On Dec. 17 Ethiopia inaugurated Gibe III, the biggest hydroelectric dam in the country with an installed capacity of 1,870 MW, virtually doubling the country’s electricity capacity. The civil engineering of the dam was conducted by the Italian company Salini Impregilo, and the electrical engineering was conducted by the Dong Fang Electricity Company of China, while China provided 60% of the financing through a loan. Located on the Omo River, it is the tallest of its kind in the world, and the the latest in a series of three dams (Gibe I and II, plus III being built by the country, at a cost of EU1.5 billion, according to a press release by the Italian company.

The inauguration, with 2,000 guests, was presided over by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn; Water, Irrigation and Electricity Minister Eng Sileshi Bekele; Ethiopian Electric Power chief executive Azeb Asnake and chairman Debretsion Gebremichael; Salini Impregilo Chief Executive Pietro Salini; and Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia La Yifan.

“The power we get from Gibe III and other dams on the pipeline can enable the country to strengthen its capacity to connect with neighboring countries and generate income from the sector more than ever,” the Prime Minister said during the inauguration.

Chinese Ambassador La Yifan said, “I certainly believe Gibe III is going to serve as the wind of industrialization of this country in order to create so many jobs.” He continued, “only through this strategic planning and political determination, we could make sure that this country will make continuous achievement in achieving 2025 vision,” according to the Ethiopian broadcasting company.

Salini’s chief executive Pietro Salini said, “What was considered a dream—after years of hard work—has now become a reality. We are grateful to Ethiopian Electric Power and the Federal and Regional Governments for dealing with us as partners in development, and for trusting our capacity for completing Gibe III. Salini Impregilo is honored to have given service both to them and to this great nation.”

Gibe III will generate up to 6,500 GWh of electricity a year, increasing the country’s production capacity by at least 80%!

These three dams, along with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being built by Salini Impregilo, are all part of Ethiopia’s program to achieve an installed capacity of 40,000 MW by 2035.

Gibe III is the first dam in Ethiopia to be built using roller-compacted concrete (RCC). Standing at 250 meters—with its crest length of 630 meters, it used a total of 6.2 million cubic meters of cement, which is two and a half times the amount of material used for the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The water reservoir created by the dam holds 15 billion cubic meters and has 10 Francis turbines with a combined capacity of 1,870 MW. Twenty thousand Ethiopians were employed during the various phases of its construction, which involved experts from 32 countries.

Gibe I, with an installed capacity of 184 megawatts, was finished in 2004; Gibe II has an installed capacity of 420 MW and was inaugurated in 2010. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River, which will become the 11th-largest in the world, with an installed capacity of 6,000 MW, is currently more than 70% complete. Last March the government announced plans to build a new, 2,000-MW hydropower dam also on the Omo River.

All of Ethiopia’s hydro projects have been viciously attacked by the international environmentalist NGOs—no good organizations. In August 2010, the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vowed to complete Gibe III dam “at any cost” in the face of these attacks, saying about critics that “They don’t want to see developed Africa; they want us to remain undeveloped and backward to serve their tourists as a museum.” 

A new FBI document, obtained through an FOIA lawsuit related to the FBI’s 9/11 Review Commission cover-up, shows that, as late as October 2012, the FBI was pursuing new leads on co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks. The heavily redacted document was obtained by lawyers for the Florida Bulldog, which also has a separate FOIA action, seeking over 80,000 pages of FBI documents on the Sarasota Saudi family with ties to three of the hijackers.

On Monday, the Bulldog published a detailed report on the FOIA document, accompanied by the document itself, by publisher Dan Christensen. According to the FBI document, new leads on Saudi support networks for the San Diego terror cell were underway in New York and in Copenhagen, Denmark, as late as October 2012. Two individuals were identified as facilitators of the two San Diego terrorists, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi: Osama “Sam” Mustafa and Mohdar Abdullah. Mustafa owned a San Diego gas station where al-Hazmi worked for a period of time, after coming to the United States directly from the Al Qaeda planning meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mustafa was arrested in Tampa, Florida, in May 2012 for Treasury check fraud, in a case filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia. Mustafa was convicted a year later of the $17 million swindle, but he escaped while out on bond and is still a fugitive, according to the FBI document. In 2014, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.

The second new name identified in the FBI report, Mohdar Abdullah, was identified as a close confidant of the two Saudi intelligence “handlers” of al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, Osama Basnan and Omar al-Bayoumi. They assigned Abdullah to facilitate the “day-to-day life” of the two hijackers. Abdullah was arrested on Sept. 19, 2001, as a suspected accomplice of the hijackers but was eventually deported after he pled guilty to the immigration violations. While in custody awaiting deportation, according to the 2012 FBI document, he boasted that he had worked with the San Diego hijackers on the plot. The document also suggests that Abdullah was in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen years later, under President Obama’s drone-kill program.

The new document is reportedly part of a larger number of FBI files set to be released under the FOIA case. The document alone shows that the claims that the 9/11 Commission completed the probe and showed that there was no Saudi Monarchy support for the terrorists, is a total lie, a lie that the FBI covered up until now. Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) and attorney Sean Carter (representing the 9/11 families) both told Dan Christensen that the existence of the document shows the magnitude of the FBI cover up, since the existence of the document was concealed right up until the FOIA release.

A new FBI document, obtained through an FOIA lawsuit related to the FBI’s 9/11 Review Commission cover-up, shows that, as late as October 2012, the FBI was pursuing new leads on co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks. The heavily redacted document was obtained by lawyers for the Florida Bulldog, which also has a separate FOIA action, seeking over 80,000 pages of FBI documents on the Sarasota Saudi family with ties to three of the hijackers.

On Monday, the Bulldog published a detailed report on the FOIA document, accompanied by the document itself, by publisher Dan Christensen. According to the FBI document, new leads on Saudi support networks for the San Diego terror cell were underway in New York and in Copenhagen, Denmark, as late as October 2012. Two individuals were identified as facilitators of the two San Diego terrorists, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi: Osama “Sam” Mustafa and Mohdar Abdullah. Mustafa owned a San Diego gas station where al-Hazmi worked for a period of time, after coming to the United States directly from the Al Qaeda planning meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mustafa was arrested in Tampa, Florida, in May 2012 for Treasury check fraud, in a case filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia. Mustafa was convicted a year later of the $17 million swindle, but he escaped while out on bond and is still a fugitive, according to the FBI document. In 2014, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.

The second new name identified in the FBI report, Mohdar Abdullah, was identified as a close confidant of the two Saudi intelligence “handlers” of al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, Osama Basnan and Omar al-Bayoumi. They assigned Abdullah to facilitate the “day-to-day life” of the two hijackers. Abdullah was arrested on Sept. 19, 2001, as a suspected accomplice of the hijackers but was eventually deported after he pled guilty to the immigration violations. While in custody awaiting deportation, according to the 2012 FBI document, he boasted that he had worked with the San Diego hijackers on the plot. The document also suggests that Abdullah was in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen years later, under President Obama’s drone-kill program.

The new document is reportedly part of a larger number of FBI files set to be released under the FOIA case. The document alone shows that the claims that the 9/11 Commission completed the probe and showed that there was no Saudi Monarchy support for the terrorists, is a total lie, a lie that the FBI covered up until now. Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) and attorney Sean Carter (representing the 9/11 families) both told Dan Christensen that the existence of the document shows the magnitude of the FBI cover up, since the existence of the document was concealed right up until the FOIA release.

Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey G. Karlov, was shot dead on Monday, while delivering an address at an art museum in Ankara. After being wounded by the lone gunman, Karlov was transported to a hospital, where he died. Three other people were wounded in the attack.

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu later identified the attacker as a 22-year-old former police officer by the name of Mevlüt Mert Altintas. According to news reports, he was heard shouting, “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria! As long as our brothers are not safe, you will not enjoy safety.” A Dutch website posted video footage of the shooting online, in which Altintas was seen wearing a suit and reportedly entered the premises using his police identification. He then shot Karlov in the back as the ambassador was speaking. RT reports that Turkish special forces killed Altintas following the shooting.

In both Ankara and Moscow, government officials vowed that Karlov’s assassination would not affect Turkish-Russian relations and that those responsible would be found and brought to justice. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Russian President Vladimir Putin to brief him on the attack, according to Erdogan’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu was already on his way to Moscow for a tripartite meeting on Syria with the Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers Lavrov and Zarif, when the attack occurred. He and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to hold a joint press conference in Moscow on the assassination, reports Hurriyet.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Monday, “Ambassador Karlov is a unique diplomat who earned appreciation of all state cadre by his professional and personal competences as he carried out successful works at a very difficult time in Turkey. His memory will always with us. We will not allow this attack to overshadow Turkish-Russian friendship.” Karlov had been ambassador in Ankara since July 2013 and had earlier in his diplomatic career worked extensively in North Korea.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Monday, that the Russian government considers the attack on Karlov a terrorist attack.

“Terrorism shall not pass, we will take resolute efforts against it,” Zakharova stressed, reported TASS. “The memory of the outstanding Russian diplomat, the man who has done much to counter terrorism, Andrey Karlov, will always stay in our hearts.” She said that the issue of the attack will be raised immediately at the UN Security Council.

The attack was also condemned from around the world. According to a roundup in TASS, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was among the first international diplomats to send condolences to the Russian government. Other messages came from Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the Syrian Foreign Ministry, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and others.

“The United States condemns the assassination today in Ankara of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov,” Kerry said in a statement. “We stand ready to offer assistance to Russia and Turkey as they investigate this despicable attack, which was also an assault on the right of all diplomats to safely and securely advance and represent their nations around the world.”

Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey G. Karlov, was shot dead on Monday, while delivering an address at an art museum in Ankara. After being wounded by the lone gunman, Karlov was transported to a hospital, where he died. Three other people were wounded in the attack.

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu later identified the attacker as a 22-year-old former police officer by the name of Mevlüt Mert Altintas. According to news reports, he was heard shouting, “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria! As long as our brothers are not safe, you will not enjoy safety.” A Dutch website posted video footage of the shooting online, in which Altintas was seen wearing a suit and reportedly entered the premises using his police identification. He then shot Karlov in the back as the ambassador was speaking. RT reports that Turkish special forces killed Altintas following the shooting.

In both Ankara and Moscow, government officials vowed that Karlov’s assassination would not affect Turkish-Russian relations and that those responsible would be found and brought to justice. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Russian President Vladimir Putin to brief him on the attack, according to Erdogan’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu was already on his way to Moscow for a tripartite meeting on Syria with the Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers Lavrov and Zarif, when the attack occurred. He and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to hold a joint press conference in Moscow on the assassination, reports Hurriyet.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Monday, “Ambassador Karlov is a unique diplomat who earned appreciation of all state cadre by his professional and personal competences as he carried out successful works at a very difficult time in Turkey. His memory will always with us. We will not allow this attack to overshadow Turkish-Russian friendship.” Karlov had been ambassador in Ankara since July 2013 and had earlier in his diplomatic career worked extensively in North Korea.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Monday, that the Russian government considers the attack on Karlov a terrorist attack.

“Terrorism shall not pass, we will take resolute efforts against it,” Zakharova stressed, reported TASS. “The memory of the outstanding Russian diplomat, the man who has done much to counter terrorism, Andrey Karlov, will always stay in our hearts.” She said that the issue of the attack will be raised immediately at the UN Security Council.

The attack was also condemned from around the world. According to a roundup in TASS, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was among the first international diplomats to send condolences to the Russian government. Other messages came from Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the Syrian Foreign Ministry, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and others.

“The United States condemns the assassination today in Ankara of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov,” Kerry said in a statement. “We stand ready to offer assistance to Russia and Turkey as they investigate this despicable attack, which was also an assault on the right of all diplomats to safely and securely advance and represent their nations around the world.”