Thread by @althecat

Senator @ChrisCoons keeps changing the story and context of his alleged conversation with PM Abiy before the war began. In this new Oped for @ForeignPolicy his explanation is even more contorted than before - and really needs some unpacking. foreignaffairs.com/articles/ethio…

The issue of this alleged call arose initially due to the reporting of the error prone @nytimes reporter Declan Walsh. He published a report in which he claimed that Coons had spoken to Abiy before the war started, warning him not to start a war.

@nytimes This is important because contrary to @nytimes @reuters, @ap, @AFP and numerous other western media outlets the war which began in November 2020 was started by the TPLF in a coordinated surprise attack on the ENDF in which 1000s of ENDF troops and officers were killed.

The initial faulty @DeclanWalsh reporting was in this report in June 2021, immediately shortly before the @NYtimes unintended and now notorious expose of TPLF use of child soldiers in which the paper of record called them "highly motivated young recruits." nytimes.com/2021/06/21/wor…

@declanwalsh @nytimes The story was corrected twice, for two different errors, below is the relevant text from the updated article, and the corrections.

"After publication, Senator Coons remembered that he had spoken to Mr. Ahmed in late November, not before the U.S. presidential election."

Unfortunately US Democratic Party Senator and one-time presidential hopeful @ChrisCoons seems to be unwilling to let this false narrative go.

Most recently he told the story during his "Genocide" panel call at Yale with @nimaelbagir.

Here is a direct link to the clip [], beginning with a question from @CNN's @nimaelbagir, and below a transcript of @ChrisCoons answer.

Here is the orginal text from the later corrected @NYTimes story [Link: Way Back Machine >> web.archive.org/web/2021062107…] where Coons claimed to have made this call, but which was later corrected.

The expression "fighting erupted in Tigray" used in the original version of the story has a long history dating back to the beginning of the conflict using in over 10,000 news reports, and ambiguously suggesting that the origins of the war were somehow unknown.

It has only been over the last month or so that the boiler plate statements on this issue, and comments from diplomats and politicians involved in the conflict have started to reflect the truth, which "to be fair", is acknowledged by Senator Coons in the Yale video.

Violence by fascist movements is often based on a "big lie" and in the case of the Tigray War and the TPLF the "big lie" is this, that they did not start the war. One which has only recently started to be corrected in some coverage of the issue.

Let's now return to @ChrisCoons @ForeignPolicy text of today.

<< “I first spoke to Abiy about the brewing conflict in Tigray in November 2020.” >>

While true - if he spoke in late November - there remains a timing impossibility vs the corrected NY Times report (below).

Abiy could not have been “preparing to launch a major military offensive in "late November", as the ENDF's counter-attack took place immediately.

Below is Coon’s @ForeignPolicy text.

Senator and @JoeBiden peace envoy @ChrisCoons continues…

Again this conversation could not have taken place in late November as it would make no sense for him to have said this. By late November the war had been underway for at least possibly two weeks.

So either the @NYTimes correction of 25th June 2021 was wrong (which seems odd given its reputational cost – doubly so as it hasn't been corrected again) or @ChrisCoons is continuing to misremember when he talked to @AbiyAhmedAli, and is now making up this conversation.

There is something that Sen. @ChrisCoons did do immediately before the war started though, and that was to sign on to a letter from the TPLF’s lobbying arm Montague von Batten on 31 October, four days before the TPLF attacked.
einnews.com/pr_news/529671…

@ChrisCoons This was the first of nine press releases issued by Montague von Batten over a month. And oddly these releases give the appearance of being issued by Oromo activists, not Tigrayan ones. [Source >> einpresswire.com/sources/u42754…]

@ChrisCoons The lobbying firm Montague Von Batten [@batten_von]
behind these releases, appears to have been created specifically for the purpose of lobbying around this war.

Here's its first tweet, months after his lobbying effort had started with US Senators.

https://twitter.com/batten_von/status/1354103042409435136?s=20

On March 22, 2021 @ChrisCoons was among a growing bipartisan group of Senators who signed on to another letter [prnewswire.com/news-releases/…], also drafted lobbyist Von Batten Montague which was welcomed by "The Tigray Center for Information and Communication."

Senatorial sponsors:

On March 23rd (the day after this press release) the State Dept. [@SecBlinken's tweets referenced in this transcript are here

https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1374161823721721858?s=20

].

What this tells us is that the first US Emissary sent to Ethiopia by the Biden Administration - Senator @ChrisCoons - had been in contact with the TPLF's lobbying organisation since at least 31st October 2020, five days before the TPLF launched "Ethiopia's 9/11" on Nov 3.

And a year later he is still struggling to remember the timeline of his engagements with the Ethipian PM @AbiyAhmedAli.

/ENDS

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