by Keith Harmon Snow
www.allthingspass.com
7 February 2008
Maurice Templesman is one of the top funders of Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. Templesman was the unofficial ambassador to the Congo (Zaire Congo
For Israeli-American Dan Gertler, business in blood drenched Congo Mbuji-Mayi
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 South Africa
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 Central African Republic Congo , but Dan Gertler is the new, unofficial ambassador to the Congo
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 Israel India , Russia , Belgium and the United States
“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 U.S. official Jendayi Frazer, a Harvard Kennedy School affiliate and former National Security Council agent focused on Africa . On December 6, 2006, Frazer, then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, was one of seven special Bush delegates sent to the inauguration of Congo ’s newly installed President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa
When Dan Gertler and Chaim Leibovitch and their friends visit the luxury Gertler villa in Lumumbashi, the capital of Katanga , Congo ’s large southern province, their kosher meals arrive by private plane fromKinshasa Congo costs some $US
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
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 Kinshasa , the capital of the big Congo Brooklyn , New York , and his wife Miriam is the sister of Rabbi Mena’hem Hadad, a high priest in Brussels
“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 Congo Israel , New York and Brussels
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 Kinshasa
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 Congo
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 Israel
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 $US
In 2003, the mighty Congolese diamond parastatal Societe Miniere De Bakwanga (MIBA)—which has been forever controlled by the Great White Fathers in Belgium , Israel and America Kinshasa , Congo
Security for mining operations in Congo Kinshasa Zaire
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 OSS at MIBA and elsewhere in Congo
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 Zaire OSS OSS operates in Burundi ,Ivory Coast , Rwanda , Dubai , South Africa , Republic of Congo (Brazzavile) and Belgium , placing them in cahoots with all sides warring and plundering eastern Congo
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 U.S. ambassador to Israel London Miami to New York
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] ARAD ’s many clients include Dan Gertler companies, Los Angeles-based Coral Diamonds and an Israeli aeronautics weaponry manufacturer producing Unmanned Aerospace Vehicles (UAVs)—robotic weapons and intelligence platforms like those being used against the people of Congo
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 Israel Congo
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 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 Geneva Switzerland
Yaakov Neeman is a founding partner of Herzog, Fox and Neeman, Tel Aviv, one of Israel Israel Harvard University ’s Belfer Center, 2002-2005, during the period when the Belfer Center Israel
One of the main objectives of the Kimberley Process, and the Harvard Belfer Center
The Israeli-American enterprises of the Gertler/Steinmetz gang have proliferated and today are major shareholders or owners of diamond concessions in Congo ’s Kasai province and copperbelt concessions in Katanga Congo Katanga
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.
Over the past fifty years, elite Israeli nationals have perpetrated conflict and injustice in Africa , fueled by and for minerals. Operatives associated with the Israeli military or intelligence services—the Mossad—maintain strategic criminal syndicates in competition and in partnership with other syndicates involving men like Philippe De Moerloose, Louis Michel, Viscount Etienne Davignon, John Bredenkamp and Tony Buckingham.
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 Israel Angola , DRC and Central Africa Republic
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 U.S. for training Medellin drug-cartel militias in Colombia Israel Sierra Leone in 1999, Klein was a field representative for Gertler in war-torn Sierra Leone and Liberia
Retired Israeli Defense Forces Colonel Yair Klein reportedly organized arms for diamonds networks in Sierra Leone and Liberia Sierra Leone Sierra Leone
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 Sierra Leone
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 Congo
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 New York City
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 U.S. Katanga succession in the 1960’s just as Dan Gertler in recent years backed the reorganization of power in Congo
Brown Brothers Harriman & Company (BBH) was the primary Wall Street connection for German companies and the U.S. U.S. treasury bonds to Germany Auschwitz , Birkenau and Buckenwald became public knowledge long before they became public outrage. It is the same story for Congo
There are no records or statistics of the numbers of people brutalized or killed in the diamond or cobalt mining areas, like Kolwezi , Mbuji Mayi , Tshikapa, Banalia, or Kananga in DRC, or Ndola in Zambia
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 Katanga England and he reportedly owns a mansion several doors down from Margaret Thatcher’s residence in London
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 Congo
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 South Africa British Virgin Islands company called Ridgepoint Overseas Development Limited. In 1998, the short-lived President of Congo, Laurent Kabila, named Rautenbach the managing director of La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines), one of Africa's biggest cobalt mines, the Katanga
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 Britain to Canada Congo
Rick Menell is a director of Bateman Engineering—owned by Benny Steinmetz—the junior partner of the NIKANOR projects in Katanga Britain
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
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
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 Congo US 1,000,000 a day through his interests in Katanga
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 andSouth Africa 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]
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 Malta
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 Congo Belgium and Kenya , and has partnered with OM-Group, in Ohio [USA ], dealing in Congo 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 Krupp firm is one of several German firms involved in the plunder in eastern Congo 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
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
The diamond jewelry trade in the United States Israel buys more than 50% of the world’s rough diamonds, and the U.S. Ramat Gan ,Jerusalem Ahad Ha'am Street
On August 16, 2007 Rabbi Bentolila in Kinshasa
There was no reply from Rabbi Bentolila, he was apparently busy readying for another Bar Mitsvah in Belgium
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 Things Pass
[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
[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
[11] Private interview, Kinshasa
[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.
[17] Private communication, Rabbi Chlomo Bentolila, August 16, 2007.
[18] “Lag Baomer in Kinshasa
[19] “Visite de l’Ambassadeur Revah a’ Kinshasa
[20] See: keith harmon snow, “Behind the Scenes: Warlord’s Deadly Battle in Congo
[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
[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
[25] Yitzhak Danon, “Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals: Israel : Lawsuit claims corruption in Congo diamonds for arms deal,” Globes (Israel
[26] See: keith harmon snow, “Behind the Scenes: Warlord’s Deadly Battle in Congo Kinshasa during the so-called “rebellion” involving Rwanda and Uganda Angola after their failed bid to control the Congo Angola sent troops to Congo Angola also sent troops to Congo
[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
[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
[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.
[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.
[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
[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
[50] Israel and Africa: Assessing the Past, Envisioning the Future, The Africa Institute American Jewish Committee and The Harold Hartog School Tel Aviv University
[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
[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.
[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
[62] Eric Onstad, “UPDATE 2-CAMEC shares soar after agrees Congo
[63] Brenna Chigonga, “Zimbabwe
[64] See: Maurice Carney, “Congo
[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
[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
[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
[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
[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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Behind the Scenes: Warlords’ Deadly Battle in Congo
by Keith Harmon Snow
Towards Freedom, Thursday, 09 August 2007
[excerpts on Congo and Angola,
underlines added by Radio Islam for sake of emphasis]
The "four-day war" that rocked Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo from March 22-26, 2007 was called a "cleaning" by insiders. Everyone knew it was going to happen, the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo (MONUC) did nothing to stop it and the death count was significantly under-reported. The realities behind the scenes remain cloaked by the international media and world institutions, and the big losers, yet again, are the Congolese people. This is the inside story.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is today both the richest and poorest country in the world. First robbed of its rubber and ivory (1890-1908) by Belgium’s King Leopold—whose enterprise of slavery claimed ten million Congolese lives but was masked by a humanitarian "anti-slavery" propaganda campaign—the plunder of the Congo was advanced by Belgian colonial interests from 1908 to "independence" on June 30, 1960.
Following a coup d’etat orchestrated in part by Israeli American Maurice Tempelsman and his corporate allies, the country emerged from the first Congo crises (1960-1967) with U.S.-backed Colonel Joseph Mobutu installed as President.(1) Mobutu and his corporate partners plundered Congo from 1965 to 1996, and many of the same "untouchables" of the Mobutu era—Maurice Tempelsman, Etienne Davignon, George Forrest, the Blattners—are plundering Congo today.(2)
The Pentagon backed the overthrow of Mobutu in 1996-1997. This invasion was led by Rwanda and Uganda, backed by the U.S., Canada, U.K., Belgium and Israel. Washington’s support of the overthrow had to do with corporate interests in the region. International businesses wanted to reorganize the power structure in the region to better exploit the Congo's riches and displace deeply entrenched competitors. By July 1996, Mobutu was negotiating with George H.W. Bush over Barrick Gold interests in Zaire's Kilo Moto goldfields and for Adolph Lundin interests in copper/cobalt in Katanga. The invasion of Zaire swung into action after Paul Kagame visited the Pentagon in August 1996.(3)
Congolese "rebel" warlords like Jean-Pierre Bemba, Azarias Ruberwa, Arthur Zahidi Ngoma, and Mbusa Nyamwisi fought against the seat of power in Kinshasa held by Laurent Kabila (1998-2001) and then Joseph Kabila, his purported son. Multinational corporations, criminal networks and regional governments backed "rebel" and "government" forces—often both—and all sides committed massive atrocities. Billions of dollars in plantation commodities, minerals and timber exited Congo during the war were shipped to Western markets.
As the Congo "peace process" unfolded, Jean-Pierre Bemba became one of four warlords rewarded with a vice-presidency in DRC’s transitional government (2003-2006); sworn in on July 17, 2003, he held the Finance and Economic portfolio. Bemba was one of five significant challengers to the transitional president, Joseph Kabila, in the 2006 elections, which fielded 33 presidential candidates. Bemba believes himself Congo’s savior and rightful leader, and he provoked hostilities, riots and parliamentary chaos throughout the transition, elections and post-elections periods.
Behind the machinations of power in Congo lie hundreds of billions of dollars to be made in exploiting Congo’s riches in the next decade alone. From 1996-2007, despite multiple peace accords, some six to ten million people died in Congo’s wars.
[...]
THE SAVIMBI SOLUTION
Among the dead bodies that turned up in the morgue after the "short but brutal war" in March 2007 were battle-hardened soldiers who once fought alongside Jonas Savimbi. Hundreds of bodies filled the morgue but many were not claimed, indicating that the dead were outsiders whose families would not be coming. Some 20 troops who surrendered were also reported to be former UNITA.
South African special forces were in Kinshasa at the time, and South Africa negotiated with DRC for Bemba’s safe departure from Congo; Bemba’s ties to South Africa run deep and silent.
To understand why MONUC and the "international community" did not take action to prevent the March war in Kinshasa—even after the history of belligerence and atrocities by both Bemba and Kabila’s forces—we can find some clues in the example of Jonas Savimbi in Angola.
Savimbi was the leader of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), a Reagan–era rebel front that fought against "communist" Angola with U.S., U.K. and Israeli backing. By the late 1990’s UNITA was out of favor: new oil and diamond deals, increasing U.S. investments in Angola, mercenary friends of Bill Clinton, all played a role.(22)
After Savimbi refused the vice-presidency in President Dos Santos’ government in Angola the order went out to assassinate him. Israeli Special Forces, with Pentagon support, flew to Angola to track and kill Savimbi. They reportedly pinpointed Savimbi’s position with satellite technology, and he was reportedly assassinated soon after the Clinton Administration and its partners gave the orders.(23)
"They got tired of Savimbi, and they find him and kill him," said one Kabila insider. "When the international powers want Savimbi killed—it’s easy. This is what finally happened with Bemba. They were tired of him interfering in their plans. Mining in this country is an international scandal, and Bemba was disturbing the new democracy and getting in the way of exploitation and profits."
"I would never believe that Kabila would take such action if he did not have the green light from important people outside," said one insider close to Kabila and the secrets of the Kabila Government. "It is clear that this was a "cleaning" of Bemba’s men by Kabila’s forces and that some powerful people from the U.S. and U.K., Israel, Belgium and Australia—Kabila’s supporters—wanted it to happen." One government parliamentarian close to Bemba agreed.
[...]
Notes
1. See Dr. David Gibbs, The Political Economy of Third World Intervention: Mines, Money and U.S. Policy in the Congo Crises, University of Chicago Press, 1991.
2. See: Keith Harmon Snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception Over Those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire," Z Magazine, June 1 and July 1, 2007.
3. See: Keith Harmon Snow and David Barouski: "Behind the Numbers: Untold Suffering in Congo," Z MAgazine July 2006.
[...]
22. "The Bashing of Bemba," Africa Confidential, Vol. 48, No. 8, 13 April 2007.
23. Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Edwin Mellen Press, 1999: p. 64.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Behind the Scenes: Warlords’ Deadly Battle in Congo
by Keith Harmon Snow
Towards Freedom, Thursday, 09 August 2007
[excerpts on Congo and Angola,
underlines added by Radio Islam for sake of emphasis]
underlines added by Radio Islam for sake of emphasis]
The "four-day war" that rocked Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo from March 22-26, 2007 was called a "cleaning" by insiders. Everyone knew it was going to happen, the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo (MONUC) did nothing to stop it and the death count was significantly under-reported. The realities behind the scenes remain cloaked by the international media and world institutions, and the big losers, yet again, are the Congolese people. This is the inside story.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is today both the richest and poorest country in the world. First robbed of its rubber and ivory (1890-1908) by Belgium’s King Leopold—whose enterprise of slavery claimed ten million Congolese lives but was masked by a humanitarian "anti-slavery" propaganda campaign—the plunder of the Congo was advanced by Belgian colonial interests from 1908 to "independence" on June 30, 1960.
Following a coup d’etat orchestrated in part by Israeli American Maurice Tempelsman and his corporate allies, the country emerged from the first Congo crises (1960-1967) with U.S.-backed Colonel Joseph Mobutu installed as President.(1) Mobutu and his corporate partners plundered Congo from 1965 to 1996, and many of the same "untouchables" of the Mobutu era—Maurice Tempelsman, Etienne Davignon, George Forrest, the Blattners—are plundering Congo today.(2)
The Pentagon backed the overthrow of Mobutu in 1996-1997. This invasion was led by Rwanda and Uganda, backed by the U.S., Canada, U.K., Belgium and Israel. Washington’s support of the overthrow had to do with corporate interests in the region. International businesses wanted to reorganize the power structure in the region to better exploit the Congo's riches and displace deeply entrenched competitors. By July 1996, Mobutu was negotiating with George H.W. Bush over Barrick Gold interests in Zaire's Kilo Moto goldfields and for Adolph Lundin interests in copper/cobalt in Katanga. The invasion of Zaire swung into action after Paul Kagame visited the Pentagon in August 1996.(3)
Congolese "rebel" warlords like Jean-Pierre Bemba, Azarias Ruberwa, Arthur Zahidi Ngoma, and Mbusa Nyamwisi fought against the seat of power in Kinshasa held by Laurent Kabila (1998-2001) and then Joseph Kabila, his purported son. Multinational corporations, criminal networks and regional governments backed "rebel" and "government" forces—often both—and all sides committed massive atrocities. Billions of dollars in plantation commodities, minerals and timber exited Congo during the war were shipped to Western markets.
As the Congo "peace process" unfolded, Jean-Pierre Bemba became one of four warlords rewarded with a vice-presidency in DRC’s transitional government (2003-2006); sworn in on July 17, 2003, he held the Finance and Economic portfolio. Bemba was one of five significant challengers to the transitional president, Joseph Kabila, in the 2006 elections, which fielded 33 presidential candidates. Bemba believes himself Congo’s savior and rightful leader, and he provoked hostilities, riots and parliamentary chaos throughout the transition, elections and post-elections periods.
Behind the machinations of power in Congo lie hundreds of billions of dollars to be made in exploiting Congo’s riches in the next decade alone. From 1996-2007, despite multiple peace accords, some six to ten million people died in Congo’s wars.
[...]
THE SAVIMBI SOLUTION
South African special forces were in Kinshasa at the time, and South Africa negotiated with DRC for Bemba’s safe departure from Congo; Bemba’s ties to South Africa run deep and silent.
To understand why MONUC and the "international community" did not take action to prevent the March war in Kinshasa—even after the history of belligerence and atrocities by both Bemba and Kabila’s forces—we can find some clues in the example of Jonas Savimbi in Angola.
Savimbi was the leader of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), a Reagan–era rebel front that fought against "communist" Angola with U.S., U.K. and Israeli backing. By the late 1990’s UNITA was out of favor: new oil and diamond deals, increasing U.S. investments in Angola, mercenary friends of Bill Clinton, all played a role.(22)
After Savimbi refused the vice-presidency in President Dos Santos’ government in Angola the order went out to assassinate him. Israeli Special Forces, with Pentagon support, flew to Angola to track and kill Savimbi. They reportedly pinpointed Savimbi’s position with satellite technology, and he was reportedly assassinated soon after the Clinton Administration and its partners gave the orders.(23)
"They got tired of Savimbi, and they find him and kill him," said one Kabila insider. "When the international powers want Savimbi killed—it’s easy. This is what finally happened with Bemba. They were tired of him interfering in their plans. Mining in this country is an international scandal, and Bemba was disturbing the new democracy and getting in the way of exploitation and profits."
"I would never believe that Kabila would take such action if he did not have the green light from important people outside," said one insider close to Kabila and the secrets of the Kabila Government. "It is clear that this was a "cleaning" of Bemba’s men by Kabila’s forces and that some powerful people from the U.S. and U.K., Israel, Belgium and Australia—Kabila’s supporters—wanted it to happen." One government parliamentarian close to Bemba agreed.
[...]
Notes
1. See Dr. David Gibbs, The Political Economy of Third World Intervention: Mines, Money and U.S. Policy in the Congo Crises, University of Chicago Press, 1991.
2. See: Keith Harmon Snow and Rick Hines, "Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception Over Those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire," Z Magazine, June 1 and July 1, 2007.
3. See: Keith Harmon Snow and David Barouski: "Behind the Numbers: Untold Suffering in Congo," Z MAgazine July 2006.
[...]
22. "The Bashing of Bemba," Africa Confidential, Vol. 48, No. 8, 13 April 2007.
23. Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Edwin Mellen Press, 1999: p. 64.
-----------------------------------------------------
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