Americans Finally Link Liberian president Taylor to Al Qaeda
Leonid Efirmovich Minin, Taylor Partner Busted in Italy
Ibrahim Bah, a former fighter in Afghanistan and southern Lebanon is the principle Muslim diamond dealer in West Africa. Bah met Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a top Bin Ladin advisor,in Liberia in 1998. Most of the stones from this area end up in Belgium.
Israel imports 89% of its diamond rough from Belgium, the UK and Switzerland. The UK imports 41% of its rough from Switzerland. Switzerland has no diamond mines and "officially" imports almost no uncut diamonds.
In May of 2001, President Bush signed an executive order banning the import of rough diamonds from this area.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news
So the question is, why did it take the election of Bush for this EO to be signed? Who was profitting from the trade?
Seems lots of people involved. Some just in the biz as it has worked for decades. Others with grander designs.
Keep up the good work. I'm wondering if that Russian guy really fixed the Olympics, or was just big-mouthing. Anyway, perhaps leverage to spill the beans on other stuff. Fixing the Olympics? Dang good PG-rated drama crime. Should make an interesting movie.