Co-founder of Invisible Children Arrested for Public Masturbation - Group Has Hate Group Ties

I truly do not revel in the misfortune of others, but sometimes the hypocrisy of the far right is too much to let go without comment. A case in point is Jason Russell (at right), co-founder of the Invisible Children organization which seems to have troubling ties to anti-gay Christian fundamentalist groups. Invisible Children leaped to notoriety when its KONY 2012 video went viral. It's unfortunate that too often such organizations which sometimes do good works (even Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" does good things even if Robertson uses it as a propaganda front to counteract the hate and intolerance he markets) on close inspection have an ugly underbelly. In this case, Russell was detained today for masturbating, removing his underwear, and "acting very strange" in public, NBC San Diego reports the following:

A co-founder for Invisible Children was detained in Pacific Beach on Thursday for being drunk in public and masturbating, according to the San Diego Police Department.Jason Russell, 33, was allegedly found masturbating in public, vandalizing cars and possibly under the influence of something, according to the SDPD. He was detained at the intersection of Ingraham Street and Riviera Road.

Police described Russell as "in his underwear." He allegedly took off his underwear at one point, but it was back on by the time officers arrived, said police. Several people attempted to calm him down and when officers arrived police said he was cooperative.

Russell is one of the the founders responsible for the "Kony 2012" video that recently went viral. He is described on the organization's website as a co-founder and "our grand storyteller and dreamer." Russell is also described as a Christian and father to two children who wants to have nine more children with his wife he calls his "best friend for over 23 years."

The video "Kony 2012" calls for the capture of the Ugandan LRA leader whose fighting tactic involves kidnapping and torturing the country's innocent children.

The goal of the Kony 2012 video is a good one. It's unfortunate that it appears funding came from toxic sources. AlterNet looks at some of these funding sources which include registered hate groups (read the entire piece):

990 IRS tax forms and yearly reports from Invisible Children, and 990s from its major donors, tell a story that’s jarringly at odds with the secular, airbrushed, feelgood image the nonprofit has cultivated.

Among the tens of millions of people who have watched Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 viral video, including Oprah Winfrey – a dedicated supporter of LGBT rights who also has given $2 million dollars to Invisible Children, how many were aware of IC’s extensive financial ties to far-right fundamentalism, including major funders of the mounting global war on gay rights ? IC doesn’t go out of its way to advertise these things. . . . These links weren’t anomalies. They were part of a pattern.

Why does it matter, if Invisible Children was funded by controversial donors? Two reasons - one, we can assume those donors thought IC aligned with their agenda - which is antagonistic to LGBT rights.

Two, it fits an emerging pattern in which Invisible Children appears selectively concerned about crimes committed by Joseph Kony but indifferent to crimes, perhaps on a bigger scale, committed by their provisional partner, the government of Uganda - whose president shot his way into power using child soldiers, before Joseph Kony began using child soldiers. Like Kony, the government of Uganda was also indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005, for human rights abuses and looting in the DRC Congo (PDF file of ICC ruling against Uganda). Like Kony, the Ugandan army preys upon civilians and is currently accused, by Western human rights groups, with raping and looting in the DRC Congo, where it is hunting for Kony. In the late 1990s, Uganda helped spark a conflict in DRC Congo that, by the middle of the next decade it is estimated, had killed up to 5.4 million civilians, more than any conflict since World War Two.