The News Review:

- The Secret Financial Network of Terror
- News Room – Full Article
- NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CLINTON; New York, aka Central Casting

The Secret Financial Network of Terror
Washington Post – May 30, 2004
embassies in East Africa, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a senior associate of Osama bin Laden, had arrived in Monrovia, the capital of the tiny West African state of Liberia, and the seat of its kleptocratic gang boss of a president, Charles Taylor. Earlier that year, a Nigerian-led regional security force had finally expelled Taylor’s allies from their capital, Freetown. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of neighboring Sierra Leone, whose fighters were fellow graduates of Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s revolutionary training camps in the Libyan desert were driven out handily. But the RUF maintained control over the country’s huge, easily exploited diamond deposits in the east. From there the stones were smuggled across the border into Liberia — where, in exchange for huge commissions paid to Taylor and his cronies, the RUF could sell them to dealers for export and resale in Antwerp, Belgium, the world’s largest gem market. The RUF used the cash for arms to continue its bloody and protracted struggle for power in Sierra Leone.

News Room – Full Article
IDEX Online – May 30, 2004
The values of the first shipment of rough diamonds range from $225 – $280 per carat. Some large stones in the first parcel were approximately 5 carats each. Magna Egoli is the first diamond mine in Sierra Leone where the labor conditions for the mine workers have been negotiated with the National Union of Mineworkers. This means that the earnings of the local diggers is considerably above those customary in other small-scale alluvial diamond mining operations. This has earned our operation respect and gratitude on the highest governmental levels. Our model is now being followed by other mining companies, says Alex Waldman. Additional exploration is planned in a 22 square mile area north of the current mining area.

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CLINTON; New York, aka Central Casting
New York Times – May 30, 2004
Jones, 60, who was born in Britain but has lived in the city for 27 years. ”It’s so unusual to find that they are looking for people who are older. ” Issa Kabia, a 70-year-old refugee from Sierra Leone who came to New York nine months ago, just made the age limit. He cut a striking figure in the brilliant blue robes of his homeland, and matching fez-style hat. Toshihiko Murata, 41, a Japanese diplomat more formally dressed in a gray suit and red tie, has actually worked at the U. for 15 years, but said he was willing to return on weekends for the camera.