Millennial Challenges: Pre-empting Liberal Media collaborations with global terror- the case of the Horn

Global Strategic Enterprises, Inc for Peace and Prosperity- www.globalbelai4u.blogspot.com; www.SolomonicCrown.org


Dear Patriotic Global Citizens and Friends of Ethiopia:

Re: The Liberal Media Dirty Game of Collaborating with Alqaeda in Britain and USA- the case of the Guardian and New York Times reporting of the regional terror and impeding crisis in the Horn.

Who are these loony left liberal media?

As the loony left liberal media is busy painting a serious human right violations in the Horn, the US and EU are responding with a new African Command Center to the escalating global terrorism expansion in the region.

Imagine, the Pre-emptive African response being taken by Ethiopia as a source of a humanitarian crisis denigrating the Ethiopian pre-emptive strategy to prevent terror which has worked to the one the US and UN tried and failed in 1991 in Somalia. The same actors but different outcome. This pre-emptive preventive measure is considered a violation of human rights by these loony liberals, and yet there is no comment about the planned African Command that is planning a much larger military command that the African Continent has ever seen.

Is this silence about African Command proportional to the wide negative publicity about Ethiopia's command by design or it is intentional-is what many Africa watchers are asking. Regardless, it is critical to analyze the current media campaign and its short and long term consequences on the global security and regional development opportunities.

What is the role of modern liberal institutions/

The role of the traditional semi-tourist, semi-reporters and the semi-charitable workers such as Gettleman of New York Times and the International Red Cross Society and Human Rights Watch,etc. should be seriously explored in this current climate of global terror. Should these well meaning loony left liberals be put under the microscope in terms of what they are doing and should be doing as any responsible global citizen. Should they be exploring the implication of mega large projects such as the African Command further rather than collaborating with the known terrorists in the region.

Are these liberal institutions collaborating with terrorists?

In effect the so called ONLF copied the Gettleman reports as did the US Senators and congressmen. What a tragedy?

What is in store for Africa from the West's perspective is a special militarized US-EU Africa Command. It looks very different as it has the capacity to synergize diplomatic, military and development activities. Yet there is no dialogue in Africa with the people of the Media about this great new Millennial Response in Africa.

Whose human rights are these liberals concerned about? The general public or their associate terrorists?

Who is now preparing for a massive potential human rights violations and who is defending the local peaceful populations?- is the question that this writer poses early at the inception of this new strategy for the public to debate and influence the process of decision makers and the policy makers as is reflected at the recent US Africa Subcommittee hearing.

It is with this background, one finds the current campaign against the only stable and peaceful country (Ethiopia)considered the second largest populous nation in the region surrounded by terrorists in Asmara, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan.

Are the liberal media group enhancing this unique partnership with friends such as the US-Ethiopia are they creating a new diversion towards enabling terrorists as they did in Serbia- Yugoslavia and Irag/Afghanistan during the recent intelligence and strategic failures.


who is enabling the terrorists liberal corporations or the nation state?

The current global terrorists were enabled in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Somalia and the Sudan during the Clinton-Blair era and now emboldened in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and may be even in Somalia.


When did protecting the most populous region from terrorist expansion become a threat to human rights that deserve such vitriolic campaign? Whose rights? that of the terrorists and their sympathisers in the west or that of the local peaceful populations?

The liberal media are ignorant of the terrorist strategies

This is a time of war for the terrorists and the west is still not sure what to call it, crime, loony extremists gangsterism gone wacky, or real first class warfare of a unique kind, where the terrorists can hide behind loony left liberal media appealing human right protection and damage the whole security infrastructure just like the Human Immune Deficiency Viruses do to our human intelligence system.

Unfortunately, the real tragedy is that the analogy stops here. At least the human body responds appropriately, by alerting the defense system and initiating the production of T-lymphocytes that have specific CD4+lymphocytes/CD8+lymphocytes that provide targeted defence against the viral load.

The Human Immunity and Security analogy

Taking the same analogy here, when the global terrorist network is effectively penetrating the crucial aspect of the liberal media, our security and intelligence system is not alerted nor activated to develop a strategy for independent verification of the disinformation campaign; but allows to copy in effect the misinformation as reality and disseminate it across all the policy making establishments around the world including the US Congress and Senate without any mechanism for filtering or ascertaining its veracity.

Who are the liberal media serving? Are they accountable?

Our mechanism of differentiating self from non-self, the central principle of defence system is at risk here. In fact the policy influencing letters by the legislative body are sent to the executive branch such as the State Department. The State Department via its formal and informal sources that have contact on the ground normally provide alternative sources of information and intelligence as they have flesh and blood on the ground in the specific regions of concern.

Any lesson from the 9/11 Intelligence and Media failure/

The K Street lobby and Liberal Media influenced legislative branch has legal and moral responsibility to validate such critical information. However, the 9/11 and Iraq fiasco has shown how incompetent the system is that has alerted for a series of transformational reorganization whose impact is yet to be felt. Here is another one and perhaps the much awaited African Command may change this scenario where a solo semi-tourist gettlemen could influence so much of the media and legislative bodies around the world.

How can the liberal media behave like Osama Bin Ladin?

This is the greatest concern of our time! We, as a global community are intentionally or unintentionally are allowing our security system to be blindfolded all the way to the potential end of the global chaos and mayhem. The Global Terrorists have their own intelligence and use the open intelligence that the rest of the world uses to their advantage. So, the diplomatic and public relations campaign is being lost to them. It some times looks like the liberal media have a lot in common with Osama Bin Laden, both are not accountable to any one but themselves.

Ethiopia has learnt her lessons from 1935

It is ironic that the strategic pre-emptive efforts being taken by Ethiopia is being blamed for the security measures it takes and yet the EU and US is preparing for a massive African Command Center that is mainly security and military driven.

One remembers, how just a mere 50 years ago, the Roman Pope with the support of most Europeans, blessed lunatic Mussolini to carpet Bomb with illegal chemical and biological war fare the saintly Ethiopians under the banner of a Roman civilizing mission to an Original Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jews and Original Muslims. Global collective security was thrown out of the window when Hitler and Mussolini challenged the disorganized liberal west.

The barbarians tried to impose their will and failed.

The tragedy was the barbarians were trying to create genocide among the saints and the world kept quiet, in fact the western media booed and giggled at the Imposing Emperor Haile Selassie I when he appealed to the conscious of the world. It took the collapse of Europe to get the much needed support to Ethiopian patriots fighting for over five years by themselves.

One wonders aboout the similariries. How we respond to the current similar loony left liberal media and their respective politicians and charitable institutions posing as humanitarians but encouraging terror in Africa is critical,because we have been there. We cannot wait until every one goes down the tube as they did in the second world war by appeasing terrorists and criminals hoping they will not be after you after all. Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia appeal again, today, it is us and it will be you tomorrow and there will be no one to warn you then.

The west has used the media to cover their crimes in the past

One wonders what the ship wrecked Europeans said to the local Red Indians when they told them they were pilgrim fathers, and yet decimated the whole population and today they are left in desert reservations around the US.

The experience in Africa is no different. We had missionaries asking the Africans to look up to the sky for heavenly blessings when they took their earthly blessing from under their feet ( the ever present natural resources and their civil, political and economic freedom).

South African Dutch and the European colonizers- The Belgians, the British, the French, Germans and Portuguese did exactly the same thing with gettlemen people like Dr Stanley and Dr Livingston who were physicians posing as intelligent officers and Missionaries to the work of God on high and yet they were serving their earthly masters in Europe expanding their treasures while denigrating the local populations.

The new millennium should be about charting a new vision.

History is trying to repeat itself again in the Millennium. The actors are not the traditional missionaries but loony left apparently well meaning liberal journalists and charitable institutions. What a team of new missionaries for the new mission of globalization for peace or genocide?


The same old strategy is now being repeated with loony left media journalists and liberal charity organizations playing the new fools and goons. Will the world fall for this stupdity again?

The fact is that we have been there before. We will expose to the world all these double standards towards these potential dangerous developments, so that we will not have a world that says we did not know? We were not warned or we did not have alternative information. The time to act and get involved is now.

We will challenge the hearts and minds of the global community to be sensitive and responsive toward this potential impending crisis. The question we pose is that" should we repeat the evil of the last century in the new Millennium?, or create genuine, transparent and accountable win-win good governance across all our global partnerships? The choice is stark and to me a non starter. It is better to choose the later!

The liberal Media destroyed Blair's government

The BBC and the liberal media in Britain managed to bring down one of the most enlightened government of British history (Premier Tonny Blair) and replaced it with a new one whose impact will not be known for a long time to come.

The same outfit in USA, the New York Times and the like minded liberal media have managed to discredit the Bush Administration, so much so that the White House has never seen such low public opinion. The Democratic Presidential debate about National Security is taking the whole presidential conversation to a new direction. Good or bad, time will tell. No, doubt the landscape of political decision making is changing radically.

we trust and hope the massive inter-active involvement of the public in new media such as blogs, you tube, pal talk and Internet voice, vision and digital print communication will change the global political and economic public discourse for the better.

The current tragedy in Iraq is partly the media's making.

The same loony left liberal media is doing the same damage in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan where the human carnage and destruction is at its peak where the region's civilization will not be recovered and there will be cultural desolation for a long time to come.

They are referred as loony, because they are short sighted and sensational. They are left because they are left overs of the radical left ideologies of socialist and communist movements that lost in the cold war and wants to revive itself under a new guise of human rights lingo.

Whose human rights and whose terror?

Whose human rights? that of the majority peaceful public or the minority terrorists and their sympathisers, referred to as sleeper cell activists that have infiltrated these loony lef liberal media.

This new misguided group need to be understood very well. Why are they referred to Loony left liberal Media?

Liberal because it claims that it bases its activities on the premises of liberal democracies of the old that stood against fascism and dictatorship yet its current activities pose as enablers of potential global terrorism. They appear clever and well meaning, but they are very naive and dangerous, as they are being abused by the sleeper cell activists of global terrorism, just as communism used them some 70 years ago.

Is China forcing the west to a corner?

Is this by design or by accident? Global Patriotic Friends of Ethiopia and Africa claim this is no accident but a highly organized and deceitful campaign to draw Africa in to the next wave of the Middle East Crisis. The liberals are enablers of this highly dangerous development.

The presence of Chinese Business expansion in Africa is unsettling many European and US Corporations that the next century may see a unique Africa and Chinese Renaissance.

One wonders why such Renaissance should be considered a threat instead of an opportunity for growth and global market expansion where an increasing number of middle class billions will purchase their goods or destructive industrial Military Complex outfit have goods and services that the global public needs or few terrorist and dictators need.

The real question is do these members have goods and services that the market needs? There is a big disconnect between what is needed and what is offered.

Merchants of Death or good governance?

Sofar globalization has been overshadowed by Merchants of death as the current trends shows. It is amazing how the global poor who want to move towards security and prosperity are offered the mix of physical, chemical and biological explosive devices, bombs, guns and now media disinformation campaigns that enables global terrorists. Are the media part of the Merchants of Death phenomenon or are they ambassadors for good governance?

Making the liberal media accountable!

Who is going to challenge the gettlemen of this world that misinform their own respective governments and the world at large.
The recent letter from Senators in the US congress is highly alarming. They just copy the misinformation campaign of the gettlemens of this world without even considering alternative sources. They at least should consult their own official State Department led US Embassies around the world for substantiation of this phantom claims.

The recent book of the Merchant of Death (the story of a Russian rouge) has revealed how the Russians Mafia has been distributing weapons of destruction to the Middle East and Africa. It is ironic that as the cold war is abating, the Middle East and Africa are becoming targets of the incinerating war.

When does this gross hypocrisy stop?

Within this framework, what does it mean to have two papers from two cities (New York and London) the times and guardoam respectively, that suffered the most humiliating and disastrous terrorist network destruction, would accuse the only remaining ally, the Ethiopians by creating highly inflamed and inaccurate misrepresentations.

It is so clear that the current series of events is very revealing that there is some level of coordination or the usuual sarcastic self destruction covered up with the notion of human rights for terrorists. The way the US courtmarshal is sentencing the young soldiers suffering from PTSD is so ferocious that one wonders is this misguided jugdement that sacrifices its own heroes when they really need our sympathy and support during their time of need. Afterall, they went there with the wrong intelligence and the wrong policy as they say themselves.

First a certain Gettleman from New York Times enters Ethiopia under a tourist visa but was found collaborating with rebels and terrorist groups and was found criss-crossing between borders without appropriate visa in Ogaden, Somali land and Somalia.


The predictable liberal media and politicians dance!

Mr Gettleman, the author of this highly inflammatory disinformation campaign was caught red handed and thrown out by Ethiopian Government and he protests by writing a damaging, highly exaggerated report quoting lots of so called charitable organizations working as surrogate collaborators with the hidden and known terrorist groups such as Altihad, Alqaeda and so called Ogagen Liberation(sic) Front who have been terrorizing the region for over two decades.

Then follows, the Herald Tribune, more or less reprinting the highly charged erroneous report. The terrorists publish a highly charged accusation using the same Gettleman source. Then the International Red Cross is caught again red handed collaborating with the terrorist groups and were asked to leave the country in one week.

Even though the UN and World Food Organization tried to paint a more sober and realistic picture, the US Senators and Congressmen use the same factitious news of Gettleman as a source and write a press release and letters to Ethiopia and US State Department.

Now, the British left is catching on and has more or less regurgitated the same erroneous misinformation campaign giving it a humanitarian twist. Imagine, the fools in London telling us that they can differentiate between the terrorists and civilians in a setting in Ogaden where the terrorists use the civilian cover to murder and create chaos in the region.

A terrorist is a terrorist and they are not race blind!

The London terrorists did exactly the same thing. When the British police shot down a civilian tourist from Brazil under the wrong impression, other media around the world did not shout foul and made the British look like a terrorist regime which these foolish loony journalists are trying to make of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people.

This level of hypocrisy and outright disingenuous fabrication of news and connecting it to malign a people and a government has to change.

All the same, please read this one sided almost looking like the Algezira News of Alaqeda network for your own perspectives.

The time has come to make journalists accountable, especially when they print unverifiable such charged misinformation.

Alqaeda thrives because of the West's incompetence!

I wonder, Alqaeda needs no friends in the West, when you have such misguided and short sighted loony left liberal media and liberal organizations such Human Rights Watch and International Red Cross Societies.

You be the judge and read on. The time is right for comprehensive assessments if media sources and what is referred to as reliable sources. The experience of the Bush White House in the person of Scooter Libby and current Attorney General and the BBC and Blair Government in Britain is worth taking lessons from. However, the same mistake is being repeated. The Horn cannot afford such damaging intelligence and information to go forward unchecked with reason and facts on the ground.

Here is another disinformation campaign from the loony left British newspaper- the guardian circulating it as a humanitarian crisis. A Crisis that will shatter the region if appropriate action is not taken both in the security and humanitarian field.


Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH
Global Strategic Enterprises, Inc for Peace and Prosperity
Globalbelai@yahoo.com, www.globalbelai4u.blogspot.com

Please find attached 5 News Reports from the BBC, the Guardian, Waltainfo.com, www.aigaforum.com and usdoj.gov that coroborates the above analysis and concern.

Does the US Congress synergize open and covert intelligence reports before they publish their open letters is the real question. Here is a series of reports than need to be reviewed for a better understanding of the challenges of the Horn and Global terrorism across the world.

First the story of the terrorist that the loony left liberal media wants to protect

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1. http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565063940889247827

2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080500425.html

3. http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=387013&sid=FTP&sname=&news=Ethiopia%20unveils%20new%20find%20of%20fossils


Source: Chicago Tribune

1. Search for 'imaginary oil' drives real violence in Ethiopia

Paul Salopek



August 5, 2007

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Petroleum nearly killed Eskedar Demissew. Or at least the illusion of it did.

In the pre-dawn gloom of a morning in April, insurgents rousted the stocky truck driver from his tent at a remote oil prospecting camp in Ethiopia's Ogaden desert. They lined him up in the sand with other workers. And without further ceremony, they sprayed them with machine-gun fire.

Demissew survived, just barely, by playing dead. But 74 other people, including nine Chinese contractors, died in one of the worst attacks on an African oil facility in recent memory.

''I will never work in oil again,'' Demissew said quietly at his tiny house in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he was popping painkillers and hoping to regain full use of his nerve-damaged arms. ''It isn't worth it.''



Unfortunately, when it comes to getting shot over disputed energy resources, that's especially true for the Ogaden, where little oil actually has been found.

Indeed, while lucrative pools of crude have inflamed conflicts in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, even the merest promise of oil wealth - most of it tragically overblown - is stoking violence in the arid wastes of eastern Ethiopia, one of the poorest corners of the world and home to a secessionist movement that has been bubbling for decades.

Rebels with the Ogaden National Liberation Front, or ONLF, have added oil operations to their usual targets of army convoys and police stations in the Ogaden, warning all foreign companies not to steal ''the mineral resources of our people'' on pain of further guerrilla attacks. At the same time, Ethiopia's government has assured exploration firms that recent security crackdowns in the region have again made prospecting safe. And local conspiracy theorists now hold that the ugly civil war in the Ogaden is heating up only because the U.S. and China are vying over its hydrocarbon riches.

All of which is belied by a startling fact: Today there isn't a single functioning oil field in the Ogaden, a tract of scrubland the size of Nebraska located near the Somalia border. Most of the wells drilled to date have been dry holes. Natural gas is another matter: Exploitable reserves abound. But even this relatively modest bonanza is many years away from profitable development, experts say, because of the area's profound isolation and instability.

''You've heard about resource wars, right?'' said a geologist in Ethiopia familiar with that nation's energy potential. Asking not to be named because of the political sensitivity of the issue, he added, ''Well, this one involves an unusual resource. It's called imaginary oil.''

The main trouble in the Ogaden doesn't involve squabbling over supplies of black gold.

Ogadeni insurgents have been battling for independence from Ethiopia since 1984, complaining of discrimination by the central government against the region's Somali-speaking nomads.

In recent months the rebels have accused the federal army of mass rapes, torching villages and withholding food aid in the famine-prone region. Ethiopia angrily denies the charges.

But in response to the spectacular rebel attack on the Chinese-run Abole exploration project on April 24, some of the war's bitterest rhetoric has involved the ownership of the Ogaden's underground wealth. And grossly exaggerated notions regarding the size of that bounty - whether it be used to bankroll a future Ogaden state or alleviate poverty in a unified Ethiopia - have only complicated a seemingly intractable civil war, analysts say.

''It is my opinion that oil will eventually contribute significantly to the country's economy,'' Alemayehu Tegenu, Ethiopia's minister of Mines and Energy, predicted in an interview. ''We need three or four more years of exploration to fully understand our potential. After that, I see oil as a unifying force.''

But many residents of Ethiopia's Ogaden beg to differ.

''The oil is under our land,'' insisted Kadija, a wizened trader from the dusty Ogaden capital of Jijiga who was too worried about government reprisals to share her full name. ''These foreign companies should be giving money to our Somali elders. They should be building schools here.''

In fact, there simply is no oil money to give out.

According to industry reports, some of the Ogaden's rock formations match those found across the Red Sea in oil-sodden Saudi Arabia. But years of drilling, some by American companies, have proved disappointing. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that Ethiopia can muster a paltry 428,000 barrels of estimated crude reserves - what neighboring Sudan exports every 24 hours.

The real prize in the poverty-stricken country seems to be natural gas, experts say. An estimated 4 trillion cubic feet worth of gas has drawn large companies such as Malaysia's Petronas and Sweden's Lundin to the volatile and nearly road less Ogaden. Chinese subcontractors do much of the prospecting.

All the activity in the Ogaden is part of a new hunt for oil in northeast Africa, industry analysts say.

Exploration projects are under way in such improbable oil sources as Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea and even war-racked Somalia. Contrary to local gossip, the volumes of reserves involved haven't attracted American or Chinese oil majors, which are wrestling for access to bigger subsurface treasures elsewhere in Africa, mainly Nigeria and Angola.

The snooping in Africa's Horn is spurred mostly by energy nationalism locking up supplies on other continents, experts say. Yet that hasn't stifled wild expectations that oil will yank some of the world's poorest nations out of misery.

''It seems like a buzz, but we're really just turning over stones at this stage,'' said an executive in Addis Ababa who refused to be identified because Ogaden rebels were making death threats against some oil companies. ''With Russia and the Middle East closed off to us, we're working around the margins.''

That Ethiopia's own ragged margin - the Ogaden - is growing more unstable due to oil interest is lost on no one.

''Rumors of resources drive conflict as much as the resources themselves,'' said John V. Mitchell, a petroleum expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a London think-tank. ''Especially when it comes to a commodity like oil.''

Mitchell noted that the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina was stoked in part by murky reports of offshore oil - reserves that remain untapped to this day. And theoretical crude deposits in the high Arctic are now causing friction between Russia and its circumpolar neighbors, he said.

On Thursday, a Russian submarine dropped a flag onto the seabed at the North Pole in a gesture meant to strengthen its claim over potential oil supplies hidden away there. With global warming melting the northern ice cap, the Arctic is drawing the energy-hungry gaze of several nations.

In Ethiopia, Demissew, the wounded truck driver, said he could not care less whether his abandoned oil prospect produced anything. With three bullet holes in his body, he considered himself lucky to be alive. Most of his tent-mates, he said, were dead.

''Nobody told us the company had been warned by the rebels,'' he said, cradling a useless arm in his lap.

Back in the Ogaden, meanwhile, industry sources said that Demissew's former employers were already replacing the oil camp vehicles and generators destroyed during the rebel attack.

Hope and death spring eternal in the Ogaden, it seems, even when oil doesn't.

__________




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No. 1. Ethiopia denies Ogaden blockade, the BBC

Ethiopia has dismissed allegations that its security forces have imposed a food aid blockade in the eastern region of Ogaden and have burned down villages.

An Ethiopian foreign ministry statement said Eritrea and Somalia's Islamist movement are conducting disinformation.

In July, Human Rights Watch accused Ethiopia of removing people, especially those with suspected rebel links.

Ethiopia government acknowledged it had ordered the International Red Cross to stop work in the area last month.

"Various parties, in particular members of certain foreign media with their own hidden agenda and mission, have been disseminating erroneous stories alleging that the Ethiopian government was blockading emergency food aid, restricting trade, causing price hikes and burning down villages in retaliation for support given to the so-called Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)," the Ethiopian statement read.

'Terrorist group'

"The truth, however, is that the ONLF, a terrorist group acting in collaboration with the defunct Union of Islamic Courts and the Eritrean government, has been committing various heinous atrocities in the region."

According to the statement, the regional authorities had "ascertained beyond any doubt that the International Committee of the Red Cross Office/Delegation in the region has been serving as a source of various supplies, and as a conduit for financial and logistical support to the ONLF".

The ICRC, which was carrying out water and sanitation projects in the area, has denied accusations that it aided the rebels.

Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region shares a long and porous border with Somalia, and most of its people are of the Somali ethnic group.

The ONLF has fought for the secession of the Ogaden region since the early 1990s.

It accuses the government of blockading the region, and producing a "man-made famine".


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6928117.stm

Published: 2007/08/02 14:38:10 GMT

© BBC MMVII


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No. 2. Ethiopia's dirty war; Tom Porteous, The Guardian
August 5, 2007 12:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tom_porteous/2007/08/ethiopias_dirty_war.html

While the west agonises over Darfur, another humanitarian and human rights disaster is brewing in the Horn of Africa.

In June, the Ethiopian government launched a major military campaign in the Ogaden, a sparsely populated and remote region on Ethiopia's border with Somalia.

The counter insurgency operation was aimed at eliminating the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a rebel group which has been fighting for years for self-determination for the Ogaden's predominantly Somali population.

In less than two months, Ethiopia's military campaign has triggered a serious humanitarian crisis. Human Rights Watch has learned that dozens of civilians have been killed in what appears to be a deliberate effort to mete out collective punishment against a civilian population suspected of sympathising with the rebels.

Villages have been attacked, sacked and burnt. Livestock - the lynchpin of the region's pastoralist economy - have been confiscated or destroyed. A partial trade blockade has been imposed on the region leading to serious food shortages.

Relatives of suspected rebels have been taken hostage. Thousands of civilians have been displaced, fleeing across the borders of Ethiopia into northern Kenya and Somaliland.

Last week, with little objection from the international community, the Ethiopian government expelled from the Ogaden the International Committee of the Red Cross, one of the few neutral observers of the crisis left in the region.

This is not Darfur. But the situation in Ogaden follows a familiar pattern of a counter insurgency operation in which government forces show little regard for the safety of the civilian population and commit serious abuses, including deliberate attacks on civilians, mass displacement of populations and interference with humanitarian assistance.

Unlike in Darfur, however, the state that is perpetrating abuses against its people in Ogaden is a key western ally and recipient of large amounts of western aid.

Furthermore the crisis in Ogaden is linked to a military intervention by Ethiopia in Somalia that has been justified in terms of counter terrorism and is firmly supported by the United States and other western donors.

Ethiopia has often justified military action in Somalia on grounds of cooperation between what it calls "terrorist" groups in Somalia and the rebellion in Ogaden.

The ONLF certainly has strong ethnic and political links to Somali insurgents now fighting against the Ethiopian military presence in Somalia. It may have decided to escalate its rebellion in Ogaden in response to Ethiopia's full-scale military intervention in Somalia in December last year.

Now there are reliable reports that, as a result of Ethiopian military pressure inside Somalia, Somali insurgents including members the militant Islamist al-Shabaab have sought refuge in Ogaden where they could be regrouping.

Thus instead of containing and calming the situation in Somalia, the actions of Ethiopia's forces there may well be exacerbating the conflict and regionalising it.

The emerging crisis in the Ogaden is indicative of an increasingly volatile political and military situation in the Horn of Africa. Predictably civilians are bearing the brunt of the crisis both in the Ogaden and in Somalia where hundreds of thousands have been displaced by fighting since the Ethiopian intervention.

Predictably human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war are being perpetrated by all sides. It could all get a lot worse, especially if it leads to a resumption of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

So why isn't the international community doing more to address this crisis. Hasn't the UN being saying for years that crisis prevention is better than cure?

The EU and the United States have significant leverage over Ethiopia in the form of foreign aid and political influence. They should use it instead of turning a blind eye to abuses carried out by the Ethiopian security forces in the name of counter terrorism.

Western support for Ethiopia's counter insurgency efforts in the Horn of Africa is not only morally wrong and riddled with double standards, it is also ineffective and counterproductive.

It will lead to the escalation and regionalisation of the conflicts of the region and may well help to radicalise its large and young Muslim population.

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The UN-AU Biggest Peace Keeping Mission to the Horn it set to Impact the Sub-region



No.3 Mulugeta Alemu The UN-Africa Hybrid Force and its implication
www.Aigaforum.com

2 August 2007

After a mind boggling diplomatic deadlock and wrangling, the United Nations Security Council finally adopted Resolution 1766?2007 which seeks to send one of the largest and the first of its kind UN-AU hybrid force to the West Darfur region of the Sudan.

The first time we heard of a possible UN resolution on Darfur was years back. The force under the new resolution, dubbed the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur(UNMID), is expected to be fully deployed by December this year. Already a 7000 strongmen African troop is stationed in the region under the auspice of the African Union.

The operation will have up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.

The force is expected to have a “predominantly African Character” where the day to day activity will be run by the African Union with a UN command and control.



Resolution 1766 was adopted by unanimous vote by the 15 members of the Security Council. But the journey toward such consensual agreement took longer than expected. Perhaps the African Union should come as a big winner by the adoption of the resolution.

It has managed to ensure that the force is not exclusively UN and that African forces and commander will be in charge of the day to day activities of the peace keeping mission.

The hybrid nature of the force is tainted as groundbreaking in the practise of the maintenance of international peace and security.

Though the United Nations Charter provides for the role of regional organizations in the maintenance of international peace and security (Article 52 and 53), these institutions have never been taken with seriousness.

The relationship between regional organizations such as the African Union and the UN in peace keeping has never been clarified. As such the earlier report of the Secretary General on the Hybrid force and Resolution 1766/2007 breathe new thinking and perspective.

UNAMID’s lasting contributions will be reflected in the kind of support it lends to the development of regional and sub-regional peace and security architecture in Africa.

African members of the Security Council such as South Africa, and Ghana highlighted this element in their official statement following the adoption of the resolution. Ethiopia was one of the leading countries supporting the establishment of the Eastern Africa Standby Brigade (EASBRIG).

This force is established as a sub-regional component of the African Standby Force as envisaged under the Constitutive Act and the Protocol for the Establishment of the African Union Peace and Security Council.

Ethiopia has ratified both instruments. The headquarters and the logistic base of EASBRIG are based in Ethiopia. Hence Ethiopia should support the effort that these sub-regional forces benefit from the promote location of the UN AU force.


Ethiopia has consistently supported the resolution of the conflict in Darfur through a peaceful dialogue. As a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council, it participated in the various decisions made by this important organ regarding this beleaguered region.

It was also a leading member of IGAD which has been involved in Sudanese peace process for years. It has actively encouraged the leading role of the African Union as a mediating institution and of course as a credible force on the ground.

It has emphasised the role of diplomacy and peaceful dialogue as a means of settling the dispute and that the AU should be allowed to play a central role.

A diplomatic axis involving Eritrea and Libya had been playing a role that put to risk the centrality of the AU in this endeavour. Eritrea was involved in arming various groups involved in the Darfur conflict.

Eritrea, consistent with its policy of meddling in the affairs of other countries in the region was arming some of the rebel groups in Darfur.

Eritrea’s support to the Al-Sharq Front is an open secrete. The same Eritrea tried to use its connections among its brothers in arms posing itself as a mediator.

It was very effective in forcing the Sudan government to acknowledge its role. During the Libya talks which brought parties from the Sudan, Chad and Central African Republic, no one had questioned the presence of the white elephant, Eritrea.

Eritrea was among those who strongly rejected the presence of the UN troops in Western Darfur.

However it tried to sale itself as a “neutral negotiator.” These futile attempts by Eritrea not only led to no concrete results but were rejected by the AU in numerous occasions.

The presence of the hybrid force and the peace talks in Tanzania will close the door on actors such as Eritrea who see plenty of advantages in others miseries.

France’s hyper-active and limelight-loving new government had also gathered mainly western Governments in Paris to discuss the future of Darfur in June 2007.

The AU, which noted the absurdly self-serving nature of the diplomatic drama rightly rejected these moves and declined to participate in the conference.

Though Resolution 1766/2007 is a result of the hard work of the AU and the UN, and that the Sudanese Government agreed to the deployment of the force way before the resolution was adopted, the new leaders of France and UK stole the show by posing as grand achievers of how to end the misery in Drafur.

As usual ceremonies tend to attract the glorification of the uninvolved. Diplomatic events are not immune to such vices.

The Sudanese government had shown a remarkable strength and vitality in negotiating the final shape and content of the resolution, thanks to the country’s oil and the friendship it has brought particularly from China.

China was a big factor in the adoption of the new resolution. It has supported Sudan’s resistance against the inclusion of a provision in the resolution involving a possible imposing economic sanction in case of non-compliance on the part of the Sudanese Government.

The Sudan is already under a US bilateral sanction. Countries such as the UK threatened to follow such bilateral routes if the Sudanese government is not willing to comply. If these measures are taken in the future, they may affect trade relationships between the Sudan and its neighbours.

But the Sudanese government had learnt an important lesson in the meantime. The new emerging financial centres in the Middle East and good friends from Far East provide an important relief from pressure from the West.


No one exactly knows how long UNAMID will stay in the region. Neither is it clear how it will affect the future of Sudan. After all, as Secretary General Ban Ki Moon noted, the purpose of the deployment is achieving lasting peace.

It is likely that the force will remain within the territory of the Sudan when the future of the Southern Sudan unravels in the coming few years.

Will UNAMID’s mandate change in due course of time to include the enforcement of existing agreements regarding the Southern Sudan? These changes can not happen at ease.

The Sudanese Government will never allow such shifts to happen. Moreover, preserving the territorial integrity of the Sudan is encoded as an important element of Resolution 1766/2007.

But some argue that after the Sudan gave in to the presence of such a huge force in its territory, their future realise less on the will of its government.Press Statement (31 July 2007)


The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted that various parties, in particular members of certain foreign media with their own hidden agenda and mission, have been disseminating erroneous stories alleging that the Ethiopian Government was blockading emergency food aid, restricting trade, causing price hikes and burning down villages in retaliation for support given to the so-called Ogaden National Liberation Front, (ONLF).


The truth, however, is that the ONLF, a terrorist group acting in collaboration with the defunct Union of Islamic Courts and the Eritrean Government, has been committing various heinous atrocities in the region.

It has carried out horrendous human rights violations, including the indiscriminate murder of innocent civilians. Through such acts, it has also severely affected the peace and stability of the region.

In the discharge of their responsibility to safeguard the peace and national security of the country and its people, the Ethiopian Defense Forces have taken all legal measures deemed essential to stop terrorist acts perpetrated by this group.

All operations of the Ethiopian Defence Forces have been successful in this regard; cross-border arms trafficking and contraband have been put under effective control. The ruinous terrorist activities of the ONLF have been, by and large, curtailed.

No wonder, therefore, if those who felt their interests threatened would disseminate groundless stories about population displacement, blockade of food aid and trade restrictions.

Obviously, the hidden agenda and mission of these groups would not succeed in an atmosphere of peace and stability in the region. No exaggeration is intended here. This is what the actual situation on the ground in the region confirms.

As far as blockade on relief food supply alleged by those who have nefarious agenda is concerned, this has been effectively contradicted by the statement recently made by the World Food Program.

In the meantime, the authorities in the Somali Regional State have ascertained beyond any doubt that the International Committee of the Red Cross Office/Delegation in the region has been serving as a source of various supplies, and as a conduit for financial and logistical support to the ONLF.

This is the only reason why the ICRC Delegation in Ethiopia has been recently ordered to close down its office in the region.

The reason is clear: The ICRC Office in this particular region was not engaged in activities compatible with the ICRC mandate. In fact, it was doing the opposite.

Giving assistance and succor to terrorists and, thereby engaging in acts of destabilization is contrary to the obligations given to the ICRC under the Geneva Conventions.

In this connection, the Ministry would like to warn all other entities operating under the guise of providing humanitarian assistance to refrain from such acts.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally would like to assure all interested parties or members of the media of its readiness to avail them every assistance needed should they wish to visit the region and find out the truth.


***********************

No. 4 Press Statement (31 July 2007), www.waltainfo.com


The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted that various parties, in particular members of certain foreign media with their own hidden agenda and mission, have been disseminating erroneous stories alleging that the Ethiopian Government was blockading emergency food aid, restricting trade, causing price hikes and burning down villages in retaliation for support given to the so-called Ogaden National Liberation Front, (ONLF).

The truth, however, is that the ONLF, a terrorist group acting in collaboration with the defunct Union of Islamic Courts and the Eritrean Government, has been committing various heinous atrocities in the region.

It has carried out horrendous human rights violations, including the indiscriminate murder of innocent civilians. Through such acts, it has also severely affected the peace and stability of the region.

In the discharge of their responsibility to safeguard the peace and national security of the country and its people, the Ethiopian Defense Forces have taken all legal measures deemed essential to stop terrorist acts perpetrated by this group.

All operations of the Ethiopian Defence Forces have been successful in this regard; cross-border arms trafficking and contraband have been put under effective control. The ruinous terrorist activities of the ONLF have been, by and large, curtailed.

No wonder, therefore, if those who felt their interests threatened would disseminate groundless stories about population displacement, blockade of food aid and trade restrictions.

Obviously, the hidden agenda and mission of these groups would not succeed in an atmosphere of peace and stability in the region. No exaggeration is intended here. This is what the actual situation on the ground in the region confirms.

As far as blockade on relief food supply alleged by those who have nefarious agenda is concerned, this has been effectively contradicted by the statement recently made by the World Food Program.

In the meantime, the authorities in the Somali Regional State have ascertained beyond any doubt that the International Committee of the Red Cross Office/Delegation in the region has been serving as a source of various supplies, and as a conduit for financial and logistical support to the ONLF. This is the only reason why the ICRC Delegation in Ethiopia has been recently ordered to close down its office in the region.

The reason is clear: The ICRC Office in this particular region was not engaged in activities compatible with the ICRC mandate. In fact, it was doing the opposite. Giving assistance and succor to terrorists and, thereby engaging in acts of destabilization is contrary to the obligations given to the ICRC under the Geneva Conventions.

In this connection, the Ministry would like to warn all other entities operating under the guise of providing humanitarian assistance to refrain from such acts.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally would like to assure all interested parties or members of the media of its readiness to avail them every assistance needed should they wish to visit the region and find out the truth.

********************************
5. An Altihad Sleeper Cell terorist caught in the USA, www.usdaoj.gov


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888

Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy
to Provide Material Support to Terrorists
WASHINGTON– An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S.

Attorney Gregory G. Lockhart of the Southern District of Ohio, FBI Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division, Arthur M. Cummings, and Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced today.

Nuradin M. Abdi, 35, a Somali national living in Columbus, Ohio, was named in a four-count indictment returned under seal in the U.S. District Court in Columbus on June 10, 2004.

This afternoon, Abdi pleaded guilty in federal court to Count One of the indictment, which charged him with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2339A. Abdi agreed to serve a 10-year prison sentence pursuant to the terms of his plea agreement.

Count One of the indictment specifically alleged that on April 27, 1999, Abdi applied to the Immigration and Naturalization Service - now known as ICE - for a travel document, wherein he concealed his destination by representing that he intended to visit Germany and Saudi Arabia for the purpose of "Umrah (Holly[sic] - Mecca) and visit my relative," when he actually planned to travel to Ogaden, Ethiopia, for the purpose of obtaining military-style training in preparation for violent jihad.

Abdi allegedly sought training in radio usage, guns, guerilla warfare and bombs.

“Today’s case should serve notice to those who would take advantage of our country’s freedoms to support and conspire with international terrorists who are our sworn enemies,” said Assistant Attorney General Wainstein.

“This plea is the product of a persistent global investigation by agents and officers who used every legal tool available to document the actions of one who conspired to aid terrorists,” U.S. Attorney Lockhart said.

“While living in our country, Nuradin M. Abdi endangered the national security of the United States by conspiring to provide support to terrorists," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Cummings. "Let there be no mistake, the FBI will work tirelessly with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities to pursue suspected terrorists and their supporters and disrupt their criminal activities.”

“This case demonstrates ICE’s efforts to help prevent acts of terrorism through the aggressive enforcement of our immigration laws,” said ICE Assistant Secretary Myers. “Obtaining immigration benefits through document fraud is a serious threat to public safety and national security. ICE is committed to continuing to work with our law enforcement partners to safeguard against those seeking to exploit the immigration system to support terrorist activity.”

According to the statement of facts agreed upon by the government and the defendant, Abdi first entered the United States in 1995 using a false passport. He once again illegally entered the United States from Canada in 1997. Abdi was later granted asylum in this country based on a series of false statements.

In the ensuing years, Abdi befriended co-conspirators Christopher Paul and Iyman Faris in Ohio. Christopher Paul was later arrested and indicted in April 2007 on charges of providing material support, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives) in the Southern District of Ohio.

Iyman Faris was later convicted of providing material support and conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda. He is currently serving a 20-year prison term.

In 1999, the defendant made plans to travel to overseas training camps to prepare himself for violent jihad. He initially sought to go to Kosovo, then changed plans in favor of Chechnya, and later planned to attend a training camp in Ethiopia that he had heard of. In 2000, Abdi traveled to Kenya and learned that the Ethiopian camp no longer existed. He then went on to Somalia, where he met with a warlord associated with Islamic extremists. Abdi returned to the United States in March 2000.

According to the statement of facts, Abdi told FBI agents that in August 2002 he proposed a plot to bomb a shopping mall. Abdi was later provided with compact discs containing instructions on how to make explosives. In Dec. 2002, Faris described to Abdi a potential plot to launch missile attacks against various landmarks in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after these discussions, Faris was taken into custody and began making statements to the FBI. Federal agents arrested Abdi on Nov. 28, 2003. Abdi subsequently agreed to be interviewed by FBI agents and admitted conspiring with Faris, Paul and others to provide material support to foreign terrorists. These admissions by Abdi have been corroborated in a variety of ways, including bank records, travel records, invoices, and items seized in search warrants.

This case was investigated by the Southern Ohio Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-agency operation that includes agents and officers from 15 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The investigation was a joint investigation by agents and officers of the JTTF, specifically ICE Special Agents Bob Medellin and Rich Wilkens; and FBI Special Agents Steve Flowers and John Corbin.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana M. Peters and Robyn J. Hahnert from the Southern District of Ohio and Sylvia Kaser, Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice’s Counterterrorism Section.

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