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FYI....

47th Street, New York - New York Diamond and Jewelry District
Welcome to 47th Street - The Diamond District. The United States is the world's largest consumer market for diamonds. Over 90 percent ...
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Bin Laden's $20m African 'blood diamond' deals

How the terror network financed its operations with stolen gems

Amelia Hill
Sunday October 20, 2002
The Observer

The terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden struck deals in 'blood diamonds' worth over $20 million in the months before the attacks of 11 September 2001.

Snip

'Given that the attacks on America cost only about $500,000, it is terrifying that al-Qaeda managed to convert $20m of its cash into diamonds,' said Alex Yearsley of Global Witness, which campaigns against the 'blood diamonds' trade.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,815561,00.html

More info about the family who owns a large part of American...

The family continues to have a stake, estimated by one source at about ten million dollars, in the Fremont Group, a private investment company, on whose board of directors sits another former Secretary of State, George Shultz. Much of the family's private banking is handled by Citigroup, which is chaired by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. The family has equity investments with Merrill Lynch and Goldman, Sachs. Among the family's business partners is General Electric. A spokesman for Jack Welch, the chairman of G.E., says that the family threw a party for him' in the nineteen-nineties in Saudi Arabia, and that Welch "considers them good business partners." One American diplomat says, "You talk about your global investors, it's them. They own part of Microsoft, Boeing, and who knows what else." Others note that the family has been awarded contracts to help rebuild American military installations, including the Khobar Towers, which were damaged in a terrorist attack that killed nineteen servicemen in 1996.

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/House-Of-Bin-Laden12sep02.htm