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AL QAEDA: THE DIAMOND CONNECTION

Denials Everywhere

Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network has been using Sierra Leonean diamonds for several years as an investment and as a way of moving money without detection. And one of the RUF’s top advisors, Ibrahim Bah, has had a close and long-time connection with al Qaeda. These revelations were the main findings of a lengthy November 2 article in the Washington Post, which also linked Bah with several individuals on the FBI wanted list, including suspects sought in connection with the bomb attack on the US Embassy in Tanzania.

Ibrahim Bah is well known in Sierra Leone as one of the RUF’s chief operatives. Of Senegalese or Gambian origin, he is said to be a general in the army of Burkina Faso, and also goes by the name Ibrahima Balde. Two UN Security Council Reports name him as an RUF advisor and as one of the key figures in moving Sierra Leonean diamonds out of the region for the RUF. He has also been named as a link to RUF arms imports and UN sanction-busting. The Post article took the story one step further, saying that Bah was working for two terrorist operations, not just one. Bah, reported the Post, was trained in Libya, as were Liberian President Charles Taylor, Burkina Faso President Blaise Campaore, and RUF leader Foday Sankoh. Bah fought against Israeli forces with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and also fought with the Mujahaddin against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as did Osama bin Laden. The Post article ties the movement of RUF diamonds to a conduit through the Liberian capital of Monrovia and to two Lebanese diamond dealers based in Antwerp.

A spokesman for Belgium’s Diamond High Council said they were surprised by the news. ‘This is completely new. We are
very, very surprised,’ said Youri Steverlynck. One who was not very surprised was Harjit Sandhu, an Interpol appointee on the UN Expert Panels dealing with Sierra Leone in 2000 and Liberia in 2001. ‘Wherever diamonds are, be it Angola, be it in Sierra Leone or any place, definitely they will try to use that channel. That is common sense,’ he told reporters.

The Washington Post’s Douglas Farah reported in October
that Ibrahim Bah was a central figure in channeling RUF
diamonds from Sierra Leone to al Qaeda (see story, pg. 1).
On December 3, the New Republic reported that Liberian
officials and Ibrahim Bah intended to harm Farah, and that
Farah had been evacuated from his Abidjan home with his
wife and 2 year-old son. ‘This followed a smear campaign
by a website,’ stated the New Republic, ‘operated by the
Liberian government, that accused Farah of a variety of
crimes against Liberia and posted a photograph of him. So
add threatening an American reporter’s life to a list of
[President Charles] Taylor’s crimes that includes helping
finance Al Qaeda and starting a horrifying civil war in
neighboring Sierra Leone.’

I know that I left some Freeper researchers off in the above addresses. I apologize to all who did such a great job here, ferreting out this stuff who were noy cited by mr.

Due to other schedule commitments, I was off the board for about 7 hours. It is amazing what you good Freepers have dug up during that time period.

The diamond connection to Obl and his al Qaeda murderers has been well established. Now add an incredible distribution center in about every mall in American, you have the greatest money laundering machine in the world operating in the open through America.

Smuggle in diamonds, which is easy, sell them at a discounted price for cash in one your mall stores or kiosks. The money has been laundered. The owners can deliver the money to their terrorist buddies or a pickup person can pickup the money on a regular basis on regular visits. Now there is money to fund terrorism. Terrorist acts and the planning of terrorist acts require a lot of cash. These kiosks/stores would provide a tremendous amount of cash.

The other scary aspect is how interwoven these shops are in our society via the malls. After having a store or kiosk in a mall, in a couple of months, these guys become transparent like the other store owners. They can go anywhere basically in the mall and no one would be aroused. They would just say there goes Joe Camel. He's a nice guy.

The sites to sell diamonds/jewelry on the internet can be a great laundry machine to convert diamonds, gold, silver into cash. Then, as Miss Marple said, the online catalogs could be used for sending coded messages. These online catalogs could be used like a e mail station to receive and send communications.

The kiosks and sites that I would have major safety concerns would be the ones who don't make money and are in large and semi isolated malls dependent on renta cops for security. Due to their transparencies, these guys could have been around power stations, gas pipeline, water systems and air conditioning systems doing what ever they want to do in a free society. Of course now that some have been arrested, this makes even the big money stores/kiosks potential terror centers in a mall re their owners and workers.

Stay safe this weekend and next week!

Where would you get this info sharing if you were not a member of Free Republic? This is why all of us need to be monthly donors, to keep this great tool/invention viable.