Posted on 07/28/2002 12:58:46 PM PDT by LarryLied
LEADING American diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman has offered to arrange a secret payment for Government if it entrenches the right of the De Beers cartel to buy all Namibia's diamonds.
Tempelsman has written to President Sam Nujoma proposing that a secret loan of N$500 million or more be raised to cover Government's projected national Budget deficit, but the money will only be paid if Government drops plans to independently check the prices De Beers pays Namibia for diamond exports.
If it goes ahead, the move will retard plans to open up the diamond market and will further delay the implementation of two dormant sections of the Diamond Act of 1999.
It is not known if Government has accepted Tempelsman's offer.
In an extraordinary seven-page letter, dated May 27 2002, Tempelsman, who visited Nujoma three weeks earlier, thanked President Nujoma "for taking me into your confidence" on Namibia's national Budget deficit.
The diamond dealer's visit came at a time when Government was planning to invoke two sections of the Diamond Act that had been dormant since the law was passed. These concern the selling of Namibian diamonds on the open market and allowing locals direct participation.
Mines Minister Jesaya Nyamu confirmed yesterday that Government had "some time ago proposed" that Namibia should begin selling diamonds on the open market. He did not say when, but pointed out that the proposal was not "well-received by diamond producers".
In fact, Nyamu said: "There was a hysterical reaction from some quarters."
Asked whether Namdeb was among the companies that objected, Nyamu said the semi-state company "maybe wasn't opposed" but De Beers "had some problems with the idea".
De Beers is the sole marketer of Namibia's diamonds through the Diamond Trading Company, which sells them with mixed gems from other countries. The actual value of Namibian diamonds is, as a result, not known.
It is widely known in the diamond trade that Namibian diamonds are of the highest quality and used as sweeteners in consignments for De Beers' customers. Some of the diamonds are then sold back to Namibian polishers.
Tempelsman is a major De Beers sight-holder. A sight-holder is a merchant who is invited by De Beers every five weeks to pick up a box of specially selected stones for re-sale.
On learning about Government's plans to open up the trade, Tempelsman visited Namibia in May to meet with the President. Three weeks later he wrote to raise the secret off-shore loan idea.
Nyamu would "neither confirm nor deny" that the American merchant was among people trying to convince Government not to open up the industry.
Tempelsman proposed raising an offshore loan of US$80 million to be made to the purchaser of Namibia's diamonds (De Beers) which it would use to pre-buy Namibia's diamonds. From this, US$50 million (N$500m) would flow to the Government.
Further conditions set by Tempelsman include a Government legal guarantee that De Beers will get exclusive rights to Namibia's diamonds.
"Mr President," said the letter, "whether we wish it or not, the proposal above cannot bear fruit without the co-operation at several levels of your partner in Namdeb, De Beers, and thus some acknowledgement of their interests.
"They have every incentive to extend such co-operation, and I firmly believe they will. But both they and the bank lenders will, as part of this process, undoubtedly seek formal assurances that during the term of the financing facility there will be no disruption of the delivery for sale through De Beers of Namdeb's entire production.
"To accommodate the repayment schedule that is envisioned, the Sales Agreement and arrangements that have prevailed over the past decade would predictably have to be extended through 2008 [three years beyond their currently scheduled renegotiation date]."
Tempelsman stated that the loan would entail no borrowing, guarantees, or other financial undertakings by Government and thus, among others, could be accomplished on an entirely confidential basis. But Namdeb will pay up through diamond exports.
He drew Nujoma's attention to guarantees that Government had made on Air Namibia and other parastatals as unfortunate deals, and said he hoped such budgetary burdens would be cleared through the reorganisation of State companies.
Tempelsman does not specify any fees to be paid for organising the deal.
At State House, Joseph Kashea, who is acting Secretary to the President, and spokesperson Daniel Smith both said they were not aware of the existence of the letter. They, therefore, declined to comment.
Efforts to obtain comment from Tempelsman yesterday proved fruitless. His spokeswoman in New York said he was not available at the time of going to press.
COMMITTEE FOR CONGRESSMAN RONALD V. DELLUMS
TEMPELSMAN, MAURICE
10/6/92 $20,000.00
NEW YORK, NY 10017
LEON TEMPELSMAN/SON
"I am going to totally dismantle every intelligence agency in this country piece by piece, nail by nail, brick by brick..."- Ron Dellums (D-CA) Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, 1993
Maurice Tempelsman, a diamond broker who served as an agent of influence for the Angolan Communist regime, secured the companionship of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who, for a number of years served as his mistress. Tempelsman was able to use this relationship, in combination with the Angolan oil payoffs to the Kennedy family to secure a completely pro-Communist Angolan policy by the new administration of Bill Clinton, which arranged for U.N. sanctions and follow-up U.S. sanctions on the anti-Communist UNITA freedom fighters led by Jonas Savimbi.
Aided by Maurice Tempelsman . . . the Kennedy family, operating through "next generation" representatives Joseph Kennedy and Michael Kennedy, was granted its own oil concession from the Marxist-Leninist government of Angola to something called the Citizens Energy Corporation.
International diamond dealer Maurice Tempelsman, a generous contributor to the Democratic Party, has won unusual support from high Clinton administration officials for a business proposal that could position him as a key marketer of billions of dollars worth of Angolan diamonds, interviews and classified government cables show . . .
Lazare Kaplan International, America's largest diamond cutter, is headed by Maurice Tempelsman, whose initial foray into diamonds came in Zaire, where he was a close friend of the tyrant Mobutu Sese Seko. In the 1960s Tempelsman hired as his business agent the CIA station chief in Kinshasa, Larry Devlin, who helped put Mobutu in power and afterward served as his personal adviser.
Tempelsman is best known as Jackie Onassis's longtime companion, but he's also a prominent player in Washington. He's doled out about $500,000 to the Democratic Party in the past decade, and during the Clinton years he was twice invited to state dinners and was one of a dozen executives who went on the President's 1998 trip to South Africa.
Lazare Kaplan has a long-term agreement to buy $ 100 million worth of gems per year from ALROSA, the Russian diamond monopoly that is rife with corruption and a fierce opponent of efforts to restrict the trade in conflict diamonds. In the mid-1990s the US Export-Import Bank issued a $62 million loan guarantee to underwrite ALROSA's acquisition of mining equipment from Caterpillar. In March, the Ex-Im confirmed that it has approved a new, $200 million loan guarantee that will benefit Lazare Kaplan's diamond-cutting factories in Russia. In January Lazare Kaplan announced that last year's second-quarter sales of polished diamonds increased by 108 percent. . .
". .. UNITA would have not survived as an armed group without the powerful diamond sale network established in Antwerp. "Belgians play a predominant role in the trafficking of arms, goods and diamonds for UNITA", the Belgian secret service report points out, adding that the funds for the purchase of UNITA's arms comes from the same source as that of the Lebanese Hezbollah and Amal terrorist organisations.
The Secret Intelligence Service report noted that illegal diamond trafficking goes hand in hand with drug trafficking and money laundering. It cites companies like De Beers and countries like Great Britain and Canada as beneficiaries of this illegal UNITA diamond trafficking. It also mentions people like Maurice Tempelsman whose company buys UNITA's diamonds which are then transported to London and Antwerp through Tel Aviv. . .
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. After the meeting, a sympathetic Lake decided to intervene: he directed an NSC staff member, with approval from legal counsel, to call Ex-Im and OPIC. The message: Templesman's venture had "merit." But TIME has obtained the text of a recent letter from Angola's ambassador in Washington that bluntly asks the U.S. to stop attempts to broker a diamond deal and, in an apparent reference to Tempelsman, criticizes similiar attempts by "private companies." The Angolan letter, as well as Administration maneuvers on behalf of Tempelsman, have raised concerns among senior G.O.P. legislators--concerns discussed with the State Department . . .
The following is partial transcript of Representative Cynthia McKinney's recent brief:
Prepared Statement of Janine Farrell Roberts
The Secret Story Behind Blood Diamonds
May I first briefly introduce myself. I hold degrees in Sociology and Theology and have authored several books written about Australian Aborigines and their civil rights struggle, which were launched by their leaders. For many years I was funded by a coalition of US and European church to work on human rights frontiers internationally.
This work led me to De Beers - after it clashed with an Aboriginal community. The more I worked internationally the more I discovered about its human rights violations. I have now been researching and writing on De Beers and the diamond trade for twenty years during which time I have made several films - including: "The Diamond Empire", a feature length" Frontline" since suppressed by WGBH due to pressure from De Beers. The owners of Doubleday also commissioned a major work from me on diamonds - only to drop it at the very last moment as they wrote "rich and important people" did not want it to come out.
De Beers is nothing if not secretive. In the course of my investigation, De Beers banned me from its South African diamond mines where I was the guest of the National Union of Mineworkers (but I was smuggled in).
Here I witnessed in De Beers's mines horrific conditions with wages paid at one third of the official union minimum and in very hazardous conditions. I also witnessed considerable natural resources being hidden from the SA Government.
I went also to India and witnessed children as young as 8 cutting and polishing diamonds in workshops mostly supplied by De Beers through its favored merchants, working in what is defined as a form of slavery. The wages were slashed this year from 40c to 25c a diamond causing riots. Workers get one dollar a day for cutting romantic gems. India cuts 55% by value of the world's gem diamonds.
De Beers tried to stop my film in the Canadian NW Territories diamond fields - but the Sierra Club and the Unions had it happen. On 5th Avenue, merchants were phoned telling them not to speak to me "as I worked with Blacks in Australia to make life difficult for De Beers." I was also the keynote speaker at the first post apartheid conference of Southern African mineworkers where I was funded by the World Council of Churches.
I have been told that a major reason for some of my difficulties is the fear publishers have of a certain Maurice Tempelsman, the former companion of Jackie Onassis who in 1998 was reported to be developing a romantic relationship with Secretary of State Albright. He is a leading international diamond merchant of unique power and influence - often he has helped shaped US foreign policy in directions that favour De Beers. I have extensively researched his work. Much of this is in my forthcoming book "Blood Stained Diamonds" . . .
Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family affair
Liberian Diplomat to Israel in Mideast With "Blood Diamond"
Americans Finally Link Liberian president Taylor to Al Qaeda
Leonid Efirmovich Minin, Taylor Partner Arrested in Italy
"Why should Antwerp and Tel Aviv be built on the limbs and backs of Freetown, Luanda and Kinshasa?"
Israeli lobby sends wake-up call: Alabama race may come to haunt McKinney
No, some of them do not make it obvious what they are before you start reading them, and some actually masquerade as something else :). And the Wiesenthal site is sort of cluttered and hard to navigate. But if you look around, you find articles and essays on anti-Catholic hate, for example - so the site isn't really all that one-tracked.
Trade Bill to Boost U.S. Textile Imports from Africa ^
Namibia will get special trade breaks.
Do you hear much about Namibia?
Been fascinated by the country because of National Geographic stories when I was a kid. The "skeleton coast" lined with shipwrecks, the "Forbidden Zone" where the diamonds are mined and cars are left to rot rather than be driven out, the Kaiser's involvement, the diamonds dredged out of the ocean and stones scooped out of sand dunes were intriguing.
Some great reading in the Namibian archives for 2002:
Yes. Ari-Ben Menashe (former Mossad) is working for Mugabe. Weapons for diamonds. The President of Namibia has made some Mugabe-like comments. Tempelsman is trying to get all of Namibia's diamonds. Maurice supported communists in Angola to get their diamonds when Cuban troops were in country. Then add in these articles from The Namibian:
Namibian troops in Zimbabwe?THE Congress of Democrats claims that Namibia deployed troops in Zimbabwe prior to that country's elections and that they have yet to return.
CoD leader Ben Ulenga notified Parliament yesterday that he would ask Defence Minister Erkki Nghimtina next Thursday how many units of Namibian troops were deployed in Zimbabwe and under which military pact or international instrument.
Ulenga also indicated that he would ask the Defence Minister how long the troops would be in Zimbabwe.
The Namibian was unable to establish independently whether Namibia Defence Force members were depployed in Zimbabwe and, if so, what the purpose of their presence was.
http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/march/news/024FBCE2FC.html
Nam Govt pleased with Mugabe's statements on pollMAX HAMATA
NAMIBIA has welcomed a commitment by Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party to respect and accept the outcome of the presidential election scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday.
Government spokesperson Mocks Shivute said yesterday Government was pleased with the announcement by President Robert Mugabe's party that it would respect "the will of the people and respect the outcome of the Presidential elections ..."
"Government is, however, disturbed by opposition statements to challenge the outcome of the elections if it loses because of problems with the electoral process," Shivute said in a statement.
Shivute said the Namibian observer team in Zimbabwe had informed the Government that Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister, John Nkomo, had given assurance that police would see to it that all public meetings took place in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity.
Shivute described as "disturbing" statements by Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) President Morgan Tsvangirai that he will challenge the outcome of the elections if his party lost because of a flawed electoral process.
"The Namibian Government calls on Tsvangirai, as leader of the MDC, to reassure the people of Zimbabwe, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and the international community that he will respect democratic principals and abide by the outcome of the elections," the Government statement said.
http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/March/news/0248A74BB7.html
Cuban trade mission on wayTHE Government and Chamber of Commerce and Industry hope one day you will be able to buy Cuban shirts and pharmaceutical products with the label "Made In Namibia".
A Cuban trade mission will in Windhoek from March 31 to April 3, and will discuss joint venture possibilities with their Namibian counterparts in these and several other areas.
According to Lazaro Artola Madrazo, the economic counsellor for the Cuban embassy, a factory producing traditional Cuban shirts, to be situated in Windhoek's Lafrenz industrial area, is on the cards.
Madrazo said technical experts had already been in discussions with Ramatex and others on sourcing raw material for the factory, which, if it proved viable, would be worth about N$5 million.
David Nuyoma of the Namibia Investment Centre said other possibilities of co-operation include construction, mines and energy and the sugar industry.
He said that some Cubans might be interested in establishing a sugar plantation in Namibia's north-east.
According to Nuyoma, a feasibility study for such a project had was being conducted by an American company, and preliminary results were fairly optimistic, despite a number of sugar producers already existing in the southern African region.
But, he said, only if such a project could be proved to be viable would the private sector invest in it.
Another investment opportunity would be in tourism, said Nuyoma, saying he had been "surprised" to find out how developed Cuba's tourism industry was.
Namibian and Cuban business people will be meeting for a conference at the Nampower Convention Centre on Tuesday April 2.
http://www.namibian.com.na/2002/March/marketplace/024C66205B.html
Notice all the flak on this thread. We must be over the target.
If there are ten people on the planet, let alone public officials, who have any idea (or care) what you are ranting about, I would be surprised. You live in a world of your own.
http://www.niza.nl/fataltransactions/docs/sierra_leone/1-1.htm
What gets people's attention is all the expensive arms floating around Africa and how the books of the diamond industry make no sense. Consider the following (from the UN reports above):
41% of rough diamonds imported in the UK come from Switzerland. There are no diamond mines in Switzerland and Switzerland "officially" imports almost no uncut stones.
89% of the rough diamonds imported into Israel come from Switzerland, the UK or Belgium. Seeing as 50% of the uncut stones in the world pass through Israel(diamonds are a $12 billion+ a year business for Israel) something seems amiss here.
The rebel RUF in Sierra Leone sold between $25 million and somewhere over $100 million in rough diamonds a year. No one knows how much. Al Qaeda bought millions of dollars worth of the stones and moved them through Belgium. Hezbollah helped Al Qaeda do that. Israeli Leonard Minin and former IDF Col Yair Klein were also buying from the RUF.
Don't know why you aren't interested in this. I find it fascinating.
I runnin' fur congress next year. I've lurnt th' wisdom of Cindy Mc. Don't mess wif blood diamonds.
But you go righ ahead, Larry . . . GO LARRY!
The UN is interested in this topic? And that is supposed to impress me?
You find strange things fascinating. Once again, take me off your bump list unless you would prefer me to address the moderators on this issue.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/725693/posts?page=23#23
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