European Intelligence Services Tie African Diamonds To Al-Qaeda

West Africa's lucrative diamond trade may have helped finance the September 11 attacks, according a European investigation into Al-Qaeda's assets. The Washington Post says it has obtained a summary of a year long European intelligence services investigation into Al-Qaeda's assets that uncovered an elaborate web of clandestine deals that began in 1988 and allowed Osama Bin Laden's terror group to hide substantial terrorist diamonds in the region.

Aided by President Charles Taylor of Liberia and President Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso who allegedly received $1 million for arranging to harbor the operatives, the report states that Al-Qaeda were able to move between a protected area in Liberia and the presidential compound in Burkina Faso to obtain and smuggle $20 million worth of gems. The diamond-buying operation was apparently hatched in response to a 1998 move to freeze Al-Qaeda assets following the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"It was at that point that Al-Qaeda realized where it was vulnerable in its financial structure and began systematically to move its assets to commodities. You see a move into diamonds, tanzanite and other commodities to handle the finances," says an intelligence analyst. The new information has been handed over to the CIA.