Relationship of Al Qaeda and Blood Diamond

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.

Comparison Between Imperialism of 19th and 20th century and the civil war of Sierra Leone

The Civil War that occurs in Sierra Leone has had a major influence by the imperialism of the 19th and 20th century. Mainly because during the time of imperialism many people were fighting just to benefit from what they really want which was land. The main point of imperialism is to extend your goals over foreign countries and that’s what most of the people did like. And as more European countries try to get what they want them basically introduce more technology which helps Africans very much because it helps them industrialize more and more. However this relate to the Civil war in Sierra Leone because this entire people want one natural resource that valued a lot of money and it was DIAMONDS. There was conflict going on between the diamonds because some of the rebels and even the RUF were smuggling the diamond and selling it to other people like Al Qaeda. And somewhere exporting diamond illegally which led to a major conflict and the development of Kimberly process which is that they had to export the diamond with a Kimberly certificate and it will be llegaly distributed. And this help solve the problem in sierra Leone because many people where losing their soul and their future just to find a valuable stuff that has cause the death of many people. DIAMOND!!!!!!! We need them but when you buy a diamond know this “did that cause the death of a innocent Human Being”. Those Picture shows what they Africans and other country really want and how this poor innocent people had to work hard just to get something for another country to benefit. And that was the whole point the civil war occur because they were exporting to many good and the diamond miner would get paid a little amount of money without no exclaim and that wasn't fair because it was a human rights violation.

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING EVENTS IN HISTORY

During the 15Th century the age of exploration was starting. In history you could compare the Age of Exploration to Imperialism of Africa during the 19Th century. The age of exploration was when The Spanish where looking for new trade routes to evade going through The ottomans. Because They had just had the Crusades. So the age of exploration was when the Spanish colonize The native Americans to take their natural resources and use them as slaves. When you colonize a country to use them for good this is known as Mercantilism. So they created and economic system of Mercantilism. Mercantilism creates a favorable balance of trade because you are not buying anything and you are selling a lot. This could relate to the 20Th century Imperialism of Africa because many European countries were fighting to control Africans. They wanted to colonize them and take all their diamonds. This is also another reason why Spanish colonize Native Americans because they thought that N.A had gold. Same way that Europeans took control of the diamonds in Africa.

As you could see on this picture, their is a hand trying to control the world. This is showing imperialism because imperialism is basically saying that you should control other places to help them out. So you see a hand helping the world be lifted up and then is grabbing it. Same way Europeans thought they had to do to other places in the world.

BY: Johnny Rodriguez

BERLIN CONFERENCE LEADING TO IMPERIALISM

During the Berlin Conference many European countries wants to gain some land from Africa. But this led to domestic warfare because they basically want the same land to benefit from its natural resources and industrialize the place. Some of the country that associates with this was Portugal, Spain, Germany, Netherland, and etc. However they really got want the want. As a result it led to many effect in Africa. They division of Africa led to assimilation of different languages and culture. This could be compare to the warfare in Sierra Leone because the RUF and the rebels were fighting just to get diamond to export or simply smuggle it up. And that was bad because many people were wound; they would even get their hand chop off. This connect to the Berlin Conference because they only want to sale their diamond but as a result it led to many death and wounded just to get what they really want and also to survive for a living or even get paid.

By: Johnny Ortiz

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION LEADING TO IMPERIALISM

The Industrial revolution led to the making of business and the economic system known as Capitalism. Capitalism is when business controls everything; they could create monopolies and do whatever they want without the concern of the government or the people. So all this business started to want to control places with good natural resources. So Africa was the perfect place because they had a lot of diamonds. Which they could use to sell to other places or sell them at higher prices at their own country. An example of this could be seen with the DeBeers brothers when they created monopolies, so people had to go and buy from them, because it was the only place that had what they wanted. So if you really need it, you are going to have to buy it at what ever price they sell it to you. Also they will make them your slaves so you could get the diamonds for them. So they will create monopolies on you, and is from your own work that they are charging you.



So as you could see in this picture, all the africans are working to find diamonds. Which was one of the major reasons why so many countries wanted to imperialise africa. You could see that kids also work here on the diamonds mine. So you could infer that many of this kids will get injure or die at a young age from all the work.

By: Johnny Rodriguez