead to the intelligence chief\u2019s murder had just toppled, but no one in the South African diaspora had heard its quiet click.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Kampala, the capital of Uganda: \u201cThe city where the RPF\u2019s key figures spent their formative adult years looks, from a distance, like a giant bowl of salad, ripe for munching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Sendashonga\u2019s death makes her feel shame, \u201ca little silvery salamander of shame flips over inside me,\u201d while the story is a splinter: \u201cin the smooth, contoured shape of a widely accepted narrative, his story stood out like a jagged splinter. So the splinter went ignored until it became too painful to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u201cBrutality passes like a virus from one community to another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u201cSuspicion of personal responsibility for Sendashonga\u2019s murder was to hover over Patrick for the rest of his life. <strong>Like a speck floating across an eyeball, out-of-focus yet definitely <em>there<\/em><\/strong> [emphasis added]<strong>,<\/strong> it was one of those unconfirmed suspicions that niggled silently at the back of one\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Kagame \u201ceven\u2014like some clucking mother\u2014gave tips on how to dress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u201cPatrick set about recruiting the Aim\u00e9s and Apollos of the future, precious assets to be stowed like wine bottles in a cellar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 On the battle between Rwanda and Uganda in Kisangani: \u201cThe strands of that brotherly scrap weave in and out of one another, as fiddly to unpick as the plaited fibers of a mat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 The assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana by the RPF, which triggered the war and genocide, \u201csquats like a giant toad at the heart of the RPF story, even uglier and more poisonous than the question of who killed Fred Rwigyema or organized the assassination of Laurent Kabila.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 New institutions \u201csprang up like pristine white mushrooms in the forest, bodies that would\u2014surely, inevitably\u2014become healthy checks and balances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are also word salads like this: \u201cBut for those accustomed to stripping the political ingredients from their assessments of African nation-states, Rwanda\u2019s incredible statistics made it easy to overlook that inconvenient fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This sort of intrusive metaphor parallels the way Wrong intrusively inserts her own views and struggles into the text. I am not certain what is happening here but I hypothesize that if she had done it too well, she would have humanized the Hutus, revealed too coherent a picture of RPF criminality at the West\u2019s behest, or made the new Africanist story (Kagame bad) too blatantly incongruous with the old one (Kagame good).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>So what do the imperialists want to happen in Rwanda?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To puzzle out what the imperialists really want, we have to spend some time talking about what really went on in Rwanda and the DR Congo, rather than taking apart the Africanist version. Here goes\u2014note that I have written a whole book about this, <em>America\u2019s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DR Congo<\/em> (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) if you want more detail.<\/p>\n<p>In 1990 the RPF, an army created in Uganda and sponsored by the U.S., invaded Rwanda. The U.S. was interested in sweeping France (and eventually Mobutu) out and they used Kagame to do it. The RPF was not driven by events into this position. They were the local proxies and the French withdrawal was negotiated\u2014and accompanied by plenty of humiliating propaganda.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28278 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=696%2C407&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?w=1162&amp;ssl=1 1162w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=300%2C175&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=1024%2C598&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=768%2C449&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=150%2C88&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=696%2C407&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?resize=1068%2C624&amp;ssl=1 1068w\" alt=\"A History Written in Blood\" width=\"696\" height=\"407\" data-attachment-id=\"28278\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/a-history-written-in-blood\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?fit=1162%2C679&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1162,679\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a-history-written-in-blood\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?fit=300%2C175&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/a-history-written-in-blood.jpeg?fit=696%2C406&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Young Kagame leads RPF in invasion of Rwanda from Uganda. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/history-written-blood-63179\" >newsweek.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After three years of assassination, massacre, the creation of immense numbers of refugees from areas the RPF conquered, and successful negotiations that would have seen the RPF take over a disproportionate share of power in Rwanda with full U.S. backing, the U.S. decided to go all the way. The RPF assassinated Habyarimana in April 1994 and conquered Rwanda over the next three months, taking the capital in July. In the process, the RPF massacred a huge number of civilians. Militias on the losing side massacred an even bigger number.<\/p>\n<p>The big massacres by the militias were abstracted from the assassination, war, and conquest and labeled a genocide, with the entire conquered population blamed for it. The lesser (but also immense) massacres by the RPF were simply erased from the Western historical record. The successful military conquest of the country by the RPF, the erasure from history of their crimes, and the labeling of the conquered population as \u201cgenocidaires\u201d have changed politics in the entire region forever.<\/p>\n<p>The creation of the narrative that abstracted the militias\u2019 massacres from the broader processes of war and civilian massacre was led by African Rights, Human Rights Watch, and several Western authors\u2014notably Gourevitch, Melvern, Prunier, and afterwards Wrong, Stearns, Dallaire, and others. They successfully imposed the idea that the enemies of the RPF and of Kagame were all genocidaires or proto-genocidaires and ultimately deserving of death. That idea facilitated mass imprisonments within Rwanda and Kagame\u2019s multiple invasions of the DR Congo and multiple wars of occupation there that killed millions of people.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28279 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?resize=432%2C324&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?w=432&amp;ssl=1 432w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?resize=150%2C113&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?resize=265%2C198&amp;ssl=1 265w\" alt=\"Rwanda - Overcrowded Prisons | AP Archive\" width=\"432\" height=\"324\" data-attachment-id=\"28279\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?fit=432%2C324&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"432,324\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?fit=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwanda-overcrowded-prisons-or-ap-archive.jpeg?fit=432%2C324&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Mealtime at grossly overcrowded Rwandan prison in 1995 where most of the prisoners were Hutu accused of participating in the 1994 genocide. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aparchive.com\/metadata\/youtube\/34aeff84631344e7161c5523850f87b5\" >aparchive.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And the truth is we have seen this movie before\u2014literally. In 2014, inspired by the murder of Patrick Karegeya, the first mainstream cracks in the story appeared on the BBC. Elements\u2014only elements\u2014of the reality were presented for the first time in the documentary <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/107867605\" >\u201cRwanda\u2019s Untold Story.\u201d<\/a> Notably Kagame\u2019s assassination program, the possibility that the entire conquered population might not be guilty of genocide and deserving of conquest and death, and even the \u201cethnic accounting\u201d of the Kagame government and its supporters came under scrutiny.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28280 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?resize=692%2C439&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 692px) 100vw, 692px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?w=692&amp;ssl=1 692w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?resize=300%2C190&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?resize=150%2C95&amp;ssl=1 150w\" alt=\"Picture\" width=\"692\" height=\"439\" data-attachment-id=\"28280\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/picture-5\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?fit=692%2C439&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"692,439\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"picture\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?fit=300%2C190&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/picture.png?fit=692%2C439&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Ad for BBC documentary \u201cRwanda\u2019s Untold Story,\u201d which began puncturing the myth of Kagame and related to the 1994 genocide. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/genodynamics.weebly.com\/bbc-documentary.html\" >genodynamics.weebly.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The sources for the BBC documentary were the same RPF dissidents Wrong relies on in her book\u2014notably Theogene Rudasingwa\u2014and the inspiration was the murder of Patrick Karegeya by Kagame\u2019s assassins in South Africa. Kagame and his supporters in the West collectively freaked out and they all signed a letter together to try to discipline the BBC. Wrong\u2019s book, if anything, is more narrowly cast and departs from the pro-Kagame position even less than the BBC documentary, and largely exonerates the U.S.\/UK of any wrong-doing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-28281 td-animation-stack-type0-2\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=696%2C522&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=150%2C113&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=696%2C522&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=1068%2C801&amp;ssl=1 1068w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?resize=265%2C198&amp;ssl=1 265w\" alt=\"Rwanda's Khashoggi: who killed the exiled spy chief? | Rwanda | The Guardian\" width=\"696\" height=\"522\" data-attachment-id=\"28281\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?fit=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/covertactionmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rwandaand39s-khashoggi-who-killed-the-exiled-spy.jpeg?fit=696%2C522&amp;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Members of the Rwandan National Congress mourning Patrick Karegeya in 2014. [Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2019\/jan\/15\/rwanda-who-killed-patrick-karegeya-exiled-spy-chief\" >theguardian.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And so Kagame marches on, even amidst the Hotel Rwanda scandal.<\/p>\n<p>What Rwanda needs, as Congolese have argued since their own country was occupied, is a process of real reconciliation\u2014not a reconciliation program used to further suppress and terrorize the majority, but a process that acknowledges all crimes committed by all sides and a new regime that actually includes everyone. Such a regime would leave its neighbors in peace and would not be a keen imperial catspaw.<\/p>\n<p>If what happened in Rwanda is seen as a war, not unlike what happened in Uganda before, or the DR Congo afterwards, then there is a possibility for peace or reconciliation. If it is seen as a genocide with Hutus as the genocidaires and eternally guilty, then they have to be suppressed forever. This means, for humanitarian reasons, the West also has to be there forever, to help manage this guilty population.<\/p>\n<p>With his international assassination program, his selfish desire to stay in personal power forever, and his increasingly brazen persona, Kagame may no longer be the best vehicle for control of the region. This was hinted in 2014 and is being repeated in 2021 a bit louder. But the other planks\u2014eternal Hutu guilt, ultimate Western innocence and control\u2014should remain in place. This is the task that <em>Do Not Disturb<\/em> takes up. It is the challenge of keeping intact, while making some tweaks, one of the most successful propaganda operations in history.<\/p>\n<p>___________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Justin-Podur-e1566728255179.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-141418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Justin-Podur-e1566728255179.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"122\" \/><\/a> Justin Podur is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Urban Change at York University in Toronto. He is the author of <\/em>America\u2019s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo <em>(Palgrave McMillan, 2020) and <\/em>Haiti\u2019s New Dictatorship: The Coup, the Earthquake and the UN Occupation<em> (London: Pluto Press, 2012) among other works. Justin can be reached at: <a href=\"mailto:justin@podur.org\">justin@podur.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/covertactionmagazine.com\/2021\/11\/11\/limited-hangouts-western-intellectuals-whitewash-horrific-crimes-of-cia-asset-paul-kagame\/\" >Go to Original \u2013 covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11 Nov 2021 &#8211; In the intelligence community, a \u201cLimited Hangout\u201d occurs when the conspirators put out part of the truth in order to hide the whole truth. They only do it when desperate, since doing so will reveal that they were previously either lying or covering up bigger truths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":141418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[237,133,550,1268,2388,1412,70],"class_list":["post-199300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-cia","tag-corruption","tag-european-union","tag-paul-kagame","tag-rwanda","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}