I find it peculiar that George Clooney is getting credit for “his satellite project” revealing that there are troops lined up in the Abyei border area. Now, I normally think Andrew Meldrum does good work. But this paragraph in his Global Post piece is, to me, telling:
An estimated 55,000 Sudan army troops have been deployed along the disputed border areas, according to the Small Arms Survey, an organization based in Switzerland that monitors the situation in Sudan. The satellite images combined with the Satellite Sentinel Projects’ field reports corroborate that army troops are in three areas near the border, but it is not known when they were deployed.
If I am reading this correctly, the Small Arms Survey already knew what Clooney’s more ballyhooed effort is revealing to us. Furthermore, are we to believe that there are not military intelligence sources that have also been paying attention to this situation? I get the sense that the Clooney story is much ado about nothing, new wine in old bottles, and what have you. I do know that the Small Arms Survey was there first (established in 1999) and has been doing its work without a scintilla of the hype of Clooney’s Georgie come lately work. I don’t exactly begrudge Clooney and his ilk. What I do begrudge is the warping effect they have on any discussion of issues that serious people have taken seriously for years before Clooney had ever heard of the Sudan.
