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Blood diamonds Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035776062265&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035776062265&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Dec. 29, 2002. 08:59 AM
Paul O'Driscoll/GETTY IMAGES
`Blood diamonds' under fire: A diamond factory employee examines a gemstone yesterday in Antwerp, Belgium, where gem traders are under pressure to regulate the sales of "blood diamonds" — ones allegedly used to finance African conflicts and terrorism.
African diamonds finance Al Qaeda
European probe uncovers elaborate plot
DOUGLAS FARAH
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
ANTWERP, Belgium—An aggressive year-long European investigation into Al Qaeda financing has found evidence that two West African governments hosted the senior terrorist operatives who oversaw a $20-million diamond-buying spree that effectively cornered the market on the region's precious stones.
Investigators from several countries concluded that Liberian President Charles Taylor received a $1 million (U.S.) payment for arranging to harbour the operatives, who were in the region for at least two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon that killed about 3,000 people.
The terrorists moved between a protected area in Liberia and the presidential compound in neighbouring Burkina Faso, investigators say.
Long accused of sanctioning illicit diamond and weapons trading, Taylor and Burkina Faso President Blaise Campaore deny the charge, which is included in a summary of the joint intelligence findings.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of the military intelligence summary, which offers the clearest picture yet of Al Qaeda's secretive business operations in West Africa and an elaborate plot that began in 1998 to hide substantial terrorist assets in diamonds.
European and Latin American investigations also found evidence that a group of people buying diamonds on behalf of the terrorists were simultaneously attempting to procure sophisticated weapons, such as missiles that could shoot down aircraft, The Post has learned.
Investigators have been unable to trace the diamonds since they left Liberia and Burkina Faso.
The diamond-buying operation appears to have been hatched in response to a move by the United States in 1998 to freeze Al Qaeda assets after attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa that were blamed on the terror network.
Senior European intelligence sources said they have been baffled by the lack of U.S. interest, particularly by the CIA, in their recent findings.
The CIA, which in the past has played down reports of Al Qaeda's diamond connections, declined to comment.
In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency did try to monitor the two senior Al Qaeda operatives supervising the diamond trading, who were known to be hiding in an elite military camp in Liberia.
Both men were on the FBI's Most Wanted list of terrorists.
The Pentagon prepared a small special forces team in neighbouring Guinea to snatch the two, but the mission was not carried out because the team could not confirm the target's identities, according to sources.
The European law enforcement investigations, launched soon after Sept. 11, have focused on three men who allegedly served as conduits to the Al Qaeda operatives: Aziz Nassour, a Lebanese diamond merchant; his cousin Samih Osailly; and Ibrahim Bah, a Senegalese soldier of fortune who for years has trafficked in diamonds and guns across Africa. All three deny links to Al Qaeda or to anything illegal.
Al Qaeda's diamond purchases were first reported in The Washington Post 13 months ago. Subsequent investigations by Belgian police and other European intelligence agencies have shed new light on the operation's scope, its financing and Al Qaeda's extensive ties in West Africa.
Several other efforts have been under way to unravel illicit diamond trade through Liberia and its links to weapons smuggling and terrorism. A specially appointed U.N. panel of experts has studied the issue, and the U.N. Security Council in 2001 accepted the panel's recommendation to ban international travel by Taylor, his family and senior government officials.
Much of the new evidence of Al Qaeda's diamond plot flows from the April 12 arrest here of Osailly, who is in prison awaiting trial on charges of diamond smuggling and illegal weapons sales. Osailly is involved with a small diamond importing company believed to have been used by the Al Qaeda operatives. He has pleaded not guilty.
In Osailly's case, Belgian investigators say they uncovered bank records showing that the diamond company enjoyed a sudden surge in business and turned over almost $1 billion in the year before Sept. 11. Investigators also have found telephone records of calls to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran.
Preparations for Al Qaeda's diamond operation began in September, 1998, six weeks after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The United States had moved to freeze $240 million in Al Qaeda assets.
"It was at that point that Al Qaeda realized where it was vulnerable in its financial structure and began to systematically move its assets to commodities," said one intelligence analyst who specializes in Al Qaeda's finances. "You see a move into diamonds, tanzanite and other commodities along with a new emphasis on creating charities to handle the finances."
On Sept. 22, a senior Al Qaeda financial officer named Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who is listed on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists, arrived in Monrovia, Liberia. Ibrahim Bah arranged for Abdullah to meet with senior Liberian officials and their allies in the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Bah is a Senegalese who had trained in Libya, fought in the early 1980s with Islamic guerrillas in Afghanistan and then with Hezbollah in Lebanon. By 1998, he was the main weapons buyer and diamond dealer for Taylor in Liberia and the RUF, according to U.N. and European investigators. Bah has the rank of general in the RUF, which won international notoriety for its brutality in the civil war that raged in Sierra Leone from 1989 until this year.
Bah declined numerous interview requests but has issued written statements denying that he has ties to Al Qaeda or has dealt in diamonds or weapons.
In a statement he described himself as a used car salesman. The United Nations has banned him from international travel because of his alleged smuggling activities.
In March 1999, two other Al Qaeda operatives, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, came to Liberia for a follow-up visit and spent a few days touring the Sierra Leone diamond fields controlled by the RUF.
The next year, in July 2000, investigators believe that Bah approached ASA Diam, the company associated with Osailly and Nassour, about handling the Al Qaeda gems.
The company, which had been largely inactive for about two years, suddenly began handling large volumes of money, recording $14 million worth of diamond sales in 2000. Bah, Nassour and Osailly have denied having the discussion about Al Qaeda diamonds.
Nassour, who now lives in Beirut and is barred by the U.N. from international travel, said in an interview that he has met Bah only once, on other business.
WASHINGTON POST
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