Anything that Ethiopia supports, Eritrea goes against

Herman Cohen on PBS NewsHour Program on Tuesday June 6 2006 alleged that Ethiopia is probably feeding false intelligence about terrorists being hidden in Somalia.


MARGARET WARNER: "So if all of this is the case, Secretary Cohen, then why is the U.S. government apparently -- though they've never confirmed that the U.S. has been supporting the warlords financially -- why is the U.S. so concerned about this Islamic group?"
HERMAN COHEN: "I think the U.S. government panicked. They saw Islamic group; they said, "Taliban is coming."
Also, there are friends in the region, like the Ethiopians, who probably are feeding false intelligence about terrorists being hidden and that sort of thing, because the Ethiopians are deadly afraid of Moslem control and also they have their own Moslem problem among the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia.
So they want to keep the Islamists out of power, and they will bring the U.S. into it, if they can."
MARGARET WARNER: But, in the meantime, the warlords are still vowing that they're not going to give up without a fight. They certainly, this large clan in Mogadishu, had this big rally today. Do you foresee more fighting?
HERMAN COHEN: I do foresee more fighting. They're not going to give up, but this is the job of the United States right now, to put pressure on the Ethiopians, "Look, stop supporting these guys. This is only trouble."
MARGARET WARNER: You mean that money has been funneled through the Ethiopians, you believe, to the warlords?
HERMAN COHEN: And also there's the other element of Eritrea. Anything that Ethiopia supports, Eritrea goes against, so Eritrea is feeding arms to the Islamic courts. We should tell them, "Stop doing that now. Now is the time for talks instead of fighting."