More details emerged this week on the activities of al-Qaida in West Africa, especially in Liberia, where terrorists allegedly have been closely working with the government in the diamond trade. The new information on al-Qaida is part of a report given to foreign media by the United Nations-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone. It is being described as a watered down version of what was given to the U.S. commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. It details how half a dozen senior al-Qaida operatives worked closely with top officials in Liberia onwards from 1999 during the rule of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. It says they were basically given a safe haven to make illicit diamond deals.
| Those stories have been around for awhile. It looks like they're finally being taken seriously. I think they were originally dismissed as propaganda... |
The head prosecutor in Freetown, David Crane, says his investigators easily traced back some of the illicit diamond trade to al-Qaida. "When you place an international legal entity in a part of the world that has not really known the rule of law for many, many, many, years you're going to find all sorts of actors moving in and about what I would call a dark corner of the world and there are many of them and this just happens to be one," he said. "Certainly, al-Qaida have been here for a couple of years and they have been using diamonds to wash their money and so, yes, they certainly have a presence here. There's specific and direct evidence to that effect." Mr. Crane says terrorists then easily re-sold smuggled diamonds.
Some investigators, from non-governmental groups like London-based Global Witness, believe al-Qaida's diamond proceeds, estimated at least $15 million, helped finance the 2001 terrorist attacks. The author of the recently released book Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror, former West Africa-based journalist Douglas Farah says the court's findings substantiate his own reporting. He alleges U.S. intelligence neglected what was happening in Liberia, despite the close ties between the two countries. "It's one of the things that is so embarrassing to the U.S intelligence community that there's one place in West Africa where they could've had a handle on events happening and should have had a handle of events, it was in Liberia but they essentially paid very little attention to Taylor and his multiple criminal activities for many years," he commented.
| That statement makes sense only if you first predicate unlimited intelligence collection resources. U.S. intel is better than the press usually gives them credit for being, but resources aren't infinite, and West Africa is actually a backwater. When Chuck was finally going down, we didn't file it here under WoT, and he certainly wasn't a major military threat to us. Collection managers look at today's requirements, not what's going to be significant in ten years. And if they don't, they get fired. |
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