Interview Notes - Lt.Col.-Retired Jamie Robertson - Jan - Feb 2011

Interview Notes - Lt.Col.-Retired Jamie Robertson - Jan - Feb 2011

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February 8, 2011 – Notes

You should be commended for your dedication to telling the NORAD Tracks Santa story.

Jamie Robertson

Communications and Outreach | Communications et Liaison avec la collectivité

Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP | Commission des plaintes du public contre la GRC

Tel/Tél : (613) 952-3738 | Fax/Téléc : (613) 952-8045



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January 31, 2011 – Notes

Thank you for this kind email. It's great to see the continued growth of such a cherished tradition.

When I introduced the NORAD Tracks Santa to the internet in 1997, the web traffic quickly told us that the children (and parents) of the World had a huge desire for realtime info on Santa's Christmas Eve activities. Of note, I wrote all of the content for the website from 1997 through 2000 (and much of 2001). I also wrote each of the hourly updates. All creative control rested with me – to ensure continuity.

I fondly remember climbing onto Rachel Allison’s (a NORAD/US Space Command colleague) rooftop with one of the Santa’s from Naturally Santa Inc to photograph material for our “Santa files declassified” section for the 1999 timeframe I believe. Potato Flakes worked like a charm….

During my tenure, the huge amount of effort which went into all aspects of the Santa tracking program was only possible because of volunteers and generous support from organizations like Analytical Graphics, IBM, AOL, and Globelink Translation, as well as local Colorado Springs radio stations. By 1998 the website was expanded to include complete coverage in six languages. I established all of the agreements and arrangements between the companies and the NTS program. I visited both IBM and AOL HQs in the U.S. to that end.

The web traffic grew from a minimum of one million hits in 1997 to 239 million in 2000. Media coverage was global and all the big networks played their role in bringing that little piece of magic to homes throughout many parts of the World.

Of all the many thousands of emails and calls we received over my time at NORAD, the one which sticks out most is this simplest: "Dear NORAD, thank you for giving my Son another year of Christmas magic and the belief in Santa Claus."

Lt-Col (Ret'd) Jamie Robertson Canadian Forces

PS

I’ll be sure to visit all the links to add in whatever information is missing. I do have some tapes and discs – somewhere in storage. I’ll look for them. I do recall speaking with Sally Ride at Space.com by I do not recall any Space.com product being used for the NoradSanta.org website however. Space.Com was supposed to provide an “Analysis of NORAD’s Tracking data.”

I’ve attached an article I wrote back in 2009. Analytical Graphics maintained the web address for us back (noradsanta.org) primarily to avoid U.S. of Canadian authorities trying to impose domestic regulations which would have obviously hand-cuffed us on creativity. All of the digital animation was produced by AGI but in tandem with the scenarios which were developed by me. Of course, each scenario generally had Santa at location X around midnight local time.

Several officers and civilians played key roles in the NTS during my tenure, in particular:


 * MAJ Mike Birmingham


 * Maj Perry Nouis


 * MSgt Larry Lincoln


 * TSgt Kathy Gandara

I may have a CD Rom and/or VHS of some past NTS campaigns.

Jamie Robertson

Communications and Outreach | Communications et Liaison avec la collectivité

Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP | Commission des plaintes du public contre la GRC

Tel/Tél : (613) 952-3738 | Fax/Téléc : (613) 952-8045



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February 4, 2011 – Notes

Was it your arrival at NORAD in 1997 that sparked the idea that NORAD and Santa Tracking needed to modernize and get on the web ??

Yes. I had been active on the internet since 1993. It seemed like a natural evolution for the program.

Analytical Graphics had the largely unique capability (at that time) to work with animated space imagery. I saw one of their products and spoke to them about NORAD Tracks Santa. They volunteered to work in partnership with NORAD to a: put together video sequences of Santa over known geographic landmarks, and b: host the website on their servers for the first year. I went out to meet with AGI in Pennsylvania to firm up plans. I arrived at NORAD in July 2007, so the lead time was fairly limited. Content of the website – text, scenarios, some images, was to be produced by me. They would build the actual site, host it and create the all important video imagery. The video sequences were provided to media around the world – and used extensively on 24 December 1997.

From the very outset, AGI was NORAD’s key partner in the internet-based aspects of the program. That first year, AGI’s webservers were hammered with web traffic. It became very apparent that I needed to find a heavy duty partner to host the site for 1998 on. I can’t say enough about how instrumental AGI was in getting the web component of NORAD Tracks Santa off the ground. The media pick up that first year was immense (and grew exponentially during my tenure to every corner of the globe (particularly, the UK, Australia, Japan, Canada and the United States). Discovery Channel and Fuji TV from Japan did documentaries on our Santa Tracking efforts and interviewed me in Cheyenne Mountain (one of many interviews there). Almost all major TV networks from the U.S., Canada and the UK featured NORAD Tracks Santa footage and stories. I must have personally conducted more than 1,000 – 1,500 interviews over the four years I ran the program. Media played it straight every time. Suffice to say, there were a few smiles here and there. Nobody messed with Santa – even shock jocks who called me live.

We had many, many touching stories come our way each Christmas. One story stands out to me. A Mother told me about her adopted Son Craig who was not supposed to survive his infancy due to cancer. Happily, he had and he loved Santa and enjoyed following his journey on our website. Craig lived in Texas. We got his address and we sent him some mementoes from NORAD. The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of NORAD at the time (this was in 1999) was Canadian Lt-Gen George MacDonald. Unbeknownst to me, he took a long detour on a trip to Texas to put some gold chocolate coins in the family’s mailbox along with a personal note. I only found out about it because the Mother said she “got the coins and Craig was really excited.” That gesture I believe captured the spirit of what we tried to do each Christmas – take the spirit of Christmas and add some additional magic to it. I saw an amazing spirit of volunteerism and willingness to go above and beyond.

Cheyenne Mountain Operations Centre had all sorts of volunteers every Christmas Eve to answer phones – which of course is core to the original tradition. Real people giving ‘real’ updates to children. Interestingly, many news agencies gained an appreciation for NORAD 24/7 mission by virtue of our explanation of how it is we could track Santa Claus!

I had many meetings with Colonel Harry Shoup and his wife. His eyes always lit up when talking about tracking Santa. The direct link to the events of 1955 was very important to me. The fact the program started by virtue of a Newspaper Ad misprint added a certain purity to the tradition. By any measure, the tradition is iconic and has become a family tradition for many across North America. I personally spoke to grandparents who listened to NORAD radio updates as kids.

Jamie Robertson

Communications and Outreach | Communications et Liaison avec la collectivité

Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP | Commission des plaintes du public contre la GRC

Tel/Tél : (613) 952-3738 | Fax/Téléc : (613) 952-8045



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February 6, 2011 – Notes

1. Who initiated contact with Fadia Gnoske, owner of Globelink Languages and Cultural Services to have the NORAD Tracks Santa website become multi-lingual in 1998 ???

Me. Fadia taught French to several NORAD Canadians. We talked about options. I also researched Santa and other cultures to ensure the languages and scenarios we selected did not offend or run counter to existing Pop culture.

2. Did you foresee Brazil becoming a more significant audience and country (such as hosting the World Cup and the Summer Olympics) that caused Brazilian Portuguese to be added as the sixth (6th) language for the NORAD Tracks Santa website in 1999 ??

No, it became apparent there was a level of interest and we had the capability volunteered by Fadia.

3. Was it the increasing growth of internet traffic from December 1999, IBM’s Olympic commitments, and/or did IBM wanted the program renamed from the “NORAD Tracks Santa” program to the “IBM Tracks Santa“ program, that caused IBM to let AOL (America On-line) pick-up the NORAD Tracks Santa program ???

IBM supported for two years - were unable to support further - no reason was given (most likely the Olympics). I've never heard about "IBM tracks Santa." No mention of that was ever made to me by IBM, and I was at IBM's North Carolina HQ. Such a move would have been pointless. All of the IBM team members were totally committed to the program. They loved working on the program. It was a huge commitment for the company.

4. Did you originate the “CanadianAlly” effort (in order to provide American citizens a better understanding of Canada’s role in North American Defense and Global Security issues) and set-up the website “CanadianAlly” on May 24, 2004 when you served from July 2003 to July 2006 at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC as the Counselor for Military-Media Relations ??

Yes. I did. Concept and set up. I also deliberately had to set up the site in a non-government format to make it effective. As the old adage goes, it was better to seek forgiveness than ask permission from the bureaucracy.



I also developed a marketing program on the Washington DC subway system - with focus on the Pentagon Capitol Hill and five other stations during the Cherry Tree Festival. Each subway station had huge banners or posters with a picture of Canadian troops in Kandahar with the words: "Boots on the Ground in Afghanistan." I'll send an image of one of the posters to you.

Of note, the Washington Post ran an article on the page seven Federal page and also included a large image of the poster. The campaign cost 18k total. The equivalent advertising cost for the Post alone would have been 25k. So, good value for money. More importantly, the campaign got the desired attention - to help remind people 'Inside the beltway' that Canadian troops were at the tip of the spear in Kandahar.

5. Had you already been promoted to Lt.Col. when you were the Counselor for Military-Media Relations at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC from July 2003 to July 2006 ???

Yes. After NORAD I spent 6 months at CENTCOM with the Canadian Joint Task Force, Southwest Asia as senior Public Affairs Advisor to the Commander for all operations in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. I then headed up our Pacific region PA office in Vancouver. I was promoted prior to my posting to the Embassy.

Jamie Robertson

Communications and Outreach | Communications et Liaison avec la collectivité

Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP | Commission des plaintes du public contre la GRC

Tel/Tél : (613) 952-3738 | Fax/Téléc : (613) 952-8045



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February 14, 2011 – Notes

The first point - I served at CENTCOM HQ, Coalition Village, not in theatre (I would have preferred that though). As such, I was the only non American PAO amongst the 30 or nations represented and was called upon to provide advice to other delegations. The Canadians were the first to conduct media interviews in Tampa – before even CENTCOM itself. [I can tell you that my US PAO colleagues were grateful as it allowed them to convince the U.S. chain of command they needed to start engaging U.S. media. “The Canadians are doing it.”]

The second point is related to Ethiopia. I was there on a UN Humanitarian mission in 1991, right after their Civil War ended. We (the Canadian airforce) were flying Hercs in from Djibouti to deliver food all over Ethiopia. We were the only aircraft flying in Ethiopia at the time and had to land on bombed-out runways as there were no air fields untouched by the war.

PS - NORAD Tracks Santa won a Bronze Anvil Certificate of Commendation in 1999 for Best website.

Jamie Robertson

Communications and Outreach | Communications et Liaison avec la collectivité

Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP | Commission des plaintes du public contre la GRC

Tel/Tél : (613) 952-3738 | Fax/Téléc : (613) 952-8045



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February 16, 2011 – Notes

I believe you are right about Y2K. PRSA does not appear to keep very good records on the Bronze Anvil side of the house. I believe it must have been for the 1998 site – awarded in 1999. I’ve attached an image of the certificate, I also included an “Award of Merit” from the Naturally Santa folks (received in Sept 1998). I received a NORAD Deputy Commander in Chief (Lt-Gen Lou Cuppens) Award of Excellence in 1998 for the initial internet initiative, and commendations from the NORAD Deputy Commander in Chief (Lt-Gen George Macdonald) and Canadian Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Vice Admiral Madison) in 2001 and 2003 respectively for NTS and other initiatives.

I was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. I went to the Defense Information School at Fort Ben Harrison and received my first promotion (Lt) in 1990, Captain in 1991. Major in 1995. LCol in 2003. I’ve included my CV for a more fulsome set of career information.

Cheers

Jamie

Communications and Outreach | Communications et Liaison avec la collectivité

Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP | Commission des plaintes du public contre la GRC

Tel/Tél : (613) 952-3738 | Fax/Téléc : (613) 952-8045



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NORAD Continues Santa Tracking Tradition

By Maj. Jamie Robertson, Canadian Forces

Special to American Forces Press Service

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN, Colo., Dec. 14, 1999 – On Christmas Eve children want answers to age-old -- and some not-so-age-old -- questions about Santa Claus. Is he coming? Is he real? Is he Y2K compliant?

The North American Aerospace Defense Command here answers these and many other questions on its comprehensive, six- language Santa tracking Web site at www.noradsanta.org. All site material, including the live tracking event, is available in English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese.

NORAD attempts to set the record straight in regards to outrageous allegations that have been made by several fifth grade students as to the existence of Santa Claus. Seeing is believing, and NORAD has perfected its 45-year-old tradition of tracking Santa on Christmas Eve. They will post visual and audio updates hourly on the Web site from midnight Dec. 23rd (EST) to 5:00 a.m. Dec. 25th (EST).

This year NORAD has enlisted the help of Astronaut Sally Ride and Space.Com to assist with analysis of NORAD's Santa tracking data. Additionally, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration will maintain a satellite watch of the North Pole for weather conditions and any unusual activity.

Last year's Web site had an estimated 80 million hits over the Christmas period and featured five languages (English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Italian). The site received 43 international Internet awards.

The 1999 NORAD Tracks Santa Team again includes IBM, who will host the site on an extensive network of servers, and Analytical Graphics, who created the site and all supporting imagery. In addition, Globelink Services International coordinated the extensive translation required for the Web site. All the organizations and volunteers who help make this global NORAD Christmas project possible do so at no cost to the taxpayer.

The Santa tracking tradition started in 1955 by pure accident after a local newspaper ran an ad for a department store Santa hot line. The ad included a special phone number, which turned out to be the operations hot line to Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Needless to say, the military personnel on duty were very surprised to hear six -year olds on the hot line. The senior officer on duty at the time was Air Force Col. Harry Shoup. He took the first call and quickly figured out what had happened. When kids asked if they could speak to Santa, Shoup said he was helping Santa and told the kids his officers could see Santa on the radar screens as he headed south from the North Pole.

Local media heard of the calls and reported the story. The next year, calls came flooding in to Continental Air Defense Command from children who wanted to know where Santa was. A tradition was born -- a tradition NORAD assumed in 1957. Since then, the program has expanded gradually over the years until it hit the Internet in 1997 with one million hits.

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Title: Flying food. Economist, 00130613, 8/31/91, Vol. 320, Issue 7722

Database: Business Source Complete

Flying food

Section: INTERNATIONAL

THE fleet is an odd one: three Canadian Air Force Hercules transports; two privately run Hercules; two Soviet Antonov128; one Ilyushin-76. They fly one of the biggest emergency food lifts undertaken by the United Nations, to Ethiopia and Sudan. The aircraft have delivered 7,000 tonnes of food since they started in early July. They need to move 10,000 tonnes a month.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP), which is running the airlift, reckons the aircraft feed 1.2m refugees. But 8m need food aid in Ethiopia alone. The Canadians fly food from Djibouti's sleepy airport to Mekele, for distribution to about 137,000 Ethiopian soldiers and their families, plod ding homeward after their defeat in Eritrea. The international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is helping on the ground. Djibouti is also the base for flights to remote eastern Ethiopia: Jijiga, Gode, Kebre Dehar.

In the Sudan there are four airlifts. One is to Wau, at the end of a railway 1hat does not work; another, in association with the ICRC, to villages in the eastern province of Darfur, where hunger is widespread. The third is to the southern town of Juba, where the UN children's fund (UNICEF) reports growing malnutrition among at least 300,000 refugees. The fourth airlift is from Kenya to remote Nasir, where some 100,000 desperate Sudanese starve, having fled to Ethiopia and then back to Sudan after being caught in both countries' civil wars. A separate airlift by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is starting to repatriate some 52,000 Ethiopians, mostly ex-soldiers who fled to the Sudan after being defeated by the rebels.

Airlifts are easy and quick--but expensive. Surface transport is cheaper, but agonisingly slow. The Eritrean (formerly Ethiopian) ports of Massawa and Assab are a mess. Telephones and telexes do not work. Fees are uncertain, equipment needs repairing and many shippers are unwilling to enter the ports. Relief agencies may not get access to their shipments.

The port of Djibouti is overloaded and the railway to Addis Ababa a slow trundle. The new regimes in Ethiopia and Eritrea co operate much more willingly with aid agencies than did the former Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu Halle Mariam. But they can still be prickly. Food delivered to Massawa rarely goes beyond Eritrea.

In Sudan, the Arab north and the black south are still fighting, and General Omar el Beshir's government is plagued by turnouts of coups. Lorries can move food only when there is fuel, and the army does not commandeer them. The Nile barges only run when the rebels, who control long stretches of the river, approve.

MAP

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Author(s): Mark Abley Document types: NEWS Publication title: The Ottawa Citizen

Food aid fast becoming a way of life; [Final Edition] Mark Abley. The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Dec 22, 1991. pg. B.5 Abstract (Summary)

Acrescent moon, ringed with clouds, hangs over the dark airport. It's 4:30 a.m. in one of the world's most obscure countries: a desert enclave of fewer than 500,000 people by the shores of the Red Sea. A strange time, you might think, for three Djibouti soldiers armed with AK-47 rifles to be halting a busload of Canadian troops.

At 5:15 a.m., the first Hercules takes off, heading for the Ethiopian city of Jijiga. It's followed a few minutes later by a Hercules bound for Dire Dawa. Each big turboprop is loaded with 20 tons of grain: American cornmeal in the first, Canadian and European wheat in the second.

In the Horn of Africa now, there are millions of displaced people. Within 100 km of Jijiga alone, more than 400,000 people have walked into refugee camps. The Horn, it seems, is in a state of perpetual crisis. Back in 1984-85, starving Ethiopians turned into a media event: they were the world, and tears were not enough. Planes flew in to the famine zone with wheat and grinning politicians, medicine and movie stars. Then Ethiopia fell off our TV screens, and we all forgot. ≫ Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text (831 words) (Copyright The Ottawa Citizen)

Ran with related article headlined "DEFYING THE WOUNDS OF WAR"

Acrescent moon, ringed with clouds, hangs over the dark airport. It's 4:30 a.m. in one of the world's most obscure countries: a desert enclave of fewer than 500,000 people by the shores of the Red Sea. A strange time, you might think, for three Djibouti soldiers armed with AK-47 rifles to be halting a busload of Canadian troops.

But the soldiers wave the bus through their checkpoint. They do the same every night. Ever since Aug. 11, Djibouti has been the base from which Canada's air force has flown relief supplies into the war-ravaged, drought-battered countryside of eastern Ethiopia.

At 5:15 a.m., the first Hercules takes off, heading for the Ethiopian city of Jijiga. It's followed a few minutes later by a Hercules bound for Dire Dawa. Each big turboprop is loaded with 20 tons of grain: American cornmeal in the first, Canadian and European wheat in the second.

Soon we're dropping into an airstrip of red-brown soil, ringed on three sides by low mountains. Somewhere in the hazy distance lies Jijiga, a heavily armed city of 60,000 people. At 5:55 we touch down.

The load master, Cpl. Serge Pelland, opens the plane's rear doors. The engines of the Hercules are still turned on, and the noise is intense. That doesn't stop a team of 35 Ethiopians from hurling themselves into the dimly lit plane and starting to unload its cargo.

Chanting in rhythm, running in formation, the men sprint back and forth between the Hercules and an open-topped Mercedes-Benz truck belonging to the United Nations World Food Program. It's the program that organizes this airlift, paying the expenses of the Canadian military and telling them where to fly.

Each sack of corn weighs 55 pounds; there are 800 sacks on board. Back in Djibouti, the plane took nearly an hour to load. These Ethiopians empty it in a mere 12 minutes.

Here at Jijiga, you start to get a sense of the crisis in this part of Africa.

In the Horn of Africa now, there are millions of displaced people. Within 100 km of Jijiga alone, more than 400,000 people have walked into refugee camps. The Horn, it seems, is in a state of perpetual crisis. Back in 1984-85, starving Ethiopians turned into a media event: they were the world, and tears were not enough. Planes flew in to the famine zone with wheat and grinning politicians, medicine and movie stars. Then Ethiopia fell off our TV screens, and we all forgot.

Today, neighboring Somalia and Sudan are racked by civil wars; parts of Ethiopia are politically insecure, other parts are suffering from drought, and the whole country is in an economic mess; even tiny Djibouti has a tiny civil war of its own.

Accurate statistics are impossible to find, but Oxfam's numbers suggest that roughly 7.3 million Ethiopians now require direct food aid. In Somalia, says the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, the picture is even grimmer: food aid is needed by 4.5 million people, or at least half of the entire population. Many more in the Horn are hungry enough to benefit from regular food help, even if they can survive without it.

So far this month, 31 children have died, says Mohammed Abdi Omar, a relief official at Kebri Bayah camp. Standing in its tent for whooping cough patients, he gestures at an infant hacking for breath. ''This month it is cold at night. Many children die of pneumonia.''

Kebri Bayah is an impromptu city of 35,000 people, who pass their lives in canvas and plastic tents under the vast sky. Smiling children run through the camp, excited when a foreigner appears. Foreigners mean diversion and entertainment; they might also -- who knows? -- mean a gift.

To reach the camp, we drove 50 km south from Jijiga in an armed convoy over a lawless plateau. The road passed a village that often flies the flag of the Western Somali Liberation Front -- armed, rebellious and unpredictable.

A year ago, Kebri Bayah was nothing more than a bad dream. A year from now, UN officials hope, it may be a nightmare of the past.

It is, according to the official definition, not a refugee camp but a returnee camp. Most of its residents are not foreigners seeking refuge in Ethiopia; they are Ethiopians who finally chose to walk back to their homeland after a decade of exile in Somalia.

Exile taught them passivity, a reliance on other people for even their most basic needs.

As soon as most of Kebri Bayah's residents are in good health, and as soon as the UN food program has received enough cash from donor nations to give some extra food and travel money, the camp is supposed to close.

But don't hold your breath. Kebri Bayah's residents were originally scheduled for dispersal back in April. Eight months later, they haven't budged -- and thousands of newcomers have arrived.

Credit: MONTREAL GAZETTE Indexing (document details) Author(s): Mark Abley Document types: NEWS Dateline: DJIBOUTI Section: FORUM; (NEWS) Publication title: The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Dec 22, 1991. pg. B.5 Source type: Newspaper ISSN: 08393222 ProQuest document ID: 179127811 Text Word Count 831 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=179127811&sid=5&Fmt=3&clientId=70921&RQT=309&VName=PQD

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Canadian planes deliver emergency aid in Ethiopia; [FINAL Edition] The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: Aug 14, 1991. pg. A.8 Abstract (Summary)

ROME - Three Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes have begun carrying 160 tonnes of emergency food supplies a day to refugees in Ethiopia, the UN World Food... ≫ Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text (76 words) (Copyright The Gazette)

ROME - Three Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes have begun carrying 160 tonnes of emergency food supplies a day to refugees in Ethiopia, the UN World Food Program said yesterday. The supplies are enough to feed up to half a million people daily. The Canadian International Development Agency announced yesterday an additional $13 million in food aid for Ethiopia and Sudan, bring Canada's spending on famine relief in the two countries to $60.5 million this year.

Indexing (document details) Document types: COLUMN Dateline: ROME Column Name: WORLD BRIEFS Section: NEWS Publication title: The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: Aug 14, 1991. pg. A.8 Source type: Newspaper ISSN: 03841294 ProQuest document ID: 164604391 Text Word Count 76 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=164604391&sid=5&Fmt=3&clientId=70921&RQT=309&VName=PQD

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WORLD IN BRIEF Canada aids Ethiopia The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 14, 1991. pg. A.10

Abstract (Summary)

Rome ITALY -- ROME Three Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes have begun carrying emergency food supplies in Ethiopia, the... ≫ Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text (57 words) All material copyright Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved.

WORLD IN BRIEF Canada aids Ethiopia

Wednesday, August 14, 1991

Rome ITALY -- ROME Three Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes have begun carrying emergency food supplies in Ethiopia, the United Nations World Food Program said yesterday. In Ottawa, the Canadian International Development Agency announced an additional $13-million in food aid for both Ethiopia and Sudan. AP, CP

Indexing (document details) Dateline: Rome ITALY Publication title: The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 14, 1991. pg. A.10 Source type: Newspaper ISSN: 03190714 ProQuest document ID: 1116847411 Text Word Count 57 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1116847411&sid=5&Fmt=3&clientId=70921&RQT=309&VName=PQD

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ETHIOPIA; Canadian planes carry in food aid; [Final Edition] The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Aug 14, 1991. pg. A.7 Abstract (Summary)

ROME (CP) _ Three Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes have begun carrying emergency food supplies in Ethiopia, the UN World Food Program said Tuesday.

As well, 300,000 former soldiers of ousted president Mengitsu Haile Mariam's army are scattered between the northern province of Tigre and the capital, Addis Ababa, and in need of assistance, said Paul Mitchell, a spokesman for the Rome-based agency. ≫ Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text (247 words) (Copyright The Ottawa Citizen)

ROME (CP) _ Three Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes have begun carrying emergency food supplies in Ethiopia, the UN World Food Program said Tuesday.

In Ottawa, the Canadian International Development Agency announced an additional $13 million in food aid for Ethiopia and Sudan.

The extra funds bring Canada's spending on famine relief in the two countries to $60.5 million so far this year. CIDA is the government's aid agency.

Over one million refugees have gathered in camps in the southwest of the country. Some are fleeing the war in neighboring Somalia, others are former refugees returning home.

As well, 300,000 former soldiers of ousted president Mengitsu Haile Mariam's army are scattered between the northern province of Tigre and the capital, Addis Ababa, and in need of assistance, said Paul Mitchell, a spokesman for the Rome-based agency.

The planes, which began flying Monday, will shuttle 160 tonnes of emergency aid a day, sufficient to feed up to half a million people, Mitchell said. He said that about 350 trucks are also at work on the congested roads from the coastal ports.

Mitchell said that the airlift will continue until the harvest in late October. He said officials fear a small harvest because the civil war, which culminated with the victory of the rebels in May, disrupted planting and fertilizing.

However, he said that the amount of food aid pledged so far _ 1.1 million tonnes _ should be sufficient.

@tail = (With files from Associated Press)

Credit: CP

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