Diamonds Used To Fund Terrorism

I've known about this problem for a while, but never investigated it in depth. Buying diamonds and tanzanite support terrorist organizations and militias that practice slave-labor. Here's more:

Here's what the State Department said in 2002:

Several media reports made the claim that the al-Qaida network has made millions of dollars from diamonds mined by rebels in Sierra Leone, either by trading them or using them to launder money. Revolutionary United Front (RUF) officials were alleged to have sold millions of dollars in diamonds to Usama Bin Ladin’s al-Qaida terrorist network.

Similarly, allegations were made linking the sale of tanzanite to al-Qaida financing. Press reports claimed that a former personal secretary to Bin Ladin kept a diary detailing al-Qaida’s use of tanzanite to help finance its operations for the past several years.

A subsequent claim was made that other radical Islamic groups (including the Lebanon-based Hizballah) transferred millions of dollars made from Congolese diamond sales to their organizations back home.

We continue to investigate these claims. The US Government also is cooperating with the United Nations, diamond-producing countries, and diamond-importing countries to develop a certification system for diamonds to prevent "conflict diamonds" from entering the international trading system."

Amnesty International has the gruesome details:

"Illicit diamonds make fabulous profits for terrorists and corporarations alike."

"Arms merchants, feeding on the diamond trade, bankrolled local armies and made fortunes for transnational corporations. The profits also filled the coffers of Al Qaeda, and possibly Hezbollah–terrorist organizations notorious for committing human rights violations, including crimes against humanity."

"Nigerian soldiers serving a regional West African peacekeeping force killed civilians suspected of aiding RUF, tortured children suspected of being RUF, and slaughtered hospital patients in their efforts to rid Freetown of rebels. It is no stretch to say that Sierra Leone disintegrated during the 1990s into a murderous sinkhole of death and torture, all of it fueled by the sale of diamonds to respectable merchants throughout the world."

The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security says:

"Africa’s diamonds provide a large part of al-Qaeda's funding. There are many links between al-Qaeda and the illicit trade in so-called "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds" bought from rebel groups in Africa, primarily in Sierra Leone."

The Washington Institute has more:

"...the former Sierra Leonean ambassador to the US, John Leigh, confirmed that diamonds mined in Sierra Leone finance the activities of terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and al-Qaeda."

More sites can be found on the web with even scarrier examples of diamonds being used to fund terrorist organizations and crimes against humanity. The next time you buy a diamond, think of the possible consequences.