Peter Waldron Again

I’ve now added the third update to my blog entry on Peter Waldron, the US businessman and Christian Right activist currently in prison in Uganda on illegal weapons charges, this time adding some information about his work with the Anatole Fellowship as reported in a 1991 book by Russ Bellant.

I’m still not sure what it all means: on the one hand, Waldron has boasted of a clandestine military past in Africa, berated Ronald Reagan for not having supported South Africa, and draws much of his religious thinking from authoritarian Christian Reconstructionists such as Rousas Rushdoony. That sets off alarm bells.

But on the other hand, one of the charges made by Police Inspector General Kale Kayihura is that Waldron wrote a “defamatory” article about Uganda. Why that should be of concern to the Police Inspector General in a democracy is not clear; and when we read the actual article, we find a reasonably argued piece in which Waldron calls for the Ugandan constitution to be respected and for a “fair, free, and open election.” Waldron’s supporters also claim he has been beaten in custody.