From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Mon Apr 27 2009 - 13:38:44 EDT
AMERICAN CHRONICLE
Dick Armey, Ethiopia´s Lobbyist Orchestrates Cyber Campaign Against
President Barack Obama
Sophia Tesfamariam
April 27, 2009
President Barack Obama got a taste of what Eritreans around the world
have had to deal with for the last 8 years- Astroturf campaigns-where
digital media is used to generate "fake grassroots activity". The recent
campaign against President Obama was orchestrated by none other than
Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader who leads Freedom
Works and who is known to both Eritreans and Ethiopians as the million
dollar lobbyist for the minority regime in Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi.
Eritreans are also familiar with the various deceptive tactics and faux
grassroots efforts orchestrated by the regime´s mercenaries.
Dick Armey, who is ranked as one of DC's top "hired guns" is a corporate
lobbyist with a history of directing Freedom Works to support the goals
of Armey´s clients, such as the minority regime in Ethiopia. Dick Armey
and other members of the Washington cartel, enjoyed unprecedented access
in the Bush Administration and was instrumental in quashing over 12
Congressional Bills introduced by lawmakers to take punitive actions
against the minority regime in Ethiopia for its numerous violations of
international law and the human rights and genocides in the Gambela,
Ogaden and Oromia regions of Ethiopia. Dick Armey´s and his "network"
bombarded Congress with faxes, emails and letters to prevent lawmakers
from taking action against the lawless and belligerent regime. Today,
the US President is on the receiving end of Dick Armey´s wrath.
On 22 March 2009, Lee Fang of ThinkProgress reported the following:
"…After accepting illegal and unethical behavior for years from
President Bush, the right wing has finally come around to advocating for
the impeachment of a President. On Sat. March 21, more than 4,000 people
gathered in Orlando for a "tea party" protest to denounce what they
called "wasteful Washington spending." The Orlando Sentinel quoted one
attendee saying, "They need to shove that bum out," referring to
Obama…The "tea party" protests nationwide are being coordinated by the
conservative public relations firm Freedom Works, which is run by former
Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX)…Despite attempts to make the
"movement" appear organic, the principle organizers of the local events
were actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and
Freedom Works…"
The two heavily staffed and well funded groups provided all the
logistical and public relations work necessary for planning the fake
"coast-to-coast protests". Freedom Works staffers coordinated conference
calls amongst protesters, provided "sign ideas", "sample press
releases", "how-to guides for delivering a ´clear message´ to the public
and media" etc. etc. As it had done in the past, Freedom Works also used
several domain addresses, some of them made to look like they were set
up by amateurs, to promote the protests.
According to the report:
"…this type of corporate 'astroturfing' is nothing new to either
organization. While working to promote Social Security privatization,
Dick Armey´s Freedom Works was caught planting one of its operatives as
a "single mom" to ask questions to President Bush in a town hall on the
subject. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed Freedom Works for
similarly building "amateur-looking" websites to promote the lobbying
interests of Dick Armey…"
It comes as no surprise to Eritreans as they have been battling against
the onslaught of such campaigns against the Eritrea for over 8 years.
In 2000, the people and government of Eritrea were just coming out of a
bloody war with Ethiopia and the ink on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Cessation
of Hostilities Agreement had barely dried when, almost on cue, an
orchestrated Astroturf campaign against the Government of Eritrea began.
The intention was to make it look like there was widespread
dissatisfaction with the Government of Eritrea and its leadership and
garner international support for a group of high ranking Eritrean
officials known as the "reformists". It was learned later that there was
an attempt, by these high ranking officials, to overthrow the Government
of Eritrea, at the height of the Ethiopian invasion of Eritrea.
The coup makers were labeled "reformists" by the western media and a
group of Eritrean "intellectuals and professionals" who were selected to
convince the Eritrean Diaspora and western lawmakers, that there was
widespread and scholarly support for the group in Eritrea. It was then
that the Eritrean Diaspora was introduced, via cyberspace, first to a
group calling itself the "silenced intellectuals". By the summer of
2001, they were calling themselves "Concerned Eritreans" (Gudusat, also
known as Guzuat). These individuals held secret meetings in Berlin and
New York and set out to deceive the Eritrean Diaspora. Within a very
short time, the scam had crumbled, exposing the group, also known as the
Eritrean Quislings League, and the shady characters at its core and
their deceptive agenda.
The mercenary Eritrean Quislings League (EQL), a dubious alliance of the
jilted and scorned, of like-minded defectors, disgruntled runaway
diplomats, pedophiles, rapists, self-professed "intellectuals and
professionals", deceitful counterfeiters, information launderers and an
assortment of shameless scandalous opportunists created various cyber
political parties, cyber "human rights" and "democracy" groups and began
the business of churning out reports to denigrate the Government of
Eritrea and its leadership. At one point these fake "human rights" and
"democracy" groups had set up 47 one and two-persons groups throughout
Europe and the United States. The EQL falsely claimed to be representing
a large section of the Eritrean Diaspora, when in fact, their support
remains minimal or non-existent. Court papers filed by a member of the
EQL reveal that a few individuals making repeated visits to these sites
made it look like they were "popular", when in fact they weren´t.
The EQL and its handlers set out to destroy Eritrea´s impeccable image,
to weaken Eritrea and break the unity of the people. Partnered with
groups such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW),
they carried out an unprecedented 8-year campaign to present Eritrea as
a pariah. They produced baseless and unsubstantiated reports and worked
to isolate Eritrea economically, politically and diplomatically. The
same information was distributed through email mailing lists and
reproduced under various titles etc. etc. The agenda was regime change,
and these foot soldiers were supposed to lay the groundwork´s for it.
Western media led by the British Broadcasting Center (BBC) and the Voice
of America (VoA) and journalists such as Martin Plaut of the BBC, Dan
Connell of Freedom House, Frank Smyth of the Committee for the
Protection of Journalists availed themselves to the campaign and gave
the coup makers turned "reformists", unprecedented media coverage and
air time. The EQL led by National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
recipients Paulos Tesfagiorgis and Bereket Habte Selassie, runaway
disgruntled diplomats and "reformers" gave interviews, commentaries and
published numerous reports, articles etc. which were regurgitated by
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and distributed through
their intricate networks around the world.
It became impossible to keep up with the many groups mushrooming in
cyber space. For each cyber "democracy" group there was an associated
"human rights" group set up to make it look like there was more than the
handful of personalities behind the campaign. They circulated numerous
reports, "Alerts", "Dispatches from Eritrea", "Press Releases", "Open
Letters", "Petitions" and more. They burned the midnight oil churning
out "analysis", "reports", "lists" etc. to malign Eritrea, its people
and its leadership. They left no stone unturned to isolate Eritrea and
deny Eritrea and its people the right to development. Tesfaldet
Meharena, member of the EQL and owner of Alemsoft, provided his domains
for groups such as Awate.com and Assena.com. Red Sea Press owner and
publisher Kassahoun Checole published books and other materials produced
by the EQL and their western counterparts.
These cyber campaigns against the Government of Eritrea and its
leadership got more attention from the western media than the bloody war
between Eritrea and Ethiopia which had cost the lives of 120,000
Ethiopians and 19,000 Eritreans and caused the displacement of over a
million people. BBC and Martin Plaut produced the bulk of the
reports-almost weekly. The EQL were provided were provided forums at the
United Nations and at think thanks such as Chatham House and in many
Universities across the United States.
The EQL went a whirlwind global tour conducting "seminars", "workshops",
"interviews etc. for about a year. It was the most difficult time in the
history of the Eritrean Diaspora. As if the propaganda coming from the
minority regime in Ethiopia was not enough, the Eritrean Diaspora had to
decipher through and make sense of a totally unexpected defamation and
vilification campaign by the EQL, who were well organized, had media and
other resources and access to the hostile Bush Administration and the
western NGO community, including the Committee for the Protection of
Journalists (CPJ) and US institutions such as Freedom House. The NED
sponsored Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) was the most aggressive-at one
point its members even attacked and briefly occupied an Eritrean Embassy
in Europe. The EQL deliberately mislead the Eritrean Diapsora and
deliberately mislead US and European lawmakers.
For the average Eritrean Diaspora, it was quite distressing and very
confusing. The prominence of the EQL, some of them revered veterans of
the Eritrean war for liberation, made it even harder to comprehend.
Their description of the Government of Eritrea and its leadership just
didn´t jive with what the majority of Eritreans knew about their country
and leadership. The Eritrean Diaspora was not spared the wrath of the
EQL. Emboldened by the support they received from the Bureau of African
Affairs and Jendayi Frazer, the former Secretary of State for African
Affairs, they disrupted the community´s activities, made false calls to
the FBI and police accused members of the community of aiding
"terrorists". They were labeled "cash cows", "propagandists", "blind
followers", were harassed and intimidated, ridiculed and insulted, for
rejecting the EQL campaigns and for defending the government and people
of Eritrea.
Back in 2001, I referred to them as those who deliberately and
maliciously spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about Eritrea or FUDists.
When they moved to a new phase in their agenda, I referred to them as
the Ds-for Deformers as opposed to reformers (their self professed
label), Distracters, Defectors, Distorters, and Defeatists. Serving as
puppets for the minority regime in Ethiopia; they undermined, ridiculed
and sullied every Eritrean institution and Eritrea´s national policies.
No one and nothing was spared. Eritrea´s mandatory national service
programs, Eritrea´s policies on NGOs, Eritrea´s policies for the press,
Eritrea´s religious institutions etc. etc. were undermined and
misrepresented. Several US and Ethiopian "think tanks" and non-profits
with innocuous sounding names produced "analysis" and "reports" about
Eritrea, citing the same bogus sites and groups as their source.
For instance, when UNICEF and other international organizations were
touting Eritrea´s success lowering child mortality and in improving
maternal health, a report was produced by a non-descript NGO in Ethiopia
which said Eritrea was the worst place to raise children. Today, there
is another US based NGO with its international headquarters in Ethiopia
telling us that Eritreans are on the verge of starvation. International
Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has produced what they call a
Global Hunger Index which ranks Eritrea as being worse than Ethiopia,
and almost all the countries in Africa. The countries, according to the
authors, were ranked on the basis on three indicators: proportion of
people who are calorie deficient, child malnutrition prevalence, and
child mortality rate.
Every UNDP, FAO, WHO, and UNICEF report will show that Eritrea is not
only ahead of Ethiopia and many others in the region, it is also one of
the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa that will be meeting or
exceeding the Millennium Development Goals. Yet, the mercenary EQL,
almost on cue, feigning concern for the people of Eritrea, have
disseminated this bogus report in their networks and initiated another
cyber howling session. They are denouncing the Government of Eritrea´s
(GoE) self reliance policies and are now accusing the GoE of refusing to
accept handouts, specifically food aid.
In 2001-2002, when Eritrea was experiencing severe drought conditions,
the international community denied the people of Eritrea food aid and
the government of Eritrea had to buy food in the open markets to feed
its people. What makes their self serving claims preposterous is that
they are made at a time when the Government and people of Eritrea have
constructed large dams in strategic locations around the country, dozens
of micro dams and other infrastructures needed for ensuring that every
drop of rainfall is harvested and stored. The Government of Eritrea´s
food security program is coming to fruition and it has proved that the
GoE´s policies are not only sound and sustainable, but also visionary.
It´s summertime and that means it´s time for the many Eritrean national
holidays. On 24th May, Eritreans around the world will be celebrating
Eritrea´s 18th Independence Anniversary, on June 20th, they will be
commemorating Martyrs Day, and on September 1, they will be
commemorating the Anniversary of the start of the armed struggle for
Eritrea´s liberation. This is also the time that the EQL will once again
pollute the cyber sphere with fabricated stories of gloom and doom in
Eritrea, and try in vain to prevent Eritreans in the Diaspora from
participating in their community activities. Eritrean Americans will
remain vigilant and expose these bogus groups and the power-hungry and
opportunist Eritrean ´Chalabis´ that are seeking to destroy Eritrea.
As for Dick Armey´s campaign against President Obama, it fizzled before
it even began. This campaign exposed the unethical and deceptive tactics
of such lobbyists and their clients. It also showed that there are some
in the western media, who are not willing to jeopardize their integrity
and credibility to advance such illicit political agendas. Hopefully,
the Obama Administration will put an end to these fake Astroturf groups
and lobbyists and seek to listen to the true voices of the people.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/100240
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