Recent stories from Edward Snowden’s disclosures show how the US government’s involvement with Ethiopia presents a case study in enabling repressive regimes to carry out surveillance on their own citizens. In the case of Ethiopia, such surveillance powers can play a significant role in a government’s criminalization of dissent and politically motivated detentions. Ethiopia has also used hacking technologies obtained from abroad to spy on diaspora living in the United States. Ethiopia, a major ally of the United States, has worked over many years to ruthlessly and methodically crush political dissent. In 2014, Human Rights Watch documented how authorities used transcripts, recordings, and phone call metadata during violent interrogations and in politically motivated trials.

Source: Ethiopian News October 03, 2017 12:56 UTC