US Special Envoy for the TPLF: From the “Ugly American” to the “American Easter Bunny” or is it Porky Pig?

Al Mariam’s Commentaries
August 8, 2022

Is three a charm? (Behold, the charming Gang of Four.)

Mean Joe Biden (actually Susan Rice, the Princess of Darkness) sent the “Ugly American” Jeffrey TPLFeltman as a “special envoy to the Horn of Africa” (code for Ethiopia) in May 2021.

By January 2022, TPLFeltman,  a bloviating blowhard, had crashed and burned after he was outed as a TPLF agent.

He earned the title of  “Ethiopia’s Grinch and Ebeneezer Scrooge”.

Mean Joe (Susan Rice) then tapped David Satterfield in January 2022 as a replacement for TPLFeltman.

Satterfield bailed out in April 2022, apparently because he was not willing to be puppet mastered and given marching orders by Susan Rice.

On June 1, 2022, Michael Hammer was appointed as the third special envoy to the Horn of Africa.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement explained: “Hammer’s appointment underscores our abiding commitment to diplomatic efforts in the region, most urgently in support of an inclusive political process towards peace.”

Hammer tweeted back:

I knew right off the bat Hammer was a Susan Rice gofer and stooge.

On June 1, 2022, I tweeted back with prophetic certainty Hammer would crash and burn because “Susan Rice sent ya to be a terrorist TPLF negotiator.”

Blinken’s statement about Hammer supporting an “inclusive political process towards peace in Ethiopia” meant only one thing: Pressure and threaten Ethiopian government officials with crippling sanctions unless they agree to a power-sharing arrangement with the terrorist TPLF and ultimately hand over power to them.

The fact of the matter is that Hammer does not “work for the American people”, as he tweeted.

Hammer works for Susan Rice, the “American Woyane,” who masterminds and manages the gang of TPLF terrorists in Ethiopia from the US.

Truth be told, Hammer should be re-designated as “US Special Envoy on Behalf of the TPLF.”

Hammer is Susan Rice’s gofer, lackey and stooge.

From 2009-2011, in the Obama administration, Hammer served as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Press and Communications, and Spokesman at the National Security Council at the White House.

From 1999-2000, Hammer served in the Clinton administration as Deputy Spokesman for the National Security Council.

As a Foreign Service Officer, Hammer served in  Bolivia, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark.

Hammer’s only experience in Africa is his ambassadorial assignment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2018-2022).

Hammer was the Obama administration’s spinmeister defending the 2010 Ethiopian election allegedly won by the TPLF by 99.6 percent.

Human Rights Watch commented, “The 99.6 percent result was the culmination of the government’s five-year strategy of systematically closing down space for political dissent and independent criticism…”

On May 25, 2010, in its Preliminary Statement and Final Report the European Union observer mission stated: “the electoral process fell short of certain international commitments, notably regarding the transparency of the process and the lack of a level playing field for all contesting parties.” 

On May 25, 2010, White House National Security Spokesman Mike Hammer said:

We are concerned that international observers found that the elections fell short of international commitments. We are disappointed that U.S. Embassy officials were denied accreditation and the opportunity to travel outside of the capital on Election Day to observe the voting.  The limitation of independent observation and the harassment of independent media representatives are deeply troubling. An environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place even before Election Day…

After visiting Mekele, the terrorist TPLF stronghold and taking selfies to his heart’s content, Hammer (and his sidekick) issued a joint press statement.

In that statement, Hammer proved beyond a shadow of doubt that he is a terrorist TPLF negotiator!

Hammer issued three orders in his statement to the Ethiopian government:

1) Undertake  “a swift restoration of electricity, telecom, banking and other basic services in Tigray”;

2) “imperatively” provide “unfettered access to Tigray accompanied by the lifting of sanctions on cash fuel and fertilizers;” and

3) provide “access to the International Commission of Human Rights Experts in Ethiopia to investigate a credible investigation.”

No orders for the TPLF!

All they TPLF leaders have to do is watch Ethiopia being screwed as they sip on “chilled screwdrivers”, their favorite cocktail drink, from the balcony at Axum Hotel in Mekele.

The Ethiopian government’s response to Hammer’s statement was direct, forthright and unambiguous.

Redwan Hussien, Ethiopian Minister for National Security tweeted, “The bottom line? The AU (African Union) is the only channel and has been reiterated in no uncertain terms once again.”

Translated into street language, “Hammer can take his statement and shove it up!”

Hammer as Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo

In 2018, Hammer made all sorts of promises and pledges if confirmed as ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC):

If confirmed, I intend to continue our efforts to combat corruption and increase transparency, advance credible elections and a peaceful democratic transfer of power, continue this important humanitarian effort while seeking to address the underlying drivers of this urgent crisis and help set the DRC on a path to sustainable development and self-reliance, prevent future epidemics and potential pandemics.

Hammer’s record in the DRC has been a total failure.

Hammer pledged to combat corruption in the DRC at his confirmation hearing.

In 2018, DRC ranked 161/180 on the Corruption Index.

In 2021, DRC ranked 169/180 on the Corruption Index.

In 2021, 85% of Congolese thought corruption  increased in the previous 12 months and 80% of public service users reported paying a bribe in the previous 12 months.

Hammer made no effort to alleviate corruption in the DRC.

Hammer pledged to improve the electoral process in the DRC at his confirmation hearing.

General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2018.

In August 2021, a 44-page USAID-commissioned White Paper entitled “Recommendations for Electoral Reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” was issued in anticipation of the 2023 DRC election.

The White Paper made dozens of recommendation for electoral reform including constitutional and legal reform, amendments to the Constitution, organic law and other related laws, reforms of electoral and election dispute resolution mechanisms, consultations with political parties, observer groups and so on.

Hammer sat on his duff and did nothing to help implement any of the White Paper recommendations to help the Congolese.

Now, DRC is facing the real prospect of civil war over the 2023 election.

In March 2022, former DRC President Joe Kabila “declared war” stating, “it is impossible to organise the (2023) election in the current context.”

To complicate matters, there is widespread opposition to the electoral commission, the Constitutional Court and the proposed electoral law as the 2023 election looms.

Hammer gave new meaning to the old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Mike, “The Hammer”, slipped outta DRC to become special envoy as DRC slowly descends into civil war.

To add insult to injury, instead of helping out the DRC, Hammer was meddling and destabilizing the DRC.

Hammer was widely criticized for interfering in DRC’s domestic politics.

In 2020, the speakers of the two houses of the DRC parliament protested Hammer’s  “meddling” and “activism”.

Hammer, in arrogant audacity, responded saying the Congolese people love him and “constantly ask for America’s support and express appreciation for our contributions.”

Hammer hammered the “old (DRC) political establishment that is determined to cling on to power for personal financial gain and try to hide behind arguments of nationalism or make accusations of foreign interference.”

Hammer pledged to “help set the DRC on a path to sustainable development and self-reliance.”

According to a June 30, 2022 World Bank report the DRC ranked the DRC 164/174 countries on the 2020 Human Capital Index:

 DRC’s Human Capital Index is 0.37 which is below the SSA average of 0.4. This means that a Congolese child born today can expect to achieve only 37% of their potential, compared to what would have been possible if they had benefited from a full, quality schooling experience and optimal health conditions.

Hammer did absolutely nothing “help set the DRC on a path to sustainable development and self-reliance.”

Hammer pledged to help “prevent future epidemics and potential pandemics” in the DRC.

The only thing Hammer has done to prevent epidemics in the DRC, particularly ebola, was to deliver a self-congratulatory speech and post an op-ed on a State Department website.

As of July 2022, under Hammer’s watch, the total amount of assistance for ebola prevention in DRC and Guinea is $3.5 million, a paltry sum considering the rapid spread and deadly nature of ebola outbreaks.

It appears Hammer spent most of his time in the DRC binging on gourmet food.

Hammer’s first trip as “Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa”: Special grey war operations?

Hammer’s service with the State Department mainly involved Scandinavia and Latin America.

Peter Pham, formerly a special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa from 2018 to 2020 and a TPLF fellow traveler, commented Hammer’s inexperience in African affairs is a blessing because unlike Feltman and Satterfield he comes to the Horn with connections to key African leaders and without baggage.

Pham noted Hammer is

different from others. He’s very active publicly, Twitter, etc. so it’s a different type of diplomacy. In these types of settings you have to go with your sense of the native intelligence, experience, and good judgement of the person you put in there; and on all three of those, I would score Michael highly.

I believe Hammer was selected to become special envoy because he was the only one Susan Rice could find to send on a fool’s errand.

Rice wanted a “yes man” who would respond, “how high?” when told to jump.

Rice appointed Hammer because she is so obsessed and possessed with the passion to save the terrorist TPLF and Hammer — naïve, ignorant, callow —  fit the bill.

Which self-respecting American diplomat would agree to become special envoy having watched his predecessors crash and burn after serving in the position for just months?

Hammer was selected because he is a fool who will rush in where angels (and even devils) fear to tread.

On July 23, 2022, the State Department announced

Hammer will travel to Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia between July 24-August 1 to provide U.S. support for Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations and   review progress on delivery of humanitarian assistance, and accountability for human rights violations and abuses as well as efforts to advance peace talks between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan authorities.

But before travelling to Ethiopia, Susan Rice had made arrangements for Hammer to do a dog and pony show for the “Ethiopian diaspora.”

It was a Zoom meeting with individuals described as “Ethiopian diasporans.”

The person who coordinated the diaspora Zoom meeting is a woman named Nora Dempsey.

On her Linked In page, Dempsey describes herself as follows:

I am currently leading Ethiopian diaspora outreach for the State Department during a particularly challenging time for Ethiopia.

Dempsey is classified GS-14 under the general federal schedule pay scale and earned $157,709 in 2020.

It boggles the mind the US government should hire someone at an annual salary of $157,709 to do “outreach” in the “Ethiopian diaspora”.

What is so special about the “Ethiopian diaspora” that the US government has to hire a highly paid bureaucrat to look after them?

Or is Dempsey running a special psyops and surveillance on “Ethiopian diasporans”?

Out of which State Department office is Dempsey operating in her “outreach” to the “Ethiopian diaspora”?

Or does Dempsey operate out of a secret covert special psyops office for “Ethiopian diasporans”?

Who appointed Dempsey to become “Ethiopian Diaspora Outreach Officer” and with what specific duties?

How was the special office created for Dempsey? Under what legal authority?

We shall leave these question for another day.

More fundamentally, I am not sure what Dempsey means by “Ethiopian diaspora.”

I know there are Ethiopian Americans just like any other group of immigrants in American society.

Just like there are Nigerian Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans and so on.

The fact of the matter is that there is no other diaspora group for which the US government has assigned a “diaspora relations” officer?

So, why are Ethiopians singled out for such special treatment?

The fact of the matter is that Dempsey is an old Susan Rice & Gail Smith gofer.

Between 1999-2000, Dempsey was Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council.

During that time, Dempsey worked closely with Gail Smith (USAID Administrator 2015-2017) and Jendayi Frazer, Bush II’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (2005-2009).

During 1999-2000, Smith was the National Security Council’s African Affairs “Office Head” tasked as follows:

The African Affairs Directorate advised and assisted the President and National Security Advisor on all aspects of U.S. foreign policy with respect to Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy, politics, security and humanitarian concerns. (See pp. 40-41 at link above.)

Incredibly, at that time Dempsey and Smith plotted to subvert Voice of America for State Department propaganda purposes in violation of  Sec. 206, Title V of the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 as amended.

Sec. 206 mandates

 VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news, represent America, not any single segment of American society, and present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively and present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.

In email exchanges, Dempsey and Smith were plotting to use VOA to “perform an important role” and sought to meet with VOA officials and underscore to them the “role” they can play and prevent them from “hurting our peacemaking efforts and our shared hopes for the people of the region. We need to make contact with VOA, get them on the team and start working on their scripts.”

Indeed, start working on propaganda scripts purposes in violation of  Sec. 206, Title V of the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 as amended.

The fact of the matter is that  Susan Rice, Gail Smith, Samantha Power and Nora Dempsey and others have been working together for decades advancing a foreign policy within US foreign policy!

It was this Nora Dempsey who arranged the so-called “Ethiopian diaspora” meeting for Hammer.

Following the meeting, the Bureau of African Affairs tweeted:

There was no explanation how Dempsey selected the diaspora Ethiopians for inclusion or exclusion in the Zoom meeting.

In response, Neamin Zeleke, a well-known and highly respected Ethiopian American human rights activist in the US tweeted:

A diplomatic fool on a fool’s errand

Mike Hammer is a disgrace to American diplomacy and brings shame to the American people pledged to serve at his confirmation hearing.

Hammer is clueless!

About Ethiopian and Horn politics.

Clueless about the position of “Special Envoy.”

Clueless about diplomatic decorum, professionalism and ethics.

Admittedly, neither Ethiopia nor Africa in general are top priority for the Biden administration to send the best and brightest diplomats.

But is a downright insult to Ethiopia and Africa in general to appoint such a buffoon as special envoy.

Hammer is so enamored with the TPLF terrorist leaders he forgot he was a high-level special envoy tasked with addressing extremely complicated situations in the Horn region.

It is crystal clear Hammer has not done his homework when he waddled his way into Addis Ababa.

Hammer was taking selfies with terrorist leaders like a teenage groupie taking selfies with rock stars.

The TPLF leaders with whom Hammer is “selfi-ing” are genocidal warlords and war criminals.

The TPLF leaders and their organization has been designated “terrorist” by the Ethiopian government.

Hammer is proud to take selfies with leaders of an organization classified as terrorist by the US government until that designation was lifted in 2014.

Hammer taking selfies with terrorist TPLF leaders is the equivalent of Thomas West, the Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation taking selfies with Taliban terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani  who remains on the FBI’s  most wanted list.

The two terrorist leaders with whom Hammer was taking selfies are on the Ethiopian Government’s Most Wanted Terrorists List with a warrant issued for their arrest.

The TPLF is to Ethiopia as Al Shabab is to Somalia.

Hammer’s selfie with the terrorist leaders proved to the Ethiopian people and Africa that the US can never play the role of honest broker in the conflict in Ethiopia.

What was Hammer thinking (assuming he can think, of course)?

The selfie with the terrorist leaders will forever define him in the eyes and minds of the Ethiopian people. Mike, the TPLF hammer!

Could Hammer be conducting “Selfie Diplomacy”?

The fact of the matter is that Hammer is not only ignorant of the history and customs, he is also clueless about diplomatic decorum.

A 17^th century English diplomat is credited with the observation, “A diplomat is “an honest man sent to lie abroad for his country.”

Hammer is a US diplomat sent to Ethiopia to take selfies with terrorist leaders.

Hammer is clueless there are at least two types of “diplomacy.”

There is the usual “government diplomacy” which involves conducting business between and among governments conducted through bureaucratic institutions and processes. Such diplomacy is the staple of foreign policy.

Then there is “public diplomacy” in which governments aim to communicate directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence with the aim that this foreign public supports or tolerates a government’s strategic objectives.

The US Department State, for instance, has an Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs which “leads Department efforts to expand and strengthen the relationships between the people of the United States and citizens of other countries by engaging, informing and understanding the perspectives of foreign audiences.”

Hammer’s selfie and openly cozy lovey-dovey relationship with the TPLF terrorist leaders has completely destroyed the government and public diplomacy of the US in Ethiopia.

Today, the Biden administration is widely seen by the Ethiopian public as an incorrigible and unrepentant supporter of the terrorist TPLF and an implacable enemy of the Ethiopian people.

In November 2021, I made the legal case against the Biden administration for state terrorism in Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia today, the Biden administration is viewed with great suspicion.

Thanks to the Biden administration, American diplomats have a reputation for duplicity, immorality, mendacity, lack of veracity, opacity and stupidity.

They are viewed as arrogant allies of the terrorist TPLF and will leave no stone unturned to destroy the democratically elected government of Ethiopia and replace it with the terrorist TPLF.

But over the past year and half, American diplomats in Ethiopia have shown arrogance, ignorance, stupidity, unabashed partiality towards the terrorist TPLF and mindboggling incompetence in their government and public diplomacy in Ethiopia.

Elihu Root, Teddy Roosevelt’s Secretary of State and 2012 Nobel Peace Laureate wrote,

More fights between natural persons come from insult than from injury. …. Nations are even more sensitive to insult than individuals. One of the most useful and imperative lessons learned by all civilized governments in the practice of international intercourse has been the necessity of politeness and restraint in expression.

The business of diplomacy requires great care.

While this may come as a complete surprise to Hammer, it is true that one of the principal functions of a diplomat, especially a special envoy, is to transmit official messages and report responses as well as objectively describe and interpret the diplomatic environment.

Much diplomatic reporting is about “informing and shaping policy through prophetic reporting and analytical writing.”

What kind of report will Hammer prepare for Blinken, or more accurately to Princess of Darkness Susan Rice?

Hammer has failed as he has lost all credibility with the Ethiopian government and the Ethiopian people!

As I predicted the day Hammer was appointed, Hammer has crashed and burned as a special envoy in Ethiopia.

Hammer’s second failure is that he has trapped himself in a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Hammer will now report to Rice and Blinken the Ethiopian government is just as they described them.

He will report Ethiopian leaders are intransigent, unreasonable, stubborn, inflexible, cantankerous, recalcitrant… blah blah blah…

So, Hammer’s report will only serve to justify decisions Rice and her underling Blinken have made.

HAMMER ETHIOPIA WITH CRIPPLING SANCTIONS THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN!

Hammer would have best served the American people (instead of Princess of Darkness Susan Rice) he has claimed to serve when appointed special envoy if he were in a position to objectively present the Ethiopian government’s position instead of inevitably slanting his report to fit the perceptions and predeterminations of Rice and Blinken.

A diplomat without any credibility is a “dumbplomat.”

Mike Hammer is a “dumbplomat”!

A 17^th century English statesman and diplomat observed, “Nothing is so fatal to a nation as an extreme of self-partiality, and the total want of consideration of what others will naturally hope or fear.”

Hammer’s extreme partiality to the terrorist TPLF has made him a laughingstock among the Ethiopian people.

I pity him for his abysmal lack of diplomatic professionalism and ethical awareness in his ebullient and extreme partiality to the terrorist TPLF.

In my view, in any other country, Hammer would have been declared persona no grata and kicked out forthwith.

Minimally, any other government would refuse to do business with him as an official diplomatic agent of the US government openly working on behalf of a terrorist group.

The “classic function of diplomacy is to effect the communication between one’s own government and other governments or individuals abroad, and to do this with maximum accuracy, imagination, tact, and good sense.”

Hammer has as much imagination, tact, and good sense as Mr. Magoo.

Mr. Magoo is a bumbling cartoon character who runs around putting himself in comical situations because of his extreme near-sightedness and inability to acknowledge a problem he is facing.

Hammer is the Mr. Magoo of American foreign policy putting himself in comical situations with terrorists.

Unlike Hammer, Mr. Magoo rescues himself from the sticky situations he puts himself in.

I wonder if Mike Magoo. before taking the job,  asked himself or others why Feltman crashed and burned, and  Satterfield bailed out in just a few months.

I pity Chargé d’affaires Tracey Jacobsen!

(BTW, a chargé is appointed when the level of relations between two states is lowered to below the ambassadorial level. The chargé is accredited to the Minister of Foreign Affairs instead of the head of state.  Ambassador Geeta Pasi “retired” after serving less than a year. Word on the street is that she would not take marching orders from Susan Rice.)

Jacobsen has been on the job since February 2022.

She has been on a charm offensive for months travelling all over Ethiopia.

While I have reservations about her, outwardly she appears to be working to improve US-Ethiopia bilateral relations.

As the Hammer fiasco unfold, I can imagine Jacobsen pacing the embassy grounds grinding her teeth and talking to herself, “This damned fool has messed up the work I have done rebuilding frayed relationships. In one fell swoop, he wiped it out all.”

In 2008, during the presidential campaign, Samantha Power promoting her book in Britain said of Hilary Clinton:

We fucked up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed, and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio’s the only place they can win. She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything.

Well, the same can be said of Hammer in Ethiopia.

Hammer will stoop to anything to carry out Susan Rice’s commands. She is a monster too.

Hammer has messed up in Ethiopia, big time!

African solutions to African problems

I do not know why the Biden administration insists on playing a “mediator,” “broker” role in Ethiopia.

Correction, I do.

The Biden administration, that is Susan Rice, will not rest until she restores the terrorist TPLF to power in Ethiopia. Period!

All I can say is, “No rest for the wicked!”

What is the bottom line?

Ethiopian Minister for National Security has answered the question with crystal clarity.

Hammer is a clown and a disgrace to American diplomacy and MUST resign

It is an insult to appoint someone like Hammer special envoy to any part of Africa, let alone the Horn with so many problems.

In the end, Mike Hammer is widely seen in Ethiopia as clown.

As in Bozo the Clown.

As in Bozo Mike, “America’s Most Famous Special Envoy Clown” in Ethiopia.

In Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” the melancholy traveler Jaques protests:

A fool, a fool, I met a fool i’ th’ forest,
A motley fool. A miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool,|
…
“Good morrow, fool,” quoth I. “No, sir,” quoth he,
“Call me not ‘fool’ till heaven hath sent me fortune.

“Goodbye Hammer,” quoth I.

Indeed, a motley fool. A miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool.

What more can I say?

Turning from the sublime to the ridiculous, it is about  Porky Pig Diplomacy.

And in the memorable words of Porky Pig,

“T-T-T-That’s all folks!”