Posted on 08/07/2002 5:12:58 PM PDT by Phil V.
Aug. 7, 2002
Israel has pledged to send a delegation of agricultural and industrial experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assess the war-torn African country's needs and explore how Israel can help it rebuild, Israeli officials said yesterday. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres made the pledge during a meeting in Jerusalem yesterday with Congolese Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu. Peres briefed Okitundu on the nascent Israeli-Palestinian security contacts. He said there is no justification for Palestinian terror and that Israel does not lack a peace plan, but rather a peace partner. Peres also stressed the need to provide a "political horizon" to the Palestinians and to improve the humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Okitundu explained how Rwanda and Congo reached a peace agreement last month aimed at ending a devastating war in which up to two million people have died. Israel's offer came a day after the World Bank approved more than $450 million in aid for Congo. Israel has in the past provided military aid and training to various African forces and commando units, including units of the army of Zaire, as Congo was previously known. |
Why didn't you make the above bold? And what's wrong with wanting to get paid? Do you work for free?
And, yes, getting paid is really keen by me.
No problem. That's what I am here for, to point out facts to you, that you might easily miss.
And, yes, getting paid is really keen by me.
So what made this article of interest?
69. . . a whole 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.
Farai Mutsaka and his editor were arrested after writing the following article for the Zimbabwe Standard:
Deadly Anti-Riot Gear Arrives" . . .equipment has already arrived in Zimbabwe and includes customised anti-riot tankers, gas masks and microscopic 'laser guns', similar to those used by Israeli forces against the Palestinian protesters.
The tankers, called Riot Control Vehicle model RCU 4500 I, were supplied by the Beit Alfa Trailer Company and have been undergoing tests at the Police Support Unit Headquarters in the capital.
When The Standard visited Harare's Support Unit base last week, police officers were being trained in the use of the lethal cannons, under the watchful eye of an Israeli expert.
Commenting on the potentially deadly machines, a police source said: "Ideally, the equipment should have come before the election because it was supposed to be used during the campaign period. The equipment is heavy and can crush any demonstration."
According to sources, a crack unit code-named Romeo Troop, tasked with mercilessly suppressing mass actions against government, has been established within the police. . .
The deal to buy the anti-riot equipment was mooted last year when police sought authority from treasury to make a $105 million down payment to Israel's Beit Alfa Trailer Company (BAT) for the purchase of the arms to the tune of $1 billion. BAT is one of the world's leading manufacturers of riot control vehicles.
What we have here is Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi fighting Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia over natural resources. Israel supports Angola (Lev Leviev and ASCorp has the diamond concenssion there), Namibia (Maruice Tempelsman just made a bid for all Namibia's diamonds) and Zimbabwe (former Mossad agent Ari-Ben-Menashe is Mugabe's PR flack).
Tempelsman's deals are detailed here:
Government Offered Secret Gem Deal (Kennedys and Democrat Donor Involved)
Larry has been doing some great research. This small article may or may not add a sliver of information.
Larry?
When senators of both parties questioned the special access granted big Democratic Party donors by the National Security Council, NSC boss TONY LAKE pooh-poohed the charges. But last week the NSC admitted that the month beore last year's presidential election, Lake did meet with MAURICE TEMPLESMAN, the deep-pocketed Democratic donor who was the companion of JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS.Templesman, a diamond dealer with long experience in Africa, was seeking loans from the Export-Import Bank and loan guarantees from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for a multimillion dollar diamond deal in Angola.
Janine Farrell Roberts writes:
When Lumumba, Congo's first elected leader, spoke of using the Congo's resources to benefit the Congo. De Beers feared it would lose access to the one third of world's diamond supply in the Congo - as would also Tempelsman. Shortly after this, the CIA facilitated Lumumba's assassination. Evidence on this came before the Church Intelligence Commission. Immediately after Lumumba's death, the Acting Prime Minister of the Congo, Adoula announced support for a very major Tempelsman diamond deal, telegramming this to President Kennedy. The historian Richard Mahoney claimed that the Adoula regime was receiving funds from Tempelsman. A State Department memo headed "Congo Diamond Deal" stated"The State Department has concluded that it is in the political interest of the US to implement this proposal." (2 August 1961)
Immediately after Mobutu came to power, Tempelsman became an even bigger player in the Congo - recruiting his own staff from those CIA staffers that Mobutu most favored that put him in power. Mobutu also at this time gave Tempelsman, as a "Christmas Gift", rich mineral reserves.
According to Tempelsman's staff we interviewed, they had a wonderful time helping to run the Congo. One of the first acts by Tempelsman was to facilitate the return of the Oppenheimers to the Congo - and to secure funding for Mobutu. He succeeded in persuading the White House to secretly buy a vast number of diamonds for the US strategic reserve - at a time when Administration officials were protesting that the reserve was over full. The reason for this deal given in secret US government memos was to support Mobutu and his partner Adoula. This Tempelsman plan made much profit for him and for De Beers. A State Department Cable of 23 December 1964 warned about the need of secrecy over this Mobutu diamond and South African uranium deal because;"it could outrage the moderate Africans we are trying to calm down." It suggest South African Foreign Minister Muller would understand the need for secrecy since the US was "doing a job" in the Congo that South Africa could not do. This covert support for Mobutu gave the US a gross excess in the strategic diamond stockpile that was still being sold off in 1997.
In 1967 the State Department reported; "Tempelsman is playing an increasingly central role as GDRC (Congo's) technical advisor and mediator." But these deals and other deals done throughout the following decades with a corrupt Mobutu government left the Congolese people in absolute poverty.
Israel has pledged to send a delegation of agricultural and industrial experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assess the war-torn African country's needs and explore how Israel can help it rebuild, Israeli officials said yesterday.
Looks like Israel is helping some needy people.
Jews are among the most generous and philanthropic people on the planet.
One of the reasons I am so proud to be Jewish. And one of the reasons some people are so whiney about Jews.
Here you have one group of people reaching out to help another group of people, and all some folks can do is whine, bitch and attack. )-:
Can you imagine what their lives are like?
There are words for people like that. Sourpuss, Scrooge, anti-Semite, curmudgeon. (-:
That's the problem with you leftys. You are hopeless cynics. Thank goodness Conservatives tend to have bigger hearts.
Testimony of Tony P. Hall (D - OH). and Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)
February 13, 2002The U.S. Department of Justice has pursued an antitrust case against DeBeers for more than half a century. Eight years ago, it secured a criminal indictment of it for anti-competitive practices.
Prosecution of both cases remains active, and has prompted the company to go through extraordinary contortions to put its assets beyond the reach of American courts.
And yet, pursuing court action seems to be in diametric opposition to diplomatic work on conflict diamonds, because DeBeers plays an enormous role in the diamond trade. Without its assent, the entire industry is impotent to act on any matter - and particularly on steps as comprehensive as those needed to block the sale of conflict diamonds.
Another problem that confounds the U.S. Government's efforts to stop conflict diamonds is the heavy dependence of some of our closest allies on the diamond trade. For example, diamonds account for more than 25 percent of Israel's merchandise exports - and 70 percent of these are exported to the United States.
So, faced with the unpleasant task of pressuring an ally like Israel to crack down on smuggling in an important industry, or waiting for attention to die down, which course does a conscientious diplomat choose?
(the UN's) failure to act in the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 2.5 million people have died and the evidence of this link is clear, highlights the weakness in defining conflict diamonds so selectively.
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