West African Diamond Smuggling Traced to Terror Financing

 

By Leah Krakinowski

Diamond smuggling¹ in West Africa has become a steady, almost untraceable source of funding for U.S.-listed terror groups like al-Qaida and Hezbollah, according to information discovered by journalist Douglas Farah. These hidden transactions are among the most difficult for law enforcement officials to cut off.

Terrorist operatives buy millions of dollars worth of black-market diamonds, gold, and other commodities from warlords in Liberia and Sierra Leone to finance their empires, according to Douglas Farah, an American journalist who uncovered al-Qaida's involvement in diamond smuggling in West Africa.

Mr. Farah told reporters during a briefing in New York that al-Qaida, the terrorist network behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, were trafficking diamonds with the go-ahead of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Mr. Farah says it is an ideal way to move vast sums of cash around the world without being detected.

"The al-Qaida representatives came in at the end of 2000 and paid Taylor $100,000 and asked for permission to not only buy diamonds but to control the production for a set period of time."

Mr. Farah's new book, Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror, exposes the estimated $20 million link between al-Qaida and West Africa. Mr. Farah's discovery was based on documents and interviews with American, European and other intelligence officials, as well as his own reporting in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Dubai, Pakistan, and Europe.

The former Washington Post newspaper reporter says shadowy regions around the world enable terrorist networks to fund their activities through phony companies and illicit² enterprises that operate outside the legitimate³ global financial system.

"There are vast sections of the world in this continent, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia that are essentially⁴ stateless regions or where you have states similar to Liberia that are functioning criminal enterprises and are not states at al. These are vital resources for terrorist organizations. They need the identification and passports they can get there. They need places where international criminals and others who deal with them can register their aircraft, import weapons without question, buy end-user certificates which are vital to the flow of weapons around the world."

Mr. Farah says that new strategies and a better understanding of how terror groups operate are necessary to cut off the flow of money for terrorist activities.

"Finances are like water running down hill. They will look for the course of least resistance. If you put up a dam some place, they will run around that dam and keep going. I think all you can do is raise the cost ultimately and make it much more difficult. You cannot eliminate it. Ultimately, if you have international enforcement, you can the raise the price a little bit."

Mr. Farah, now a consultant⁵ and freelance writer on terror finance, says efforts by the United States and United Nations to publicly name individuals involved with terror financing in their home countries is very effective.

This is Leah Krakinowski for VOA news in New York.
注释：
untraceable 难以寻找的
Hezbollah（黎巴嫩）真主党
Sierra Leone 塞拉利昂
uncover 揭开，揭示
go-ahead 放行信号
detect 察觉，发现
Dubai 迪拜
phony 假冒的
al Albania，阿尔巴尼亚
eliminate 消除

1 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

2 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。

3 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。