Diamonds are a Democrats best friend.
Jani Roberts (check out her website...fascinating):
Chapter 8. The Private Agent.One day a brochure from a conservative think tank called 'National Endowment for Democracy' landed on my desk. Give us a call, it said, and we can provide you with the experts you need for your programs.
I called and asked them: 'Do you have an expert on Africa?' 'Yes,' came the reply. 'We have a man called Gerry Funk.'
'Does he really know Africa?' I asked.
'He was the African expert on the National Security Council.'
This convinced me that he would be interesting. The National Security Council advised the President. It was above the CIA. Oliver North had been a member of it. So I asked to be put in touch with him. Fortunately he was also visiting New York. I phoned him at his hotel.
'Would you be able to give me some time?'
'I am sorry, I cannot. I am leaving tomorrow for Zaire. Maurice Tempelsman has hired me.'
Templesman's influence has continued in Africa. When I went to South Africa in 1994, a leading member of the ANC , the newly appointed Chairman of the Parliamentary Minerals and Energy Committee, Marcel Golding, out of the blue asked me what I knew of Tempelsman. When I asked why he wanted to know about him, he told me that Tempelsman had asked him for a New York meeting, When I went to Namibia in 1995, I found Tempelsman entrenched as the financial advisor of the President, Sam Nujomo ...
The Tempelsman story does not end there. When I investigated the Russian diamond industry in 1995, I found ... he and Jacqueline Onassis entertained President Clinton on Tempelsman's yacht. Then in 1995 Tempelsman travelled to Moscow with President Clinton on Air Force One after which he won financing from the governmental Ex-Im Bank for his ventures in Moscow. (Washington Post 2 Aug. 1997).
Now, as she walked along the beach at Martha's Vineyard, Hillary's thoughts went back to that August five years earlier when Jackie had first invited the Clintons to the Vineyard. No sooner had they boarded the Relemar, the seventy-foot yacht belonging to Jackie's longtime love Maurice Templesman, than the First Family was whisked off for some Kennedy-style daredevil fun.
The Relemar dropped anchor off a tiny deserted island, and everyone went for a swim. Jackie's daughter, Caroline, and Chelsea jumped thirty feet off the Relemar's highest diving platform. Goaded by her husband into following them, Hillary was terrified when she climbed to the top and looked down.
"Jump!" the President shouted at his wife as she trembled at the top of the platform. "Don't be a chicken, Hillary. Go ahead and jump! Jump! JUMP!"
With her husband and now several Kennedy men yelling at her to jump, Hillary was about to take the plunge when suddenly she heard Jackie's voice above the others. From down in the water, Jackie yelled, "Don't do it, Hillary! Don't do it! Just because they're daring you, you don't have to!" Heeding Jackie's advice, Hillary slowly descended the ladder to a less harrowing height before making the leap into icy water.
The details of that day would remain etched in Hillary's mind forever -- the cool breeze and brilliant sunshine, lunch on the deck of the Relemar, the visit to Jackie's seaside compound, and the long walk along her pristine private beach. Throughout it all, the two First Ladies spent hours sharing their thoughts and dreams and fears. Hillary later used just one word to describe the visit: "magical."