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.