Mr Zenawi said Ethiopia had been testing the jamming equipment

Ethiopia has admitted it is jamming the Voice of America's (VOA) broadcasts in Amharic, accusing the radio station of engaging in "destabilising propaganda".

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia had been testing jamming equipment, although there had been no formal decision to bloc the US station.

The Amharic Service has experienced interference since late February.

Mr Meles also compared the VOA's transmissions to broadcasts in Rwanda in the mid-1990s that incited genocide.

'Unfortunate' comments

"We have for some time now been trying to beef up our capacity to deal with this, including... jamming," Mr Meles said on Thursday.

In a statement, VOA director Danforth Austin said that any comparison of VOA programming to Rwandan broadcasts inciting genocide in the 1990s was "incorrect and unfortunate".

"The VOA deplores jamming as a form of media censorship wherever it may occur," he said, adding that the station's Amharic Service was required by law to provide accurate and objective information.

The VOA and other foreign media organisations say broadcasts in Amharic - the country's most widely spoken language - have been jammed around elections in the past.

The next polls in Ethiopia are in May and human rights groups say there has been a crackdown on the press.

The last elections saw opposition accusations of widespread rigging.

Thousands of opposition supporters were arrested after protests and some western countries reduced aid to Ethiopia.

Separately, Mr Meles again denied claims in a recent BBC report that he had ordered the diversion of food aid money to buy arms to fight the government in the 1980s.

"We did not need to [do it]. We were not short of ammunition or arms. That was never our problem. Our main problem was that we were operating in an environmentally very fragile area unable to feed itself," he said.

Mr Zenawi said Ethiopia had been testing the jamming equipment

Ethiopia has admitted it is jamming the Voice of America's (VOA) broadcasts in Amharic, accusing the radio station of engaging in "destabilising propaganda".

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia had been testing jamming equipment, although there had been no formal decision to bloc the US station.

The Amharic Service has experienced interference since late February.

Mr Meles also compared the VOA's transmissions to broadcasts in Rwanda in the mid-1990s that incited genocide.

'Unfortunate' comments

"We have for some time now been trying to beef up our capacity to deal with this, including... jamming," Mr Meles said on Thursday.

In a statement, VOA director Danforth Austin said that any comparison of VOA programming to Rwandan broadcasts inciting genocide in the 1990s was "incorrect and unfortunate".

"The VOA deplores jamming as a form of media censorship wherever it may occur," he said, adding that the station's Amharic Service was required by law to provide accurate and objective information.

The VOA and other foreign media organisations say broadcasts in Amharic - the country's most widely spoken language - have been jammed around elections in the past.

The next polls in Ethiopia are in May and human rights groups say there has been a crackdown on the press.

The last elections saw opposition accusations of widespread rigging.

Thousands of opposition supporters were arrested after protests and some western countries reduced aid to Ethiopia.

Separately, Mr Meles again denied claims in a recent BBC report that he had ordered the diversion of food aid money to buy arms to fight the government in the 1980s.

"We did not need to [do it]. We were not short of ammunition or arms. That was never our problem. Our main problem was that we were operating in an environmentally very fragile area unable to feed itself," he said.

Addis Ababa – Bob Geldof said in Nairobi, Kenya that donor organizations involved in the distribution of relief in 19984/85 famine in Ethiopia at the time had condemned BBC’s recent allegation while discussing with Prime Minister Meles Zeanwi on Monday.

BBC’s allegation alleges that millions of pounds raised through Bob Geldof’s Live Aid concerts were diverted to fund TPLF rebel military operations in northern Ethiopia.

Bob Geldof upped the ante in the row between Band Aid and the BBC yesterday by calling for the director of the BBC World Service, Peter Horrocks – who is also the BBC's director of global news – to be sacked.

The musician-turned-poverty campaigner also called for two other BBC journalists to be fired after various BBC news outlets claimed that 95 per cent of the $100m aid donated, by Live Aid and others, to fight famine in rebel-held northern Ethiopia in 1985 was diverted to be spent on weapons.

Geldof, who organised the Live Aid concerts that raised $250m to tackle famine Africa, also lamented the "intense systemic failure of the World Service", which he said was once the jewel in the BBC's journalistic crown.

He claimed there had been a "total collapse of standards and systems at the World Service which has a special and particular duty of care to the truth".

The Band Aid Trust is preparing an official complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom about the BBC story, which ran on all main BBC news outlets as well as the World Service.

Last night, the Live Aid organiser called for the sackings of Mr Horrocks, Andrew Whitehead, the World Service news and current affairs editor, and Martin Plaut, the originator of the story, which Geldof claimed was "thoroughly discredited and sexed up".

Geldof said he was doubly disappointed because he had always been a great supporter of the World Service. He said it "beggared belief" that BBC journalists could take seriously a claim that 95 per cent of the aid to Tigray was spent on weapons. "Where were all the dead people then? If no one was getting food, why was nobody dying? That would have been one of the first questions I'd have asked," he added. There were not many deaths in Tigray "because they were getting help – and massive amounts of it", he insisted.

In an article in today's Guardian newspaper, Geldof says the BBC World Service has a particular duty of care "because in thousands of small rooms in the many dark spots of our planet, people huddle secretly and in great danger [to listen to the World Service] to hear the reality and the truth behind their situation. And to tabloid all that away of an instant? Tragic beyond measure".

He claims that the reporter, Mr Plaut, and his producers and editors, have, on the basis of unsubstantiated claims, compromised the neutrality of the Red Cross, which relies on its neutrality for access to war zones, dungeons and concentration camps.

"Just as the Ross-Brand affair exposed the systemic weaknesses of the BBC in the area of entertainment, so this now does in the news sector of the World Service – with far more drastic consequences," Geldof adds. "Why did alarm bells not go off early on in this sorry tale? Where were the checks, balances, neutrality, even-handedness? They all failed at the World Service."

Senior White House advisers, high-level United Nations delegates, senior British diplomats, many aid agencies, and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia who led the Tigray rebels at the time, had all refuted the BBC story, Geldof insisted, "and yet the World Service is so far off the rails it cannot recognise or acknowledge the truth".

In addition to the sackings of the three journalists, he wants an immediate investigation into what he claims went wrong. "Steps should be taken to rectify the identified faults," he says. "The World Service must work very hard to re-establish its hard-won and trusted reputation as the world broadcaster of excellence."

The Independent asked for an interview with Mr Whitehead but a BBC spokesman said: "Sorry, we won't be able to accommodate your request."

Bob Geldof has challenged the BBC to substantiate its report that millions raised for famine relief in Ethiopia were diverted to pay for weapons.

The anti-poverty campaigner said there was "not a shred of evidence" Band Aid or Live Aid money was siphoned off.

The report included claims that substantial sums of aid that went into rebel-held areas of Tigray province in 1985 were used to buy arms.

The BBC World Service has said it is standing by its report.

Mr Geldof told BBC One's Andrew Marr show he would personally sue the Ethiopian government and spend the money on aid if any evidence was produced.

'Credible voices'

He said: "Produce me one shred of evidence and I promise you I will professionally investigate it, I will professionally report it, and if there is any money missing I will sue the Ethiopian government for that money back and I will spend it on aid.

"There is not a single shred of evidence that Band Aid or Live Aid money was diverted in any sense, it could not have been."

The news and current affairs editor at the World Service, Andrew Whitehead, said the BBC stood by its report.

Taking part in a discussion with Mr Geldof, Mr Whitehead said the BBC had "quite a lot of evidence" to support the report.

The World Service report featured interviews with two former members of a rebel group who made the allegations dating from the mid-80s.

They told the BBC they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money which they used to fund attempts to overthrow the government.

Gebremedhin Araya (L) says he posed as a merchant to get aid

One rebel leader estimated that $95m (£63m) from Western governments and charities, including Band Aid, was diverted.

The CIA also alleged aid money was being misused, Mr Whitehead pointed out in a radio discussion.

He accepted the 1985 report from the crime agency was written before Band Aid had gone into Ethiopia, but said it established "a pattern" that international aid was being used for military purposes.

The report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."

Mr Geldof, who was speaking to the BBC from Nairobi, also said one of the sources quoted in the report was a "dissident political exile" who was "not credible".

There is a clear public interest in determining whether some money given as famine relief ended up buying guns and bullets Andrew Whitehead, BBC World Service BBC response to criticism

Martin Plaut, the World Service's Africa editor who broke the story, said a lot of his nine-month investigation was spent trying to corroborate or dismiss events.

He said: "We came across a lot of other evidence which made it clear that yes, indeed, some of the money had gone astray."

He added that the "balanced, measured" programme had gone through the entire BBC editorial process and had not simply been "thrown on air".

Mr Geldof and the Band Aid Trust are taking their complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom.

They and a number of other agencies, including Oxfam, the Red Cross, Christian Aid and Save The Children, are also writing to chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons.

John Kennedy, a co-founder of the Band Aid Trust, said: "The trust is writing to the BBC and Ofcom to complain about the broadcast."

A Christian Aid spokeswoman confirmed it was planning to support the complaint.

Bob Geldof has challenged the BBC to substantiate its report that millions raised for famine relief in Ethiopia were diverted to pay for weapons.

The anti-poverty campaigner said there was "not a shred of evidence" Band Aid or Live Aid money was siphoned off.

The report included claims that substantial sums of aid that went into rebel-held areas of Tigray province in 1985 were used to buy arms.

The BBC World Service has said it is standing by its report.

Mr Geldof told BBC One's Andrew Marr show he would personally sue the Ethiopian government and spend the money on aid if any evidence was produced.

'Credible voices'

He said: "Produce me one shred of evidence and I promise you I will professionally investigate it, I will professionally report it, and if there is any money missing I will sue the Ethiopian government for that money back and I will spend it on aid.

"There is not a single shred of evidence that Band Aid or Live Aid money was diverted in any sense, it could not have been."

The news and current affairs editor at the World Service, Andrew Whitehead, said the BBC stood by its report.

Taking part in a discussion with Mr Geldof, Mr Whitehead said the BBC had "quite a lot of evidence" to support the report.

The World Service report featured interviews with two former members of a rebel group who made the allegations dating from the mid-80s.

They told the BBC they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money which they used to fund attempts to overthrow the government.

Gebremedhin Araya (L) says he posed as a merchant to get aid

One rebel leader estimated that $95m (£63m) from Western governments and charities, including Band Aid, was diverted.

The CIA also alleged aid money was being misused, Mr Whitehead pointed out in a radio discussion.

He accepted the 1985 report from the crime agency was written before Band Aid had gone into Ethiopia, but said it established "a pattern" that international aid was being used for military purposes.

The report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."

Mr Geldof, who was speaking to the BBC from Nairobi, also said one of the sources quoted in the report was a "dissident political exile" who was "not credible".

There is a clear public interest in determining whether some money given as famine relief ended up buying guns and bullets Andrew Whitehead, BBC World Service BBC response to criticism

Martin Plaut, the World Service's Africa editor who broke the story, said a lot of his nine-month investigation was spent trying to corroborate or dismiss events.

He said: "We came across a lot of other evidence which made it clear that yes, indeed, some of the money had gone astray."

He added that the "balanced, measured" programme had gone through the entire BBC editorial process and had not simply been "thrown on air".

Mr Geldof and the Band Aid Trust are taking their complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom.

They and a number of other agencies, including Oxfam, the Red Cross, Christian Aid and Save The Children, are also writing to chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons.

John Kennedy, a co-founder of the Band Aid Trust, said: "The trust is writing to the BBC and Ofcom to complain about the broadcast."

A Christian Aid spokeswoman confirmed it was planning to support the complaint.

Ethiopians arise against those racist so called Christian aid. They gave the money for food for the hungry to TPLF to buy wapons and kill Ethiopians.

18 years later we are ruled by viciouse dictator thanks to Christian aid

Gebremedhin Araya (L) says he posed as a merchant, but was in fact a rebel

By Martin Plaut Africa analyst, BBC News

Millions of dollars in Western aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels to buy weapons, a BBC investigation finds.

Former rebel leaders told the BBC that they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money.

They used the cash to fund attempts to overthrow the government of the time.

One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) - from Western governments and charities including Band Aid - was channelled into the rebel fight.

The CIA, in a 1985 assessment entitled Ethiopia: Political and Security Impact of the Drought, also alleged aid money was being misused.

Its report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."

Multiple rebellions

The crisis in 1984 prompted a huge Western relief effort, spearheaded by pop star Bob Geldof's Band Aid campaign and Live Aid concerts.

ETHIOPIA FAMINE Roughly one million Ethiopians died from results of famine Disaster exacerbated by civil war Huge Western relief effort led by pop star Bob Geldof Live Aid concerts raise more than $60m (£40m)

Although millions of people were saved by the aid that poured into the country, evidence suggests not all of the aid went to the most needy.

At the time, the Ethiopian government was fighting rebellions in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigray.

Much of the countryside was outside of government control, so relief agencies brought aid in from neighbouring Sudan.

Some was in the form of food, some as cash, to buy grain from Ethiopian farmers in areas that were still in surplus.

Max Peberdy, an aid worker from Christian Aid, carried nearly $500,000 in Ethiopian currency across the border in 1984.

He used it to buy grain from merchants and believes that none of the aid was diverted.

"It's 25 years since this happened, and in the 25 years it's the first time anybody has claimed such a thing," he says.

He insists that to the best of his knowledge, the food went to feed the starving.

CIA INTELLIGENCE Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes Read the entire document

But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims he was, in fact, a senior member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

"I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. This was a trick for the NGOs," says Gebremedhin Araya.

Underneath the sacks of grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with sand.

He says he handed over the money he received to TPLF leaders, including Meles Zenawi - the man who went on to become Ethiopia's prime minister in 1991.

Mr Meles, who is still in office, has declined to comment on the allegations.

But Mr Gebremedhin's version of events is supported by the TPLF's former commander, Aregawi Berhe.

Now living in exile in the Netherlands, he says the rebels put on what he describes as a "drama" to get the money.

"The aid workers were fooled," he says.

He says that some $100m went through the hands of the TPLF and affiliated groups.

Some 95% of it was allocated to buying weapons and building up a hard-line Marxist political party within the rebel movement.

Both Mr Aregawi and Mr Gebremedhin fell out with the TPLF leadership and fled the country.

Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version

Michael Buerk's 1984 report in Ethiopia which shocked the world

Much of the money that ended up in the TPLF's hands was channelled through affiliated groups such as the Relief Society of Tigray.

Band Aid's accounts show that it gave almost $11m to the society and other groups close to the rebels, but the charity has declined to comment.

Soviet confrontation

It should not be forgotten that this all took place at the height of the Cold War.

The Soviet Union had poured $4bn into Ethiopia, and provided Soviet officers to direct Ethiopia battles against the rebels.

ASSIGNMENT Assignment is a weekly current affairs programme reporting from locations around the globe for the BBC World Service It is first broadcast on Thurday at 1005 GMT, and repeated at various times throughout the week . It is also available to download as a podcast

In January 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Directive 75, which aimed to confront the Soviet Union across the developing world.

"US policy will seek to limit and destabilise activities of Soviet Third World allies and clients," it said.

In a November 2009 speech, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates - who was deputy head of the CIA during Mr Reagan's time in office - said that the president's approach was to "impose ever stiffer costs on the Soviet Union for its Third World adventurism".

He included Ethiopia among the states in which "Soviet surrogates soon faced their own lethal insurgencies".

Mr Gates was unwilling to expand on whether the US backed the Ethiopian insurgents.

But since there were only a limited number of rebel movements, the suggestion cannot be ruled out that the CIA not only knew about, but supported, the diversion of aid funds to the TPLF.

Gebremedhin Araya (L) says he posed as a merchant, but was in fact a rebel

By Martin Plaut Africa analyst, BBC News

Millions of dollars in Western aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels to buy weapons, a BBC investigation finds.

Former rebel leaders told the BBC that they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money.

They used the cash to fund attempts to overthrow the government of the time.

One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) - from Western governments and charities including Band Aid - was channelled into the rebel fight.

The CIA, in a 1985 assessment entitled Ethiopia: Political and Security Impact of the Drought, also alleged aid money was being misused.

Its report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."

Multiple rebellions

The crisis in 1984 prompted a huge Western relief effort, spearheaded by pop star Bob Geldof's Band Aid campaign and Live Aid concerts.

ETHIOPIA FAMINE Roughly one million Ethiopians died from results of famine Disaster exacerbated by civil war Huge Western relief effort led by pop star Bob Geldof Live Aid concerts raise more than $60m (£40m)

Although millions of people were saved by the aid that poured into the country, evidence suggests not all of the aid went to the most needy.

At the time, the Ethiopian government was fighting rebellions in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigray.

Much of the countryside was outside of government control, so relief agencies brought aid in from neighbouring Sudan.

Some was in the form of food, some as cash, to buy grain from Ethiopian farmers in areas that were still in surplus.

Max Peberdy, an aid worker from Christian Aid, carried nearly $500,000 in Ethiopian currency across the border in 1984.

He used it to buy grain from merchants and believes that none of the aid was diverted.

"It's 25 years since this happened, and in the 25 years it's the first time anybody has claimed such a thing," he says.

He insists that to the best of his knowledge, the food went to feed the starving.

CIA INTELLIGENCE Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes Read the entire document

But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims he was, in fact, a senior member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

"I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. This was a trick for the NGOs," says Gebremedhin Araya.

Underneath the sacks of grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with sand.

He says he handed over the money he received to TPLF leaders, including Meles Zenawi - the man who went on to become Ethiopia's prime minister in 1991.

Mr Meles, who is still in office, has declined to comment on the allegations.

But Mr Gebremedhin's version of events is supported by the TPLF's former commander, Aregawi Berhe.

Now living in exile in the Netherlands, he says the rebels put on what he describes as a "drama" to get the money.

"The aid workers were fooled," he says.

He says that some $100m went through the hands of the TPLF and affiliated groups.

Some 95% of it was allocated to buying weapons and building up a hard-line Marxist political party within the rebel movement.

Both Mr Aregawi and Mr Gebremedhin fell out with the TPLF leadership and fled the country.

Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version

Michael Buerk's 1984 report in Ethiopia which shocked the world

Much of the money that ended up in the TPLF's hands was channelled through affiliated groups such as the Relief Society of Tigray.

Band Aid's accounts show that it gave almost $11m to the society and other groups close to the rebels, but the charity has declined to comment.

Soviet confrontation

It should not be forgotten that this all took place at the height of the Cold War.

The Soviet Union had poured $4bn into Ethiopia, and provided Soviet officers to direct Ethiopia battles against the rebels.

ASSIGNMENT Assignment is a weekly current affairs programme reporting from locations around the globe for the BBC World Service It is first broadcast on Thurday at 1005 GMT, and repeated at various times throughout the week . It is also available to download as a podcast

In January 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Directive 75, which aimed to confront the Soviet Union across the developing world.

"US policy will seek to limit and destabilise activities of Soviet Third World allies and clients," it said.

In a November 2009 speech, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates - who was deputy head of the CIA during Mr Reagan's time in office - said that the president's approach was to "impose ever stiffer costs on the Soviet Union for its Third World adventurism".

He included Ethiopia among the states in which "Soviet surrogates soon faced their own lethal insurgencies".

Mr Gates was unwilling to expand on whether the US backed the Ethiopian insurgents.

But since there were only a limited number of rebel movements, the suggestion cannot be ruled out that the CIA not only knew about, but supported, the diversion of aid funds to the TPLF.

An opposition candidate for Ethiopia’s federal parliament was stabbed to death by six men in his home in the country’s northern Tigray region early this morning, said Negasso Gidada, a leader of the Medrek opposition alliance.

Aregawi Gebre-Yohannes was a member of an ethnic-Tigrayan opposition party allied with Medrek that was challenging Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front in elections scheduled for May.

Negasso spoke in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, the capital.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Johannesburg at

BEIRUT — The Lebanese military says naval commandos have recovered the cockpit voice recorder belonging to the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last month into the Mediterranean.

The Boeing 737 crashed on Jan. 25, just minutes after takeoff from Beirut during a thunderstorm. All 90 people on board died.

The plane's data flight recorder was retrieved among the plane's wreckage last week and was flown to France for analysis.

Part of the cockpit voice recorder was retrieved in the same area last Wednesday, but officials said it was missing its memory voice recorder.

An army statement said that recorder was retrieved Tuesday.

Both black boxes will be analyzed by BEA, a French agency that specializes in assisting with technical investigations of air crashes.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese military says naval commandos have recovered the cockpit voice recorder belonging to the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last month into the Mediterranean.

The Boeing 737 crashed on Jan. 25, just minutes after takeoff from Beirut during a thunderstorm. All 90 people on board died.

The plane's data flight recorder was retrieved among the plane's wreckage last week and was flown to France for analysis.

Part of the cockpit voice recorder was retrieved in the same area last Wednesday, but officials said it was missing its memory voice recorder.

An army statement said that recorder was retrieved Tuesday.

Both black boxes will be analyzed by BEA, a French agency that specializes in assisting with technical investigations of air crashes.

• Play CBS Video Video Ethiopian Adoption Scam?

  Questions are being raised about the legitimacy of Ethiopian adoptions after a girl claims an agency bought her in Ethiopia and placed her for adoption in the U.S. Armen Keteyian investigates.

• 

  Meya tells CBS News her father was paid to give up his kids in Ethiopia.  (CBS)

• Stories
• "Orphan Doctor" Helps World's Children

(CBS) 

Videotapes showing poor orphans from third world countries melt the hearts of prospective parents every day in this country.

Three children, sisters from Ethiopia are shown in a video - ages, you are told, 7, 4 and 6. Their mother is dead, their father dying of AIDS. A life of prostitution is all but assured - if not adopted - saved - by a loving American family.

It was just such a pitch that spoke to Katie and Calvin Bradshaw, reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian. They adopted all three girls through a U.S. agency, Christian World Adoption.

"Aside from the gender of the children, everything else proved to be a complete lie," said Katie.

In truth, the three sisters, Journee, Maree and Meya - were actually much older: 13, 6 and 11.

While their mother was dead, their father was healthy and very much alive. He was living, by local standards, a middle-class life - an extended family able to take care of the girls as middle sister Meya showed us first hand.

"My godmothers, my aunt, those are my mom's friends, my uncles, my dad, my dad's friends, that's my brother," she said.

In the last year adoptions from Ethiopia to the U.S. have skyrocketed - growing faster than any other country in the world. They have risen from 731 in 2006 to more than 2,200 last year. That's nearly six children per day.

Now a CBS News investigation has discovered that growth has turned Ethiopia into fertile ground for child trafficking - a country in which some American agencies and their staff engage in highly questionable conduct.

More Information for Potential Adoptive Parents:
Joint Council on International Child Services
U.S. State Department List of Accredited Agencies
Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform
Ethica: an Impartial Voice for Ethical Adoption Practices


Adoptive families allege that many children brought to the U.S. are not even orphans, that prospective parents are misled about a child's health and background, that local families are recruited - and sometimes even paid - to give up their kids.

Which the Bradshaw sisters say is exactly what happened to them.

"Your dad was paid," Keteyian asked Meya.

"Yes," she said.

"From Christian World Adoption," Keteyian asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"For you to be adopted?"

"Yup."

"You were sold?"

"Yeah," she said.

Christian World Adoption is one of 70 agencies licensed to operate in Ethiopia. Beyond the alleged payment to their father, the Bradshaw sisters say they were told by local employees of Christian World they were only coming to America for an education; that they could return home when school was out. Not true. In fact it's virtually impossible to reverse an adoption in Ethiopia.

"I thought I was going to be kind of like an exchange student," Journee said. "Honestly, I never knew that I'm going to be here forever."

"We have watched our kids grieve and cry and scream and melt down from the bottom of their souls over the loss of their country and their family," Katie Bradshaw said.

A 2007 video shows Christian World representatives entering an Ethopian village and appearing to recruit children from poor villagers - an unethical practice against Ethopian law.

"If you want your child to be adopted by a family in America you may stay," said Michelle Gardner. She spoke those words on a tape produced by Christian World for American parents seeking to adopt in Ethiopia. And now says she deeply regrets it.

"I was aware of a number of times when things were problematic," she said. "And several families where children came over and the children didn't understand that the adoption was permanent."

Christian World was founded back in 1991 by Bob and Tomilee Harding. In 2008, records show, the non-profit agency took in nearly $6 million dollars - charging a fee of about $15,000 per child.

Citing ongoing litigation, the Hardings declined to speak with CBS News at their offices in Charleston, South Carolina.

One such case, filed last month, includes charges of "wrongful adoption," "fraud" and "intentional misrepresentation."

"How do you respond to charges that CWA knowingly deceived or misled adoptive parents through the adoption process in Ethopia?" Keteyian asked.

"Those allegations are completely unfounded," said Curtis Bostic, attorney for CWA. He told CBS News he was prohibited by law from discussing specific adoption cases.

"I'm talking to parents who are really upset," Keteyian said. "Who are devastated with their dealings with CWA."

"Sometimes, people are upset when they just simply misunderstand things," Bostic said. "I believe that's exactly what you're hearing. There have been thousands and thousands of adoptions conducted by CWA all over the world. Is there going to be a handful of folks who misunderstand, who - or who aren't happy with their adoption? There's going to be, and we regret that."

The Bradshaw family lives with its own set of regrets. Parents who trusted and believed they were doing the right thing. The three young girls are learning to adopt a life far from the country they still call home.

Ethiopia's newest and biggest hydroelectric power station has been shut down due to a tunnel collapse weeks after its official opening. The hydropower project has been surrounded by controversy since its inception.   

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi pushed a button last month symbolically opening the Gilgel Gibe Two hydropower station. The 420 megawatt project, southwest of Addis Ababa, would increase Ethiopia's electricity generation capacity by 38 percent.

The opening ceremony was broadcast live on Ethiopian television, and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was there. Italy helped finance the $600 million project, which was constructed by the Italian hydropower firm Salini.

But 10 days after the inauguration, Italian public television  reported Gilgel Gibe Two had been forced to shut down. It said the closure was due to a collapse in a 26 kilometer long tunnel that shoots water to the station's four massive turbines from a dam on the Omo River far above.

Officials of Salini and the Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation refused to comment. But a statement posted on the Salini website refers to "an unforeseen geological event" that provoked a cave-in and a huge rock fall involving about 15 meters of the tunnel.

The statement notes Gilgel Gibe was built in Africa's Great Rift Valley, and refers to the tunnel as an "outstanding engineering achievement" because it cuts through "complex geological formations."  

The statement says Gilgel Gibe will be out of operation for two months.

Critics such as Caterina Amicucci of the watchdog group Campaign for Reform of the World Bank says Gilgel Gibe has been surrounded by controversy since Salini was awarded a no-bid contract in 2004. In a telephone interview from Rome, Amicucci alleged the contract violates both Italian and Ethiopian laws, and was awarded without adequate feasibility studies or required environmental permits.

"All the area is a seismic area," said Caterina Amicucci. "It's a fault. The whole Rift Valley is a huge fault.  So the tunnel crosses 26 different fault points, and it seems that this is one of the main problems. All of these elements, they were not highlighted in the environmental impact assessment studies."

Amicucci says contracts for hydropower projects usually assign responsibility for failures to the construction firm. In this case, however, she says an exception was made because of the geological risk, leaving Ethiopia's government responsible for the cost of repairs.

Amicucci says more investigation is needed to determine whether the collapse was due to an 'unforeseen geologic event', as the company says, or something else.

"They are saying this is a geological problem, but this is not sure. It's not clear exactly what is the cause," she said. "What is the reason behind this collapse of the tunnel? If it's a problem of the quality of the infrastructure, or if there is an external problem due to the geological configuration of the area."

The tunnel collapse has at least temporarily halted Ethiopia's plans to solve its chronic power shortage and become an exporter of electricity to other power hungry countries in East Africa.

Salini is already working on Gilgel Gibe Three, a 240-meter-high dam with more than four times the generating capacity of Gilgel Gibe Two. The company says Gilgel Gibe Three is about one-third complete.
 
Critics, however, are urging a closer look at its environmental impact, and urging international financial institutions not to fund its completion.

Bodies recovered from crashed Ethiopian Airliner

Evidence has reached debkafile's counter-terror sources that the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed after takeoff from Beirut on January 25, killing all 92 aboard, was blown up in mid-air.
This was an al-Qaeda operation timed for one month to the day after its failed attempt to destroy an American Northwest airliner bound for Detroit.
It is becoming clear that either a bomb was planted on the Ethiopian flight with a timer or a passenger acted as suicide bomber.
Western security agencies in the Middle East involved in combating al Qaeda believe that its planners picked on the Ethiopian flight for more than one reason apart from the date: They had been tipped off that a group of French undercover agents, including Maria Sanchez Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Beirut, and top Hizballah operatives, including secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, would be aboard.
Mme Pietton lost her life in the crash, while the Hizballah travelers were saved by switching to another flight at the last minute.
The first bodies recovered from the Mediterranean off the Lebanese town of Naama showed all the hallmarks of explosion victims: They were found strapped to their seats with their heads, hands and feet blown off and scattered, typical effects of an explosive blast. 
Eye-witnesses at the time heard a loud explosion and saw the plane enveloped in a ball of fire as it gained altitude after takeoff from Beirut international airport.
Both France and Hizballah have denied they were targets.

Lebanese officials, led by prime minister Saad Hariri, have spent two weeks trying to hide the fact that the Ethiopian airline disaster was caused by terror. But Lebanese health minister Jawad Khalifeh gave the game away by a slip of the tongue Tuesday, Feb. 9:  “The plane exploded during flight and the cabin, as well as the bodies of those on board, were dispersed into the sea, in different locations,” he said, trying to explain why some of the corpses were found dismembered.
He then tried to correct himself by saying he "didn't mean a military explosion."

More confirmation of a terrorist hand behind the attack is found in the deep involvement of US intelligence, including the FBI, in the investigation of the disaster from the first moment. The US survey ship Ocean Alert was dispatched to the area of the crash and dropped a miniature submarine into the depths to retrieve fragments of the airliner from the seabed.
 A US intelligence and naval headquarters was set up at Beirut harbor to coordinate the salvage of the plane from the sea. Treating the crash as terror-related, Washington ordered the plane to be reconstructed from recovered fragments to establish the site of the explosion and its cause.

US officials are also shy of discussing the case in public and admitting the crash was caused by an act of terror.  It took place on January 25, shortly after President Barack Obama said “Al-Qaeda has been weakened." In an address to the American people to calm their anxieties after the Nigerian would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had failed to detonate explosives carried in his underwear.
Al Qaeda's success in blowing a civilian airliner out of the sky over the Middle East proved the opposite. It therefore became the subject of a comprehensive cover-up, joined by France. Before the black box, recovered Tuesday, had even been examined, French sources announced that human error by the pilot was the cause of the Ethiopian airliner crash.
debkafile's counter-terror sources recall a previous al Qaeda attack on a civilian airliner in the Middle East.

Six years ago, on January 8, 2004, an Egyptian charter blew up after takeoff at Sharm al-Sheikh for Cairo, killing all 148 French citizens aboard on their way back to Paris from a Red Sea vacation.
Neither Cairo nor Paris ever admitted that the disaster was caused by terrorists

An Alitalia plane approaches to land at Fiumicino International Airport in Rome, September 25, 2008.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian Airlines said on Wednesday it still believed sabotage may have caused the crash of one of its aircraft off Lebanon last month which killed all 90 people on board.

A source familiar with the investigation into the accident told Reuters on Tuesday the team concluded pilot error was to blame after examining the airliner's flight recorders.

"Ethiopian Airlines does not rule out all possible causes including the possibility of sabotage until the final outcome of the investigation is known," the company said in a statement, adding that media reports of pilot error were "speculative".

The Boeing 737-800 crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut en route to Addis Ababa in stormy weather on January 25.

The Lebanese Army said the plane had broken up in the air before plummeting into the sea. Witnesses described it as crashing in a ball of flame.

The airline said only the data recorder had been found.

"The cockpit voice recorder and the aircraft wreckage are not yet retrieved for analysis. It is therefore too early to conclude the cause of the accident," the company said.

A team of Lebanese, French and Ethiopian officials went to France on Monday to analyse the data recorder, or "black box".

Lebanese officials say the pilot failed to respond to the control tower's instruction to change direction, even though he acknowledged the request.

The plane made an unexpected sharp turn before disappearing off the radar, the Lebanese transport minister said at the time.

The eight-year-old plane, carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers, last had a maintenance check on December 25 and no technical problems had been found.

Since retrieving the data recorder from the sea on Sunday, Lebanese and international search teams have located parts of the fuselage, where most of the bodies were believed trapped.

At least 23 bodies have been recovered

Lebanese Search Team

BEIRUT — A senior Lebanese security official says search teams have retrieved the second black box belonging to the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last month.

The Boeing 737 crashed on January 25, just minutes after takeoff from Beirut during a fierce thunderstorm. All 90 people on board died.

Passenger jets carry two black boxes — a data flight recorder and a cockpit voice recorder. The data flight recorder was retrieved on Sunday and flown to France for analysis.

The security official says the cockpit voice recorder was retrieved Wednesday. He says it would also be flown to Paris.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements to the media.

Feb 08, 2010

Civil defence workers carry parts from the Ethiopian airliner, January 29, that crashed off Lebanon's …

BEIRUT (AFP) – An Ethiopian jet which crashed off Lebanon's coast last month exploded after take-off, Lebanon's health minister said on Tuesday in the first such official comment since the mysterious crash.

Remarks by Jawad Khalifeh could not be immediately confirmed by other officials in Beirut and came as Ethiopian Airlines said one of the plane's black boxes has been sent to France for analysis.

"The plane exploded during flight and the cabin, as well as the bodies of those on board were dispersed into the sea, in different locations," Khalifeh said to explain why some corpses were found dismembered.

"The first bodies which have been retrieved following the crash were intact but after that, we began to find body pieces or mutilated corpses," he told reporters.

Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi refused to comment on the reported explosion. "I have no information about this," he told AFP.

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 plunged into the Mediterranean before dawn on January 25, just minutes after take-off from Beirut airport during a storm.

It was bound for Addis Ababa with 83 passengers and seven crew on board. No survivors were found and searchers have been struggling to recover bodies as most victims were believed to be still strapped to their seats.

There have been conflicting reports as to whether the jet exploded while airborne or after it hit the water, and officials have said there will be no answers until the data from the black boxes is analysed.

Lebanon has ruled out sabotage, blaming the bad weather for the tragedy, and officials have said the captain was instructed by the control tower to change to a certain heading but then the aircraft took a different course.

Experts have told AFP that the stormy weather may not have been the only reason for the crash, and that the aircraft may have had engine or hydraulics problems.

Witnesses have said they saw a ball of fire as the plane plunged into the sea and a defence ministry official said on the day of the tragedy that the plane broke into four pieces before crashing in the Mediterranean.

Lebanese army divers retrieved one of the plane's two black boxes on Sunday and Ethiopian Airlines said it has been sent to France for analysis.

"We cannot say when we'll have news because it is a process and there is an investigation," spokeswoman Wogayehu Terefe told AFP in Addis Ababa.

Wogayehu said more bodies had been retrieved but said they were still waiting for an exact figure. Twenty three bodies had been found by Sunday.

The probe into the mysterious crash is being carried out by a Lebanese commission with support from a French body responsible for technical investigations of air accidents.

US and Ethiopian investigators are also involved.

Lebanese civil defence workers carry remains of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the Mediterranean sea on Monday, at a beach in Khaldeh, south of Beirut, January 29, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/ Sharif Karim

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Search teams have identified the location of main segments of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that had crashed off the coast of Lebanon last month killing all 90 people on board, the Lebanese transport minister said on Saturday.

World

"We have pinpointed the location of the main parts of the plane at a depth of 45 meters (148 ft) under water. This is a very big progress," Ghazi Aridi told Reuters. When asked if that constituted the plane's fuselage, Aridi said it was still too early to determine that.

He said the "Ocean Alert" vessel was combing that part of the Mediterranean and taking pictures for search teams to have a better idea of the find.

The Boeing 737-800 plane was carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers and was headed to Addis Ababa on January 25. It crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather, plunging in a ball of fire in the sea.

Lebanese and international search teams have been scouring the Mediterranean along Beirut's coast to look for the bodies of victims and wreckage of the plane.

The U.S. navy vessel, USS Ramage, located the flight recorders some 1,300 meters underwater on January 27 but has yet to retrieve them.

The flight recorders should shed light on why the pilot did not respond to a request to change direction even though he acknowledged the control tower's commands.

The plane had apparently made a sharp turn before disappearing off the radar. Lebanese officials have said it was too early to draw any conclusion of pilot error.

At least 15 bodies and some body parts have been recovered.

The eight-year-old plane last underwent a maintenance check on December 25 and no technical problems were found.