Islam is the real positive change that you need to change for being a better person or a perfect human being, you can change yourself if you read QURAN, IF YOU DO THAT !! you will change this UMMAH, say I am not A Sunni or Shia, BUT I am just a MUSLIM. Be a walking QURAN among human-being AND GUIDE THEM TO THE RIGHT PATH.
يتكوّن من 5 جلسات لاحتواء حالات الغضب الهستيري والاكتئاب الانفعالي
:
أشرف جمال ــ أبوظبي
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صمّمت باحثة متخصصة في علم النفس برنامج علاج نفسي وانفعالي،
لإعادة تأهيل النساء اللائي يصبنَ بصدمة، نتيجة تزوّج أزواجهن بأخريات،
ويستهدف البرنامج الزوجات في حالات الغضب الهستيري والاكتئاب الانفعالي،
الذي قد يؤثر فيهن نفسياً وصحياً، كما يؤثر في أطفالهن.
وتعتمد الدراسة التي أعدّتها الاستشارية النفسية والأسرية، زهراء
الموسوي، وحصلت «الإمارات اليوم» على نسخة منها، على خمس جلسات نفسية
وإرشادية، يتم خلالها العمل على إقناع الزوجة بأن موضوع الزواج الثاني
موجود، شئنا أم أبينا، وهو في حقيقته مشابه تماماً لموضوع إنجاب الابن
الثاني أو الثالث، فما تشعر به الزوجة الأولى من غيرة، مشابه تماماً لشعور
الطفل الذي يولد له أخ أو أخت.
وتفصيلاً، ذكرت دراسة بحثية عرضت خلال فعاليات مؤتمر أبوظبي الدولي
الأول للجمعية العالمية لإعادة التأهيل النفسي والاجتماعي، الذي نظمه جناح
العلوم السلوكية في مدينة الشيخ خليفة، التابعة لشركة أبوظبي للخدمات
الصحية (صحة)، أن موضوع الزواج الثاني للزوج، بما أنه شرعاً وقانوناً مسموح
به، فمهما حاولت الزوجة الأولى منعه، فذلك لن يحدث، وهو في الغالب يسبب
لها صدمة، وعدم قدرة على ممارسة الحياة اليومية كما في السابق، لافتة إلى
أن بعض الزوجات يصبنَ بحالات اكتئاب تفاعلي نتيجة زواج أزواجهن بأخريات، ما
يؤثر سلباً في الأبناء، وفي قدرتها على اتخاذ القرارات الصحيحة.
وقالت الموسوي، في دراستها، إن موضوع الزواج الثاني موجود شئنا أم
أبينا، وهو في حقيقته مشابه تماماً لموضوع إنجاب الابن الثاني أو الثالث،
فما تشعر به الزوجة الأولى من غيرة، مشابه تماماً لشعور الطفل الذي يولد له
أخ أو أخت، إلاّ أن الأول مرفوض عرفاً، بينما الثاني أمر طبيعي ويوجه
للطفل اللوم على غيرته، فيما يُتعاطف مع الزوجة الأولى على مشاعرها.
وأفادت الدراسة بأنه يتم خلال الجلسة الأولى تكوين علاقة مهنية بين
المرشدة والحالة، من خلال أخذ المعلومات الأساسية، ثم الاستماع للحالة في
بيان مشكلتها والاستفسار عن أهم الأفكار الداخلية المزعجة لها، مثل «هل
يوجد عيب فيّها جعل زوجها يتزوج عليها؟ هل هي غير مرغوبة لزوجها؟ هل تستطيع
مواجهة نظرات الناس بعدما أصبح لدى زوجها زوجة أخرى؟ هل يتسبب زواج زوجها
في حرمانها وأبنائها من حقوقهم المادية في المنزل والمصرف؟».
فيما تقوم المرشدة في الجلسة الثانية، بحسب الدراسة، بتعليم نموذج «ABC»
للحالة، ووضع الأفكار المستخلصة من الجلسة الأولى في الجدول، ومناقشتها مع
الحالة، وبيان اللاعقلانية فيها، منها أهم فكرة تراود الزوجة، المتمثلة في
«وجود عيب فيّها جعل زوجها يتزوج عليها»، فهذه الفكرة تزعزع ثقة الزوجة
بنفسها، وتقديرها لذاتها، خصوصاً أنها تربط تقديرها لذاتها بتقدير الزوج
لها، وعن طريق تقنية الحوار الجدلي يتم إقناع الزوجة بأن زواج الزوج لا
يعني بالضرورة أنها سيئة، وليست مرغوبة ومطلوبة.
وتتعلق الجلسة الثالثة بمعالجة أحد أهم الأمور الصعبة التي تواجهها
الزوجة الأولى، بعد زواج زوجها، وهي مواجهة حديث الناس عنها، أو شفقتهم
عليها، أو تشجيعها على السلوكيات العدوانية والمدمرة مع زوجها، أو ضد
الزوجة الثانية، أو لومها بأنها هي السبب في زواج الزوج.
ففي هذه الجلسة، تستخدم المرشدة تقنية التقبل غير المشروط لذاتها، حتى
تتوقف عن لوم نفسها تجاه الموضوع، وثم لعب الأدوار لتعلم السلوك التوكيدي
في مواجهة من يشجعونها على السلوك العدواني مع الزوج، أو ترك المنزل، أو
اللجوء إلى السحر والرقية، كي يكره الزوج الزوجة الثانية ويعود إليها، كما
يتم تعليم الحالة الفرق بين الصبر كحالة سلبية، والتكيف كفعل فعال.
وتركز المرشدة في الجلسة الرابعة على تشجيع الحالة على أن تبحث في
أسرتها أو صديقاتها عن شخص داعم لها، تستطيع اللجوء إليه حين تشعر بالضغط
والتوتر، أو تحتاج إلى دعم عاطفي.
في ما تتعلق الجلسة الأخيرة بطمأنة الحالة بأنها في المسار الصحيح،
وتشدّد على ضرورة عدم الالتفات لمن يلومها على تكيفها مع الوضع بطريقة قد
تجعلها تشك في صحة ما تقوم به.
وأفادت الدراسة البحثية بأن الجلسات الخمس ستحقق نتائج إيجابية منقطعة
النظير، موضحة أنه بعد الجلسات الإرشادية ستستطيع الزوجة أن تشعر بالسيطرة
على حياتها، بعد أن كانت تشعر بأنها خارجة على السيطرة
مشاعر الضعف والاكتئاب
أفادت الاستشارية النفسية والأسرية، زهراء الموسوي، بأن
وجود منافس قوي يسبب للإنسان مشاعر الضعف والاكتئاب والإحساس بأنه غير
مطلوب، ما يسبب بالتالي مشاعر الاكتئاب أو الغضب والإحباط.
وأوضحت أن هذه المشاعر تتولّد لدى الزوجة عندما يتزوج عليها
زوجها، وتنعكس سلباً على الأبناء، وتؤثر في حياتهم الطبيعية، وهناك من
وقعن في هذه الظروف، ولم يستطعن التأقلم معها، فانعكست الآثار السلبية على
الأبناء
.
ظاهرة الزواج الثاني
خلصت دراسة بحثية أعدّتها الاستشارية النفسية والأسرية،
زهراء الموسوي، إلى أن ظاهرة الزواج الثاني أمر مسموح به في الشريعة
والقانون، فيجب التعامل معه بشكل يقلل من الآثار السلبية في جميع الأطراف
المعنية بالموضوع، عن طريق برنامج إرشادي عقلاني انفعالي، تم تصميمه
لإعادة تأهيل الزوجة الأولى، بعد زواج زوجها، للعودة إلى ممارسة الحياة
الطبيعية دون أزمات نفسية، مشيرة إلى أن البرنامج يتكوّن من خمس جلسات
إرشادية.
صممت باحثة إماراتية متخصصة في علم النفس، برنامج علاج نفسي، لإعادة
تأهيل النساء اللائي يصبنَ بصدمة، نتيجة تزوّج أزواجهن بأخريات، ويستهدف
البرنامج مساعدة الزوجات في حالات الغضب الهستيري والاكتئاب الانفعالي،
الذي قد يؤثر فيهن نفسياً وصحياً، كما يؤثر في أطفالهن.
وبحسب ما نشرته صحيفة "الإمارات اليوم" في عددها السبت، فإن البرنامج الذي
صممته زهراء الموسوي، يتضمن خمس جلسات نفسية وإرشادية، يتم خلالها العمل
على إقناع الزوجة بأن "موضوع الزواج الثاني موجود، شئنا أم أبينا .. فهو
متاح شرعا وقانونا".
ونقلت الصحيفة عن الموسوي قولها إن "موضوع الزواج هو في حقيقته مشابه
تماماً لموضوع إنجاب الابن الثاني أو الثالث، فما تشعر به الزوجة الأولى من
غيرة، مشابه تماماً لشعور الطفل الذي يولد له أخ أو أخت، إلاّ أن الأول
مرفوض عرفاً، بينما الثاني أمر طبيعي ويوجه للطفل اللوم على غيرته، فيما
يُتعاطف مع الزوجة الأولى على مشاعرها" بحسب ما ترى.
وتتضمن أحدى جلسات إعادة التأهيل "معالجة أحد أهم الأمور الصعبة التي
تواجهها الزوجة الأولى، بعد زواج زوجها، وهي مواجهة حديث الناس عنها، أو
شفقتهم عليها، أو تشجيعها على السلوكيات العدوانية والمدمرة مع زوجها، أو
ضد الزوجة الثانية، أو لومها بأنها هي السبب في زواج الزوج".
وأوضح التقرير – الذى عرضته " قدس برس" أنه في هذه الجلسة "تستخدم
المرشدة تقنية التقبل غير المشروط لذاتها، حتى تتوقف عن لوم نفسها تجاه
الموضوع، وثم لعب الأدوار لتعلم السلوك التوكيدي في مواجهة من يشجعونها على
السلوك العدواني مع الزوج، أو ترك المنزل، أو اللجوء إلى السحر والرقية،
كي يكره الزوج الزوجة الثانية ويعود إليها، كما يتم تعليم الحالة الفرق بين
الصبر كحالة سلبية، والتكيف كفعل فعال".
وأعربت الموسوي، عن قناعتها بأن البرنامج التأهيلي النفسي الذي قامت
بتصميمه "سيحقق نتائج إيجابية منقطعة النظير" موضحة أنه "بعد الجلسات
الإرشادية ستستطيع الزوجة أن تشعر بالسيطرة على حياتها، بعد أن كانت تشعر
بأنها خارجة على السيطرة" بحسب قولها.
Faahfaahin dheeraad ah ayaa ka soo baxaysa weerar shalay galinkii
dambe 24 September 2017, ka dhacay buuraleyda gobalka Barri, gaa rahaana
Agagaarka Bali-Khadar oo ku dhaw magaalada Galgala.
Maleeshiyaad katirsan kooxda Al- Shabaab ayaa weerar gaadmo ah ku
qaaday mid kamid ah baabuurta ciidamada Puntland ee ah loo yaqaano Iska
rogada oo marayey goobtaas, ayna saarnayen Saad ciidan.
Qarax ayaa la sheegay in loo dhigay markii hore baabuurkaas, balse uu
ka badbaaday ka dibna ay kusoo qaadeen kooxdaasi weerar, sidda ay
sheegayaan warar madax banaan oo laga helayo aagaas.
Saraakiisha ciidamada ayaa sheegay in duulaankaas laga hortagay, isla
markaasna ay ciidamadu khasaare gaarsiiyeen kooxdan oo doonaysay in ay
qabsadaan baabuurkan.
Inta la og yahay ilaa hadda 7 qof oo ay ku jiraan dumar ayaa ku
geeriyooday weerarkan, waxaase wararku ay sheegayaan in 3 kamid ah
kooxdii weerarkan soo qaaday lagu dilay goobtaas, lana qabtay xog muhiim
ah.
Sarkaal katirsan laamaha Amniga ee kusugan Bal-Khadar ayaa u sheegay
Puntlandtimes in ay dileen mid kamid ah ragga inta badan abaabula
weerarada lagu soo qaado ciidamada Puntland ee kusugan buuraleyda
Galgala.
Puntland ayaa sannado badan dagaal kula jirta kooxaha Argagixisada ah
ee ku dhuumaleysanaya Buuraleyda loo yaqano Caalmadow, waxaana marar
badan lagu qaaday howlgalo waa weyn oo looga qabsaday goobo ay isku
aruursadeen.
Dagaaladii ugu dambeeyey ayaa ka dhacay buuraleydaas iyo deegaanka Af
Urur, kuwaas oo sababay khasaare kala duwan oo soo gaaray labada
dhinac, waxaana Madaxweynaha Puntland Dr Cabdiweli Maxamed Cali Gaas uu
ku dhawaaqay 9-kii bishii June weerar culus oo lagu qaado kooxahan,
loogana sifeynayo buuraleydaas oo dhan, kaas oo aan wali bilaaban.
More than 3 million people are expected to vote in non-binding poll that has raised tensions and fears of instability
A woman in Kirkuk casts her vote in the independence referendum.
Photograph: Thaier
Al-Sudani/Reuters
Associated Press in Erbil
Iraqi Kurds are casting ballots in Iraq’s Kurdish region and disputed
territories on whether to support independence from Baghdad, in a
historic but non-binding vote that has raised regional tensions and fears of instability.
The referendum will not immediately bring independence, but it would
mark a definitive stance by the Kurds to break away, and Kurdish leaders
say they will use a “yes” vote to press for negotiations with Iraq’s
central government to win statehood. Iraq has called the vote
constitutional and it is opposed by Iran, Syria and Turkey, who also have Kurdish minorities.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, on Monday threatened
military intervention in response to the vote, stressing that Kurdish
independence was unacceptable to his country and that this was a “matter
of survival.”
He said Turkey would take also take political and economic measures
against steps toward independence and suggested it could halt oil flows
arriving through a pipeline from northern Iraq, depriving Iraqi Kurds of revenues. “We have the valve. The moment we shut the valve, that’s the end of it,” he said.
Iran, which on Monday called the vote “untimely and wrong” and has
since Sunday been holding a military exercise in its northwestern
Kurdish region bordering Iraq.
More than 3 million people are expected to vote across the three
provinces that make up the Kurdish autonomous region, as well as
residents in disputed territories – areas claimed by both Baghdad and
the Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk – according to the
Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission, the body
overseeing the vote.
Lines began forming early in the day at polling stations across Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital.
“Today we came here to vote in the referendum for the independence of
Kurdistan,” said Tahsin Karim, one of the first people to vote in his
neighbourhood. “We hope that we can achieve independence.”
The Kurdish region’s president, Masoud Barzani, also voted early on
Monday morning at a polling station packed with journalists and cameras.
At a press conference in Erbil on the eve of the referendum, Barzani
said he believed the vote would be peaceful, though he acknowledged that
the path to independence would be “risky”. “We are ready to pay any
price for our independence,” he said.
The US, a key ally of Iraq’s Kurds, has warned the vote is likely to
destabilise the region amid the fight with Islamic State. The Iraqi
central government has demanded on Sunday that all airports and borders
crossings in the Kurdish region be handed back to federal government
control.
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In
a televised address from Baghdad on Sunday night, the Iraqi prime
minister, Haider al-Abadi, said: “The referendum is unconstitutional. It
threatens Iraq, peaceful coexistence among Iraqis and is a danger to
the region.”
He added: “We will take measures to safeguard the nation’s unity and protect all Iraqis.”
Initial results from the poll are expected on Tuesday, with the official results to be announced later in the week.
At his press conference, Barzani also said that while the referendum
would be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the
region’s “partnership” with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad was
over.
He detailed abuses inflicted on Iraq’s Kurds by Iraqi forces,
including killings at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s army that left more
than 50,000 Kurds dead.
Iraqi Kurds have long dreamed of independence – something the Kurdish
people were denied when colonial powers drew the map of the Middle East
after the first world war. The Kurds form a sizable minority in Turkey,
Iran, Syria, and Iraq. In Iraq, they have long been at odds with the
Baghdad government over the sharing of oil revenues and the fate of
disputed territories such as Kirkuk.
The Kurds have been a close American ally for decades, and the first
US airstrikes in the campaign against Isis were launched to protect
Erbil. Kurdish forces later regrouped and played a major role in driving
the extremists from much of northern Iraq, including Mosul, the
country’s second-largest city.
But the US has long been opposed to Kurdish moves toward
independence, fearing it could lead to the breakup of Iraq and bring
even more instability to an already volatile Middle East.
Image copyrightAFP/Getty ImagesImage caption
Hindus have also been displaced by the violence in Rakhine and have sought refuge in Bangladesh
The Myanmar
authorities have accused Muslim Rohingya militants of killing 28 Hindu
villagers whose bodies were allegedly found in a mass grave.
The army says the bodies of 20 women and eight men and boys were found in two pits in northern Rakhine state.
The state has been in turmoil since 25 August when Rohingya militants launched deadly attacks on police posts.
Over 400,000 Rohingya have since fled an offensive by the military, which the UN accuses of ethnic cleansing.
Hindus
as well as members of the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar (also
called Burma) have also been displaced from their homes by the violence
in Rakhine.
The military denies widespread reports it has
committed atrocities, saying it only targeted those belonging to the
militant Arakan Salvation Rohingya Army (Arsa) which launched the
attacks.
On Monday, the Myanmar government's Information Committee said
in a Facebook post, accompanied with a graphic photo, that the mass
Hindu grave had been found near the village of Yebawkya in Rakhine.
It
said 300 Arsa militants had rounded up about 100 villagers and killed
most of them on 25 August, the same date as the start of the latest
phase of the conflict, in claims attributed to an unnamed Yebawkya
villager.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Authorities have restricted journalists and independent observers from
freely travelling in Rakhine state, citing security concerns. Image copyrightFacebook / Information CommitteeImage caption
The claims were posted on the Myanmar government's Information Committee Facebook page
But a BBC reporter has spoken to Hindus who fled
from Rakhine to Bangladesh and said they were threatened and attacked by
Arsa. They also said some Hindus had been killed and some houses burned
by the militants.
Hindu villagers in the Yebawkya area told the
AFP news agency that Rohingya militants attacked their communities on 25
August, killing many and taking others into the forest.
The Hindus have said they were attacked by Arsa because the militants suspected they were government spies.
Arsa
has consistently denied such accusations, and on Monday a spokesman
told Reuters news agency that claims of its militants killing villagers
were "lies".
Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Some Hindus fleeing the violence have been housed in temporary camps in Rakhine
Buddhists are the majority in Rakhine state but there are also Hindu and Muslim communities as well as the Rohingya.
The
Rohingya - a stateless mostly Muslim minority - are widely despised in
Myanmar, where they are considered to be illegal migrants from
Bangladesh, despite the fact that some have been in Myanmar for
generations. Bangladesh, which now hosts about 800,000 Rohingya, also
denies them citizenship.
Inside Rakhine, bitter ethnic tensions have led to waves of communal violence in the past.
Myanmar's
military says its operation is aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants
and has repeatedly denied targeting civilians. But many of those who
fled to Bangladesh accuse the military and Buddhist mobs of beating and
killing villagers and razing their communities.
Earlier this
month the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee,
said more than 1,000 people may have been killed in the conflict, most
of them Rohingya.
The army says some 400 people have been killed
during military operations, the vast majority of them Arsa militants.
But BBC correspondents say it is very likely that many of them were
civilians.
Thousands of young men joined the attacks in support
of Arsa, armed with machetes and bamboo sticks, but very few were
trained and armed militants, they say.
“A
warm friendship connects the Ethiopian and American people,” U.S.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced earlier this year. “We remain
committed to working with Ethiopia to foster liberty, democracy,
economic growth, protection of human rights, and the rule of law.”
Indeed,
the website for the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia is marked by press
releases touting U.S. aid for farmers and support for public health
infrastructure in that East African nation. “Ethiopia remains among the
most effective development partners, particularly in the areas of
health care, education, and food security,” says the State Department.
Behind
the scenes, however, Ethiopia and the U.S. are bound together by
long-standing relationships built on far more than dairy processing
equipment or health centers to treat people with HIV. Fifteen years ago,
the U.S. began setting up very different centers, filled with
technology that is not normally associated with the protection of human
rights.
In the aftermath of 9/11, according to classified U.S.
documents published Wednesday by The Intercept, the National Security
Agency forged a relationship with the Ethiopian government that has
expanded exponentially over the years. What began as one small facility
soon grew into a network of clandestine eavesdropping outposts designed
to listen in on the communications of Ethiopians and their neighbors
across the Horn of Africa in the name of counterterrorism.“Governments
that provide Ethiopia with surveillance capabilities that are being
used to suppress lawful expressions of dissent risk complicity in
abuses,” says Horne. “The United States should come clean about its role
in surveillance in the Horn of Africa and should have policies in place
to ensure Ethiopia is not using information gleaned from surveillance
to crack down on legitimate expressions of dissent inside Ethiopia.”
In
exchange for local knowledge and an advantageous location, the NSA
provided the East African nation with technology and training integral
to electronic surveillance. “Ethiopia’s position provides the
partnership unique access to the targets,” a commander of the U.S.
spying operation wrote in a classified 2005 report. (The report is one
of 294 internal NSA newsletters released today by The Intercept.)
The
NSA’s collaboration with Ethiopia is high risk, placing the agency in
controversial territory. For more than a decade, Ethiopia has been
engaged in a fight against Islamist militant groups, such as Al Qaeda
and Shabab. But the country’s security forces have taken a draconian
approach to countering the threat posed by jihadis and stand accused of
routinely torturing suspects and abusing terrorism powers to target
political dissidents.
“The Ethiopian government uses surveillance
not only to fight terrorism and crime, but as a key tactic in its
abusive efforts to silence dissenting voices in-country,” says Felix
Horne, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Essentially anyone
that opposes or expresses dissent against the government is considered
to be an ‘anti-peace element’ or a ‘terrorist.’”
The NSA declined to comment for this story.
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia. Photo: Yannick Tylle/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
In
February 2002, the NSA set up the Deployed Signals Intelligence
Operations Center – also known as “Lion’s Pride” – in Ethiopia’s
capital, Addis Ababa, according to secret documents obtained by The
Intercept from the whistleblower Edward Snowden. It began as a modest
counterterrorism effort involving around 12 Ethiopians performing a
single mission at 12 workstations. But by 2005, the operation had
evolved into eight U.S. military personnel and 103 Ethiopians, working
at “46 multifunctional workstations,” eavesdropping on communications in
Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. By then, the outpost in Addis Ababa had
already been joined by “three Lion’s Pride Remote Sites,” including one
located in the town of Gondar, in northwestern Ethiopia.
“[The]
NSA has an advantage when dealing with the Global War on Terrorism in
the Horn of Africa,” reads an NSA document authored in 2005 by Katie
Pierce, who was then the officer-in-charge of Lion’s Pride and the
commander of the agency’s Signal Exploitation Detachment. “The benefit
of this relationship is that the Ethiopians provide the location and
linguists and we provide the technology and training,” she wrote.
According to Pierce, Lion’s Pride had already produced almost 7,700
transcripts and more than 900 reports based on its regional spying
effort.
Pierce, now a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and a
lawyer in private practice, had noted her role with the NSA’s Ethiopia
unit in an online biography. When contacted by The Intercept, she said
little about her time with Lion’s Pride or the work of the NSA
detachment. “We provided a sort of security for that region,” she said.
The reference to the NSA in Pierce’s online biography has since
disappeared.
Reta Alemu Nega, the minister of political affairs
at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C., told The Intercept that
the U.S. and Ethiopia maintained “very close cooperation” on issues
related to intelligence and counterterrorism. While he did not address
questions about Lion’s Pride, Alemu described regular meetings in which
U.S. and Ethiopian defense officials “exchange views” about their
partnership and shared activities.
Shabab
and Hizbul Islam militants take a break at a front-line section in
Sanca district in Mogadishu, on July 21, 2009. Photo: Mohamed
Dahir/AFP/Getty Images
Lion’s Pride does not represent
the first time that Ethiopia has played a vital role in U.S. signals
surveillance. In 1953, the U.S. signed a 25-year agreement for a base at
Kagnew Station in Asmara, Ethiopia, according to a declassified NSA
report obtained by the nonprofit National Security Archive. Navy and
Army communications facilities based there were joined by an NSA outpost
just over a decade later.
On April 23, 1965, the Soviet Union
launched Molniya-1, its first international communications satellite.
The next month, the NSA opened STONEHOUSE, a remote listening post in
Asmara. The facility was originally aimed at Soviet deep space probes
but, in the end, “[its] main value turned out to be the collection of
Soviet MOLNIYA communications satellites,” according to a 2004 NSA
document that mentions STONEHOUSE.
STONEHOUSE was closed down in
1975 due to a civil war in Ethiopia. But its modern-day successor,
Lion’s Pride, has proved to be “such a lucrative source for SIGINT
reports” that a new facility was built in the town of Dire Dawa in early
2006, according to a secret NSA document. “The state of the art antenna
field surrounded by camels and donkey-drawn carts is a sight to
behold,” reads the NSA file. The effort, code-named “LADON,” was aimed
at listening in on communications across a larger swath of Somalia, down
to the capital Mogadishu, the Darfur region of Sudan, and parts of
eastern Ethiopia.
At a May 2006 planning conference, the
Americans and Ethiopians decided on steps to “take the partnership to a
new level” through an expanded mission that stretched beyond strictly
counterterrorism. Targeting eastern Ethiopia’s Ogaden region and the
nearby Somali borderlands, the allied eavesdroppers agreed on a mission
of listening in on cordless phones in order to identify not only
“suspected al-Qa’ida sympathizers” but also “illicit smugglers.”
From
the time Lion’s Pride was set up until predominantly Christian Ethiopia
invaded mostly Muslim Somalia in December 2006, the U.S. poured about
$20 million in military aid into the former country. As Ethiopian troops
attempted to oust a fundamentalist movement called the Council of
Islamic Courts, which had defeated several warlords to take power in
Somalia, Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter said the two
nations had “a close working relationship” that included sharing
intelligence. Within a year, Ethiopian forces were stuck in a military
quagmire in Somalia and were facing a growing rebellion in the Ogaden
region as well.
“While the exact nature of U.S. support for
Ethiopian surveillance efforts in the Ogaden region is not clear, it is
very troubling to hear the U.S. is providing surveillance capacities to a
government that is committing such egregious human rights abuses in
that region,” says Horne, the Human Rights Watch researcher. “Between
2007-2008 the Ethiopian army committed possible war crimes and crimes
against humanity against civilians in this region during its conflict
with the Ogaden National Liberation Front.”
For the U.S., “the
chaos” caused by the invasion “yielded opportunities for progress in the
war on terrorism,” stated a top secret NSA document dated February
2007. According to the document, the Council of Islamic Courts was
harboring members of an Al Qaeda cell that the NSA’s African Threat
Branch had been tracking since 2003. After being flushed from hiding by
the Ethiopian invasion, the NSA provided “24-hour support to CIA and
U.S. military units in the Horn of Africa,” utilizing various
surveillance programs to track Council of Islamic Courts leaders and
their Al Qaeda allies. “Intelligence,” says the document, “was also
shared with the Ethiopian SIGINT partner to enable their troops to track
High Value Individuals.” The NSA deemed the effort a success as the “#1
individual on the list” was “believed killed in early January” 2007,
while another target was arrested in Kenya the next month. The
identities of the people killed and captured, as well as those
responsible, are absent from the document.
As the Council of
Islamic Courts crumbled in the face of the invasion, its ally, the
militant group Shabab, saw Somalis flock to its resistance effort.
Fueled and radicalized by the same chaos exploited by the NSA, Shabab
grew in strength. By 2012, the terrorist group had formally become an Al
Qaeda affiliate. Today, the U.S. continues to battle Shabab in an
escalating conflict in Somalia that shows no sign of abating.
The
first batch of Ethiopian troops leaving the Somali capital Mogadishu
hold a departure ceremony Jan. 23, 2007 at Afisiyooni Air Base. Photo:
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
At the time the NSA set up
Lion’s Pride, the U.S. State Department had criticized Ethiopia’s
security forces for having “infringed on citizens’ privacy rights,”
ignoring the law regarding search warrants, beating detainees, and
conducting extrajudicial killings. By 2005, with Lion’s Pride markedly
expanded, nothing had changed. The State Department found:
The
Government’s human rights record remained poor. … Security forces
committed a number of unlawful killings, including alleged political
killings, and beat, tortured, and mistreated detainees. … The Government
infringed on citizens’ privacy rights, and the law regarding search
warrants was often ignored. The Government restricted freedom of the
press. … The Government at times restricted freedom of assembly,
particularly for members of opposition political parties; security
forces at times used excessive force to disperse demonstrations. The
Government limited freedom of association. …
A separate State
Department report on Ethiopia’s counterterrorism and anti-terrorism
capabilities, issued in November 2013 and obtained by The Intercept via
the Freedom of Information Act, noted that there were “inconsistent
efforts to institutionalize” anti-terrorism training within Ethiopian
law enforcement and added that while the Ethiopian Federal Police use
surveillance and informants, “laws do not allow the interception of
telephone or electronic communications.” The readable sections of the
redacted report make no mention of the NSA program and state that the
U.S. “maintains an important but distant security relationship with
Ethiopia.”
A 2010 NSA document offers a far different picture of
the bond between the security agencies of the two countries, noting that
the “NSA-Ethiopian SIGINT relationship continues to thrive.”
In
an after-action report, a trainer from NSA Georgia’s “Sudan/Horn of
Africa Division” described teaching a class attended by soldiers from
the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and civilians from Ethiopia’s
Information Network Security Agency. He praised the Ethiopians for
“work[ing] so hard on our behalf” and wrote that his students were
“excited and eager to learn.”
According to the documents,
analysts from the Army’s 741st Military Intelligence Battalion were
still detailed to Lion’s Pride while the Ethiopians they worked beside
had increased their skills at analyzing intercepted communications.
“More importantly, however,” the American trainer noted, “is the
strengthening of the relationship” between NSA and Ethiopian security
forces. NSA Georgia, he declared, was eager to continue “developing the
relationship between us and our Ethiopian counterparts.”
The NSA
refused to comment on whether Lion’s Pride continues to eavesdrop on the
region, but no evidence suggests it was ever shut down. There is,
however, good reason to believe that U.S. efforts have strengthened the
hand of the Ethiopian government. And a decade and a half after it was
launched, Ethiopia’s human rights record remains as dismal as ever. Read more: https://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2017/Sept/144165/how_the_nsa_built_a_secret_surveillance_network_for_ethiopia.aspx
