Egypt Controls Most of Nile's Water
east africa is in the midst of a devastating drought--in Ethiopia, the dry spell has left close to 14 million people dependent on food aid. When assigning blame, aid workers and politicians finger the usual suspects: lack of rain, climate change, and an underdeveloped agricultural sector. But they're forgetting one: Egypt. Thanks to a 1929 agreement between ­Britain--­acting on behalf of its East African ­colonies--and a newly independent Egypt, Cairo holds the rights to two thirds of the Nile's water, as well as veto power over upstream projects. The disparity is stark: Ethiopia is the source of 60 to 80 percent of the Nile's flow, but uses less than 1 percent of it because Egypt says no to large-scale irrigation projects. And though Ethiopians might be tempted to circumvent the anachronistic arrangement, they can't. Egyptian officials work "behind closed doors" to block funding for upstream projects, according to David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. The Nile states want to re-negotiate the ancient treaty, but Egyptian officials have stalled for years. And there's no sign they'll slake their neighbors' thirst any time soon.

Comment: This is State sponsored Terrorism against the people of Ethiopia!

Video: Somali crowds vow allegiance to bin Laden
The video showed the Shabab militia in training, leaping over piles of sandbags, crawling on the ground and shooting at targets. White-skinned bearded trainers could be seen moving among the Somalis. The video also showed crowds chanting: "At your service Osama!"

Inside the insular and secretive Eritrea(FT)
The 22-year-old said she “sneaked out” of national service after Sawa, a move that would get a man thrown in jail. When I asked her if she would go to the front line if war broke out again with Ethiopia, she said: “No. I’d run away. Seriously, what’s the point? You’re gonna die.”

Comment: Aybelnan'do

Interview with Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki
FT: Let’s talk about Eritrea’s international relations. You don’t have a lot of allies in the rest of the world. You’re often described as an isolated state, even as a pariah state. Can you give me your take on how the country has got to this point?

Isaias Afewerki: Who said that?

Eritrea: World's Biggest Prison for Journalists Eight Years After September 2001 Round-Ups
Eritrea now has at least 30 journalists and two media workers behind bars, which means that, exactly eight years after the round-ups of 18 September 2001 that put an end to free expression, it has achieved parity with China and Iran in terms of the number of journalists detained.

EU calls on Eritrea to free political prisoners
In a statement earlier this week marking the 8-year anniversary of a clamp-down by the Eritrean government, Reporters Without Borders labelled Eritrea the "world's biggest prison for journalists", saying at least 30 had been jailed

Suspect Killed In Somalia Tied To Minneapolis Youths
At a Minnesota market, tales of a hidden Ethiopian war(You lie, Mr. Mcgill!)
Analysis: Al-Qaida death a blow to terror group

BBC NEWS on ERITREA(audio)
BBC NEWS HOUR APR 14, 2009

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mahletai Click on his face to watch the palylist Issaias Afewerki ethiopia tigray mekelle eritrea asmara asmarino dehai agazi adigrat agame enderta wukro axum aksum hawelti haweltina tplf eplf woyane woyanne woyin tirhas terhas badme badime
© 2008 YouTube, LLC

mahletai sent you a playlist: "Eritrean Terrorists on the run"

mahletai click on the picture to watch the video Eritrean Terrorists on the run Wufer!!!
© 2008 YouTube, LLC

Atse Yohannes

King Yohannes:
ኣንቱም ሰባት ናብ ዓድዋ ኣይትኺዱ
ብEሳተ ጎመራ ከይትነዱ
ኣባ በዝብዝ ካሳ ቆራጽ Eያ ኸብዱ

Shaebia: A Threat to Ethiopia's National Security

It time for the sons and daughters of Atse Yohannes and Alula Aba Nega to wake up and bring the Eritrean regime down. What are waiting for? We have nothing to lose as far I am concerned. The West is not going to come to our rescue, the West is not a partner in our fight to eradicate poverty in Ethiopia. A campaign by the French and Italians to stop the building of dams that will enable us to expand the use of electricity through out the country is one example to why we shouldn't allow the West interfere in our affairs.A nation with out power as we know can't eradicate poverty and feed its people. Electric power is crucial to our development. Let's use our waters for they are ours. We don't get Oil from the Saudis for free, we don't get the proceeds from the Millions of dollars that Egypt earns from its tourist industry.I suggest that, Ethiopia, as the sole owner of the bulk of the water that flows to the Nile, must start charging the Egyptians and the Sudanese $100 dollars per barrel of water. We can't be told by the Arabs in Egypt not to use our waters when our people are starving from the lack of water when we have plenty of it. We can't be told by the Arabs in Egypt and their allies not to build dams for hydroelectric power in our country.

But, first we must eradicate the threat to our development and existence which is the Shaebia army!!Shaebia must not be allowed to train and arm anti-Ethiopian elements in the name of development, for there is no development when the enemy is constantly disrupting the peace . A poor country like ours can't make any progress as long as Shaebia is in power. The threat to Ethiopia's existence has been and still is Shaebia. This must be clear to all parties and the Ethiopian people must understand that there cannot be peace if there is a constant threat from a tiny and rogue nation of Eritrea in the north.After about thirty years of war, we lost our access to the sea and we are at the mercy of Islamic countries for our imports and exports. The people in power don't seem to understand the impact of not having an access to the sea. The people in power don't seem to understand that Eritrea could potentially form an alliance with the Arabs and be used as a staging ground to destabilize our nation.Eritrea, after getting its independence, which was only possible with the heavy sacrifices that Tigrian fighters paid in defeating the Derg, invaded Ethiopia claiming that Badime and other territories belonged to her. There is no such thing as Eritrean, for there is no nation called Eritrea. Eritrea is an Ethiopian province and the Red Sea is Ethiopia's territorial water, period. The government in power committed the crime of the Millennium by ceding our land and land locking a nation of over Eighty million people. What we Ethiopians need at this time is nationalists to lead our nation and defend her from its enemies. What we need at this time is nationalists to be in charge of our country and get rid of the Shaebia army which has been and still is a threat to our national security.

We have a lot to do in Ethiopia. We have a duty to utilize our waters which have a huge potential for building hydro-electric powers and make sure all Ethiopians have electricity in their villages and homes. Electrification is crucial to our development and progress. To fully utilize our rivers for hydroelectric powers, we must first unite and defend our nation from hostile neighbouring nations like Eritrea and Somalia. We must have a strong army which is able to defend the Ethiopian people so that they can fully concentrate on eradicating poverty. We can't make any progress if there is a constant threat to our national security, which is the Shaebia government that we helped create.

Somalia: A New al Qaeda Safe Haven? (abc)
Emerging Islamic Extremist Group Threatens U.S. Security, Experts Say

The impoverished, lawless country of Somalia is in danger of becoming the newest safe haven for al Qaeda, say counterterrorism experts.

A group of Islamic militants called al-Shabaab now controls much of southern and central Somalia, and U.S. officials fear that the group, which swears allegiance to Osama bin Laden, is now strong enough to take over the country's capital, Mogadishu, and defeat the weak, American-backed government there.

"U.S. security interests are gravely threatened if a country again becomes what Afghanistan used to be: a safe haven for al Qaeda, a government run by al Qaeda affiliates, and a place where al Qaeda supporters from around the world can come safely and train to get ready to launch terrorist attacks around the world," said former White House counterterrorism advisor and ABC News Consultant Richard Clarke.
There are also concerns that the Somali insurgents have recruited Americans.

Ethiopia to withdraw from Somalia by end of year(AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Ethiopia announced Friday that it will withdraw its forces from Somalia by the end of the year, leaving this country's weak and fractured government to face an increasingly powerful Islamic insurgency.
Ethiopia — the region's military powerhouse — has sent thousands of troops to support Somalia's U.N.-backed government, which has failed to assert control over the country. The decision adds urgency to the Somali government's long-standing request for international peacekeepers to deploy here.

Somali Pirates(Terrorists)

India 'sinks Somali pirate ship' (BBC)
Pirates 'working with Islamists' (BBC)

Ethiopia says detains Westerners for aiding rebels

GODE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Ethiopia has arrested a number of American and European citizens of Ethiopian descent, accusing them of aiding separatist rebels, a senior Ethiopian official said on Friday.

GODE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Ethiopia has arrested a number of American and European citizens of Ethiopian descent, accusing them of aiding separatist rebels, a senior Ethiopian official said on Friday.

"I can assure you they are many," Abdullahi Hassan, president of the country’s troubled Ogaden region, told journalists visiting the area at the government’s invitation.

He declined to say how many people had been detained or when they had been arrested.

"Those who are waging the terrorist war against our people are coming from Europe, are coming from America. They hold American passports, they hold European passports," he said.
Hassan said the detainees were originally from Ogaden but moved to the United States and Europe where they raised money for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
"They are buying with this money weapons, mines and explosives," he said, adding that he would not contact their embassies because they were suspected terrorists.
"We don’t care whether they see (their diplomatic representatives) or not," he said, comparing the situation to the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, where nearly 300 inmates are being held without charge or access to consuls.

"In America ... al Qaeda members are in Guantanamo ... We are faced with the same problem,"he said.
A spokesman for the U.S. embassy said they had received no official notification from the government. "We are following up with Ethiopian authorities as we speak," he said.
Hassan said the detainees were being held in the eastern town of Jijiga. He said they would face trial, but did not say when, or on what charges.

The barren, ethnically Somali region made headlines in April when ONLF guerrillas attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field and killed 74 people. Both the government and rebels accuse each other of committing human rights abuses.

The ONLF are fighting for autonomy for their remote region, which borders Somalia. The United Nations says nearly a million people there are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Ethiopia Challenges Rights Group on Ogaden War Crimes Allegations(VOA NEWS)

Ethiopia is challenging a Human Rights Watch report that accuses Ethiopian soldiers of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during a counterinsurgency campaign in its eastern Somali region. As we hear from correspondent Peter Heinlein in Addis Ababa, a team of Ethiopian investigators has issued a counter report charging the U.S.-based rights group with making false allegations based on flawed methods.


The 47-page document issued by Ethiopia's foreign ministry Wednesday is a reply to a 136-page report released by Human Rights Watch last June.The initial report is titled, "Collective Punishment: Crimes Against Humanity in Ethiopia's Somali Region". It accused Ethiopia's counterinsurgency forces in the Somali, or Ogaden region of a variety of war crimes, including torture and arbitrary executions of suspected members or sympathizers of the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front, and burning villages suspected of harboring insurgents. The Human Rights Watch report was based on interviews with hundreds of people who had fled the region, backed up by satellite imagery of destroyed villages.But a government-appointed team of investigators led by independent consultant Lissane Yohannes rejected the Human Rights Watch findings. They issued a response titled: Flawed Methodology, Unsubstantiated Allegations." A video shown to journalists at a briefing Wednesday quoted commission members as saying villagers whom they interviewed flatly contradicted the Human Rights Watch conclusions."We visited all relevant areas and nearly all the villages Human Rights Watch mentioned by name. We met with people who could tell us they had not been killed or raped, as Human Rights Watch alleged," says an announcer. "We saw villages that had not been burned to the ground, as Human Rights Watch claimed."Ethiopian foreign ministry legal adviser Minelik Alemu mocked the Human Rights Watch's report, saying it contains inflammatory language. He also criticized the rights' groups' investigative techniques, which did not include visits to the Ogaden region."In light of the gravity of the allegations of crimes against humanity, we would have thought more serious investigation would have been called for," Minelik Alemu said. "But that was not done. If you look at the report, you would see it is based on the testimonies that it collected mainly through telephone. They never had any on the ground visit to the region."One of the authors of the Human Rights Watch report, senior researcher Leslie Lefkow told VOA in a phone interview that the group had several times submitted written requests to Ethiopia to visit the Ogaden during their investigation. She says there was no government response."In terms of our methodology, we stand by it 100 percent, and we would welcome a discussion with the Ethiopian government about the specific cases we mentioned," she said. "We did request access to Somali region several times formally by letter." Lefkow said she would welcome the opportunity to discuss with Ethiopian experts the contradictions between the two reports."We have been carrying out research into situations of conflict for many years, and these kinds of allegations that we've been duped by a rebel movement, it's not the first time we hear this," she said. "These are sort of standard government responses. And we are trained investigators. And then we corroborate the information through independent sources, and in this case including through the use of satellite imagery, where we were trying to verify that attacks on certain villages had actually taken place." Lefkow said she had not finished reading the Ethiopian report, but said she saw hope in Ethiopia's willingness to conduct an investigation. She said it was one of the first times in her long career in human rights activist that a country had taken the opportunity to issue a counter report. She said she would again try to contact officials in Addis and in the Ogaden region to discuss Human Rights Watch's continuing concerns about the conduct of Ethiopia's counterinsurgency campaign in the Ogaden.

Comment: If HRW really stands for Human Rights, why don't they report about the plights of the prisoners in Guantanamo and the civilian deaths in Afganistan and Iraq? Ethiopia is a sovereign country and they must stop inerfering in its affairs. Ethiopia has a right to fight domestic and foreign terrorists and any one who is employed or who works for HRW must be detained or deported to his/her country of origin immediately for assisting terrorists.

Ethiopia 'demands Britain returns stolen treasures'

LONDON (AFP) – Ethiopia is demanding that Britain returns some of its most significant religious treasures, including a royal crown grabbed by British troops 140 years ago, a report said on Sunday.

Ransoms bring wealth to Somali pirate bases

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) – As dawn breaks over the Indian Ocean each morning, elders in Somali pirate bases sip strong coffee and clutch mobile phones to their ears, eager to hear the latest from the gunmen out at sea.
Have any more ships been hijacked or ransom talks concluded? Any news of the Western warships hunting them?

Obama's To-Do List: Somalia (Jonathan Stevenson)

Somalia, a genuine failed state, ranks alongside Sudan as the world's most conspicuous candidate for American attention in the early days of Barack Obama's administration. Last week, capping a series of territorial gains across the country, Islamist insurgents seized the port of Merka, and appeared poised for an offensive against the capital city of Mogadishu 60 miles to the north. Aspiring jihadists, averse to the risks posed in Iraq and Pakistan, are increasingly flocking to Somalia, which is 97 percent Sunni Muslim. At the same time, Somali pirates have become a significant maritime menace, with press reports suggesting that they are driving up prices of goods worldwide. Almost two years ago, U.S.-supported Ethiopian troops ousted the de facto government run by the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic Courts Union (ICU) from Mogadishu, installed an internationally recognized secular transitional government formed in exile, and remained in-country to support it along with an anemic African Union (AU) contingent. But the Ethiopians can't afford to stay much longer, and their repressive tactics have lost Somali hearts and minds, allowing the Islamists to regain social as well as military traction. Earlier this month, in a brutally populist application of sharia law, a 13-year old girl was stoned to death in the southern Somali city of Kismayu for alleged adultery in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators.