Officials describe diamond-terrorism link

WASHINGTON — Two diplomats with connections to Sierra Leone told a Senate panel yesterday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah may have used "conflict diamonds" to transport wealth.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone Joe Melrose said Hezbollah, a terrorist network President Bush singled out in his State of the Union address last month, has long been known to deal in diamonds.

Ohio Rep. Tony Hall has led an effort in Congress to stop the flow of so-called "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds" since a trip to Sierra Leone in 1999 revealed rebel groups in that country and Angola bought their weapons through diamond sales.

Melrose said that evidence indicates diamond sales took place between rebels in Africa and members of al-Qaida.

"What is still in question is whether it was a deliberate effort on the part of some of all of the (Revolutionary United Front) to assist al-Qaida to move resources in a manner that would be untraceable ... or simply a case of selling the illicit stones to whoever offers the best price," he said.

Sierra Leone's ambassador to the United States, John E. Leigh, told lawmakers that based on his experience in the war torn country, it was "not surprising" that the two groups would buy looted gems from his country and sell them in Europe and elsewhere.

During questioning from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the two men described conditions that would make it ideal for terrorists to transport wealth using diamonds: The rocks are hard to detect and there are few trade restrictions on the gems. But both fell short of pinpointing a direct connection.

Leigh said while he had no "specific knowledge" of al-Qaida operations in Sierra Leone, descriptions of how diamonds benefit terrorist groups "sound like what would happen in Sierra Leone at any time."

A negotiator for the State Department, meanwhile, played down the connection, saying that the start-up capital and expertise needed to sell diamonds make it unlikely that a terrorist group could enter the industry or "make a great deal of profit trading diamonds."