Good jew in so africa
DiCrapio's Danny Archer is a soldier of fortune/diamond smuggler for the Van De
Kaap diamond cartel (which is supposed to be the real-life
De Beers diamond cartel). Hounsou
is Solomon
Vandy,
a poor black man from a poor Sierra Leone village raided by the R.U.F.
Black guerrillas, who maim, torture, kill, and enslave in the name of diamond
profits. Vandy's young son is kidnapped by the
R.U.F. and forced to become a
killer for the group.
A good and a bad message from this movie: I reject the movie's claim that it's
somehow White women's (read: AMERICAN women's) fault that Black guerrillas are
fighting innocent Blacks in an African country. It's kind of like the way Israel
is blamed whenever Arabs kill other Arabs. And it's intellectually dishonest.
However, the larger message, the good message, is that of a
father's strong love--in the face
of torture and death--for his young son. We need more movies with that message.
Also of note is that, while this movie
focuses on "blood diamonds" a/k/a "conflict diamonds," I wonder why it
doesn't focus on the Bin Laden and Qaeda diamond trade. Actually, I don't
wonder. We all know that Hollywood whitewashes the crimes of extremist Islam in
favor of blaming Whitey. The movie claims that the
"blood diamond"/"conflict diamond" trade has ended, and actually, when it comes
to funding Islamic terror, it has NOT ended.
I object to the other Islamic whitewash message at the end of this movie. The
chyron on the screen informs us that, now, Sierra Leone is in peace. Oh, really?
Tell that to the many victims of
Hezbollah-related crimes and terror there, as many Lebanese
Hezbos
have set up shop in Sierra Leone and control a lot of the goings on there (as
they have for some time). You can hardly call it "peace."
Finally, full disclosure: Although I do not own diamonds (I'm not into the
jewelry stuff, as the subject matter of this site should indicate), my uncle's
uncle is Maurice Tempelsman, in the diamond biz and rumored to be the De Beers
diamond cartel's man in the U.S. (He was also Jacqelyn Bouvier Kennedy Onassis'
"escort" and is was rumored to be a CIA agent.) A big-time liberal and Dem
fundraiser, he gave money to my campaigns both times I ran for the Michigan
House of Representatives (about $1,000 total--I'm probably the only Republican
and the only conservative to which he's ever donated), but I've only met the guy
once or twice.
The world diamond trade is a virtual
monopoly controlled by DeBeers--the Oppenheimer family--and Lev Leviev--an
Israeli citizen from Russia.
50% of all diamond rough is cut in Israel. Jewish cutters and dealers, in large
part, control the Belgium diamond industry. Orthodox Jews run the business in
NYC.
Yet, somehow, Al Qaeda was able to
penetrate this market.
Over a year ago, the Washington Post reported that Al Qaeda was in the diamond
business. The story died until, prompted by investigations in Europe, the Post
re-reported on the story this morning.
The week between Christmas and New Years is the slowest news week of the year.
Is this being reported now to bury the story? Why didn't the full account come
out a year ago? European investigators
say they have been stunned by the lack of CIA interest in the Al Qaeda diamond
connection. Has the CIA been compromised by Israelis? Where were the Al Qaeda
diamonds cut? Both DeBeers and Lev Leviev
have top notch intelligence capabilities. Is it possible this volume of stones
could be moved without their knowledge?
Some background information on the situation below.
Today's Washington Post story first:
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report Says Africans Harbored Al Qaeda Terror Assets Hidden In Gem-Buying Spree
By Douglas Farah Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 29, 2002; Page
A01
ANTWERP, Belgium -- An aggressive
year-long European investigation into al Qaeda financing has found evidence that
two West African governments hosted the senior terrorist operatives who oversaw
a $20 million diamond-buying spree that effectively cornered the market on the
region's precious stones.
Investigators from several countries concluded that President Charles Taylor of
Liberia received a $1 million payment for arranging to harbor the operatives,
who were in the region for at least two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
on New York and the Pentagon. The terrorists moved between a protected area in
Liberia and the presidential compound in neighboring Burkina Faso, investigators
say (snip)
The Washington Post obtained a copy of the military intelligence summary, which
offers the clearest picture yet of al Qaeda's secretive business operations in
West Africa and an elaborate plot that began in 1998 to hide substantial
terrorist assets in diamonds. . .(snip)
European and Latin American investigations also found evidence that a group of
people buying diamonds on behalf of the terrorists were simultaneously
attempting to procure sophisticated weapons, such as missiles that could shoot
down aircraft, The Post has learned. Investigators have been unable to trace the
diamonds since they left Liberia and Burkina Faso.
The diamond-buying operation appears to
have been hatched in response to a move by the United States in 1998 to freeze
al Qaeda assets after attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa that were blamed
on the organization. Senior European intelligence sources said they have
been baffled by the lack of U.S. interest, particularly by the CIA, in their
recent findings. The CIA, which in the past has downplayed reports of al Qaeda's
diamond connections, declined to comment. (Snip)
The European law enforcement investigations, launched soon after Sept. 11, have
focused on three people who allegedly served as conduits to the al Qaeda
operatives: Aziz Nassour, a Lebanese diamond merchant; his cousin Samih Osailly;
and Ibrahim Bah, a Senegalese soldier of fortune who has trafficked for years in
diamonds and guns across Africa. . .(snip) Al Qaeda's diamond purchases were
first reported in The Washington Post 13 months ago. (snip)
Much of the new evidence of al Qaeda's diamond plot flows from the April 12
arrest here of Osailly, who is in prison awaiting trial on charges of diamond
smuggling and illegal weapons sales. Osailly is involved with a small diamond
importing company believed to have been used by the al Qaeda operatives. He has
pleaded not guilty.
In Osailly's case, Belgian investigators say they uncovered bank records showing
that the diamond company enjoyed a sudden surge in business and turned over
almost $1 billion in the year before Sept. 11. Investigators also have found
telephone records of calls to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. (snip)
In March 1999, two other al Qaeda operatives, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Fazul
Abdullah Mohammed, came to Liberia for a follow-up visit and spent a few days
touring the Sierra Leone diamond fields controlled by the RUF.
The next year, in July 2000, investigators believe that Bah approached ASA Diam,
the company associated with Osailly and Nassour, about handling the al Qaeda
gems. The company, which had been largely inactive for about two years, suddenly
began handling large volumes of money, recording $14 million worth of diamond
sales in 2000. (snip)
Shortly after the first published accounts of al Qaeda's diamond ties, Belgian
officials asked banks to scour their records for suspicious transactions.
Artesia Bank, noticing the flow of funds and unusual business fluctuations,
forwarded the name of the ASA Diam account.
Investigators say that at least $20 million was withdrawn from the account,
money they believe was the portion of the company's transactions linked to al
Qaeda's buying activities.
European, U.S. and Central American officials have recently found evidence that
Nassour and Osailly were trying to buy weapons from the Nicaraguan army and a
Bulgarian company. Investigators are trying to unravel whether that deal was
meant to supply al Qaeda with SA-8
surface-to-air missiles and sophisticated rockets.
Documents obtained by The Post show that on Jan. 2, 2001, an Israeli arms dealer
in Panama named Simon Yelnik sent an e-mail to a Russian arms merchant in
Guatemala discussing an order that "our friends in Africa need." Attached was a
list of assault rifles, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades as well as 20
SA-8 missiles and 200 rockets for BM-21 multiple rocket launchers.
The weapons provider was to be the Nicaraguan army, the documents show.
A request written in French accompanied the list, asking what the weapons would
cost "with or without an end-user certificate. Destination, Liberia." An
end-user certificate is required for a legal purchase of weapons of war. It
certifies the country buying will not re-sell them to a third party.
Yelnik, who has denied any illegal activity, is now in prison in Panama on
charges related to weapons sales to right-wing paramilitary forces in Colombia.
"The likelihood this type of weapons were going to the RUF rebels in the bush is
very hard to believe," said one intelligence analyst. "It almost certainly had
to be destined for somewhere else."
Nassour acknowledged faxing a weapons list to Yelnik, along with an end-user
certificate from Ivory Coast. He said he received a price list back from Yelnik,
but the deal was never consummated.
The Ivorian certificate, obtained by The Post, is dated Jan. 8, 2001, and signed
by Defense Minister Moise Lida Kouassi. It is an order to Nataco Holding PLC in
Bulgaria for more than 10 million rounds of ammunition, 10,000 sniper rifles,
night vision equipment and grenade launchers. A copy was found in Osailly's
possession.
Two sources said Bah gave the certificate to an associate to deliver to Nassour
in Belgium. Instead, Bah's associate walked into the U.S. Embassy in Brussels
with a copy of the document and outlined the diamond-for-weapons schemes
underway, although he did not mention any connection to al Qaeda. U.S. officials
acknowledge they did nothing with the information.
"What we know is that al Qaeda was very active in the diamond trade, but we also
know there is a great deal we don't know," said one senior intelligence
official. "What else is there out there we haven't discovered? What are they
still doing that brings them profit? Those are the questions I worry about now."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIBERIAN ORBIT, October 1, 2001:
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources in Monrovia say a female diplomat has left for the Middle East with a
consignment of UN-banned "blood diamonds" for sale.
The lady, a cleric and relative of the Liberian leader, has been designated as
ambassador to Israel. According to our Monrovia contact, who asked that the name
of the lady be withheld for the moment, the pieces of diamond originate from
Sierra Leone and are worth several hundred thousand dollars. . .more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UN Security Report:
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awhole
network of Israelis was established, including Mr.
Gertler
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lev
Leviev
in Angola and Shmuel
Shnitzer
in Sierra Leone. In all three cases, the pattern is the same. Conflict diamonds
are exchanged for money, weapons and military training. These diamonds are then
transported to Tel Aviv by former Israeli Air Force pilots, whose numbers have
significantly increased both in
UNITA-held territory in Angola
and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Israel, these diamonds are then
cut and sold at the Ramat
Gan
Diamond Centre. . .more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Press Office, Foreign Affairs, Belgium 24/05/02
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Belgian authorities have already taken various legal steps on the basis of their
own investigation and information provided by the UN and the sector itself.
These measures include, in particular, the issuing by Belgium of an
international warrant for the arrest of Victor Bout and the arrest of the
Lebanese diamond merchants Samih Ossailly and Sanjivan Ruprah, the right-hand
man of Victor Bout . Incidentally, on the basis of today's UN report, the
Antwerp public prosecutor's office immediately launched a criminal investigation
into the firm Limo Diamonds, which is named in the report. . .more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UN Security Council Report:
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limo Diamonds is a rough diamond trading and polishing company based in Antwerp
and Tel Aviv. Its Antwerp address is Office 214, Diamond Club, Pelikanstraat 62.
Limo is a member of a diamond bourse and banks with the Antwerpse Diamantbank.
Its office in Tel Aviv is Spark Diamonds Ltd., Diamond Exchange, Rm 1405-6,
Ramat Gan.
The directors of the two companies are Moshe Fisher and Israel Fisher.
The Mechanism has been able to put together a chain of information and evidence
that links Limo Diamonds to the purchase of embargoed diamonds from a man who
was previously said to be the largest illicit diamond dealer in Luanda, Jose
Francisco,known "Chico". . .more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israeli Leonid Efirmovich Minin, partner of Liberian President Charles Taylor
busted in Italy (weapons to the RUF in Sierra Leone for diamonds)...more
San Francisco Jewish Community Publications Inc:
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ex-Israeli colonel faces forgery trial in Sierra Leone.
JERUSALEM (JPS) -- After spending the last seven months in administrative
detention in Sierra Leone, former Israeli Col. Yair Klein was scheduled to face
trial this week in the country's capital, Freetown.
Klein faces one charge of forging a document relating to the purchase of an
attack helicopter and another of trying to defraud the government of money.
Earlier, more severe charges of training Libyan-backed rebel troops and plotting
to overthrow the Sierra Leone regime were dropped. . .
For years, Africa has been popular with Israeli security experts hired to train
governments and armies. It has also been popular with diamond dealers,
especially following the slump of the diamond industry in Israel. Klein belonged
to both industries. . .more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stratfor 8 April 2002 :
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Russian, Ukrainian Crime Groups Set to Corner Global Drug Market
all 75 of the top Russian and Ukrainian crime kingpins the U.S. government was
tracking worldwide at the end of the 1990s were citizens of Israel. . .
Robert I. Friedman -- a Ukrainian-American investigative reporter who is also
Jewish and has written extensively about the Russian and Ukrainian mafia --
claims that efforts by U.S. federal law enforcement officials to investigate
suspected mafia leaders have been blocked internally for years by higher-ups in
the U.S. government, or have been hindered by negative publicity asserting that
the investigations were motivated by anti-Semitism. . .
Russian mobsters also reportedly bought weapons for bin Laden in Ukraine and
shipped them secretly into the Persian Gulf and Horn of Africa, and laundered
money for bin Laden through mafia-owned banks in Central Asia and Eastern
Europe.
Additionally, on Oct. 4, 2001, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Russian and
Central Asian organized crime syndicates had close ties with the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist Muslim group that allegedly swaps heroin
for weapons with the Russians. The IMU is tied to al Qaeda, the newspaper report
added. . . .more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sierra Leone is an extremely poor African nation
with tremendous inequality in income distribution.
While it possesses substantial mineral,
agricultural, and fishery resources, its economic and social
infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social disorders continue to
hamper economic development. About two-thirds of the working-age population
engages in subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the
processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market.
Alluvial diamond mining remains the
major source of hard currency earnings, accounting for nearly half of Sierra
Leone's exports. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of
domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad, which
is essential to offset the severe trade imbalance and supplement government
revenues. The IMF has completed a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility program
that helped stabilize economic growth and reduce inflation. A recent increase in
political stability has led to a revival of economic activity, such as the
rehabilitation of bauxite mining.
| |
 |
|
Last Updated: Thursday, 12
October 2006, 11:46 GMT 12:46 UK
|
Country profile: Sierra Leone
|
|
Sierra Leone, in West Africa, emerged
from a decade of civil war in 2002, with the help of Britain, the former
colonial power, and a large United Nations peacekeeping mission.
More than 17,000 foreign troops disarmed
tens of thousands of rebels and militia fighters. The country now faces
the challenge of reconstruction.
A lasting feature of the war, which left some 50,000 dead, was the
atrocities committed by the rebels, whose trademark was to hack off the
hands of their victims.
A UN-backed war crimes court has been
set up to try those, from both sides, who bear the greatest
responsibility for the brutalities.
But the problems of poverty, tribal
rivalry and official corruption that caused the war are far from over.
The 70,000 former combatants who were
disarmed and rehabilitated after the war have swollen the ranks of the
many young people seeking employment.
Sierra Leone is rich in diamonds. The
trade in illicit gems, known as "blood diamonds" for their role in
funding conflicts, perpetuated the civil war. The government has
attempted to crack down on cross-border diamond trafficking.
Diamond exports, and the exploitation of
mineral reserves, have helped to bouy the post-conflict economy.
- Full name: Republic of Sierra
Leone
- Population:
5.3 million (UN, 2005)
- Capital: Freetown
- Area: 71,740 sq km (27,699 sq
miles)
- Major languages: English, Krio
(Creole language derived from English) and a range of African
languages
- Major religions: Islam,
indigenous beliefs, Christianity
- Life expectancy: 39 years
(men), 42 years (women) (UN)
- Monetary unit: 1 Leone = 100
cents
|
|
The
Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
was a rebel army that fought a failed ten-year insurrection in
Sierra
Leone, starting in
1991 and ending in
2002. The RUF was rather unusual in that it had no true ideology outside of
discontent and opposition to the current Sierra Leone government. When it began,
it put forward the slogan, "No More Slaves, No More Masters. Power and Wealth to
the People." While its goal was clearly to overthrow the government of Sierra
Leone, the RUF gave little indication of what sort of government would replace
it. The group did not advocate
Marxism or
any such leftist
ideology, nor did it advocate extreme
nationalism or
Fascism. It
also did not claim to be a force fighting for a certain ethnic group or region.
At one point, during ongoing peace negotiations, RUF published a pamphlet, which
contained some rhetoric references to social justice and
pan-Africanism. Among armed military groups therefore, it is very difficult
to classify.
The war is estimated to have cost the lives of
between 50,000 and 200,000 people. The Revolutionary United Front Party
is nowadays a
political party. The current (as of 2006) general secretary of the party is
Jonathan Kposowa. At the last
elections, May 14
2002, the party won 2.2 % of popular votes and no seats. Its candidate at
the presidential elections,
Alimamy Pallo Bangura, received 1.7% of the vote.
Led by
Foday
Sankoh, the RUF developed a reputation internationally for enormous cruelty
during its decade-long struggle. The RUF made extensive use of child soldiers,
using horrific methods to numb their new recruits to barbarity. Thousands of
abducted boys and girls were forced to serve as soldiers or as prostitutes, and
those chosen to be fighters were sometimes forced to murder their parents.
Guerrillas frequently carved the initials "RUF" on their chests, and officers
reportedly rubbed
cocaine into open cuts on their troops to make them manic and fearless. For
entertainment, some soldiers would bet on the sex of an unborn baby and then
slice open a woman's womb to determine the winner.
The RUF was notorious for amputating the limbs
of those victims it did not murder, particularly children. In response to the
immediate execution of rebels by government forces, the RUF instead instituted a
policy of cutting off the hands of captured soldiers with the intent of sending
the message, "You don't hold your weapon against your brother." The tactic was
then quickly picked up by government and peacekeeping forces with the intent
that the results would be blamed on the RUF and help garner support for their
own side. Brandishing machetes, RUF troops were reported to have amputated the
hands, arms, and legs of tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans. The RUF indicated
that the reason for these actions was that amputees could no longer grow rice,
which might be used to support government troops. The election slogan at that
time was that the people 'had power in their hands', so the RUF would hack the
hands off to prevent voting. RUF members are also said to have practiced
cannibalism.[citation needed]
The government set up a refugee camp where they gathered amputees; the camp was
situated next to the international hotels. It has been reported that the
amputees were paid to blame the RUF when asked by journalists, but that many in
fact were amputated by government troops.
The RUF
was created by Sankoh
and two allies, Abu Kanu
and Rashid Mansaray,
with substantial assistance from
Charles Taylor
of
Liberia.
At first, the RUF was popular with Sierra Leoneans, many of whom resented
a Freetown
elite seen as corrupt and looked forward to promised free education and health
care and equitable sharing of diamond revenues.
Sankoh
did not stand by these promises and used funds from diamond sales to buy arms
for Taylor and himself. With the diamond mines under the control of the rebel
group, the RUF
became singularly focused on protecting its resource base. Sierra Leone's
economy collapsed, with ordinary citizens trapped between the cruelty of RUF
troops and starvation. After a coup by the
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1997, the RUF and AFRC created
a joint junta to control the country before evicted from the capital by the
invasion of a
Nigerian-led
West
African force that reinstated the rule of President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
In March 1997, Sankoh fled to Nigeria, where he
was put under house arrest, and then imprisoned. From this time until Sankoh's
release in 1999,
Sam
Bockarie performed the task of director of military operations of the RUF.
In 1999, an
intervention by America, the United Kingdom, and other countries as well as the
UN resulted in the signing of the
Lomé Peace Accord on
7 July
1999. Sankoh was
allowed to return under the conditions of the agreement. However fighting again
broke out, and the
United Nations sent peacekeeping troops in hopes of integrating the RUF into
a new national army. This intervention failed as well, and by 2000 they held 500
UN peacekeepers hostage until their release was negotiated by Taylor. The
British and
Guineans finally sent in a small professional force in
2001. The RUF was
routed and the revolution ended. Sankoh was captured by a mob and handed to the
British where he was indicted for multiple war crimes by a
UN-backed
court.
In 1991,
Foday Sankoh
began a revolutionary campaign in
Sierra Leone
near the Liberian border as the leader of the
Revolutionary United Front
(RUF). Among that initial group of about 100 revolutionaries were Sierra
Leonean dissidents, mercenaries from
Burkina
Faso, and fighters loyal to Taylor. The relationship between Sankoh and
Taylor had begun in the 1980s when both men were in Libya with the purpose of
learning from and gaining the support of
Muammar Qaddafi. These men were joined in their opposition of what they saw
to be pro-western regimes. Once the
Sierra Leone Civil War began, Sankoh
relied heavily on ties with both Qaddafi and Taylor, with whom he traded
diamonds
for guns
[1].
When in 1992,
Sam
Bockarie rose to the position of Battle Group Commander in the RUF, Taylor
reached out to the young man, whom he may have met during Bockarie's youth.
Taylor advised Bockarie off and on for the next five years, and when Sankoh went
into exile in Nigeria in March of 1997, Bockarie took the position of leader of
the RUF. Taylor's support of Bockarie, both in the form of arms and advice,
allowed the RUF to march on
Freetown,
and eventually forced President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to negotiate. The
Lomé Peace Accord was signed in July of 1999, although violence continued
until 2001. On 7
March 2003, the
Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) indicted Taylor, charging him with
crimes against humanity, an indictment which still stands. In 2003, Liberian
forces under the orders of Taylor killed Bockarie in a shootout. Some have
claimed that Taylor ordered Bockarie killed in order to prevent Bockarie from
testifying against him at the SCSL
[2].
Between 1970 and 1992, more than 39,000
Jews left South Africa,
during this same period approximately 10,000 Israelis moved into the country
Stats on sierra leon
Map of Sierra Leone
Republic of Sierra Leone
President: Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (1998)
Current government officials
Land area: 27,653 sq mi (71,621 sq km); total area: 27,699 sq mi (71,740 sq km)
Population (2006 est.): 6,005,250 (growth
rate: 2.3%); birth rate: 45.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 160.4/1000; life
expectancy: 40.2; density per sq mi: 217
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Freetown, 1,051,000
 |
Monetary unit: Leone
Languages: English (official), Mende (southern vernacular), Temne (northern
vernacular), Krio (lingua franca)
Ethnicity/race: 20 native African tribes 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other
30%); Creole (Krio) 10%; refugees from Liberia's recent civil war, small
numbers of Europeans, Lebanese, Pakistanis, and Indians
|
Religions: Islam 60%, indigenous 30%, Christian 10%
Literacy rate: 31% (1995 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $5.022 billion;
per capita $900. Real growth
rate: 5.5%. Inflation: 1% (2002 est.). Unemployment: n.a. Arable land: 8%.
Agriculture: rice, coffee, cocoa, palm kernels, palm oil, peanuts; poultry,
cattle, sheep, pigs; fish. Labor force: 1.369 million (1981 est.). Industries:
diamond mining; small-scale
manufacturing (beverages, textiles, cigarettes, footwear); petroleum refining,
small commercial ship repair. Natural resources:
diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron
ore, gold, chromite.
Exports: $185 million f.o.b. (2004 est.): diamonds, rutile, cocoa,
coffee, fish. Imports: $531 million f.o.b. (2004 est.): foodstuffs, machinery
and equipment, fuels and lubricants, chemicals. Major trading partners: Belgium,
Germany, U.S., UK, Côte d'Ivoire, China, Netherlands, South Africa, France
(2004).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 25,000 (2001); mobile cellular:
30,000 (2001). Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 9, shortwave 1 (1999). Radios:
1.12 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 2 (1999). Televisions:
53,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1 (2000). Internet users:
20,000 (2001).
Transportation: Railways: total: 84 km used on a limited basis because the mine
at Marampa is closed (2001). Highways: total: 11,330 km; paved: 895 km; unpaved:
10,435 km (1999). Waterways: 800 km; 600 km navigable year round. Ports and
harbors: Bonthe, Freetown, Pepel. Airports: 10 (2002).
International disputes: large UN peacekeeping presence ended civil war but rebel
gang fighting, ethnic rivalries, illegal diamond trading, corruption, and
refugees spill over into neighboring states beset with their own civil disorder,
refugees, and violence.
Sierra Leone, on the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa, is half the size of
Illinois. Guinea, in the north and east, and Liberia, in the south, are its
neighbors. Mangrove swamps lie along the coast, with wooded hills and a plateau
in the interior. The eastern region is mountainous.
Government
Constitutional democracy.
History
The Bulom people were thought to have been the earliest inhabitants of Sierra
Leone, followed by the Mende and Temne peoples in the 15th century and
thereafter the Fulani. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the
land and gave Sierra Leone its name, which means “lion mountains.”
Freetown, on the coast, was ceded to
English settlers in 1787 as a home for blacks discharged from the British
armed forces and also for runaway slaves who had found asylum in London. In 1808
the coastal area became a British colony, and in 1896 a British protectorate was
proclaimed over the hinterland.
Sierra Leone became an independent
nation on April 27, 1961. A military coup overthrew the civilian
government in 1967, which was in turn replaced by civilian rule a year later.
The country declared itself a republic on April 19, 1971.
A coup attempt early in 1971 led to then prime minister Siaka Stevens calling in
troops from neighboring Guinea's army, which remained for two years. Stevens
turned the government into a one-party state under the aegis of the All People's
Congress Party in April 1978. In 1992 rebel soldiers overthrew Stevens's
successor, Joseph Momoh, calling for a return to a multiparty system. In 1996,
another military coup ousted the country's military leader and president.
Nevertheless, a multiparty presidential election proceeded in 1996, and People's
Party candidate Ahmad Tejan Kabbah won with 59.4% of the vote, becoming Sierra
Leone's first democratically elected president.
But a violent military coup ousted President Kabbah's civilian government in May
1997. The leader of the coup, Lieut.
Col. Johnny Paul Koroma,
assumed the title Head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). Koroma
began a reign of terror, destroying the economy and murdering enemies. The
Commonwealth of Nations demanded the reinstatement of Kabbah, and ECOMOG, the
Nigerian-led peacekeeping force, intervened. On March 10, 1998, after ten months
in exile, Kabbah resumed his rule over Sierra Leone. The ousted junta and other
rebel forces continued to wage attacks, many of which included the torture,
rape, and brutal maimings of thousands of civilians, including countless
children; amputation by machete was the horrific signature of the rebels. In
addition to political power, the rebels, who were supported by Liberia's
president Charles Taylor, sought control of Sierra Leone's rich diamond fields.
In Jan. 1999, rebels and Liberian mercenaries stormed the capital, demanding the
release of the imprisoned Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader, Foday Sankoh.
ECOMOG regained control of Freetown, but President Kabbah later released Sankoh
so he could participate in peace negotiations. Pressured by Nigeria and the
U.S., among other countries, Kabbah agreed to an untenable power-sharing
agreement in July 1999, which made
Sankoh
vice president of the country—and in charge of the diamond mines. The
accord dissolved in May 2000 after the RUF abducted about 500 UN peacekeepers
and attacked Freetown. Sankoh was captured and died in government custody in
2003, while awaiting trial for war crimes.
The conflict was officially declared over in Jan. 2002. An estimated
50,000 people were killed in the
decade-long civil war. The UN installed its largest peacekeeping force in
the country (17,000 troops). President Kabbah was reelected with 70% of the vote
in May 2002. In 2004, the disarmament of 70,000 soldiers was completed, and a
UN-sponsored war crimes tribunal opened. For the past several years, the UN has
listed Sierra Leone as the world's “least livable” country, based on its poverty
and the poor quality of life endured by its citizens.
In 2006, Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, was brought to Sierra
Leone and then transferred to The Hague, where he will be tried at a UN criminal
court for crimes against humanity. He is accused of abetting the violent rebel
group in Sierra Leone's civil war that was responsible for atrocities which
included hacking off the limbs of civilians, sexual slavery, conscripting child
soldiers, and even cannibalism.
Partnership Africa Canada, January 2000
Partnership Africa Canada, 323 Chapel Street, 3rd Floor, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N
7Z2, Canada.
Tel: (613) 2376768. Fax: (613)2376530. E-mail:
pac@web.net
Introduction
All about diamonds
This study is about how diamonds -
small pieces of carbon with no great intrinsic value - have been the cause of
widespread death, destruction and misery for almost a decade in the small West
African country of Sierra Leone. ...
In the 1960s and 1970s, a weak post-independence democracy was subverted by
despotism and state-sponsored corruption. Economic decline and military rule
followed. The rebellion that began in 1991 was characterized by banditry and
horrific brutality, wreaked primarily on civilians. Between 1991 and
1999, the war claimed over 75,000 lives, caused half a million Sierra Leoneans
to become refugees, and displaced half of the country's 4.5 million people. ...
The point of the war may not actually have been to win it, but to engage in
profitable crime under the cover of warfare. ... Over the years, the informal
diamond mining sector, long dominated by what might be called "disorganized
crime", became increasingly influenced by organized crime and by the
transcontinental smuggling not just of diamonds, but of guns and drugs, and by
vast sums of money in search of a laundry. Violence became central to the
advancement of those with vested interests. ...
The Diamond Industry and De Beers
... Until the 1980s, De Beers was
directly involved in Sierra Leone, had concessions to mine diamonds offshore,
and maintained an office in Freetown. Since then, however, the
relationship has been indirect. De Beers maintains a diamond trading company in
Liberia and a buying office in Conakry, Guinea. Both countries produce very few
diamonds themselves, and Liberia is widely understood to be a "transit" country
for smuggled diamonds. ... Through its companies and buying offices in West
Africa, however, and in its attempts to mop up supplies everywhere in the world,
it is virtually inconceivable that the company is not - in one way or another -
purchasing diamonds that have been smuggled out of Sierra Leone.
Belgium and the Diamond High Council
Antwerp is the world centre for rough
diamonds. ... The formal trading of diamonds in Belgium is structured
around the Hoge Raad voor Diamant (HRD) - the Diamond High Council ...
officially acknowledged as the voice of the entire Belgian diamond industry. ...
A factor which eases large-scale diamond smuggling and inhibits the tracking
of diamond movements is the manner in which the HRD documents diamond purchases.
The HRD records the origin of a diamond as the country from which the diamond
was last exported. Therefore diamonds produced in Sierra Leone, say, may be
officially imported and registered as originating in Liberia, Guinea, Israel or
the UK ...
The Sierra Leone Diamonds
The first Sierra Leonean diamond was found in 1930,
and significant
production commenced in 1935. Sierra Leonean production is characterized by a
high proportion of top-quality gem diamonds. ...
Siaka Stevens became Prime Minister seven years after independence in 1968. A
populist, he quickly turned diamonds and the presence of SLST into a political
issue, tacitly encouraging illicit mining, and becoming involved himself in
criminal or near-criminal activities. In 1971, Stevens created the National
Diamond Mining Company (NDMC) which effectively nationalized SLST. All important
decisions were now made by the prime minister and his right hand man, a Lebanese
businessman named Jamil Mohammed. From a high of over two million carats in
1970, legitimate diamond exports dropped to 595,000 carats in 1980 and then to
only 48,000 in 1988. ...
From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, aspects of Lebanon's civil war were
played out in miniature in Sierra Leone. Various Lebanese militia sought
financial assistance from their compatriots in Sierra Leone, and the country's
diamonds became an important informal tax base for one faction or the other. ...
Following a failed (and probably phoney) 1987 coup attempt in Sierra Leone,
Jamil went into exile, opening the way for a number of Israeli "investors" with
close connections to Russian and American crime families, and with ties to the
Antwerp diamond trade.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel war began in 1991 and soon after,
Momoh was replaced by a military government - the National Provisional Ruling
Council (NPRC). Despite the change in government, however, RUF attacks
continued. From the outset of the war, Liberia acted as banker, trainer and
mentor to the RUF ...
By the end of the 1990s, Liberia had become a major centre for massive
diamond-related criminal activity ... In return for weapons, it provided the
RUF
with an outlet for diamonds, and has done the same for other diamond producing
countries, fueling war and providing a safe haven for organized crime of all
sorts.
The "Juniors" and Private Security Firms
President Momoh's search for new investors in the early 1990s was carried
forward by the NPRC military government. With De Beers out of the picture, and
with the disappointing and short-lived Israeli experience behind it, the
government now began to receive overtures from small mining firms, known in the
business as "juniors". Three of these juniors became heavily involved in Sierra
Leone during the 1990s ... All three companies [Rex Diamond,
AmCan Minerals, and
DiamondWorks] trade on Canadian stock exchanges, no doubt because of Canada's
reputation as a source of easy venture capital for small mining and exploration
companies. ...
The juniors arrived in Sierra Leone after the formal instruments of the state
- notably law, order, probity and justice - had all but disappeared. ...
Lawlessness, however, was not new. The government of Sierra Leone had - from the
1950s - given up pretending that it could police the diamond areas. From the
days of the SLST Diamond Protection Force, it had encouraged and even required
foreign investors to make their own security arrangements. ...
There is a distinction to be made, however, between the need to hire a
private security firm in order to police a mining operation, and the provision
of troops and weapons in support of a faction in a civil war. Some would argue
that regardless of Executive Outcome's own purpose, its involvement in Sierra
Leone was in a good cause. EO successfully protected a democratically elected
government against a brutal and illegitimate rebel force. And EO was certainly
cheered in the streets of Freetown for its efforts. Some would also argue that
the provision of weapons to the democratically elected government of Tejan
Kabbah - a UN arms embargo notwithstanding - made sense and was in support of a
good cause.
The problem is not the individual episodes, but the bigger picture which they
help to form - of a world in which beleaguered and legitimate governments find
little formal international protection against internal predators, and are
forced into Faustian bargains in order to survive. ...
RECOMMENDATIONS
... taken together, the recommendations have major policy implications not
only for governments and international organizations, but for civil society
organizations in Sierra Leone and abroad, for private sector firms and for
individual consumers. In addition to national and international dimensions,
there are important regional dimensions to the diamond trade and the conflict in
Sierra Leone. ...
The general thrust of the recommendations aims at improved human and economic
security, a sustainable peace, and at changing the economics of the diamond
trade. If smuggling can be made more difficult, and if legal mining, investing
and trading can be made more attractive, the potential for change can be turned
into reality.
1 Framework for the Recommendations
1.1 A Permanent Independent International Diamond Standards Commission should
be created under United Nations auspices in order to establish and monitor codes
of conduct on governmental and corporate responsibility in the global diamond
industry. ...
1.2 In addition to the diamond-specific recommendations in this report, the
development of sustainable peace in Sierra Leone will require major investment
by the government of Sierra Leone and by donors in long-term basic human
development and the creation of democratic institutions. ...
2 Recommendations for Action in Sierra Leone
2.1 Establishment of the rule of law and human security throughout the
country is of primary and urgent importance for a return to peace, and for
appropriate exploitation of the country's mineral resources. In the short- and
medium-term, donor agencies, friendly governments, the UN Peacekeeping Force and
ECOMOG must facilitate the disarmament and demobilization of extra-governmental
forces. Force must be used in a timely fashion to halt a resurgence of conflict.
2.2 Special long-term UN security forces must be deployed in all major
diamond areas.
2.3 Attention should also be given by the UN Peacekeeping force to blocking
or destabilizing major smuggling routes from Sierra Leone into neighbouring
countries.
2.4 Donors should actively support current British government efforts to
rebuild Sierra Leone's army and police force. ...
2.5 The Government of Sierra Leone must ensure full transparency, high
standards and rigorous probity in the implementation of its diamond purchasing,
valuation and oversight activities. Corruption and conflicts of interest must be
dealt with quickly and decisively. There is an important role to be played in
this effort by Sierra Leonean civil society. ...
2.6 Systems must be developed in Sierra Leone for the payment of fair prices
to legitimate small miners. ...
2.7 Effective and honest monitoring and inspection systems must be
established throughout the mining and trading system. External assistance should
be sought in developing these. ,,,
2.8 In creating incentives for foreign investment in larger-scale mining
operations, the Government of Sierra Leone should raise its standards for
investors, insisting on a minimum per annum exploration budget and/or minimum
levels of market capitalization and/or assets. ...
2.9 While it is reasonable to expect mining firms to provide security within
their immediate areas of operation, under no circumstances should they be
provided with concessions in return for larger security or military operations,
or in return for the supply of weapons.
3 De Beers
De Beers is part of the problem. In its efforts to control as much of the
international diamond market as possible, it is no doubt purchasing diamonds
from a wide variety of dubious sources, either wittingly or unwittingly. The
breadth of its control, however, is also its major strength, and is part of the
solution to the problem. If De Beers were to take a greater interest in
countries like Sierra Leone, and if it were to stop purchasing large amounts of
diamonds from countries with a negligible production base, much could be done to
end the current high levels of theft and smuggling.
3.1 As a matter or urgency, more rigorous oversight on the issue of origin
must be instituted by the CSO.
3.2 Strong efforts should be made by the Government of Sierra Leone,
international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and
concerned governments, to persuade De Beers to return to Sierra Leone. At a
minimum, De Beers should be persuaded to open a purchasing office in Freetown
and should be given every incentive to do so.
3.3 Strong efforts should be made by the same international community to
persuade De Beers to halt the purchase of all diamonds originating in Liberia
and Ivory Coast until clear international guidelines have been developed for
proving that any diamonds sold in these countries are genuinely of local origin.
...
4 Belgium
The structure of the Belgian diamond industry ... looks irresponsible,
secretive and seriously under-regulated. It has a demonstrated attraction for
new forms of organized crime, and is complicit in fueling African wars. ...
4.1 The Government of Belgium must take full and direct responsibility for
oversight of the Belgian diamond industry. This includes taking direct
responsibility for customs, valuation and statistical procedures.
4.2 The conflict of interest posed by the government's current
customs-related arrangements with the HRD should be terminated.
4.3 A high-level commission of enquiry should be instituted into the Belgian
diamond industry as a whole, with particular reference to its lack of
transparency and questionable paper work, and its possible infiltration by
organized criminal elements. ...
4.4 The HRD and/or the Government of Belgium should immediately prohibit the
processing of all diamonds that are said to be of Liberian and Ivory Coast
origin.
4.5 As a matter or urgency, more rigorous oversight on the issue of origin
must be instituted by the HRD and the Government of Belgium.
4.6 The Government of Belgium and the HRD should, as a matter of urgency,
investigate the diamond "fingerprinting" technology being developed by the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police. ...
5 Liberia and Ivory Coast
5.1 The United Nations Security Council should place a full embargo on the
purchase of any diamonds originating in, or said to originate in Liberia until a
full and objective international review can be carried out of the country's
legitimate resource base, and until exports fall into line with that resource
base.
5.2 The United Nations Security Council should place a full embargo on the
purchase of any diamonds said to originate in Ivory Coast until a full review
can be carried out of the country's legitimate resource base, and until exports
fall into line with that resource base. Consideration should be given to
imposing the same restrictions on Guinean diamonds.
6 Canada
As "home" to a high proportion of the world's junior mining companies, Canada
has a particular responsibility to ensure good corporate citizenship abroad. ...
6.1 All Canadian securities commissions should initiate discussion among
their members about issues relating to corporate conduct in war zones ...
6.2 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police should be encouraged and supported in
its development of diamond "fingerprinting". Efforts should be made to develop
systems for adopting the technology as a matter of course in diamond producing
countries and in major trading centres around the world, including the CSO and
Antwerp.
7 A Consumer Campaign
Like diamonds, the Atlantic slave trade essentially served non-African
markets. And like the diamond trade, the impact of slavery was devastating for
many West African countries: it spawned predatory bandit groups acting like the
RUF,
UNITA and the
NPFL, and mercenary regimes based entirely on violence and
slave raiding. ... The abolition of the slave trade was significantly influenced
by a consumer campaign in Britain, aimed at the products of slave
labour -
mainly sugar from the Caribbean. The political and commercial damage to the
slave trade of such campaigns was as much responsible for abolition as the
humanitarian imperative.
... Diamonds have, in fact, been a curse, not a blessing. This does not have
to be the case, but concerted action on all the recommendations above will be
necessary just to start making a difference. The recommendations will not be
easy to implement, nor will they be cost-free. The easiest thing for the major
actors - De Beers, the HRD, the Governments of Belgium and Sierra Leone, the UN
Security Council - will be to do as little as possible.
One way of drawing greater attention to the urgency of the matter and of
gaining broader support for change, would be a consumer campaign. ...
An effective consumer campaign could [also] inflict damage on an industry
which is important to developing economies and to poor people working in the
diamond industries of other countries such as Namibia, South Africa, India and
Botswana. Those considering the possibility of initiating or joining a campaign,
therefore, would have to consider how many lives in countries like Sierra Leone,
Angola and the Congo these jobs are worth. ...
Nelson Mandela has said the same thing: "We would be concerned that an
international campaign... does not damage this vital industry. Rather than
boycotts being instituted, it is preferable that through our own initiatives the
industry takes a progressive stance on human rights issues."
The word "boycott" does not appear in this report. Certainly a boycott could
damage the industry. But the idea of a campaign is different: it is about
transparency, change and urgency. Where people's lives are concerned - as they
are in Sierra Leone - time is of the essence. In the absence of clear and
meaningful movement within the industry and among other international actors,
the point of a campaign would be to help the industry "take responsibility for
its actions" - not damaging it, but improving it.
Further Information
This report is available at www.web.net/pac,
in both English and French, or in printed form from PAC. Further information on
diamonds and the conflict in Sierra Leone can be found in the full 90-page
report (English only) which is available from Partnership Africa Canada at a
price of Can $25.00 or US$20.00, including postage and handling. ... A daily
source of reliable information on Sierra Leone can be found on the Sierra Leone
Web: http://www.Sierra-Leone.org
The Africa Policy E-Journal is a free information service provided by Africa
Action, including both original commentary and reposted documents. Africa Action
provides this information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
international policies toward Africa that advance economic, political and social
justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
by Paul Westman
Lev Leviev,
 |
There are so many “little-known” wealthy, powerful Jews in the world that
it is impossible to keep track of them all. A cover story in the September
15, 2003 issue of Forbes alerts us to the existence of yet another:
47-year-old Lev Leviev, an Israeli
diamond tycoon and crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(pictured: Leviev and Sharon)
A sanitized thumbnail biography of the man can be viewed at the Federation
of Jewish Communities of Russia website:
http://www.fjc.ru/leviev.htm The brief summary clarifies chronology
and attaches proper names to important entities. “Mr. Leviev serves as the
President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC), the
central organization that represents the fifteen organized Jewish
communities of the fifteen independent republics that once made up the
Soviet Union. These organizations encompass more than 300 Jewish
communities, all of whom are helped by the FJC. Under the leadership of
Mr. Leviev, the FJC is the premier organization in the Former Soviet Union
for the restoration of Jewish life, culture and Jewish education.”
|
Reportedly worth $2 billion, he
is the sole owner of the Israeli diamond business Lev Leviev Group (his brother
Moshe oversees the company’s operations), as well as “a gold mine in Kazakhstan,
pieces of two diamond mines in Angola and mining licenses in the Urals and
Namibia [formerly South West Africa].” He “is the world's largest cutter and
polisher of the precious gems and a primary source of rough stones to other
cutters, polishers and jewelry makers around the globe.”
Leviev also owns the controlling stake
in Yehud, Israel-based conglomerate Africa Israel Investments, which owns
“commercial real estate in Prague and London; Gottex, a swimwear company; 1,700
Fina gas stations in the Southwest U.S.; 173 7-Elevens in New Mexico and Texas;
a 33% stake in Cross Israel Highway, that nation's first toll road; and an 85%
share of Vash Telecanal, Israel's Russian-language TV channel.”
“With partners, he's financing $1 billion in real estate development in Russia
over the next four years, including three office buildings in central Moscow,
and expects to put up a similar amount for office and residential complexes in
New York City, Dallas and San Antonio.”
Talk about global reach.
Much of the tycoon’s wealth “comes from exploiting political connections.” His
businesses “lack transparency.” “Even if his hands are clean, Leviev has dealt
with people whose mitts are dirty. His ubiquitous brigade of burly armed guards
isn't just for show.”
A Lubavitcher who lives in Bnei Brak, the largest Orthodox Israeli city outside
Jerusalem, Leviev grew up in Tashkent, the capital of Soviet Uzbekistan.
Communism, it seems, did not crimp the Levievs’ style. Although millions of
Russians and other Slavs were murdered, enslaved, impoverished and compelled to
abandon Christianity under Communism, the Levievs were “committed to the
Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and all the males, Leviev included, learned to
perform ritual circumcisions in secret. Leviev's father Avner was a successful
textile merchant and a collector of rare Persian carpets. After seven years of
waiting, the family emigrated to Israel in 1971, having converted their wealth
into $1 million in rough diamonds, which they smuggled out of the country.”
As always, laws and rules do not apply to Jews, and even totalitarian
secret police and executioners know enough to grin and look the other way when
Jews engage in their winsome tricks. State brutality and repression, as in the
West today, are reserved for Gentiles only.
The budding billionaire opened a diamond
cutting factory in Israel in 1977, introduced technological innovations,
survived a recession and, by 1985, ran twelve small cutting factories. “In 1987
[the South African-based Jewish diamond monopoly] De Beers invited Leviev to
become a sightholder, a plum position granted to fewer than 150 people.
By then he was one of Israel's largest
manufacturers of polished stones.”
Here the story becomes murky. As Russia,
Angola, and South West Africa strove to reduce the power of De Beers over the
value of their rough diamond supplies, the Jew Leviev was the man they turned to
for assistance.
In 1989, Russia’s state-run diamond mining and selling group set up its own
cutting factories in a joint venture with Leviev called Ruis —- “the first time
any rough diamonds were finished in the country of their origin.” (“For decades
De Beers has been channeling all rough diamonds through its Diamond Trading Co.
in London before reselling them to sightholders at a markup.”) “Today, Leviev
owns 100% of Ruis, which cuts $140 million worth of diamonds a year, and
polishing operations, including one in Perm, Russia, another in Armenia.” The
clever Jew, we are told, had “horned in on the business by cultivating a cozy
relationship with Valery Rudakov,” a friend of former dictator Mikhail
Gorbachev.
Russia in the early 1990s also possessed
a hoard of rough diamonds that it had been accumulating since 1955. The
stockpile, worth as much as $12 billion, “contained some of the most precious
stones in the world, 100 carats and larger,” of “incredible quality.” As
part of the rape of Russia during Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, this mind-boggling
stash was secretly liquidated, with much of the resulting cash funneled in
hidden payments to the new rulers of Russia. Although he denies a role, “It is
widely believed that Leviev became a primary means of liquidating the
stockpile.” “If he was the conduit for many transactions, Leviev would have
raked it in.”
“Whatever he was up to during the Yeltsin years, he kept a low profile. Leviev
avoided being identified with the ‘Family,’ a group of newly hatched tycoons who
tried to convert their economic influence into political power. A smart move,
because when Putin became president, he marginalized some Family members, like
Boris Berezovsky. Leviev had kept close ties with Putin, brokering meetings for
the first time between the new Russian president and prominent Israeli
politicos.”
In other words, Leviev leveraged his economic power, rooted in ruling class
cronyism and political connections instead of in industry and achievement, into
even greater political influence. Today he functions as a go-between between
Ariel Sharon and the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, “enlisting the
secular regimes in those mainly Islamic states in the fight against
fundamentalist terror groups.”
Vladimir Putin became a man to watch in 1992 when, as a deputy mayor of St.
Petersburg, he “authorized the opening of the first new Jewish school in the
city in half a century (financed by Leviev) after the mayor hesitated to do it.”
Leviev even saw to it “that a Lubavitch rabbi, born in Italy and educated in
America, was granted citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin days before
Leviev installed him as the country's chief rabbi, though the nation already had
one.” In June 2003 Leviev “brokered a meeting in Moscow between Putin and
American Jewish leaders, including James Tisch, chief executive of Loews Corp.,
to discuss U.S.-Russian relations.”
Today Leviev spends $30 million a year establishing schools and other Jewish
communal institutions, both in the former Soviet Union and in the West, to
“return lost Jews to the flock.” “This year he is setting up a school in Dresden
['German—Russian' Jews are flooding into Germany, where the pickings are
currently better than in Russia] to teach nonreligious Jewish émigrés about the
faith. Last year he opened a new school in Queens, N.Y. that caters to 350
Jewish students whose families formerly lived in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
‘It's about staying true to the legacy of my father,’ he says. ‘All I want is
for people in these places to know they are Jewish.’”
Report Says Africans Harbored Al Qaeda
Terror Assets Hidden In Gem-Buying Spree
By Douglas Farah
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 29, 2002; Page A01
ANTWERP, Belgium -- An aggressive year-long European investigation into al Qaeda
financing has found evidence that two West African governments hosted the senior
terrorist operatives who oversaw a $20 million diamond-buying spree that
effectively cornered the market on the region's precious stones.
Investigators from several countries concluded that President Charles Taylor of
Liberia received a $1 million payment for arranging to harbor the operatives,
who were in the region for at least two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
on New York and the Pentagon. The terrorists moved between a protected area in
Liberia and the presidential compound in neighboring Burkina Faso, investigators
say.
Long accused of sanctioning illicit diamond and weapons trading, Taylor and
President Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso deny the charge, which is included in
a summary of the joint intelligence findings.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of the military intelligence summary, which
offers the clearest picture yet of al Qaeda's secretive business operations in
West Africa and an elaborate plot that began in 1998 to hide substantial
terrorist assets in diamonds. This account draws on interviews with senior
investigators, the intelligence report and documents obtained independently that
verify its findings. The Post also interviewed two sources with direct knowledge
of certain events, who asked that their names not be used for fear of
retribution.
European and Latin American investigations also found evidence that a group of
people buying diamonds on behalf of the terrorists were simultaneously
attempting to procure sophisticated weapons, such as missiles that could shoot
down aircraft, The Post has learned. Investigators have been unable to trace the
diamonds since they left Liberia and Burkina Faso.
The diamond-buying operation appears to have been hatched in response to a move
by the United States in 1998 to freeze al Qaeda assets after attacks on two U.S.
embassies in Africa that were blamed on the organization. Senior European
intelligence sources said they have been baffled by the lack of U.S. interest,
particularly by the CIA, in their recent findings. The CIA, which in the past
has downplayed reports of al Qaeda's diamond connections, declined to comment.
In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
did try to monitor the two senior al Qaeda operatives supervising the diamond
trading, who were known to be hiding in an elite military camp in Liberia. Both
men were on the FBI's Most Wanted list of terrorists. The Pentagon prepared a
small Special Forces team in neighboring Guinea to snatch the two, but the
mission was not carried out because the team could not confirm the targets'
identities, according to sources.
Aziz Nassour
The European law enforcement investigations, launched soon after Sept. 11, have
focused on three people who allegedly served as conduits to the al Qaeda
operatives:
Aziz
Nassour,
a Lebanese diamond merchant; his cousin Samih Osailly; and Ibrahim Bah, a
Senegalese soldier of fortune who has trafficked for years in diamonds and guns
across Africa. All three deny involvement with al Qaeda or in illegal
activities.
Al Qaeda's diamond purchases were first reported in The Washington Post 13
months ago. Subsequent investigations by Belgian police and other European
intelligence agencies have shed new light on the operation's scope, its
financing and al Qaeda's extensive ties in West Africa.
Several other efforts have been underway to unravel illicit diamond trade
through Liberia and its links to weapons smuggling and terrorism. A specially
appointed U.N. panel of experts has studied the issue, and the Security Council
in 2001 accepted the panel's recommendation to ban international travel by
Taylor, his family and senior government officials.
Much of the new evidence of al Qaeda's diamond plot flows from the April 12
arrest here of Osailly, who is in prison awaiting trial on charges of diamond
smuggling and illegal weapons sales. Osailly is involved with a small diamond
importing company believed to have been used by the al Qaeda operatives. He has
pleaded not guilty.
In Osailly's case, Belgian investigators say they uncovered bank records showing
that the diamond company enjoyed a sudden surge in business and turned over
almost $1 billion in the year before Sept. 11. Investigators also have found
telephone records of calls to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran.
Investing in Gems
Preparations for al Qaeda's diamond operation began in September 1998, six weeks
after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The United States
had moved to freeze $240 million in Taliban and al Qaeda assets.
"It was at that point that al Qaeda realized where it was vulnerable in its
financial structure and began to systematically move its assets to commodities,"
said one intelligence analyst who specialized in al Qaeda's finances. "You see a
move into diamonds, tanzanite and other commodities along with a new emphasis on
creating charities to handle the finances."
On Sept. 22, a senior al Qaeda financial officer named Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah,
who is listed on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists, arrived in Monrovia,
Liberia. Ibrahim Bah arranged for Abdullah to meet with senior Liberian
officials and their allies in the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in
neighboring Sierra Leone.
Bah is a Senegalese who had trained in Libya, fought in the early 1980s with
Islamic guerrillas in Afghanistan and then with Hezbollah in Lebanon. By 1998,
he was the main weapons buyer and diamond dealer for Taylor in Liberia and the
RUF, according to U.N. and European investigators. Bah has the rank of general
in the RUF, which won international notoriety for its brutality in the civil war
that raged in Sierra Leone from 1989 until this year.
Bah declined numerous interview requests but has issued written statements
denying that he has ties to al Qaeda or has dealt in diamonds or weapons. In a
statement he described himself as a used car salesman. The United Nations has
banned him from international travel because of his alleged smuggling
activities.
Miners sift through mud and gravel to find diamonds in Koidu, Sierra Leone. As
civil war wound down in the summer of 2001, thousands of demobilized fighters
went into mining. Most of the gems appear to have been sold to al Qaeda.
Photo Credit: Douglas Farah -- The Washington Post
In March 1999, two other al Qaeda operatives, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Fazul
Abdullah Mohammed, came to Liberia for a follow-up visit and spent a few days
touring the Sierra Leone diamond fields controlled by the RUF.
The next year, in July 2000, investigators believe that Bah approached ASA Diam,
the company associated with Osailly and Nassour, about handling the al Qaeda
gems. The company, which had been largely inactive for about two years, suddenly
began handling large volumes of money, recording $14 million worth of diamond
sales in 2000.
Bah, Nassour and Osailly have denied having the discussion about al Qaeda
diamonds. Nassour, who now lives in Beirut and is barred by the United Nations
from international travel, said in an interview that he has met Bah only once,
on other business.
On Dec. 26, 2000, according to sources, Osailly and Allie Darwish, another
Lebanese diamond dealer, met with the two al Qaeda operatives. Joined by several
senior RUF commanders, they drove by caravan from Monrovia to Sierra Leone.
Osailly collected several large packets of diamonds and returned to Monrovia
just after New Year's Day 2001. A courier sent by Nassour delivered $300,000 to
pay Bah and the RUF for the diamonds.
Investigators said they have found calls from Nassour's ASA Diam company
telephone, as well as a satellite telephone, made over the next several weeks to
places that raise alarms: several calls to Afghanistan; a fax to Lahore,
Pakistan; two calls to Iraq and four calls to Iran.
Nassour, in a telephone interview, said he did not recall personally calling
Afghanistan or Pakistan, although he said he had called Iran on personal
business.
Cornering the Market
Once the two al Qaeda operatives were established in Liberia, Bah and others
rented a large house in a part of Monrovia occupied by Libyan security forces.
Darwish, Osailly's business associate, leased the property for three years on
Jan. 22, 2001, documents show. Investigators say Ghailani and Mohammed
frequently traveled in and out of Liberia and used this rental house as a
command center for the diamond-buying operation.
Investigators believe Nassour arrived in Monrovia on Feb. 15, 2001, to talk with
Bah about increasing al Qaeda's diamond purchases. Nassour denies making the
trip, although a hotel bill in his name reviewed by The Post shows that he
stayed there from Feb. 15 to March 1. Nassour said someone using his name ran up
the bill.
On March 3, 2001, the al Qaeda operatives Ghailani and Mohammed, using Yemeni
passports and listing themselves as Bah's guests, returned to Monrovia from
abroad to supervise the accelerated mining operations. The operatives frequently
visited Bah's rental house, according to two witnesses and intelligence reports.
The operatives were in place during the peak of the diamond mining season,
during the rainy season that lasts from April to August, and appear to have
cornered most of the Sierra Leonean and Liberian diamond markets during that
period. Diamonds from those countries represent less than 2 percent of the $7
billion global diamond market, but the stones are among the world's best.
Diamond merchants in the region said that during that period, they were
perplexed because they could no longer buy stones. New buyers were paying from
15 percent to 30 percent more than the going rate.
"At the prices they were paying, it was clear they were not buying to make a
profit," said one major dealer. "And there were no stones at all to buy. All my
regular suppliers were getting better prices elsewhere. We all knew something
wrong was going on with the market."
Smuggling the Stones
Investigators say something else changed in April 2001.
While money still churned through ASA Diam's bank account, the company stopped
reporting diamond sales in Antwerp. The usual flood of Sierra Leonean diamonds
in Antwerp, where 90 percent of the world's diamonds are cut and polished, never
appeared.
That, investigators say, was the opposite of what should have happened. In the
summer of 2001, as Sierra Leone's civil war wound down because of a
U.N.-brokered peace agreement, thousands of demobilized fighters went into
diamond mining. More mining was underway than there had been for at least five
years.
Meanwhile, the pace of al Qaeda's diamond buying accelerated -- and activity
increased at Bah's Monrovia rental house.
ASA Diam's calls to Afghanistan were logged in May 2001. A few weeks later, on
June 16, a woman using the name Feriel Shahin arrived in Monrovia from Quetta,
Pakistan, as Bah's guest, according to visa records obtained by The Post.
Authorities say they believe she played a role in smuggling stones out of
Liberia. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Traveling with the two al Qaeda operatives, she arrived in Karachi, Pakistan, in
late June, staying several nights in the Shaharah-e-Faisal hotel, according to
Pakistani intelligence sources. From there, the three traveled together to
Quetta, near the Afghan border, and the trail was lost.
European intelligence analysts now believe that some of the correspondence
between al Qaeda leaders discovered by the Wall Street Journal in a computer the
newspaper bought in Afghanistan may have referred to the diamond deals.
According to the Journal, numerous memos cited an unspecified project that would
greatly help the terrorist organization. One memo, apparently written by bin
Laden's senior strategist, Ayman Zawahiri, described how the project's success
"may well be a way out of the bottleneck and transfer our activities to the
stage of multinationals and [bring] joint profit." The memo, the Journal said,
was addressed to Abu Mohammed al-Masri, an alias used by Abdullah.
According to the European intelligence summary, in July 2001 Nassour flew from
Beirut to Dubai and picked up $1 million in cash to be given to Liberian
President Taylor. Investigators say it is not clear who handed Nassour the
money.
He then flew to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. By then, the two al
Qaeda operatives had returned from Pakistan and, according to the report, were
staying in the compound of Burkina Faso President Campaore.
Ghailani and Mohammed, the report says, stayed until the summer of 2001 "in the
presidential complex [in Ouagadougou] in the district of Zone du Bois. The
complex is called Maison des Hotes." The report said the $1 million was to pay
Taylor "to hide the two al Qaeda operatives in Camp Gbatala," a military camp in
Liberia, near Taylor's private farm, that serves as the base of Liberia's elite
Anti-Terrorism Unit and the South African mercenaries who train it.
After Nassour's trip, Ghailani and Mohammed moved back to Liberia.
The government of Burkina Faso has denied sheltering the al Qaeda operatives.
Nassour acknowledged the stop in Burkina Faso en route to Liberia but said he
never carried $1 million.
According to visa files obtained by The Post, Nassour arrived in Monrovia on
July 9, listed as Bah's guest. Sources said he left after a few days because the
RUF commanders he had planned to meet with had not arrived. He went to
Ouagadougou, where he gave a suitcase of cash to a courier to deliver to Taylor.
At a meeting a few days later with the RUF high command and with Taylor's
security chief, Nassour again asked the RUF to step up its mining activities. In
return, he promised premium rates, weapons and medicine, sources said.
Immediately after the meeting, a senior RUF commander faxed Taylor a letter,
obtained by The Post, which said: "Sir, we write to inform you of our present
dealings with Mr. Aziz Nassour, that was introduced to us by Gen. [Ibrahim] Bah,
upon your recommendation. Sir, we have agreed to sell all of our diamonds to Mr.
Aziz Nassour through your offices."
European intelligence sources and some U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
officials believe that Ghailani and Mohammed stayed in the region well after the
Sept. 11 attacks.
In late November, U.S. and European intelligence reported credible sightings of
two unidentified Arabs along with Ghailani and Mohammed inside the Camp Gbatala
complex. While the CIA did not take the reports seriously, the Pentagon alerted
a Special Forces team.
"We had multiple, reliable intelligence reports that those two and two others
were in Gbatala, and we stood a team up for the snatch," said a U.S. official
familiar with the events. "But in the end we couldn't get the 100 percent
identification we needed to pull the trigger and cause a possible international
incident. After about a week, the group stood down."
Ghailani apparently returned to Afghanistan and may have been killed there. His
personal papers were found near Kandahar. Mohammed is presumed to be alive.
Buying Weapons
Shortly after the first published accounts of al Qaeda's diamond ties, Belgian
officials asked banks to scour their records for suspicious transactions.
Artesia Bank, noticing the flow of funds and unusual business fluctuations,
forwarded the name of the ASA Diam account.
Investigators say that at least $20 million was withdrawn from the account,
money they believe was the portion of the company's transactions linked to al
Qaeda's buying activities.
European, U.S. and Central American officials have recently found evidence that
Nassour and Osailly were trying to buy weapons from the Nicaraguan army and a
Bulgarian company. Investigators are trying to unravel whether that deal was
meant to supply al Qaeda with SA-8 surface-to-air missiles and sophisticated
rockets.
Documents obtained by The Post show that
on Jan. 2, 2001, an Israeli arms dealer in Panama named Simon
Yelnik
sent an e-mail to a Russian arms merchant in Guatemala discussing an order that
"our friends in Africa need." Attached was a list of assault rifles, ammunition
and rocket-propelled grenades as well as 20 SA-8 missiles and 200 rockets for
BM-21 multiple rocket launchers.
The weapons provider was to be the Nicaraguan army, the documents show.
A request written in French accompanied the list, asking what the weapons would
cost "with or without an end-user certificate. Destination, Liberia." An
end-user certificate is required for a legal purchase of weapons of war. It
certifies the country buying will not re-sell them to a third party.
Yelnik, who has denied any illegal activity, is now in prison in Panama on
charges related to weapons sales to right-wing paramilitary forces in Colombia.
"The likelihood this type of weapons were going to the RUF rebels in the bush is
very hard to believe," said one intelligence analyst. "It almost certainly had
to be destined for somewhere else."
Nassour acknowledged faxing a weapons list to
Yelnik,
along with an end-user certificate from Ivory Coast. He said he received a price
list back from Yelnik, but the deal was never consummated.
The Ivorian certificate, obtained by The Post, is dated Jan. 8, 2001, and signed
by Defense Minister Moise Lida Kouassi. It is an order to Nataco Holding PLC in
Bulgaria for more than 10 million rounds of ammunition, 10,000 sniper rifles,
night vision equipment and grenade launchers. A copy was found in Osailly's
possession.
Two sources said Bah gave the certificate to an associate to deliver to Nassour
in Belgium. Instead, Bah's associate walked into the U.S. Embassy in Brussels
with a copy of the document and outlined the diamond-for-weapons schemes
underway, although he did not mention any connection to al Qaeda. U.S. officials
acknowledge they did nothing with the information.
"What we know is that al Qaeda was very active in the diamond trade, but we also
know there is a great deal we don't know," said one senior intelligence
official. "What else is there out there we haven't discovered? What are they
still doing that brings them profit? Those are the questions I worry about now."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5267&page=422
idf girls pictures
Currency devaluation
romanov girls raped as they
 |
Yurovsky Reserved The Tsar
And Tsarevich For Himself .
Yurtovsky re-entered the room followed by his
entire Cheka squad, carrying revolvers. Nicholas, tried to protect his
wife and son. Yurtovsky pointed his revolver directly at the Tsar’s head
and fired. Nicholas died instantly. Next, he shot Alexandra as she made
the sign of the cross. Olga, Tatiana, and Marie were hit next.
Demidova, the maid, survived the first
volley, so the Chekas bayoneted her 30 times
|
|
Jewels
hidden in their
corsets
deflected bullets, and
they were still alive. Yurovsky let the guards take 'Liberties' with
the girls.
|
 |
|
| |
|
 |
Jewish Bolshevik Assassins Undressed
The Dying Girls
After
the shooting ended, Yurovsky and two
guards stayed and
undressed
the girls, so as to check for hidden
jewels.
|
| |
|
Ms. Jacqueline Leigh, Principal
American
International School of Freetown
(SIERRA LEONE)
DOS/Management Officer
2160 Freetown Place
|
|
Finances: In the 2006-2007
school year, 91% of the School's operating income derives from tuition
fees. Annual tuition rates are as follows: PS: $2,550;
Kindergarten.: $7,384;
grade 1: $7,748; grade 2-3: $7,800; grade 4-5: $7,904; grade 6-9: $8,216;
and all are payable in two installments. There is an additional annual
project-dedicated capital fund fee of $800 and a one-time development fund
fee of $1,000 (Early Bird Rate: $750.) (All fees are quoted in U.S.
dollars.)
|
2006-2007
The American International School of Freetown (AISF) was
opened in 1986. It is a non-profit, private, coeducational day school, which
offers an educational program from preschool through grade 8 to students of
all nationalities. Instruction is in English. The school year is divided into
2 terms, which in 2006-2007 began September 4 and ends June 15.
Organization: The School is governed by a 6-member Board
of Directors elected to two-year terms by members of the AISF Association. The
Association elects 5 members and the U.S. Ambassador appoints one non-voting
member. Membership in AISF is automatically conferred on the parents or
guardians of children enrolled in the school.
Curriculum: AISF has been accredited by the Commission on
Elementary Schools of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
since 1994. The School’s standards-based American curriculum serves the
special educational needs of a diverse international expatriate student body.
Mastery of basic skills in all subjects, along with individual creativity and
critical thinking, are stressed. Individual needs are taken into account. Some
classes are multi-grade. Texts and teaching materials are regularly updated
and primarily purchased from U.S. publishers. Parents are encouraged to take
an active part in the educational program. Community-wide growth in
multicultural awareness is part of the school experience. The option of a U.S.
accredited 9th grade is available through the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln Independent Study High School.
Faculty: In the 2006-2007 school year there are 8
full-time faculty members and 6 specialist teachers.
Enrollment: At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year,
enrollment was 60, representing 21 nationalities.
Facilities: AISF’s elevated, airy, wooded school site
overlooks Freetown and the Atlantic Ocean. The main school building houses the
expanded kindergarten to grade 8 classrooms, a library center, a computer
laboratory, the music and art rooms, and administrative offices. Preschool is
in a newly expanded two floor, light-filled building. The School is fully
air-conditioned and the grounds contain two playing fields and playground
equipment. Security measures in place include a public address system, a
perimeter wall, a contracted 24-hour international guard service,
shatter-proof film on all exterior windows and connection to the U.S. Embassy
radio network.
|
Finances: In the 2006-2007
school year, 91% of the School's operating income derives from tuition
fees. Annual tuition rates are as follows: PS: $2,550;
Kindergarten.: $7,384;
grade 1: $7,748; grade 2-3: $7,800; grade 4-5: $7,904; grade 6-9: $8,216;
and all are payable in two installments. There is an additional annual
project-dedicated capital fund fee of $800 and a one-time development fund
fee of $1,000 (Early Bird Rate: $750.) (All fees are quoted in U.S.
dollars.)
|
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
