Africa, Al-Q and Pat Robertson

[ursacorwin]

so i suppose most of you already know that liberia, home of charles taylor and lots of really angry young men with guns, is a mess. although off the radar, it's likely that sooner or later some body will have to go in there and take control of the situation well enough for the diamonds to get to market on time. i haven't checked up on the conditions & fighting in a while, but i just came accross an interesting little ditty from 2002.

now, remember that Pat Robertson (the one enjoining his followers to pray for the death of moderate SC members) invests quite a bit of money into the diamond trade and is a business partner with Charles Taylor. remember too that while liberia doesn't have significant oil, it's got diamonds aplenty and they are rather useful in size. to whom you ask? why, to "terrorists" looking to have an untraceable ability to move big amounts of wealth. remember that the UN and others have reported that the soliders of this african conflict are often given drugs like heroin and cocaine to create better kill ratios.

pat roberson, charles taylor, and al-Q are also connectable. have i mentioned that herion production is way up in afg'stan? thanks to the very men the us helped secure in power after the "fall" of the taliban? and i'm not picking on pat in particular, just using him as an example of a republican with overseas interests. his connections to bushco are obvious, i should think.


i bring this up because i want the newer folks to think deeply about just how huge the octopus is, and that it's not CT to talk about a global plan not just to dominate the world thru military might, but to enforce and encourage many of the unfreedoms the republicans are always talking about. believe it or not, the *republicans* and not "terrorists" or "savages" or the like are responsible for the horrors of the drug trade, terrorism, and fundementalist intolerance.

<http://www.post-gazette.com/world/20021230diamondsworld3p3.asp>

here's an excerpt:
ANTWERP, Belgium -- An aggressive year-long European investigation into al-Qaida 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 President Charles Taylor of Liberia received a $1 million payment for arranging to harbor the operatives, who were in the region for at least two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The terrorists moved between a protected area in Liberia and the presidential compound in neighboring Burkina Faso, investigators say.

Long accused of sanctioning illicit diamond and weapons trading, Taylor and President Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso 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-Qaida's secretive business operations in West Africa and an elaborate plot that began in 1998 to hide substantial terrorist assets in diamonds. This account draws on interviews with senior investigators, the intelligence report and documents obtained independently that verify its findings. The Post also interviewed two sources with direct knowledge of certain events, who asked that their names not be used for fear of retribution.

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