FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2012
Did you know that $3.5 Billion per Year of Your Tax Dollars are used to support one of the Worst Dictatorship on the Planet, the Ethiopian Regime?
Because of this, ETHIOPIAN-AMERICANS, one of PRESIDENT OBAMA’S MOST DEVOTED SUPPORTERS IN 2008, MAY BE LOOKING ELSEWHERE!
Why is the Obama Administration looking the other way, ignoring the atrocities being committed by the tyrannical Ethiopian Regime – the ninth worst
dictator on the planet
? Because this administration says “the Ethiopian Regime is our ally against terror!” We ask: how can a regime that terrorizes its own citizens be our ally against terror? Is this the kind of country we are? We say, absolutely not! Here are the facts: > “Worst of the Worst,” In 2010, the Ethiopian Regime ranked as the ninth worst dictator on the planet (now, the sixth!) 2010 Freedom House report; > the use of Skype is punishable by 15 years jail sentence. Going to Ethiopia? If you use Skype, you could be there 15 years; LA Times, June 16, 2012; > 90% of the free press journalists are in jail or exiled. A blogger, the recipient of the 2010 Freedom to Write Award by PEN USA was sentenced for 18 years. Another young reporter got 14 years for an editorial she penned. >
“The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent,” Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Rona Peligal http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/18/ethiopia-donor-aid-supports-repression > … being whipped with wire and beaten on the head and the insides of their feet; …being gagged, hung upside down, and beaten with electrical cords; …being threatened with injection of HIV-infected blood; US State Department Annual Human Right Report 2011 We are writing this open letter to appeal to you, fellow members of the Democratic Party, the free press and the people of the United States to help get our voices heard by President Obama and his administration. We are forced to take this approach because repeated attempts by our community, American citizens of Ethiopian decent representing Ethiopia’s diverse ethnic, religious, gender and political orientations in all 50 states have been ignored by President Obama. The above is just the tip of the iceberg. Ethiopia today is a living-hell for its citizens.
What are we doing?
We are organizing thousands (over 50 thousand in the case of Virginia, MD and DC) of voters in key swing-states, including Nevada, to campaign for President Obama’s re-election as we did in 2008. This, we will do if and when he stands with us in accordance with his speech asserting in no uncertain terms that “… the United States of America … supports the democratic aspiration of all people”.
FELLOW CITIZENS, WE ASK THAT YOU STAND WITH US IN OUR CAMPAIGN FOR A JUST FOREIGN POLICY. PLEASE CALL PRESIDENT OBAMA TODAY AND DEMAND THAT HIS ADMINISTRATION STOP SUPPORTING ETHIOPIA’S DICTATORSHIP WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS:
312-698-3670