In my research of Blood diamond connection with the Al Qaeda I have found out that they have been operating in West Africa for many years. During the years of 1998 which there was many bombing of the United States and a civil war. The Al Qaeda where transferring cash into a high value item which was DIAMONDS in mostly Kenya and Tanzania. However this all happen when the al Qaeda attack the U.S embassies in Nairobi and as a result the Clinton administration froze $240 million belonging to the Taliban government and Osama Bin Laden. But this didn’t stop the al Qaeda from gaining high valuable items like diamonds. One of the suspects relating in the trading of money to gain diamond was Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. He was one of the leaders during the diamond trading of Sierra Leone and Liberia. He was captured and got prosecuted later in the years. But what’s really surprising is that there was an alliance between Charles Taylor and the Al Qaeda with all this diamond Trading. According to a UN war crimes document it says “Al Qaeda payed Charles Taylor for protection and then joined him in the African diamond trade, raising millions of dollars for terrorist activities”. The Al Qaeda would do their meeting with different leaders and warlords in West Africa in the seedy hotels and safe house of Monrovia. And as I mention later with what Clinton did it didn’t really matter to the al Qaeda because with the diamond they were snapping it was easier, and comfortable for them to gain resources. Because diamonds are so small that they could trade them illegally around the world. Diamonds cant be detected by scanning at the airport or a metal detector. Therefore its easy for them to trade them and gain resources such as weapons and money. This is how the Al Qaeda relates to the Blood diamond going on in Sierra Leone. In the pictures below you going to see the two most powerful leader of the diamond trading between the Al Qaeda. And They are Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Charles Taylor.
This topic really interested me. It's ironic how something that doesn't neccesarily relates to somethings really ends up affecting it. The conflict diamond traffic helped terrorist to aid the terrorist attack of 911.
ReplyDeleteDo you think if the U.S got involve in the civil war of Sierra Leone, the attack would've have happened??
In my opinion what happens in a smaller country can eventually affect you. Because the reality is that all the countries are somehow dependent on one another.