[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

Yes, he was.

From anyone else, calling this kind of attention to one's own malfeasances would be idiotic, but Jesse knows the media won't call him on this stuff.

[Calpernia]

Awesome link Honorable Threepwood!

Web exclusive 11/12/01
Dirty diamonds

By Michael Barone


What do Jesse Jackson, Pat Robertson, and al Qaeda have in common?

The answer is: They all have been associated with the bloody Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.

The al Qaeda connection is the one that has most recently come to light. In a November 2 Washington Post article, Douglas Farah reported that "the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden has reaped millions of dollars in the past three years from the illicit sale of diamonds mined by rebels in Sierra Leone." Al Qaeda has been buying the diamonds at below-market rates in Africa and selling them for higher prices in Europe. Diamonds are easy to transport and smuggle, and diamond transactions are hard to trace; al Qaeda evidently increased its purchases in July, presumably in anticipation of its bank accounts being frozen. The diamonds are mined in Sierra Leone by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who famously hacked off the arms and legs of hundreds of people and built up an army of boys. Since 1998, the diamonds have been sold for cash in Liberia to al Qaeda agents by the RUF's diamond dealer, alleged to be a Libyan-trained Senegalese rebel. There is big money here: A United Nations panel estimated RUF diamond sales in 1999 at $75 million. Farah writes that Taylor receives a commission on each sale in Liberia; Taylor has repeatedly denied this.

BUMP!!!!