Did Wayne Madsen get a story right?

[tangaroa]

When the mainstream media bothers to report on the Central African Republic, they say that a generic rebel movement overthrew the government. There is hope that democracy shall now flourish, but with rebels being rebels, don't get your hopes up.

A quite different story is told by Wayne Madsen on April 17: The Salafists move into central Africa

The Qatari- and Saudi-backed Salafists, Muslim radicals who follow the extreme radical Wahhabi sect of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the rest of the Gulf, have now moved into a governing position in the Central African Republic (CAR).

...

Some reports out of central Africa claim that Obama sent U.S. troops into the CAR, Uganda, and South Sudan not to capture Kony but to help the Qatari- and Saudi-backed Seleka, UFDR, UFR, and the Darfur-based Sudan Liberation Army overthrow Bozize, Deby, and declare Darfur independent, thus creating the right conditions for the establishment of an Islamic emirate in the Sahel region of central Africa.

The attempt by the Qatari and Saudi Salafists to extend their reach into Sudan, Chad, and the CAR have the support of CIA chief John O. Brennan, a veteran of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and someone whose Saudi links are so close, CIA personnel have started calling him "Shaikh Brennan" and "Brennan of Arabia."

A month later, there is a report from the Barnabas Fund, a Christian aid group:

A pastor in CAR said that “a reign of terror” is being conducted against Christians by the Seleka rebels who took over the country in a bloody coup on 24 March. A number of Christians have been killed or wounded.

The church leader said that the rebels have a hit list of pastors and other Christian workers, and that places of worship are being attacked. Christian property is being looted.

And back in March, there was a report from one anonymous Internet user claiming to be a "peace observer" in CAR:

The Central African Republic has gone from bad to the worst with the ousting of the president at least accepted multiculturalism, democracy and freedom! We are facing now a group of people who look like Taliban(Afganistan), Boko Haram(in Nigeria), or fanatic muslim brotherhood! evidences are that they systematically destroyed, or looted shops run by people of different faith like christians but they not destroy business run by the "muslim brotherhood"

• In Bangui the Capital city those who conive with them and clap for them are mostly muslim if any by stander clap, it is out of fear,
• Some people who connive with them point finger at other people properties or businesses and those seleka rebel would go and loot and kill.
• Their leaders call it collateral dommage? it is not, they are tracking down any friend or any person who was friend to the ousting president and killed them. If they were fighting for the people and democracy, why electricity, running water, and telephones lines are not yet re-established after 72 hours? Those ruthless criminals shut down all those services so that they can kill the people and hide the evidences then deny any crime against humanity accusation!

I heard from Cameroon afriend of Bozize called Mr. Ngaidiro was killed cold blooded by the Seleka rebels. Bozize thoough he has a huge support of his KNK( work just work) and as a general escaped to avoid another Rwanda in CAR, because the local conspirators were accusing him and his sons of distributing guns to young people….. but the Seleka has failed from day one to secure the population, Killings, rape, beating, torturing, lootings, all types of atrocities are happening, they have been holding the civilian population in hostages for several months without basic services. After the democratic elections all the Seleka members should face international tribunal with their sponsors like Al Bechir and Idris Deby. Those two are united in their evil plan and muslim faith….for them all other people are infidels, or has forgotten their God as they say.

The Central African Republic is in a strategic location, Al Bechir and Idriss Deby envy that country, and the French know that but the French is considering their interest in mineral resources only while those two islamist are looking to deep into many things. So this newly forceful terrorist regime should be isolated and the learder punished soon

So... how much of Madsen's story was correct?

(Background: Madsen is extremely controversial and has a reputation of making stuff up for the blog hits.)

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Edit May 29: Here is a third report claiming that Seleka "are the jihadists, probably paid for by someone from the outside ... The situation is very similar to that of Mali".

On Madsen's accusation of US aid to Seleka, The US Special Forces, with Ugandan assistance, were set up in Obo on the southeast corner of CAR between tribal-held South Sudan and the undeveloped northern Congo. All three sides -- the Americans, the South Sudanese, and the Ugandans -- would not have approved of weapons transfers to Seleka, and somebody would have talked.

Absent the construction of a newer road through the unpopulated eastern CAR, a land route from Obo would need to pass along southern Route 2 through Mboki, Zemio, and Bangassou. Seleka took Bangassou in March with no opposition, suggesting a long-standing presence in the area. The next major city on the proposed Obo arms route would be Bambari, which opens to the Seleka-controlled northeast. Seleka seized Bambori last year. An Obo / Route 2 arms route would require bypassing any CAR security presence in Bangassou and the smaller towns. While possible, the Chadian and Darfur routes proposed by the anonymous commenter are more direct, going directly into Seleka-controlled territory; and air traffic destined for Obo could also theoretically have gone straight to Seleka.

On the question of Chad's involvement, Idriss Deby has called for a larger multinational force in the CAR. Also, Exiled CAR leaders accuse Chadian forces of leading the attack on Bangui. An interesting part of that last article is that the Economic Community Of Central African States has already recognized Seleka as the sole legitimate government of CAR.

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Edit June 11: I found so little to support the theory of US aid to Seleka that I stopped looking and did not get around to posting notes until now.

Were any USAID projects in CAR? The only one I could find was that USAID fixed 137km of road between Bozoum and Bossangoa, in the northwestern Ouham and Ouham-Pende provinces. These are outside Seleka's core area and likely have no relation to the war. Side note: Bandits attacked Bouca, Ouham around May 18. Bouca is further east of the USAID road project and there is not enough information to connect it to the war.

For the eastern Obo operation, The USAID partnered with Catholic Relief Services. That does not sound like an organization likely to supply arms to jihadists, if those reports are true. As of 2008, the CRS representative for CAR was Jennifer Nazair. LinkedIn now says she is the rep for Rwanda. The RFA for the SECC program was managed y Ketan Sood, Daniel Harter, and Regional Agreement Officer John A. May.