Daniel Pearl knew more than he has been given credit for knowing. And if people listened, we may not be where we are today.
Much-smuggled gem aids al-Qaida November 16, 2001
Excerpt:
KENYAN CONNECTION
Magyane, whose government title is regional mine officer, says some of the stones bought by the Muslim militants are smuggled through “rat routes” to the Kenyan city of Mombasa. That city is a stronghold of al-Qaida sympathizers and was a base for the 1998 embassy bombings.
Throughout the embassy-bomber trial this year in New York, several bin Laden associates or former ones, both state witnesses and defendants, referred to dealings in tanzanite in the mid-1990s. Testimony described how the stones moved through Kenya to Hong Kong via one of two al-Qaida companies, Tanzanite King or Black Giant, set up by defendant Wadih el Hage, a gem dealer and former personal secretary to bin Laden. El Hage is serving a life sentence for his role as the bombers’ financial facilitator.
Bin Laden supporters trading tanzanite today face no interference from Tanzanian authorities. “We have no proof they are involved in terrorist activities,” says the mining area’s regional governor, Daniel Ole Njoolay.
Adadi Rajabu, head of Tanzania’s counterterrorism police, adds that “before 1998, we never knew there were people smuggling gemstones on behalf of a terrorist group. But it is not an area we have looked at carefully. Most of our attention since 1998 has been focused on operatives who were likely to be engaged in activities like bombings, not business.”
Next Excerpt:
Al Qaeda operatives settled themselves into several communities along Kenya’s East Coast. In 2004, US Marine Brigadier General Martin Robeson, then commander of the regional US led antiterror task force based in Djibouti warned that hundreds of new Al Qaeda members had been recruited in Kenya, despite stepped up antiterrorism efforts. U.S. intelligence officials mentioned repeatedly, that apprehended suspects included members of Al Qaeda and Al Itihaad al Islamiya, considered the most powerful radical band in the Horn of Africa, which has been funded by Al Qaeda. Counter terrorist intelligence reports have identified the Dabaab refugee camp on the Somalia- Kenya border as a training ground for Islamic extremists, through a Muslim charity, called al Haramain, that sponsored religious schools and social programs
ping
thank you for the ping