Gertler's Bling Bang
Maurice Templesman—one of the top funders of Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton—was the unofficial ambassador to the
For Israeli-American Dan Gertler, business in blood drenched
Emaxon Finance Corp. has apparently out-maneuvered diamond competitors, especially the big rivals Energem and De Beers. Energem is one of the many shady mining companies connected to Anthony Teixeira, a Portuguese born businessman now residing in
Canadian-based Energem, formerly DiamondWorks, is owned by British mercenary Tony Buckingham and its director/shareholders include Mario and Tony Teixeira, J.P. Morgan, and Gertler's partner Israeli-American Beny Steinmetz (50%).[4] Through subsidiary Branch Energy, the Energem-DiamondWorks gang has perpetuated war in 11 African countries.[5] In December 2007, Energem re-launched itself on the London Stock Market with the newly laundered image of a renewable energy company. Regarding diamonds, it said only it "had decided to give up exploration rights in the
Gertler and partners like Beny and Danny Steinmetz, Nir Livnat, Chaim Leibovitz and Yaakov Neeman run a hornet's nest of companies involved in African hotspots, including: Dan Gertler International (DGI), Steinmetz Global Resources, International Diamond Industries, NIKANOR and Global Enterprises Corporate.
"Dan Gertler is 'the new kid on the block,'" writes Yossi Melman in
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
"In the diamond industry," Melman wrote, "Gertler is considered something of an odd bird. He maintains few ties with the other merchants and is not very sociable... Alongside his business affairs, most of his energy is channeled into matters of faith. He is a donor to religious institutions and from time to time makes a pilgrimage to the rabbi he most admires, Rabbi David Abuhatzeira, from Nahariya, in order to consult with him and receive his blessing. Gertler is surrounded mostly by religious people and laces his speech liberally with praise to God." [9]
In 2003, Condoleeza Rice, then Assistant to President Bush for National Security Affairs, introduced Dan Gertler and Chaim Leibovitch to
When Dan Gertler and Chaim Leibovitch and their friends visit the luxury Gertler villa in Lumumbashi, the capital of
The average income for Congolese citizens each year—if they survive it—is about $95. Shootings at mining facilities and diamond mines are common, land is stolen from Congolese people, strikes are crushed by security forces that companies are partnered with, and black overseers of state terror routinely arrest and torture any vocal opposition—and sometimes disappear them—in support of white bosses. The Société Minière de Bakwange—MIBA—and the diamond fields of Mbuji-Mayi in Congo have a long history of bloodshed backed by Western powers, including Israel, from the beginning.[12] Amnesty International points out that not a single state agent has ever been prosecuted for the extrajudicial executions of suspected "illegal" miners in Mbuji-Mayi.[13]
After a century of exploitation and slavery, we find MIBA consistently withholding payment of salaries to starving Congolese laborers and middle managers for months at a time. April and May 2007 saw strikes and protests leading to the Kabila government's arbitrary arrest, detention and torture of trade union organizers like Leon Ngoy Bululu; police have also shot protestors.[14] So-called 'illegal' diamond workers—disenfranchised local Congolese people forced into "criminal" activities to survive—were summarily executed on MIBA concessions in Mbuji-Mayi. MIBA security guards have also been sniping unemployed diamond miners.[15]
Meanwhile, Dan Gertler's kosher meals depart
"Kosher does not mean that a Rabbi blesses the food," Rabbi Betolila corrected me, "but rather that the food was supervised by a Rabbinical Thora [sic] authority who sees that the ingredients were in accordance with the laws of Kashrut expressed in the Bible (Leviticus and Deuteronomy)." [17]
Dan Gertler often flies people into
The Gertler, Steinmetz and Templesman interests are advanced in part through the support of the Committee of the Jewish Community of Kinshasa—le Comité de la Communauté Israélite—that is tightly coordinated with the power structure in
>From June 26-30, 2007, the Communaute Israelite de Kinshasa received a visit from the Israeli Ambassador Yaakov Revah, director of the Africa Department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Revah also flew to Lumumbashi for meetings with Dan Gertler and his agents, including Moishe (Moses) Katumbi, the Governor of Katanga, and they most likely enjoyed a lovely, $23,000 kosher meal sent from the Chabad in Kinshasa.[19] The Communaute Israelite de Kinshasa maintains very intimate political relations with President Joseph Kabila's PPRD party, the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy. On March 1, 2006, in a formal ceremony, the President of the Communaute Israelite de Kinshasa, Ashlan Piha, was awarded the
THOU SHALT NOT COVET
Before his assassination on January 16, 2001, Laurent Desire Kabila—the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—made a deal with the Gertler gang that would play out in favor of the current President Joseph Kabila and, it seems, be a central factor in relation to both Congo's ongoing war and the bloody warlord's battle in Kinshasa in March 2007. [20]
Back in 2000, former Congolese president Laurent Kabila offered a monopoly on Congolese diamonds, and 88% of the proceeds, to Gertler's International Diamond Industries (IDI) in exchange for Israeli military assistance to his new government. [21] Top Congolese military officials apparently flew to
The original Gertler-Kabila deal fell through after Laurent Kabila was assassinated for not cooperating with the Great White Fathers of industry (January 2001), but Gertler and Leibovitch and their disciples formed another company, Dan Gertler International, and advanced their Congo plan. [23] By 2002 Gertler's company was the leading exporter of Congolese gems, controlling a diamond mining franchise worth about $
In 2003, the mighty Congolese diamond parastatal Societe Miniere De Bakwanga (MIBA)—which has been forever controlled by the Great White Fathers in
Security for mining operations in
Dan Gertler and Philippe de Moerloose were, reportedly, the only two white men who attended the wedding of Joseph Kabila and the two clearly share interests in "security" provided by
Overseas Security Services (OSS) operations are apparently grounded in the experience of top expatriate security operatives formerly involved with the biggest security firm in Mobutu's
Emaxon Finance International is a real gem, one of these octopuses of mining tangled up with interlocking companies and subsidiaries based in specious geographical offshore "tax havens" that work to shield from prosecution people who are responsible for money laundering, weapons and drugs operations, assassinations and other terrorism.
NIKANOR is registered as an Isle of Man (UK) company, an offshore tax haven that helps to conceal criminal activities and maximize profits. NIKANOR directors include Dan Kurtzer, former
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS
Back in 2001, when the Gertler enterprises surfaced in dirty diamond deals, public relations was handled by Lior Chorev, the "Special Strategic and Communications Consultant" to International Diamond Industries (IDI), and Chorev continued in this role to support Dan Gertler businesses. [32] Today, Lior Chorev is partnered with the brothers Yuval and Eyal Arad as director-owners of the Israeli marketing and public relations firm, ARAD Communications. [33]
"We do work for Mr. Gertler on some of his business issues," said Lior Chorev. [34]
Dan Gertler is close to Israeli politicians, especially Avigdor Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, and he is very close to diamantaire Beny Steinmetz, a good friend of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Gertler's inseperable friend, Chaim Leibovitz, is also very close to Lieberman, and was "a regular fixture" in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offices. [38]
Beny Steinmetz is considered to be one of the richest billionaires in
Seems Dan Gertler's land grabs and exclusion in Congo have a lot in common with the current crimes against humanity being committed by Israel through its illegal partition in the Middle East. On January 3, 2008, the Jerusalem Post reported that Lior Chorev was an integral part of past Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's advisers, and he was recently quoted to say that even though Sharon did not get to finalize Israel's final borders (he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2006), the route of the security fence—which he decided—would ultimately serve as the basis for the border and as Sharon's lasting legacy. [41]
"He felt he needed to set the border because he didn't trust the younger generations," Chorev was quoted to say. "He knew the fence route by heart and the reason for every stretch of land being on one side or the other." [42]
In 2003, the U.N. Panel of Experts on war in Congo revealed that Emaxon Finance International is controlled by Israeli diamond traders Chaim Leibovitz and Dan Gertler.[43] Emaxon lists as its address an office in Montreal, Canada, but Emaxon's majority shareholder is listed as FTS Worldwide, a nebulous global corporation whose business address is that of a firm of lawyers, Mossack Fonseca & Company, in Panama City. FTS Worldwide is registered with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to lawyer Andre Zolty of
Yaakov Neeman is a founding partner of Herzog, Fox and Neeman, Tel Aviv, one of
One of the main objectives of the Kimberley Process, and the
The Israeli-American enterprises of the Gertler/Steinmetz gang have proliferated and today are major shareholders or owners of diamond concessions in
The entire military-industrial-prisons complex revolves around minerals like cobalt, niobium and heterogenite (cobalt oxide), yet the truth about what happens to African people in lands taken over by these mining companies is hidden by the corporate media. More and more land is being stolen, more and more atrocities committed, with less and less transparency, and less and less accountability, and fewer and fewer voices for the voiceless. And, as usual, there are always a lot of empty promises.
THOUGH SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS
Over the past fifty years, elite Israeli nationals have perpetrated conflict and injustice in
Israeli trained shock troops became Mobutu's bodyguards, with Mossad advisers. According to a report by the American Jewish Committee: after 1980 "Mossad agents, military emissaries, and a small group of private businessmen… replaced diplomats as
Israeli operatives and "businessmen" appear everywhere there is egregious suffering and dispossession. Dan Gertler's forays into the bloody world of diamonds involve Israeli arms dealers Yair Klein, who is reportedly wanted by the
Retired Israeli Defense Forces Colonel Yair Klein reportedly organized arms for diamonds networks in
The Steinmetz Group of companies are also involved in the bloody diamond fields of Sierra Leone, along with Energem (formerly DiamondWorks), the company described above that is connected to the white mercenaries depicted in Hollywood's Blood Diamond propaganda film.[56] In December 2007, local people in Sierra Leone struggling to gain the smallest livelihood from their own resources were shot by police during peaceful protests against the Steinmetz-controlled Koidu Holdings site. It's the same old local people's story, happening everywhere. These were people from communities driven off their own land by mining companies that promised the world, cajoled the trusting people, and gave nothing after. The Steinmetz gang called in the local paramilitary, a curfew was imposed and people were shot; the police, as usual, falsely claimed that protesters were armed. [57]
Like most mining mafias in Africa, the Israeli octopus—organized crime syndicates, offshore subsidiaries, interlocking directorships and affiliated mercenaries—has gripped the very heart of Congo like an octopus grips and stuns its prey. Mining regulates the pulse of
THOU SHALT NOT KILL
Beyond the intriguing Jewish rivalry for diamonds in the heart of darkness, this tale takes a chilling turn with the involvement of certain German firms and
These companies were all behind the Jewish Holocaust. The infamous German Krupp firm is the industrial corporation that collaborated with former CIA director Allen Dulles and former
Brown Brothers Harriman & Company (BBH) was the primary Wall Street connection for German companies and the
There are no records or statistics of the numbers of people brutalized or killed in the diamond or cobalt mining areas, like
When Gertler and Steinmetz and their buddies came to Congo it was soon clear that they had to challenge Zimbabwean tycoons John Bredenkamp and Billy Rautenbach—two cronies of dictator Robert Mugabe involved in pillaging Congo and Zimbabwe for decades. The United Nations Panel of Experts on DRC named both men for plundering copper and cobalt from
On November 7, 2007 it was reported that Dan Gertler was instrumental in putting together a deal in which Katanga Mining Ltd. would buy rival NIKANOR for $2.1 billion and merge their adjacent mine projects in
The CAMEC/Prairie joint venture will exploit DRC's Luita copper processing facility, develop the Mukondo Mountain cobalt mine—called the world's richest cobalt mine—and work on "other" exploration properties. Prairie is majority owned by the family of Dan Gertler. CAMEC is connected to Zimbabwean/South African/British tycoon Billy Rautenbach. [62] The DRC government effectively banned controversial Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach from the country by declaring him persona non grata in July 2007, but this doesn't seem to stop him from getting what he wants. Rautenbach is also wanted in
Billy Rautenbach is a former motor car rally driver who controls a business empire in Southern and Central Africa through a
While there has been a lot of Western media fanfare over the Kabila governments' supposed "independent" review of mining contracts, little substantive change can be expected. [64] Structural factors exploit the Congolese people and lands and benefit white businessmen, arms dealers, bankers, and their embraceable black agents. Big business benefits from perception management articles well-placed in media to give the impression that the international system is just, that there are watchdogs, checks and balances.
However, while the DRC and the World Bank present a propaganda front about their ostensible attention to mining reform and the new mining code, NIKANOR—Mining Journal reports—"is in the advantageous position of having entered into a post mining-code contract, 'which makes us [NIKANOR] relatively comfortable'" [65] In other words, the mining review is a sham, it may force some changes, but it will be cosmetic at best.
Dan Gertler and the Steinmetz Group's partner Jewish-American Nir Livnat is also a director of Anglovaal Mining with Rick and Brian Menell and Basil Hersov of the South African Menell and Hersov dynasties. [66] Hersov has been named as a beneficiary of fraud and racketeering involving British BAE Systems weapons deals with shady offshore companies. [67]
The octopus of South African connections is a story in itself, with links to top officials from
Rick Menell is a director of Bateman Engineering—owned by Benny Steinmetz—the junior partner of the NIKANOR projects in
Brian Menell, Nir Livnat's associate on the board of Anglovaal, is on the board of Energem (formerly DiamondWorks) with Tony and Mario Teixeira. The Livnat connection ties Teixeira into networks that have supported both Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba in Congo's bloody wars. Energem is also involved in the trans-Uganda-Kenya pipeline, along with Nexant, a subsidiary of the deep intelligence and defense insider Bechtel Corporation. [69]
Brian Menell is also on the board of First Africa Oil, which operates in seven African countries, and First Africa Oil director John Bentley is a director of Osprey Oil and Gas, whose directors include Carol Bell, a director of the Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank. Bentley is also on the board of Adastra Minerals—formerly America Mineral Fields (AMF, AMFI, AMX), a company based in 1995 in Hope, Arkansas—and set up by Robert Friedland and Max and Jean-Raymond Boulle, notable "friends of Bill" Clinton. Since 1995, American Mineral Fields has been involved in Brazil, Russia, Norway, Zambia, Angola and the DRC. A criminal backer of the war in DRC, Jean-Raymond Boulle, who holds 36.4 % of the company stock, was the former General Director of De Beers in Zaire, part of the Templesman alliance of terrorism under the Mobutu regime.[70][71]
The Gertler/Steinmetz interests apparently curry huge favors with Congo's number two most powerful man, Augustine Katumba Mwanke, one of Joseph Kabila's closest allies and financiers, former Governor of Katanga (1998-2001) and director of Australia's Anvil Mining. The UN Panel of Experts (2002) cited Mwanke for illegal arms deals and plunder of Congo: Mwanke negotiated arms purchases through Belgian banks and the DRC mining company MIBA.[72] Reportedly, Mwanke personally clears $US 1,000,000 a day through his interests in Katanga mining deals.[73]
Anvil Mining has been involved in massacres in DRC. [74] Anvil directors include former U.S. Ambassador Kenneth L. Brown, who served at U.S. embassies in Brussels, Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville and South Africa. Brown was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa (1987-1989) under George Schultz and George H.W. Bush and Director of Central African Affairs (1980-1981). The former top internal intelligence and security chief of the United Nations Observer's Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has been worked for Anvil mining in Katanga since 2006. [75]
THOU SHALT NOT RAPE AND PLUNDER
Gertler/Steinmetz interests have also been jostling for copper and cobalt concessions with Kinross-Forrest Group. Gertler has bought up or invested heavily in companies just to close them down. George Forrest also made the UN hit list of Congo's looters and Forrest and his three sons helped bankroll Joseph Kabila's 2006 election "victory". [76] George Forrest's daughter is reportedly married to the son of Louis Michel. Malta and George Forrest are controlling directors in Katanga Mining Limited.
Born as Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest, the Belgian Forrest interests have been pillars of exploitation in Congo since at least 1922, when they launched mining operations in Katanga. Forrest's Katanga Mining directors include: three Canadians; Congo's Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo, a former Governor of DRC and high official at the IMF and World Bank; and the current Governor of the Central Bank of DRC. The Forrest dynasty has munitions factories in Belgium and Kenya, and has partnered with OM-Group, in Ohio [USA], dealing in Congo's cobalt and coltan. Forrest International also operates in Europe, Burundi—involving him on both sides of Congo's bloody war—and the Middle East.[77] Forrest interests in DRC include aviation, foods, plantations, construction, logging, copper and cobalt mining. Forrest companies are enmeshed in the coltan plunder in eastern Congo.
Katanga is the world's richest mining metropolis, part of the vast copper belt that stretches across northern Zambia and southern Congo—and the home to unprecedented human misery due to state orchestrated repression and communities overrun with toxic mining, tuberculosis, cancers, immune disorders, racial discrimination and slavery. The Zambian copperbelt concessions over the border involve many of the same companies and interests mentioned above, and others. [78]
Workers and communities in and around these mines suffer all the standard treatable maladies (typhoid, malaria, tetanus, polio, malnutrition) as well. However, such stories are off the agenda for the North American, European, Japanese, Australian and Israeli media corporations providing the mainstay of English language indoctrination meant to instill racial superiority and a vast ignorance and obliviousness that leaves westerns populations shaking their heads and wringing their hands and clicking their tongues, while all the while wondering "what is to be done?" It does not cross people's minds that their own hands are dirty, that their own consciousness has been falsified, as all the raw materials from Congo enrich the lives of people in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel.
The immediate capital investment required for just one Gertler project in Katanga—the Komoto Oliveira Virgule (KOV) project—is reportedly $US 1.8 billion dollars, income to kick start billions of dollars of unused equipment mothballed in the middle Mobutu era. There are rumors that Bechtel is involved, but the KOV project involves ThyssenKrupp AG as a minor player. [79]
The Krupp firm is one of several German firms involved in the plunder in eastern Congo, exploitation which involves the DeutscheGesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit—GTZ—a "German technological cooperation agency" whose Supervisory Board has representatives of four Federal [German] Ministries. [80] Krupp industries use coltan and cobalt for superalloys. [81] Dr.-Ing. Ekkehard D. Schultz, a ThyssenKrupp director, is also a director of Bayer AG, the Germany firm whose subsidiary H.C. Starck was named for its involvement in the ongoing illegal plunder of coltan and cassiterite (tin) in eastern Congo. NIKANOR director Jay Pomrenze is also a consultant for the Deutsche Bank. [82] Certain German and U.S. firms benefit from the military occupation of Rwandan-backed warlord Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, DRC, where Nkunda controls the Lueshe niobium mine "owned" by Gesellschaft fuer Elektrometallurgie GmbH, a subsidiary of New York-based Mettalurg Group. [83][84]
HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER
Dan Gertler's grandfather, Moshe Schnitzer (d. November 2007), was known in Israel as "Mr. Diamond;" in youth he joined the pre-state underground organization Etzel (Irgoun), an Israeli military cell self-defined as an "untra-nationationalist Jewish militia," but one that committed acts of terrorism in service to the Israeli cause. [85] Moshe Schnitzer assumed a major role in the Africa-Israeli diamond trade in the 1950's in a partnership business called Schnitzer-Greenstein. Schnitzer later founded the Israel Diamond Exchange in Tel Aviv in 1960, which today brings Israel $14 billion annually in blood business, and is the country's second-largest industry, but Israel's top export. King Leopold III of Belgium decorated Schnitzer in recognition of his activities favoring the close relationship of Belgium, Israel and the DeBeers diamond cartels, and Schnitzer was also President of the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum in Israel. [86]
The diamond jewelry trade in the United States is more than $30 billion annually, and 99%—everything that is not synthetic or artificial diamonds—involves blood diamonds and the above organized crime syndicates. Israel buys more than 50% of the world's rough diamonds, and the U.S. buys two-thirds of these. The diamond factories are located in Nethanya, Petach Tikvah, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Jerusalem, and other cities around the country, but most of the offices were in Tel Aviv in the financial district on Ahad Ha'am Street.[87] Dan Gertler's father, Asher Gertler, and his uncle, Shmuel Schnitzer, manage the original family business, and Shmuel is Vice-Chairman of the Belgian-based World Diamond Council—the entity that spends more money promoting the false image of "conflict-free" diamonds than it does helping any of the people dispossessed or brutalized by the diamond industry. [88]
On August 16, 2007 Rabbi Bentolila in Kinshasa received a communication asking: "What does the Torah say about men exploiting other men for vast profits while other men are starving and dying all around them? Is there some hierarchy to the Torah that suggests, for example, that black people or Africans are lesser beings, and therefore not to be a concern where profound profits are being made?"
There was no reply from Rabbi Bentolila, he was apparently busy readying for another Bar Mitsvah in Belgium. Unfortunately for Dan Gertler and his spiritual advisers, the Torah says that a Jew can keep a slave, but a Jew kept as a slave must be redeemed, and that—an empty, foolish justification for exploiting innocent people—is how religion falsifies spirituality and paves the road to hell. ~
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES:
[1] In January 2008 the International Rescue Committee, who is also
discussed in this article, released its second survey of mortality in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, estimating that 5,400,000 people
have died, or some 1500 people every day. Mortality in the Democratic
Republic of Congo: an Ongoing Crisis, International Rescue Committee,
January 2008, <http://www.theirc.org/special-report/congo-forgotten-crisis.html>.
However, IRC statistics are highly biased and politicized. See: keith
harmon snow, "Over Five Million Dead in Congo?" All Things Pass,
January 3, 2008,
<http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=71>.
[2] Personal interview, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 2006.
[3] keith harmon snow, "Warlord's Deadly Battle, Toward Freedom, 2007.
[4] Officers: Antonio Teixeira, President & CEO; Robert G. Rainey,
CFO; Brett Thompson, COO, Mining; Dimitri (Jimmy) Kanakakis, Vice
President, Corporate & Legal Affairs; Bernard Poznanski, Corporate
Secretary; Board Members: Brian Menell, Richard Dorfman, Bruce Holmes,
Robert Rainey, Antonio Teixeira, <www.energem.com>.
[5] See: "Africa/Diamonds: Rough diamonds," Africa Confidential, 5
March 2004, Vol. 45, No. 5; and "Equatorial Guinea: All Theft is
Property," Africa Confidential, 17 Nov. 2006, Vol. 47, No. 23: p. 12.
[6] Tim Hoare, the head of the advisers that launched it, Canaccord
Adams, sits alongside rock star and champion of Africa Bob Geldof on
the board of the television-production company Ten Alps. See: Ben
Laurance, "Energy firm link to blood diamonds," The Sunday Times,
December 30, 2007.
[7] See: keith harmon snow, "A People's History of Congo's Jean-Pierre
Bemba," Toward Freedom, September 18, 2007.
[8] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, "Diamond in the rough," March 24,
2005, <www.haaretz.com>.
[9] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, "Diamond in the rough," March 24,
2005, <www.haaretz.com>.
[10] See: keith harmon snow, "Congo's President Joseph Kabila: Dynasty
or Travesty?" Toward Freedom, November 13, 2007,
<http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1171/1/>.
[11] Private interview, Kinshasa, August 2006.
[12] See: "Terror in the Diamond Fields: Excessive Force and Impunity
in the DRC," Amnesty International Canada,
<http://www.amnesty.ca/realsecurity/DRC.php>; Democratic Republic of
Congo: Government should investigate human rights violations in the
Mbuji Mayi diamond fields, Amnesty International, October 22, 2002;
[13] Making a Killing: The Diamond Trade in Government Controlled DRC,
Amnesty International, 2002, AFR 62/017/2002 22/10/2002.
[14] See: "ICEM protests Congo's Transport, Diamond Injustices,"
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General
Worker's Union, May 7, 2007,
<http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2243-ICEM-protests-Congo%E2%80%99s-Transport-Diamond-Injustices>.
[15] "Diamond miners killed in DR Congo," BBC News, 7 August 2006,
<http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:z9WCcOGeL8MJ:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5254006.stm+%22MIBA%22+%22illegal+miners%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4>.
[16] See: <http://www.jewishafrica.com/> and
<http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.htm/aid/117894/jewish/Chabad-of-Central-Africa.html
> >.
[17] Private communication, Rabbi Chlomo Bentolila, August 16, 2007.
[18] "Lag Baomer in Kinshasa," June 2005,
<www.hassidout.org/page_derniere26.htm>.
[19] "Visite de l'Ambassadeur Revah a' Kinshasa," Kadima 010,
June-September 2007,
<http://74.52.200.226/~sefarad/kadima/kadima10.pdf>.
[20] See: keith harmon snow, "Behind the Scenes: Warlord's Deadly
Battle in Congo," Toward Freedom, August 9, 2007.
[21] Nicole Gaouette, "Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family
affair," Christian Science Monitor, 21 February 2002,
<http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules6437.php>.
[22] Yitzhak Danon, "Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals:
Israel: Lawsuit claims corruption in Congo diamonds for arms deal,"
Globes (Israel), 18 February 2004,
<http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press269.htm>. See also:
"Column One: What Lieberman Wants," Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2006.
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193481395&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter>.
[23] Christian Dietrich, Blood Diamonds: Effective African-Based
Monopolies, African Security Review, Vol. 10, No 3., 2001,
<http://www.iss.co.za/ASR/10No3/Dietrich.html>.
[24] Yitzhak Danon, "Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals:
Israel: Lawsuit claims corruption in Congo diamonds for arms deal,"
Globes (Israel), 18 February 2004,
[25] Yitzhak Danon, "Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals:
Israel: Lawsuit claims corruption in Congo diamonds for arms deal,"
Globes (Israel), 18 February 2004,
<http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press269.htm>. See also:
"Column One: What Lieberman Wants," Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2006.
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193481395&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter>.
[26] See: keith harmon snow, "Behind the Scenes: Warlord's Deadly
Battle in Congo," Toward Freedom, August 9, 2007. The Angolan military
protected Kinshasa during the so-called "rebellion" involving Rwanda
and Uganda. The Angolans do not like the Rwandans or Ugandans due to
their military and commercial relations with Angolan rebels, the União
Nacionalpara a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), and because
Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers invaded Angola after their failed bid to
control the Congo's strategic Inga Dam power station and Matadi port
between 1998 and 2001. Angola sent troops to Congo in July and August
2006, and there were black Angolan troops amongst the European Union
mercenary forces—EUFOR—sent to quell any possible rebellions during
the "historic national elections." Angola also sent troops to Congo to
back Kabila during the warlord's deadly battle of March 2007.
[27] "Presidential Chopper," Africa Confidential, Vol. 47 Number 23,
November 17, 2006.
[28] See: Overseas Security Services Congo sprl web site, <www.oss-congo.com>.
[29] See: Overseas Security Services Congo sprl web site, <www.oss-congo.com>.
[30] OSS-Congo owner Philippe de Moerloose communicated with this
author after his name appeared in a prior story mentioning OSS-Congo
and offered to meet in Europe and provide the author with the
"correct" information about his companies operations in Congo.
Repeated communications with De Moerloose seeking clarifications and
information for this story were not answered.
[31] See e.g., SEC info on Lenorth Holdings:
<http://www.secinfo.com/dsvrw.z14q.htm > and SDG Marketing:
<http://www.secinfo.com/$/SEC/Filings.asp?As=M&Name=incmarketingsdg>.
[32] Lior Chorev, The First [DRC] Diamond Polishing Plant to Move into
Full Production, Press Release, DGI Group of Companies, January 11,
2005, <http://www.pressemeldinger.no/read.asp?RecNo=8106>.
[33] ARAD Communications web site,
[34] Private communication, Lior Chorev, January 19, 2008.
[35] See: keith harmon snow, "Over Five Million Dead in Congo?"
January 30, 2008.
[36] Private email communication, Lior Chorev, January 19, 2008. See
also: Gil Hoffman, "Olmert, Netanyahu Rivalry Gets Personal,"
Israel.jpost.com, March 26, 2006; "Sharon allies and foes joust over
new party as March 28 elections are set," Associated Press, November
22, 2005, <http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/7095.htm>;
[37] NATO Transformation, the Mediterranean Dialog, and NATO-Israel
Relations, October 23, 2006,
<http://www.nato.int/med-dial/2006/registered_participants_isr.pdf>.
[38] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, "Diamond in the Rough,"
Haaretz.com, March 24, 2005.
[39] The Olayan Group web site: <http://www.olayangroup.com/directory.asp>.
[40] The Steinmetz Group, http://www.steinmetz-group.com/>.
[41] Gil Hoffman, "Politics; Unconscious Legacy," Jerusalem Post,
features.jpost.com, January 3, 2008.
[42] Gil Hoffman, "Politics; Unconscious Legacy," Jerusalem Post,
features.jpost.com, January 3, 2008.
[43] United Nations Panel of Experts Confidential Report. In October
2003, Leibovitz was scheduled to make a
[44] Under the contract Emaxon granted Miba loans totaling $5-million
in 2003, and a further $10-million subsequently. In exchange, Emaxon
gained rights to 88% of Miba's production at a discount, formally, of
5%.
[45] Herzog, Fox and Neeman web site:
<http://www.hfn.co.il/pages/lawyers/neemany.htm>.
[46] <http://www.tevapharm.com/about/officers.asp>.
[47] See: keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamond:
Doublethink and Deception About those Worthless Little Rocks of
Desire," Z Magazine, June and July, 2007.
[48] On Neeman and Hurvitz, see Markstone Capital Group,
<http://www.markstonecapital.com/markstone2_5.htm>; on Robert Rotberg,
Maurice Templesman and the Harvard Belfer Center, see: keith harmon
snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception About
those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire," Z Magazine, June and July,
2007.
[49] Criminal rackets known to the United Nations security were or
some time illegally shipping uranium and cobalt out of Katanga by road
to Zimbabwe and Tanzania (private interview, U.N. Official, 2006).
[50] Israel and Africa: Assessing the Past, Envisioning the Future,
The Africa Institute American Jewish Committee and The Harold Hartog
School Tel Aviv University, May 2006.
[51] Ron Ben-Yishai and Molly Camprier-Kritz, "The Murder Request Went
to the Wrong Address," Yediot Aharonot weekend supplement on 19
September 1999.
[52] Nicole Gaouette, "Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family
affair," Christian Science Monitor, 21 February 2002,
<http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules6437.php>.
[53] For a discussion of the veracity of these facts and more on the
"Russian Military Brotherhood" see: Central Africa Minerals and Arms
Research Bulletin, Edition 2, International Peace Information Service,
June 18, 2001.
[54] Jimmy Johnson, "Israelis and Hezbollah Haven't Always Been
Enemies," Appearing in Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
USA, 6 September 2006,
<http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:pYAbqkMgTJ4J:www.icahdusa.org/2006/09/06/israelis-and-hezbollah-haven%E2%80%99t-always-been-enemies/+%22hezbollah%22+%22congo%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=15>.
[55] Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuan2t to UN Security
Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra
Leone, December 2000,
<http://www.sierra-leone.org/panelreport-I.html>.
[56] Energem web site:
<http://www.energem.com/energem_logistics_industrial.html>; and also:
keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamond: Doublethink and
Deception About those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire," Z Magazine,
June and July, 2007.
[57] Mineweb, <http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page37?oid=42572&sn=Detail>.
[58] Charles Higham, Trading With The Enemy: The Nazi-American Money
Plot, 1933-1949, Delacorte Press, 1983.
[59] Charles Hingham, Trading With The Enemy: The Nazi-American Money
Plot, 1933-1949, Delacorte Press, 1983.
[60] Susan Mazur, "Deeper Into the Dillon-Euphronios Nexus with David
N. Gibbs," SCOOP, April 26, 2006,
<http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00323.htm>.
[61] David Gibbs, The Political Economy of Third World Intervention:
Mines, Money and U.S. Policy in the Congo Crises, University of
Chicago Press, 1991.
[62] Eric Onstad, "UPDATE 2-CAMEC shares soar after agrees Congo joint
venture," Reuters, Nov. 7, 2007.
[63] Brenna Chigonga, "Zimbabwe: Meet Country's Richest People," The
Herald, July 14, 2007.
[64] See: Maurice Carney, "Congo's Contract Review," Pambazuka News,
January 17, 2008.
[65] Martin Creamer, "Funded NIKANOR presses on with $1,8bn copper
mine, refinery," Mining Weekly, September 21, 2007.
[66] Julie Walker, "Hersovs and Menells are in no hurry to yield
control of Anglovaal," Sunday Times,
<http://www.btimes.co.za/98/0517/comp/comp17.htm>.
[67] Evelyn Groenink, "Arms deal: Who got R1bn in pay-offs?" Mail &
Guardian, January 12, 2007, <
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=295457&area=/insight/insight__national/>.
[68] Teal Exploration & Mining web site:
<http://www.tealmining.com/tp/brief.asp>.
[69] Press Release: Kenya-Uganda Oil Products Pipeline, Kenya-Uganda
Joint Co-coordinating Commission for Extension of Oil Pipeline, August
17, 2005, <http://www.energyandminerals.go.ug/Press%20Release_Oil%20PipeLine%20Extension.pdf>;
see also: Energem web site:
<http://www.energem.com/energem_corporate_info.html>.
[70] François Misser and Olivier Vallée, "Des matières premières
toujours convoitées. Les nouveaux acteurs du secteur minier Africain,"
Le Monde Diplomatique, May 1998, p.24-25; also Wayne Madsen, Genocide
and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellon Press, 1999.
[71] Diamond Fields International Management:
<http://www.diamondfields.com/s/Management.asp>.
[72] 'Inculpations à la Belgolaise', Le Libre Belgique, 4 June 2004.
[73] Private interview, Kinshasa, DRC, April 2007.
[74] Norm Dixon, "Congo Massacre: Australian mining company's managers
indicted," Green Left Review, November 4, 2006
<http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/689/35790>.
[75] His name is known, but he threatened to track down and break the
author's legs if he is revealed.
[76] See: Barry Sergeant, "NIKANOR's Quandry: Meet Dan the Man, King
of the Congo," MoneyWeb, 4 April 2007, <
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page1329?oid=84351&sn=Detail>;
"Congo Kinshasa: After the Election" Africa Confidential, Vol. 47, No.
23, 17 Nov. 2006; and United Nations Security Council Report to the
Secretary General, S/2003/1027, 23 October 2003.
[77] George Forrest International, <http://www.forrestgroup.com/uk/home.html>.
[78] Personal investigation, Ndola, Zambia copperbelt mines, 2000.
[79] http://www.nikanor.co.uk/default.asp?page=15
[80] These are: the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ); Federal Foreign Office; Federal Ministry of
Finance; and Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor. Since 1998 the
Supervisory Board Chairman has been State Secretary Erich Stather from
the BMZ.
[81] Karen Hayes and Richard Burge, Coltan Mining in the Democratic
Republic of Congo: How tantalum-using industries can commit to the
reconstruction of the DRC, Fauna & Flora Int'l, 2003.
[82] NIKANOR web site.
[83] Metallurg Group <www.metallurg.com>.
[84] See keith harmon snow, "Three Cheers for Eve Ensler? Propaganda,
White Collar Crime, and Sexual Violence in Eastern Congo," Z Magazine
on-line (Z-Net), October 24, 2007.
[85] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, "Diamond in the Rough,"
Haaretz.com, March 24, 2005.
[86] "Moshe Schnitzer: Un Legende s'en est Allee," Kadima 010,
June-September 2007,
<http://74.52.200.226/~sefarad/kadima/kadima10.pdf>.
[87] "The Israel Diamond Exchange - Kiryat Moshe Schnitzer", Diamond
Key, 2002, <http://www.diamond-key.com/diamonds-newsletter/>.
[88] Nicole Gaouette, "Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family
affair," Christian Science Monitor, 21 February 2002,
<http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules6437.php>.
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