All language subtitles for VICE - S04E01 Boko Haram Nigeria - Unnatural Selection

(theme music playing)

This week on VICE, Boko
Haram's campaign of terror

spreads across Africa.

(men shouting)

Behind me is a compound

which two days ago was the site

of a suicide attack.

And then, advances
with our genetic code

are changing the future
of human evolution.

We're at the National Resource
Center for Mutant Mice.

They're editing
the mouse embryos right here.

The couple wants
a baby with blue eyes.

They said, "Can we get a boy,

and can the boy have
blue eyes?"

(gunshot)

(crowd chanting)

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com

The deadliest terror group
in the world today

isn't ISIS or Al Qaeda.

According to a recent report,

it's the Nigerian
terrorist group Boko Haram.

And even after six years
of war with the military,

Boko Haram is as deadly as ever,

finding new ways to implement

their terror tactics
in the region.

This pile of rubble
that I'm standing on

was Mohammed Yusuf, the founder
of Boko Haram's mosque.

Book Haram began

right here at this very spot
as a religious movement.

Yusuf preached
hard-line Islam.

The name "Boko Haram"
roughly translates

to "Western education
is sinful."

But he was also
an outspoken critic

of government corruption
and was accused of leading

violent attacks
against authorities.

The police executed him
without trial in 2009.

I wanted to get
the government's perspective

on how Yusuf's death contributed
to Boko Haram's rise,

so we spoke
to Nigeria's president

Muhammadu Buhari.

(speaking English)

Boko Haram's new leader,
Abubakar Shekau,

used that sense of injustice
to transform the group

into a fearsome
paramilitary force

that in 2015 controlled

thousands of square miles
of Nigerian territory.

When I reported on this
story in March last year,

the Nigerian army was
engaged in a full-scale

military campaign
against the group.

Since that report, Boko
Haram has gone underground,

embracing terrorist
guerrilla tactics instead.

In 2015, thousands
of more people died

in more than 230 attacks.

So I went back to Nigeria

to see how the face of
this conflict has changed.

I spoke to Kashim Shettima,

the governor
of the hardest-hit state.

How do you categorize
how the war,

or the conflict, is progressing?

(speaking English)

Kaj Larsen:
But that's a daunting task,

considering how difficult
it is to figure out

who actually is Boko Haram.

I'm in this heavily armed
convoy of about 30 vehicles,

including an armored
personnel carrier.

And this road, which has been

frequently attacked
by the insurgents,

leads to the Sambisa Forest.

Sambisa Forest is the last known
stronghold of Boko Haram.

The governor had come
to this village,

newly recaptured
from Boko Haram,

to calm the local population.

But the residents here

had already taken matters
into their own hands.

(men shouting)

I heard that they arrested four
Boko Haram in this village.

They've put them,
like, on parade.

What's wrong with these guys?

What's wrong with his friends?

Tell me about these guys.
Who are these guys?

Why did they come?

Larsen:
One of the key elements

of fighting this
counter-insurgency

has been civilian militia

capturing a lot of the
members of Boko Haram

and turning them over
to the military.

You know him?

How?

Man: Many Boko Haram
they caught--

they will mention
this particular person.

Man #2: He's a bad
type, notorious.

He's notorious?

Man #3: Very dangerous,
very dangerous.

Larsen: What has this guy
done that makes him so bad?

He is their gang leader.

He's killed people--
this guy?

Yes, he is killing people.

Larsen: As government
forces detain more and more

alleged Boko Haram members,

innocent civilians are getting
caught in the middle.

Auto mechanic Saleh Isa Babawo

was arrested last year and taken

to Giwa Barracks--
the local jail.

This is a burn?
Yeah.

Fuck.

What is this?
What happened here?

Oh, from being tied up?

It just ripped away your flesh?

Do you think the conditions
in Giwa Barracks--

the way they treat you
and other innocent people--

has created a backlash
against the security forces?

Stories like this are just
the tip of the iceberg.

Lucy Freeman, an investigator
for Amnesty International,

says that in the hunt
for Boko Haram,

the military has been committing

mass atrocities of its own.

We recently released
a report documenting

very serious human rights
violations by the military.

We found that they had
committed war crimes.

One of the most horrific cases

that we documented
in this report

was on the 14th of March, 2014.

There's a large military detention
center in Northeast Nigeria

called Giwa Barracks.

And on that day, Boko Haram came

and attacked the barracks.

They freed the prisoners
there, over a thousand people.

A large number of people tried
to go home to their families.

They were rounded up by the
military and the civilian JTF,

and we documented the execution
of at least 620 of them.

We received video footage
from that particular day,

which showed these men lined
up next to a large pit.

And a man dressed
in military uniform

then cuts their throat.

None of those people have
been brought to justice.

Larsen: Abuses like
this only strengthen

Boko Haram's resolve.

In 2015, more than 10,000
people were killed,

making it
the deadliest year yet.

To get their point of view
on the Giwa Barracks raid,

we gained unprecedented access

to an active Boko Haram
commander and his deputy.

How many members do you have?

What's wrong with your leg?

You have a bullet?
How did that happen?

Was this the attack
on Giwa Barracks?

Larsen: You're not afraid
to fight with soldiers?

You don't think
you'll be killed?

Larsen: We wanted to
know if the commander

was involved in the group's
most infamous attack--

the kidnapping
of nearly 300 girls

from a school in Chibok,

which sparked outrage
around the world.

Everybody is talking
about the Chibok girls.

Where are they?

(chuckles)

So they're now
a bargaining chip?

While the Chibok girls
remain missing,

this is far from
an isolated incident.

In the town of Yola,
we met 16-year-old Zainab,

who's one of thousands of women

who have been abducted
by Boko Haram.

But they don't just
marry these girls.

They've begun using them
in their attacks.

(Zainab speaking)

Zainab escaped after five
months in captivity,

but not before she was impregnated
by one of her captors.

Larsen: As the cycle of
violence continues to build,

it's now spilled outside
of Nigeria's borders.

Is Boko Haram spreading
to the region?

To see how far
the fight had spread,

I traveled to N'Djamena, Chad,

where the conflict shows
no signs of slowing down.

Behind me is a compound

which two days ago was the site

of a bloody
Boko Haram suicide attack.

(flies buzzing)

Did you find any materials or
anything, any bomb-making materials?

Larsen: What they found
was a small arsenal

intended to launch more of
these attacks around Chad.

This is an RPG round right here.

This bag has, I'd estimate, like,
15 to 20 RPG rounds in it.

As the hunt for Boko
Haram escalates in Chad,

these soldiers say that militants
from around the region

are still joining up
to wage jihad.

(whistling)

Most of the Boko Haram--
they're Kanuri, right?

(speaking English)

Now it's everybody?

From Mali,

Bamako, Timbuktu?

That's bad.

It gets worse.
Boko Haram,

which killed more people in
terror attacks than ISIS in 2014,

has actually pledged
allegiance to them,

even renaming themselves

the Islamic State's
West Africa Province.

This new alliance between
Boko Haram and ISIS

does not bode well
for the region.

Shane Smith: Since the
beginning of life on Earth,

evolution has been steered
by the demands of survival

in the natural world.

However, today, new technology

is completely upending
that process,

allowing us to alter different
species as we go forward,

including our own.

So how is it that the mosquitoes
are genetically modified?

What's different about these
guys than any other mosquitoes?

(speaking English)

Isobel Yeung: These mosquitoes
have been genetically modified

to breed with, and
eliminate, their own species

in an urgent attempt to wipe
out carriers of dengue fever.

Every week, 800,000
of these mosquitoes

are being released
into the wild.

It's crazy to think

that you're trying to solve
the dengue fever problem

by releasing so many
mosquitoes into the wild.

Yeung: Neighborhoods
targeted by the program

are seeing a more than
90% reduction

in dengue-carrying
mosquitoes.

These doctored mosquitoes are
part of a larger movement

to produce animals that fight
the diseases they spread.

In Scotland,
in the same facility

that produced Dolly the sheep,

the first-ever
cloned animal,

Dr. Bruce Whitelaw
is trying to create pigs

that are resistant
to African swine fever.

He's an expert in a field
called transgenics.

So what "transgenic" means

is that you've taken a gene which you
have constructed in the laboratory,

and you've introduced it into
the genome of the animal.

When you look
at this snout here,

you'll see it's got
a yellow tinge to it.

Yeung:
Hey, piggy, piggy.

So what they've done is,

they've taken
the fluorescent gene,

which is naturally present
in jellyfish,

and they've put it inside these
pigs as a little marker,

so they know which ones
are transgenic or not.

Yeung: In the past, genetic
engineering technologies

often used
visual markers like this

to prove that they even worked.

But the science has recently
taken a huge step forward.

The breakthrough is
a molecular technology

called CRISPR CAS-9.

It's a protein
that uses molecular blades

to make cuts in host DNA,

replacing genes you don't
want with genes you do.

It has the power to transform

every form of life
as we know it.

It's all about a way of editing
genes, known as CRISPR.

Female reporter: CRISPR is being
described as a game changer.

Breakthrough Prize is awarded to

Emmanuelle Charpentier
and Jennifer Doudna.

Jennifer Doudna, a leading
professor of chemistry and biology

at UC Berkeley,
codiscovered CRISPR.

Really, what we're doing with
the CRISPR technology is,

we're using it as a scalpel,

a very precise cleaver,

that makes breaks in the DNA

where we as scientists
want to introduce changes.

DNA is the computer program
that runs the cell.

What if there's a mistake
somewhere in that code?

CRISPR technology
allows us to find the place

where this mistake
has occurred in the DNA

and allow the cell
to correct that mistake.

And within just a few months

of our publication
of our initial work,

many scientists were testing
it in plants, animals,

and in all cases it was
working extremely well.

We really have to actually
for the first time

confront this possibility

of being able to alter
human beings in the future

and the wisdom of doing that.

Yeung: One reason
for that caution

is that CRISPR edits are so easy
to apply across all species.

At New York University,
researcher Michael Perry

is looking at the genes that
affect butterflies' vision.

In this case, we're gonna
try to edit a gene

that we think might be involved
in making the butterfly eye

able to see more colors than
other types of insects.

Okay, so now the needle
is in the egg.

So now you can see some
yolk being displaced.

Yeung: Yeah.
Okay, and that's it.

It's as simple as that?
It's as simple as that.

That's one edited gene?

That is one edited genome.

So how different
would this process look

if you were injecting
human embryos?

(chuckles)
Not my specialty.

Yeung: In theory,
applying CRISPR to humans

could eliminate diseases
and steer our evolution.

The problem is that so far,

we can't always predict
what will happen.

The antennae is drooping.

Its legs haven't
formulated properly.

And the color is gone
on the wings.

Michael Perry:
Right.

We knew from research
in fruit flies

that this gene played a role
in developing antennae

and in producing
bristles on the legs,

but we didn't expect
a role in wing pattern.

And so, even in this gene that
was reasonably well studied,

we could predict what some
of the effects would be.

We did not expect
a role in color pattern.

Do you think that
this kind of technology

will fundamentally
impact our future?

Everyone is excited
about CRISPR.

I think it really is gonna
change biology in general.

Yeung: While CRISPR is
not yet considered safe

to use on human embryos,

genetic selection is already
happening in the US.

Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg is
using a process known as PGD

to genetically analyze embryos

and allow parents
to screen for diseases

and even choose favorable
traits in their children.

PGD starts for
Pre-implantation--

before it goes back to Mom--
Genetic Diagnosis.

And that way we're able
to make these decisions

that the parents want to make
before they get the embryo.

Mm-hmm, and so the purpose
of that is to identify

certain diseases that might
exist in certain embryos...

Exactly.
...and also the sex.

Right, we can identify gender

with almost 100% certainty.

So what are we looking at here?
This is a PGD report.

So this is a PGD report
from the laboratory.

So these embryos were
biopsied yesterday.

So here we have
an embryo--

46 chromosomes, which is normal.

XX means girl.

The next one--
46 chromosomes, also normal.

But it's XY instead of XX.

So this is a normal male.

The couple wants a baby
with blue eyes.

They've got three girls. They
said, "Can we get a boy,

and can the boy have
blue eyes?"

And what we got back
was a report showing

that embryo number five
and embryo number seven

carry the genes for blue eyes.

It's just a case of selecting which
ones you want to put in there.

Exactly. Exactly.
So we asked Mom and Dad,

"Here's what we've got.
What do you want?"

Yeung: We met with
Deborah and Jonathan,

one of thousands of couples
across the country

who have chosen to use PGD.

It sounds like
a no-brainer, you know,

if you want to be able
to test for more diseases

and have the healthiest
child that you can.

And you also chose to have
sex selection, right?

Yep, right.

Yeah, we're picking a girl.

We both want to have
a baby girl.

Were there any other traits
that you were selecting for

or that you had the option
to select for?

I think we'll be
offered eye color.

Well, when we met with
Dr. Steinberg, they're--

the advances they're making
are pretty incredible.

We had no idea about eye color,

but that is something that he offers.
We're not doing eye color.

You're going in for your actual retrieval
process tomorrow, is that right?

How are you feeling?
Very nervous.

So here we go, a little pinch.

Just hold real still.

Yeung:
In Dr. Steinberg's clinic,

Deborah's eggs were
removed to be fertilized

and then genetically analyzed.

Steinberg: So we finished the first two.
We're gonna pass that off.

So they've got the fluid now.

They're gonna be taking a
look under the microscope

and we'll find
that first egg for you.

And here you can see what
these technicians are doing.

This is an egg?

Two eggs?

A little pinch again.

Yeung:
Here comes another one.

Yeung:
Just egg-hunting.

16 eggs.

You did great.

We're taking one sperm,
and we're injecting it

into the yolk of the human egg.

There's the needle.
You can see one little sperm

swimming up
inside of the needle.

And now he's very gently going
to push the tip of the needle

into the yolk of the egg.

Yeung:
So that's it?

It's fertilized.
It's a fertilized egg.

Wow.

So where's this PGD technology heading?
What's next, after eye color?

The next place that it's headed

is towards being able to
diagnose more and more diseases.

And the final place
that it's headed

is into allowing us
to select more and more

elective traits,
characteristics.

Such as?

Height, weight.

How soon before we can
select for height?

I mean, I can give you
a five-year estimate.

Five years before we can select for height?
Yeah.

Yeung: The global push to
develop these technologies

is only intensifying.

So we spoke to Jamie Metzl,

an expert in both genomics
and foreign policy.

Ultimately, humans are
a data set.

And as our
computing power increases,

we're able to look at these
extremely complex genetics

and then pull
all the pieces together

and do genome-wide
association studies

to try to figure out
what genes do what.

So does that mean
that the countries

or the societies with the
most data on genetics

are leading the way in terms
of national competitiveness?

We are at the very early
stage of this revolution.

And, like in any revolution

and any transformation,
first movers

always have
a strategic advantage.

China has identified
biotechnology

as a strategic pillar

in their most recent
five-year plan.

Yeung:
That 2011 plan devoted

more than $308 billion
to biotechnology.

It's paving the way
for a large-scale,

assembly-line approach
to decoding

the specific functions of genes.

In Nanjing, CRISPR
technology is now being used

to edit the genes of mice, in an
effort to isolate desired traits.

We're at the National Resource
Center for Mutant Mice.

This is where they edit
hundreds of thousands

of different types of mice.

What we're looking at
down these microscopes

are tiny, tiny
little mouse embryos.

And what they're doing is,
they're injecting them.

So they're editing the
mouse embryos right here.

(man speaking Chinese)

Wow, that's a lot of embryos.

(Cunxiang Ju speaking)

Wow.

What are they doing here?

(man speaking Chinese)

These guys here
are being edited,

so the result is that
they're completely bald.

These ones here--
they're missing

the metabolism gene,

which means that
they're very, very fat.

In this room,
they could hold the key

to curing aging,

to curing diabetes,
to curing cancer.

There's just so much possibility

held in this room of rodents.

The mouse genome is 85%
similar to the human genome,

so unlocking
their gene functions

could be critical to
understanding our own traits.

And that could be huge here,

where pre-birth services are
already in massive demand.

We watched as couples
lined up down the block

for different types
of fertility procedures.

Some of these people
have been queuing

outside this Beijing public
hospital since 2:00 a.m.

It's like a stampede in here.

Everyone's just racing
to get an appointment

so they can hopefully see
an IVF doctor.

And as thousands and
thousands of couples

choose the latest
available treatments,

the future is
quickly approaching.

Companies are now
developing sequences

that decode genes
at record speeds.

And all that data will
eventually be funneled here,

into one of the largest
gene banks in the world.

In here, they're gonna be
storing

1.15 million people's
human genomes.

This is pretty representative

of China's massive
commitment and big, big push

for the genetics industry.

But as the industry grows,

so does our concern
about where it's headed.

Outrage over the latest move
toward designer babies.

For the first time,
Chinese scientists

use new technology to alter
DNA in human embryos.

Serious implications
of designer babies.

It will take us
down a slippery slope.

Yeung: This technology
continues to advance.

And with parents
potentially being offered

more and more traits
for purchase,

we may be altering the future

of the human race itself.

So how much are we moving

towards a future of genetic
haves and have-nots?

Certainly, there is the danger

of the more advantaged
people in society today

becoming even more advantaged.

And that's very dangerous.

The worst-case
scenario is

that we get into some type
of genetic arms race,

where people are manufacturing
their-- their children.

After four billion years
of evolution,

we are now beginning a process

where we will take active
control of our evolution.

And the consequences
of that are incredible.

If you had a time machine,

and you traveled a thousand
years into the future

and brought a child back
to today,

that kid would be Superman.

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com