The Lies and Disinformation Campaigns of the T-TPLF

Does the LF in TPLF stand for Lie Factory?

The T-TPLF  (Thugtatorship of the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front) has now launched a slick disinformation campaign to discredit and diminish the historic popular uprisings against it in Ethiopia.

The ruling T-TPLF party in Ethiopia is a criminal terrorist organization listed  in the Global Terrorism Data Base.

Disinformation is “intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately.”  The underlying aim in disinformation is to generate deceptive and false statements to convince others lies are truths.

Disinformation courses in the bloodstream of the T-TPLF body politics.

A good example of disinformation is what the T-TPLF did when Melies died.

The T-TPLF claimed Melies was on vacation after he had been dead possibly for weeks. T-TPLF leaders ramped up a silly disinformation campaign to convince the world that Melies  was recovering from “exhaustion resulting from long public service”. They gave daily briefings for days on the “health status” of the dead Melies.

The chief disinformation minister at the time was Berket Simon who reminds me of  Iraq’s cartoonish “Comical Ali”, Saddam Hussien’s Information Minister. Ali used to tell reporters during the 2003 Iraq war, “The Americans are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender.”

Of course, the Americans had parked their tanks and Humvees outside the Information Ministry as Ali was pronouncing their doom. Melies was already dead as Simon told the world Melies was on vacation.

Melies was definitely on a permanent no return vacation.

Lies, damned lies and statislies make the body politics of the TPLF. Is it Meles or Melies?

Just last week, the New York Times had a story on how the Russian regime uses disinformation as a “powerful weapon”.  The story suggested that the Russians are generating “a flood of distorted and outright false information on social media, confusing public perceptions of the issue” of NATO and Western nuclear weapons strategy.

Disinformation is like what Mao Zedong said: “A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth.”

The T-TPLF is repeating the lie a hundred times that the current countrywide uprising in Ethiopia against them is the work of “Shabiya [Eritrea]”, “Egypt” and other imaginary enemies manufactured in the warped imaginations of T-TPLF leaders.

The T-TPLF is repeating the lie a hundred times that the current countrywide uprising in Ethiopia against them is the work of terrorist cells sponsored by foreign elements who have designs on Ethiopia and want to thwart the completion of the Nile Dam.

The T-TPLF communications minister recently said that the current countrywide uprising in Ethiopia against them is the work of  “illegal committees” who are involved in murder and kidnapping, and had a large cache of weapons.

T-TPLF  puppet prime minster (PPM)(I did not say crime minister) said the current “disturbances” were the handiwork of  “anti-peace forces” who have “inflicted losses on human lives and government and private property in a bid to divert the people’s legitimate questions.”

The PPM also said, “Ethiopia is an island of stability within the Horn of Africa, which is a troubled region. Our people are very much engaged in fighting anti-peace elements and terrorism.”  In other words, without the T-TPLF not only will Ethiopia disintegrate and be reduced to ashes, the Horn of Africa will also go up in flames!

Behold Melies Zenawi and the TPLF, the Second Coming in (the Horn) Africa.

That is what the T-TPLF wants Obama Administration and the international poverty pimps to think; and they willingly oblige.

The T-TPLF has made Ethiopia the Land of Living Lies.

I wrote about it in my commentary  “The Bedtime Stories of Meles Zenawi” in May 2012 and March 2015 commentary  entitled  “A Tale of Tall Tales and ‘Ethiopia’s Diplomat-in-Chief’”.

The indisputable fact, indeed the undeniable truth, is that the uprisings taking place and spreading like wildfire throughout Ethiopia today are grassroots and organic movements.

Only the T-TPLF living in Denial-istan denies the manifest truth.

Ethiopians today have drawn the line in the sand for the T-TPLF. The T-TPLF has got to go. No ifs or butts about it!

Ethiopians are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the T-TPLF.

Of course, the T-TPLF is trying its best to put on a brave face to the world and declare to the world they are still in charge, they are still the boss and they still run the show.

The fact of the matter is that the T-TPLF is on its last wobbly legs.

More accurately, the T-TPLF is Humpty Dumpty today. Neither the king’s men nor horses can put Humpty Dumpty together.

For that matter, neither Debretsion Gebremichael, Samora Yunis, Senbat Nega, Tedros Adhanom, Seyoum Mesfin,  Arkebe Oqubay, Abay Tsehaye, Abadi Zemo, Tsegay Berhe, Azeb Mesfin, Haftom Abraha, Redwan Hussien,  Hailemariam Desalegn (?) nor anyone else in T-TPLF thugdom can put Humpty Dumpty T-TPLF together again.

Everyone knows the T-TPLF is tone deaf (at least pretends to be deaf)  but if it took the wax out of its ears it could hear the bells toll.

If the T-TPLF wonders for whom does the bell toll, I would answer it with a line  from John Donne: “It tolls for thee.”

The fact of the matter is that we should never let the T-TPLF pull the wool over our heads. In other words, we must never allow the T-TPLF scammers scam us; the T-TPLF con men con us and the T-TPLF flim flammers flim flam us.

So I have written this commentary to inform and edify my readers on the T-TPLF’s 25-year-long disinformation campaign in the context of the info wars the T-TPLF is waging today and to warn that we should remain vigilant for any T-TPLF disinformation campaigns on the current uprising in Ethiopia.

Over the years, I have been writing about the myriad disinformation campaigns the T-TPLF has conducted in the local and international media.

Following the 2005 elections, the late T-TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi launched a disinformation campaign to convince the world that the hundreds of innocent and unarmed protesters he massacred and wounded were actually armed terrorists who posed a “challenge to the “constitutional order”.

In a videotaped interview,  Melies Zenawi justified what  he called the “deaths of up to 194 civilians”. He said,  “… There was a challenge to the constitutional order in Ethiopia; and that challenge had to be faced.” By massacres, of course.

In other words, the protesters invited their own deaths, and their deaths should not matter because they threatened the “constitutional order”. That is code for terrorists.

Melies said he “doubted” if the massacres had changed “the views of world leaders” towards him, but “it clearly tarnished the image of Ethiopia.” Simply stated, killing terrorists ain’t no big deal and it had no effect on his prestige and credibility. Melies was right. The U.S. was pumping $3.5 billion within three years of the 2005 Meles Massacres.

Fortunately, Melies’  own Inquiry Commission exposed Melies’ lies and put all of the responsibility for the 2005  massacres at Zenawi’s feet declaring that “there was no property destroyed [by the unarmed protesters]” and that “not a single protester who was armed with a gun or a hand grenade (as reported by the government-controlled media that some of the protesters were armed with guns and bombs). Police and security officials intentionally shot and killed 193 persons and wounded 763.” [Parenthesis original.]

In December 2006, I exposed the T-TPLF’s disinformation campaign to justify its  invasion and occupation of Somalia alleging an existential threat by the Islamic Courts Union and Al Shabab terrorists. Melies Zenawi said, “what has happened since last summer is that the Islamic courts have been training, equipping and smuggling armed opposition elements into Ethiopia. These elements have been engaged in activities of destabilization in Ethiopia. Hundreds of these have been smuggled and they have been involved in clashes with security forces in Ethiopia.” Zenawi asserted the legal doctrine of pre-emptive self-defence (the right to use force in anticipation of an attack, Art. 51, UN Charter) in his disinformation campaign to clothe his naked aggression against Somalia.

In June 2008, I exposed the T-TPLF’s  disinformation campaign on famine in Ethiopia in a  commentary entitled “The Art of Denial (Lying)”.

The T-TPLF has always claimed that there has never been famine in Ethiopia since they took over power in 1991. There have been “food shortages”, “severe malnutrition”, “droughts”, etc., but never famines. In other words, Ethiopia has been a land of milk and honey (for them exclusively, of course) growing at a rate of over 10 percent per year over the past decade. Famine simply could not happen.

The T-TPLF even got the U.S. and the international poverty pimps to sing in chorus about Ethiopia as one of the handful “fastest growing economies in the world”. These guys are so shameless that they do not even bat an eye when they say Ethiopia is facing the “worst famine in 50 tears” and in the same breath claim Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies. They think we are all dumb and stupid. Are we? (Just wondering!)

Luckily, that disinformation campaign stopped after I demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the T-TPLF disinformation on the so-called growth is a lie, a damned lie and a statis-lie (statistical)  lie. I put out the challenge, and again do so for the hundredth time now, to anyone to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the T-TPLF’s claim of 10 percent and more annual growth over the past decade is true.

In 2016 as Ethiopia faces the “worst drought in 50 years” in 2016, the T-TPLF even got one of  their toadies from their bush days to further spread their disinformation on famine in Ethiopia.

In a recent  op-ed piece in the New York Times (International Edition), a well-known  T-TPLF toady  proudly declared the end of the “era of great famines” in Ethiopia, and that “Ethiopians aren’t starving to death”, only their “animals are dying of thirst.” The current USAID Administrator Gayle E. Smith, another T-TPLF groupie from the T-TPLF’s days in the bush, said exactly the same thing.

In 2010, I exposed the T-TPLF’s disinformation campaign on why Melies decided to jam Voice of America (VOA) Amharic language broadcasts into Ethiopia. Melies said  the VOA was promoting  Rwandan-style “interhamwe” (which in Kinyarwanda or Rwanda means “those who stand, work, fight, attack together”) genocide in Ethiopia. “We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda.”

The truth was that Melies  and the T-TPLF were the ones preaching and practicing genocide in Ethiopia.

In April 2011, I wrote a commentary about the T-TPLF’s art of war by mass distraction exposing its disinformation efforts to distract public attention by beating the drums of war on enemies that exist only in the figment of their imaginations.

Melies claimed, “Recently, Eritrea is training and deploying Al Shabab and locally grown destructive forces to terrorize our country. But Egypt is the direct force behind these destructive elements that back them.” Melies blustered,  “We have to facilitate ways for Eritrean people to remove their dictatorial regime. If the Eritrean government tries to attack us, we will also respond proportionally.” It is like Tweedle Dee attacking Tweedle Dum.

In May 2, 2014, the T-TPLF massacred at least 47 university and high school students in the town of  Ambo 80 miles west of the capital Addis Ababa peacefully protesting land grabs in Oromiya. The T-TPLF launched a disinformation campaign to sweep the massacre under the rug claiming that a “few anti-peace forces incited and coordinated the violence”.  Human Rights Watch issued a statement condemning the “shooting at and beating [of] peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns”.

The T-TPLF even  snookered President Barack Obama in its disinformation campaign.

When Obama visited Ethiopia in July 2015, he shocked the world by lying through his teeth: I don’t bite my tongue too much when it comes to these issues. We are opposed to any group that is promoting the violent overthrow of a government, including the government of Ethiopia, that has been democratically elected. We are very mindful of Ethiopia’s history – the hardships that this country has gone through. It has been relatively recently in which the constitution that was formed and the elections put forward a democratically elected government. (Emphasis added.)

Obama was right. It is hard to bite a forked tongue. That is why snakes have no teeth.

In May 2015, the T-TPLF held “elections” and declared it had won it by 100 percent. Yes, by one hundred percent.

By the way, in May 2010 the T-TPLF claimed to have won the “election” that year by 99.6 percent. I predicted at the time that the T-TPLF will win the 2015 election by 100 percent. The T-TPLF did, indeed.

Over the past year, the T-TPLF has been making killing fields in Oromiya and Amhara regions.  According to a June 16, 2016 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report:

State security forces in Ethiopia have used excessive and lethal force against largely peaceful protests. Security forces shot into crowds, summarily killing people during mass roundups, and torturing detained protesters. Many of those arrested or killed were children under the age of 18. Security forces regularly arrested dozens of people at each protest, and in many locations security forces went door-to door-at night arresting students and those accommodating students in their homes. Security forces have tortured and otherwise ill-treated detainees, and several female detainees described being raped by security force personnel. Very few detainees have had access to legal counsel, adequate food, or to their family members.   (Watch HRW’s video of  T-TPLF Oromiya Massacres and torture.)

In June 2016, I wrote a commentary entitled, “Ethiopia-Eritrea Wargames of Mass Distraction?” exposing the T-TPLF’s disinformation campaign about war, rumors of war and drumbeats of war signaling a ground war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

T-TPLF communication minister Getachew “Motor Mouth” Reda said, “There were significant casualties on both sides, but more on the Eritrean side. We used to take precautionary measures against this regime, but this time was much more important in terms of magnitude than the measures that were taken so far.” Eritrea claimed to have killed 200 Ethiopian soldiers and wounded 300 more. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum playing war games.

The T-TPLF has been committing massacres that rise up to crimes against humanity in Gonder, Bahr Dar and numerous locations in Oromiya.

The T-TPLF believes it can crush the popular uprisings by massive military retaliation and go back to business as usual.

I say the T-TPLF and its gang of thugs can go back to hell where they came from in a handbasket.

T-TPLF Disinformation campaign techniques on Planet Denial-istan

The T-TPLF has used a variety of disinformation techniques in their campaigns of lies, damned lies and statislies to hoodwink and mislead particularly the international community:

Deny, deny and deny the plain facts and the undeniable truth. For instance, the T-TPLF denied it had stolen the 2005 election in broad daylight; and after Melies massacred hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, he launched a disinformation campaign to blame the victims claiming they “threatened the constitutional order”, a kinder and gentler phrase for terrorist threat. The T-TPLF has always denied there has been a popular uprising or a peaceful demonstration in Ethiopia since 1991.  The T-TPLF disinformation campaign describes all protests and acts of mass civil disobedience in the country as “disturbances” and “terrorist acts.”

Deny awareness. For instance, the T-TPLF would spread disinformation that famine does not exist in Ethiopia because they are not aware of it. If there were famine, they would not know about it. Since they are not aware of it (pretend not to be aware), it does not exist. If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it fall? For the T-TPLF, it did not. Similarly, the T-TPLF is not aware of any uprisings, therefore people should not believe their lying eyes and ears as they witness the uprisings spreading like wildfire.

Deny responsibility. The T-TPLF has never admitted the occurrence of famine in Ethiopia since they took power in 1991. Part of their disinformation campaign has been that there has never been famine, but if there is or had ever been, God is responsible because he forgot to send rain. It is His problem, not theirs.  Similarly, the “disturbances” throughout the country today are the result of powerful foreign agents and misguided terrorists, not the result of their corruption and hogging political, economic and military power for 25 years.

Deny impact. For instance, the T-TPLF would say there is really no famine as such in the country; but if there is there ain’t nothing to it because it is just “severe malnutrition”. The T-TPLF disinformation campaign is to prevent the use of the word famine by substituting hocus pocus words invented by the international poverty pimps. What is the difference between people suffering “famine” and those suffering “severe malnutrition”? The latter is a kinder and gentler phrase for the former. Similarly, what is the difference between isolated disturbances and popular uprisings? The latter scares the hell out of the T-TPLF!

Deny recurrence: The T-TPLF would use disinformation to admit and deny facts at the same time. For instance, the T-TPLF would admit the possibility of episodic famine-like conditions but insist it just happened and they are taking care of it. The T-TPLF’s disinformation campaign would be presented in the context of their “double digit economic growth” and any famine-type conditions would soon disappear. Similarly, there are no uprisings, but if there are any, they are one-time episodic events caused by bad local governance.

Denial-by-admission: The T-TPLF disinformation would admit to everything but to the core issue. They would admit Ethiopia faces  food shortages, food insecurity, chronic food deprivation, severe malnutrition, severe drought, etc., but not FAMINE. The T-TPLF would admit there is discontent, restlessness, dissatisfaction, unrest, volatility, etc., but never a POPULAR UPRSING.

Deny-by-fatalism: For instance, the T-TPLF disinformation would say there is nothing that we must do to deal with the problem of famine because it does not exist. If it exists, it will take its own course. There is nothing that needs or can be done to change course. It is the Malthusian iron law at work. There is no popular uprising in the country, but if there are any, they are up that famous creek without a paddle. What the hell did Gandhi say?  “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”

Que sera, sera…. (Whatever will be, will be…)

Mao Zedong was right when he said, “A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth.”

The T-TPLF is telling tens of thousands of lies, but they will not amount to a single grain of truth.

It is important to expose the T-TPLF’s disinformation campaigns particularly at this time.

I have reasons to believe that the T-TPLF is now engineering a massive disinformation campaign to counter and destroy what they believe to be an “Amhara-Oromo alliance” against them.

The disinformation campaign is likely to involve several elements: 1) selectively use historical events and incidents to create antagonisms between the two groups; 2) use their own supporters as agent provocateurs in an effort to strain or bring about ethnic enmity between the two groups; 3) generate divisive propaganda within each group to create distrust and division and eventually cause disintegration from within each group; 4) create divisive rumors through the security agencies about Oromo and Amhara leaders and organizations; 5) demonize the popular uprising as a terrorist movement and manufacture evidence and suspects to prove that; 6) use the “legal” system to scapegoat regional and local leaders working for the T-TPLF in hopes of quelling the uprising; 7) organize their own “Oromo and Amhara” groups to infiltrate the popular uprisings and create dissension and dissolution from within; 8) create large distractions to deflect attention from the uprisings (I did not say declare war on a neighboring country);  9) buy off the youth and neutralize them by offering them special incentives such as microloans;  10) use professional lobbyist and public relations agencies to rehabilitate their image in the aftermath of the Feisa Lelisa act of defiance at the Rio Olympics seen by 3.2 billion people worldwide and thwart actions currently under consideration in the .U.S. Congress, and so on.

Suffice it to say that the T-TPLF regards the current uprising in the country with the most extreme concern and will do everything in its power and the power of its foreign benefactors to hold onto power.

The undeniable truth is that no amount of disinformation can change history.

The T-TPLF must remember, learn and accept the verdict of the iron law of history:

Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.

Que sera, sera…

Whatever will be, will be… and there is not a doggone T-TPLF disinformation campaign that can change the iron law of history.

In the end, ALL TYRANTS FALL!