Thread by @althecat

This deep dive is for anyone interested in the unfolding #Ethiopia Security Crisis the #Tigray War and the information warfare associated with it. Full spectrum analysis.

@RaniaKhalek & @EugenePuryear

The final thesis provides an interesting explanation for the hard to explain U.S. position in relation to this #HornOfAfrica Crisis.

I.E. the US is just opposed to having independent free countries in such an important geo-strategic location.

The way @EugenePuryear lays out of the history, detail and context of this crisis leaves me with an uneasy feeling of déjà vu. There are echoes of the lead up to previous international relations castastrophes, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria.

Have we not learned anything?

This will become a watershed broadcast IMO with respect to U.S. domestic political understanding of this conflict. And in that respect it does what the best news media should do, shines light into a dark place.

There is way too much in this great presentation there was a reference which I think is worth exploring. It was to this report which @RaniaKhalek and @EugenePuryear covered in a recent broadcast. eritreacompass.com/disinformation…

Link To Download Report >> eritreacompass.com/wp-content/upl…

The title of the report is a reference to Noam Chomsky's book, manufacturing consent, and taps into a deep well of anti-war and anti-imperialism activism, writing and journalism.

The author the report is NYC based @stesfa Exec. Director of @newafricainst (both worth a follow).

@RaniaKhalek and @EugenePuryear refer to all this only in passing, and in the context of the reaction to @stesfa's report, this blog post from the @AtlanticCouncil's grandly named "Digital Forensic Research Lab". medium.com/dfrlab/eritrea…

This interests me because the sort of forensic analysis described in the report. Checking who the author is etc. is the sort of thing I have been doing routinely in relation to all reports related to this conflict, as it has red-flags all over it from an information perspective.

Anyway, as Rania and Eugene point out. The @DFRLab report authored by @awildknight does suggest that @stesfa struck a nerve with his work.

Perhaps @AtlanticCouncil might like to task its @DFRLab experts to have a close look at the disinformation itself, rather than the author.

Irony in this runs way too deep.

Fact checking unit funded by a foreign policy think tank, critiques a fact checking report and concludes @Stesfa's report "works to promote Eritrea and its interests, using the tropes of a fact-checking.."

It's hard to get one's head around.