English, back when an English department was just an English department?
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
I don't think we could play "Guess my major" now, can we?
I've read that Al Qaeda members Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed have done business with RUF rebels in Sierra Leone to the tune of millions of dollars. The diamonds are moved through Antwerp. Ibrahim Bah ,a member of Hezbollah who fought in Afghanistan and the RUF's principle diamond dealer, is their contact. Know of any other individuals or groups? With Leonid Minin and former IDF Col. Yair Klein buying diamonds at the same time from the RUF, diamonds Tempelsman had to be aware of, one wonders why the USA wasn't notified of this activity before 9/11. Or maybe we were.
English, back when an English department was just an English department?
If only you were as concerned about the OPEC monopoly. If Jews had oil you would be complaining about that too.
Rotfl. The guy got cancer and keeled over. Brightens my day no end when that happens to one of these critters.
Checking back in, I see I was correct. Plenty of people attacking the poster, no one attacking the facts.
Yes, the point is money and power, both have been documented and neither has been refuted.
Makes you wonder about some people's motivation, doesn't it?
Yeah, and then I had to get a real job. Legal briefs aren't as much fun to read, I tell ya. Once in a while I try to slip in a not-too-obscure literary allusion, but it usually goes right over everyone's head.
"Why should Antwerp and Tel Aviv be built on the limbs and backs of Freetown, Luanda and Kinshasa?"
Cynthia McKinney in the Twilight Zone: Ask the victims of Robert Mugabe
Posted on 04/17/2002 6:08 AM Central by Cincinatus' Wife
To be sure, Cynthia McKinney, the gentlewoman from Georgia's Fourth Congressional District, is a flake, but what kind of a flake -- merely absurd, or knowingly pernicious? Whether she is the one or the other, however, attention must be paid. She made the Prowler's Enemies List last week, but only in passing, and her aberrant behavior demands a longer look than that.
Most recently, McKinney, in an interview with a Berkeley, California radio station, said that President Bush had advance warning of the terrorist attacks on September 11, but did nothing to prevent them. "Persons close to this administration," she added, "are poised to make huge profits off America's new war." In particular, she cited the Carlyle Group, an investment firm that employs a number of one-time government officials -- former President George H. W. Bush is a consultant -- as a beneficiary of the new war.
According to the Washington Post, which first disclosed the Berkeley radio interview, McKinney said the war had enriched Carlyle Group investors by increasing the value of a military contractor that the firm partly owned. When the Post asked her for a follow-up interview, however, McKinney declined, and issued instead a statement:
"I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case."
Consider that as actively pernicious, an attempt to raise paranoid discontent. Meanwhile in a House speech last month, McKinney made virtually the same assertions as she did in the radio interview, although this time she sounded merely absurd, or, perhaps, patently nuts.
McKinney asked her colleagues to close their eyes and "imagine themselves going faster and faster into a black unknown." Then, she said, they will see a "bright light," and hear "a huge booming voice coming from nowhere, and at the same time coming from everywhere."
Just what the voice was saying, however, McKinney did not say, but instead went on:
"You unlock this door with the key of understanding. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of hearing that which is not spoken, a dimension of seeing that which is invisible, a dimension of reading that which is not written."
And this, she declared, is "the Twilight Zone, better known as George Bush's America."
Then she said the White House had received "warning after warning" about the terrorist attacks, but had begged Senate majority leader Tom Daschle not to inquire why it had done nothing about them. She also said that Bush was calling for a big increase in defense spending, and that this means "his dad stands to make a mint."
"Wake up, America," she concluded. "We are not only in the Twilight Zone. We have crossed the threshold to George Bush's America."
Grant now that the right wing also has its clowns and bozos. On the "700 Club" the other night, Pat Robertson warned us about that dread secret order, the Masons. Nonetheless you always know what side the right wingers are on, while you can never be sure with left wingers like McKinney. She often suggests that America is run by hooded men in white sheets, and that it wants to oppress people of color everywhere. At the U.N.'s fatuous conference in South Africa last year on racism, sexism, colonialism and God knows what else, she said the White House was full of "latent racists."
(When Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary general, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a few months after she attended the U.N. conference, however, McKinney, ever the loose cannon, denounced the award as "an insult to the millions that died at the hand of the U.N. in recent years.")
McKinney often poses as a great friend of Africa and an expert on its problems. As a member of the House International Relations Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus, she frequently makes pronouncements. She has, however, a sorry record on Africa, and she does more harm than good. She plays the race card, and mindlessly supports tyrants.
McKinney, for example, has defended Robert Mugabe's despotic rule in Zimbabwe. In a bizarre House speech last December, she said that Zimbabwe was a "stable democracy." She also said that Mugabe, who has impoverished his country and brought about a famine, brutalized his opponents, and ordered the killing of any number of ordinary Zimbabweans, has only been attempting to right old wrongs. The old wrongs, of course, were all imposed by white colonialists; and any attempt by Congress to censure Mugabe or impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, according to McKinney, would be a "formal declaration of United States complicity to maintain white-skin rule."
This was, in fact, a grotesque analysis, but you would be wrong to dismiss it or others like it. So know now that some of Mugabe's domestic political opponents were here last week, trying to drum up support for a democratic transition in Zimbabwe. They turned up at the State Department, Congress and the Council on Foreign Relations. They also met, unhappily, with what one of them called their "African-American brothers."
Most of the brothers, it seemed, did not want to take any kind of stand against Mugabe. According to the Zimbabweans, they had bought into the idea that he was a revolutionary leader and that any attempt to unseat him would play into the hands of his country's old white rulers. The Zimbabweans were disappointed, of course, but there you are. McKinney may deal in paranoid absurdities, but they are not without effect.
Meanwhile McKinney is patronized by her congressional colleagues, at least some of whom, it seems, even admire her political acumen. The Washington Post story about her September 11 accusation also quoted Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston, a Republican no less, whom it identified as a friend of McKinney's.
Kingston said McKinney was adept at raising "red-meat" issues that appeal to her political base. "She's not as random as people think," he said. "People always want to hear a political conspiracy theory."
Indeed they do, and McKinney no doubt will continue to offer them. So yes, she is a flake, but above all, she is a menace.
John Corry is a former New York Times reporter and media critic. His column appears each Tuesday.
***McKinney, for example, has defended Robert Mugabe's despotic rule in Zimbabwe. In a bizarre House speech last December, she said that Zimbabwe was a "stable democracy." She also said that Mugabe, who has impoverished his country and brought about a famine, brutalized his opponents, and ordered the killing of any number of ordinary Zimbabweans, has only been attempting to right old wrongs. The old wrongs, of course, were all imposed by white colonialists; and any attempt by Congress to censure Mugabe or impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, according to McKinney, would be a "formal declaration of United States complicity to maintain white-skin rule."
This was, in fact, a grotesque analysis, but you would be wrong to dismiss it or others like it. So know now that some of Mugabe's domestic political opponents were here last week, trying to drum up support for a democratic transition in Zimbabwe. They turned up at the State Department, Congress and the Council on Foreign Relations. They also met, unhappily, with what one of them called their "African-American brothers."
Most of the brothers, it seemed, did not want to take any kind of stand against Mugabe. According to the Zimbabweans, they had bought into the idea that he was a revolutionary leader and that any attempt to unseat him would play into the hands of his country's old white rulers. The Zimbabweans were disappointed, of course, but there you are. McKinney may deal in paranoid absurdities, but they are not without effect. ***
Zimbabwe -- State to ignore security rulings***Observers say it appears that the country's courts are becoming increasingly irrelevant as Mugabe moves in what is seen as a campaign to silence all his opponents. Mugabe has for years declared he would not listen to judges who ruled against his mass seizure of white-owned land, but observers say this is the first time that the regime has openly stated it would ignore the country's courts on any other issues.***
Cowardly whites who help Mugabe**** A less abashed co-operator is John Bredenkamp, a former member of the Rhodesian rugby team and husband to ex-Miss Rhodesia, who was revealed last Sunday to be the 33rd richest man in Britain with a £720 million fortune and a home in Berkshire. Mr Bredenkamp is thought to be close to Mugabe, but especially to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament and Mugabe's heir-apparent. Mr Bredenkamp's mining operations in the Congo benefit greatly from the incursion of Zimbabwean troops, which is a kind of joint-stock venture by Zanu-PF and its business friends. Has Bredenkamp ever raised his voice in protest at anything done by his chums? On the contrary. He is going round offering to buy up some of the most beautiful white farms, on the understanding that he can get the acquisition orders lifted. Then one might mention another Zanu-PF crony, called Billy Rautenbach, who is wanted by Interpol. And then there are the really big players, the ones who should have had the guts to speak out, but who have kept silent. Prime among these is Anglo-American, the giant South African conglomerate, which is now supposed to have a good liberal conscience.****
How Did Mugabe Win Re-Election?-Terrorism, Torture and Overwhelming Vote Fraud***The man who knows the secrets of Mugabe's re-election is Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General, the outspokenly pro-Mugabe official who runs all Zimbabwe's elections. More than a month before the election Mudede told a meeting at the International School in Harare that he could imagine no circumstances in which he would declare anyone other than Mugabe the election winner. Pictures in the state-run Herald of how the results were announced are almost beyond parody. In the centre sits Obriel Mpofu, who announced the results on TV, flanked by Mudede and a series of other Mugabe loyalists, including the Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, in full uniform. These are not only the men who know the secrets of the results but the men who, in large part, manufactured them. ***
1 posted on 4/17/02 5:08 AM Central by Cincinatus' Wife
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Why are conservatives defending Maurice Tempelsman?
I expect to see a defense of Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton next.
Tempelsman is a perfect opportunity for the GOP. The progressive left hates what Tempelsman does. The corporate sleaze in the Democrat party is why many left for Nader.
Now and then, conservatives can make common cause with liberals. No conservative should defend what Tempelsman does.
Tempelsman's donations to the DNC are interesting. It appears he is buying off the Black Congressional Caucus. Money goes to Rangel, Waters and did go to Dellums.
To see the full extent of his support of the Democrat party copy and paste in "Tempelsman" HERE. Hundreds of hard money $1,000 checks have gone to Democrats over the last 22 years. $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 chunks of soft money too. He seems to prefer the most radical of the lefties.
Did you know Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson are involved in this also? Michael Baron writes for U.S. News:
Go ask Lied what his motivation is. Coming from a dark place in my opinion.
You should know. You spend the nights plumbing those "progressive" leftist websites.
The corporate sleaze in the Democrat party is why many left for Nader. Tempelsman is a perfect opportunity for the GOP.
What's your plan to get them in the GOP column? Only in your wet dreams would these Berkley sandalista types vote Republican.
TRANSLATION: How does the GOP recruit anti Semitic, Indymedia leftists?
What do you know? You are over in Croatia, right? Why do involve yourself in American affairs? What do you know or care about a stinking election in Georgia? What are your motivations?
Denny doesn't WANT to refute. And, yes, denny's mission is to smear.
Yo, denny! McKinney is dead pol. walking? If she goes down, denny, think of the grist for the conspiracy kooks!!! FUN AHEAD!
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