Snowden’s Ethiopia Leaks; Reading Between the Lines

Edward Snowden’s politburo for secret documents has finally begun to

release NSA files on the highly classified (and not so highly

classified) activities of the USA in Ethiopia. In an article in The

Intercept by veteran Horn of Africa journalist Nick Turse we find the

latest chapter of another long awaited expose of the role of Pax

Americana in Ethiopia.
The NSA documents released show the US military was secretly running

an anti-terrorist intelligence gathering operation for many years in

Ethiopia. The lands surveilled include Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

Conspicuously absent from the documents is any mention of Eritrea,

Ethiopia’s neighbor and arch enemy.
When you read between the lines you find that Eritrea is under UN

Security Council Sanctions for allegedly supporting terrorism in

Somalia in the form of Al Shabab. But no mention is made of Eritrea in

the top secret cables of the US Army’s Intelligence Division when it

comes to anything to do with terrorism in the Horn of Africa. If the

US Army is not concerned about any link between Eritrea and terrorism

then shouldn't this be a word to the wise on the matter?

This should be the final nail in the coffin of the decade old tall

tale of Eritrea as a supporter of terrorism (as Cuba was so slandered

for decades).
Snowden’s EthiopiaLeaks follows in the footsteps of Wikileaks

Ethiopia File where we find now Acting Assistant Secretary of State

for Africa Donald Yamamoto way back in 2007 saying that Eritrea’s

involvement in Somalia was “insignificant” (“Wikileaks Exposes UN

Eritrean Sanction Lies”).
Later Wikileaks exposed how the UN Security Council Sanctions against

Eritrea passed on Christmas Eve, 2009 were crafted by, amongst others,

the US State Department’s Economic Sabotage office aimed as preventing

international funding for Eritrea’s mining industry start up gold mine

in Bisha and had nothing to do with any alleged support for terrorism

as in Al Shabab in Somalia.
Now we have Snowden’s EthiopiaLeaks showing that no matter the lies

told in public by the US State Department and their allies at HRW and

Amnesty International, the US military wasn't buying any of it and

didn't waste any time in wild goose chases concerning Eritrea and

support for terrorism ie Al Shabab.
End of Story? No…in Nick Turse’s article he interviews Felix Horne,

Horn of Africa specialist for HRW who along with Amnesty continues to

insist that once upon a time Eritrea was supporting the Al Queda

branch Al Shabab in Somalia. Never mind Wikileaks, never mind Snowden

Leaks once a lie is told never admit what you have claimed is not

real. This is so true of those who once surrounded Barack Obama and

Hillary the Terrible and of course, their minions in their incestous

relationship with Human Rights Watch. We are talking about Tom

Malinowski and his “special relationship” with Hillary Rodham Clinton

(HRC) and her Mafia, when he wasn't serving as Horn of Africa

specialist et al at HRW.
HRW to HRC to HRW to HRC, who could tell who he was working for. The

guy who was so blatantly pro-Pax Americana while switch hitting for

HRW that he caused numerous Nobel Peace Laureates to publicly protest

in an Open Letter to HRW?
One thing Nick Turse’s article didn’t mention is the not so secret

AFRICOM Drone Assassination and Surveillance Program long based in

Ethiopia. Hopefully Snowden's EthiopiaLeaks files will have something

on this for as recently as February 2015 an AFRICOM drone fired a

cruise missile from Ethiopian airspace that struck an arms depot in

the Eritrean town of Decamhare. Apparently wreckage from the drone was

found identifying it as a cruise missile of the type used mainly by

Predator drones in their assassination campaigns.
We find the hand of AFRICOM again in June of 2016 when Ethiopia sent a

couple of their army divisions across the border into Eritrea at

Tsorona where a major battle took place. AFRICOM’s role was so blatant

that the Eritrean government issued an all to rare public statement

condemning such.
So here’s to more juicy tidbits from Snowden’s EthiopiaFile, maybe

something that exposes a major crime or two will surface, we have

given up finding any senior criminals being named and shamed a la Phil

Agee. It has taken a while for EthiopiaLeaks to see the light of day

and hopefully there is much more to come.
Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and

reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook or

best reach him at thomascmountain at g mail dot com