Share this page!

Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Twitter logo
5 Jan, 11 tweets, 5 min read
Also there is some new Jeffrey Feltman news, he is about to leave it seems, according to this report from Swiss Info. From Reuters reporter @humeyra_pamuk
swissinfo.ch/eng/exclusive-…
@humeyra_pamuk Feltman will be replaced by David Satterfield, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
- Wikipedia Biography en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._…
- State Dept Bio Note state.gov/satterfield-da…
- Archived Bio Note 2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/2…
@humeyra_pamuk Satterfield previously served as the Charge D'Affairs to Egypt (not mentioned in the Reuters Story) and was confirmed to his role as Turkey Ambassador in June 2019, after being nominated by @SecPompeo.

His wrtten testimony for the nomination is here >> foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
A search of Wikileaks Cables for "David Satterfield" brings up 490 results - but some of these seem to relate to "David E Satterfield" a congressman. There are a large number of secret cables in the database related mostly to his time working in Iraq. search.wikileaks.org/?query=David+S…
In this cable, Satterfield describes briefing Saudi counterparts, including intelligence officials and the FM on developments in Iraq. The cable is addressed to the CIA and DIA.
Finally this report is from October 2019, a few months after Satterfield was confirmed as Ambassador to Turkey. It relates to the disastrous phone call between Trump and Turkish President Erdogan, in which Trump effectively threw the Kurds under a bus.
nbcnews.com/politics/natio…
Satterfield is a very different kind of figure to Feltman - whose experience at the UN prior to becoming HoA envoy was in peacemaking. Satterfield has military and intel ties including deep ties to Egypt where he served as Multinational Sinai Force DG from 2009-2017.
This is a very preliminary look at the new US Envoy.

In terms of what it tells us about US policy in Ethiopia, it's certainly an important development.
In recent months it has looked at times as if US policy in Washington DC is contested between a more hawkish approach - perhaps backed by the DoD - and the State Dept, who under @AsstSecStateAF has been conciliatory.
The decision at Christmas to remove Ethiopia from AGOA at @batten_von's request suggested a hawks victory.

Feltman's latest trip, may indicate in the context of this news - be a sign-off trip, perhaps even a mission he requested to assist in the handover.
This does not to me - admittedly at first glance - look like good news for Ethiopia.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Alastair Thompson

Alastair Thompson Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @althecat

Alastair Thompson Profile picture
6 Jan
The leading edge of the next monsoon charged atmospheric river has arrived in the Middle East and the next phase of unusual possibly extreme winter weather in the region is about to commence. Image
The GFS 16-day rain forecast predicts a very similar amount of rain to the last major phase in this extended period of intense #ArabianStorms which finished 2 days ago.
For a recap of what has happened so far, this thread from this morning looks at the period 17 December to today, and tracks the Atlantic-Amazon sourced atmospheric river involved in all this all the way to China.
Read 12 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
6 Jan
An animation showing the current #SaharaWaterTransport #MiddleEast #ExtremeWeather event over its full terrestrial area and timescale from 17th December till today.

Daily rain intensity measures show where rain fell each day.
1. Along the bottom the monsoon atmospheric river moves West.
2. Over the Atlantic storms produce atmospheric moisture.
3. This travels ENE over the Sahara to the Middle East

[Src. New animation service on @NASA #Worldview.]
@NASA This animation looks at the next segment in water transport - same time period - over the Indian Ocean and Eurasia to China. Again the monsoon is moving in the opposite direction.

It is remarkably how shallow the angle is of the atmospheric rivers which are moving ENE.
Read 24 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
5 Jan
This is what an approaching #extremeweather event looks like.
This cloud pattern is exquisite.
Hundreds of small thunderstorms, all in a line over the great forest of Africa, all producing a stream of atmospheric water of heading towards a great river over the Sahel.
Those are lakes Albert and Victoria bottom right. The large cloudless area is also unusual. Probably a localised fairly large high pressure system of some kind.
Read 5 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
5 Jan
The global media has suddenly been woken up to Ethiopia again!!!! Not by the State Dept’s latest insanity but by @hrw i.e KenRoth.

Ethiopia refugees are being abused in Saudi Arabia. Have been for decades. That’s why they are being repatriated.

FFS!

hrw.org/news/2022/01/0… Image
There is a humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia an acute one. Millions of traumatized people 100s of thousands of dead child soldiers. Caused by a violent war of secession. There is a chance for peace, but the obstacle is not the way repatriated Tigray refugees are being treated.
The main problem is that the TPLF declared a ceasefire as the Western world went to sleep for Christmas, and promptly attacked Afar. And now they are attacking again in the West.
Read 6 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
5 Jan
Research thread into David M Satterfield - who has been reported to be replacing Jeffrey Feltman as Envoy to the Horn of Africa. See... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._…

Please add and annotate relevant info in this thread.

With videos please include time-stamp references.
france24.com/en/europe/2021…
news.trust.org/item/202201051…
Read 4 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
5 Jan
With all due respect, Satterfield does have deep experience in the Horn, via his lengthy engagement with Egypt. His lengthy role in the Multinational Sinai Force means he likely had deep connections there, military and intel.

This could be positive, but probably isn’t.
Feltman and Satterfield’s specialist areas of diplomacy are the Middle East, not the Horn. It appears that African specialists in @StateDept don’t have sufficient stature for this role.

The difference between the two is that Satterfield is more tied into Military and Intel.
The FP piece mentioned about envoy’s is definitely relevant, but I think the conclusion is wrong. The Satterfield appointment indicates if anything that Langley and the DoD have muscled their way in. foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/06/spe…
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @althecat has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @althecat!

Read all threads by @althecat

:(