dubu
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 18, 2011
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Gem Tied to Terror Loses Sparkle
East Africa: Reports that Al Qaeda controlled part of the tanzanite trade have sent the stone's price plunging and left miners in the lurch.
MERERANI, Tanzania — The young miners here are known as wanapollo, Swahili for spacemen. Several
times a day, they emerge from half a mile below the earth, their dark bodies coated in glittering graphite
dust.
They are in search of tanzanite, a gem found in a 5- square-mile patch of scrub near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. A few months ago, Mohammed Abubakar supported his mother and eight siblings with money earned from mining the blue-violet stone. But since Sept. 11, reports that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network controlled a chunk of the tanzanite trade have sent the price of the
gemstone plunging by about 70%, slashing his earnings.
U.S. retailers Tiffany & Co. and Zale Corp. and the QVC
television shopping channel, which together sold about
80% of the tanzanite, have suspended sales, saying they
didn't want to be associated with Bin Laden--if
allegations regarding his links to the stone are true.
In recent years, tanzanite has become one of the most
popular colored gemstones in the U.S., thanks to
jewelers who tout it as less expensive and bluer than
sapphire.
"Soon, these stones are going to be as valuable as
concrete," Abubakar grumbled to a reporter recently.
Abubakar's economic pain demonstrates how the U.S.
war on terrorism is being felt across the globe--from
travelers at international airports to poor miners in
Tanzania's hinterlands.
Mererani has become a town filled with recrimination
and questions: Did an influential Muslim cleric
encourage believers to sell stones to people allegedly
linked to Bin Laden? What role, if any, did a wealthy
tanzanite dealer play in helping to fund Al Qaeda? And
most important, can tanzanite survive the taint of Bin Laden?
Tanzanite's links to Bin Laden were suspected long before Sept. 11, but no one seemed to care. During last year's trial of four men accused of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a prosecution witness testified that Al Qaeda operatives fattened the terror network's coffers by trading in commodities including animal hides, sugar and tanzanite.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Tanzanite was the code name for Bin Laden's personal secretary, Wadih El- Hage, who was convicted by a New York federal jury for his role in running Bin Laden's businesses during the mid-1990s.
From Nairobi, El-Hage operated a company known as Tanzanite King. El-Hage's diary, which FBI agents seized in 1997, detailed how he traveled to London, Los Angeles and San Francisco, marketing the gem to jewelry stores, according to federal sources. Another key player, according to miners, brokers and industry officials, was Sheikh Omar Suleyman. They said that as head of the Taqwa mosque here he encouraged believers to sell their tanzanite to Bin Laden loyalists, who smuggled the gemstones to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Suleyman denied the allegation.
Tanzanian authorities worry that reports about Bin Laden's involvement with tanzanite could destroy the livelihood of tens of thousands of mining families.
As the U.S. market for tanzanite is drying up, Mererani, which once resembled a California gold rush town, is slowly becoming a ghost town. Bars have gone quiet. Many people who came here dreaming of expensive cars and luxurious homes are returning to their villages empty-handed.
"It's all because of this Bin Laden," Abubakar said. "That man should be caught and killed straight away." 'It Doesn't Pay to Make the Americans Angry' Salome Chami, who runs a boarding house, complained that several tenants recently had skipped out without paying. "It doesn't pay to make the Americans angry at you," she said. "People know that if Americans [aren't] buying tanzanite, there's no reason to stay in Mererani."
Tanzanian officials say they would need to conduct an exhaustive investigation to determine Al Qaeda's interest in the gem. Patrick Rutabanzibwa, permanent secretary in Tanzania's Ministry of Mines, said the government could account for only about 5% of the nearly $400 million in tanzanite exported last year.
"We can't say that no, no, no, Al Qaeda has no interest in tanzanite," Rutabanzibwa said from his office in Dar
es Salaam. "What we can say is that there is a lot of smuggling of tanzanite, which really means the government doesn't know how it gets out of the country, let alone who is actually involved in it.
The wealth that they get out of that trade is something we can only speculate about." Abubakar and other miners say they long for the period preceding Sept. 11, when all that people in Mererani cared about was making money, providing for their families and having a good time.
Source: Gem Tied to Terror Loses Sparkle
East Africa: Reports that Al Qaeda controlled part of the tanzanite trade have sent the stone's price plunging and left miners in the lurch.
MERERANI, Tanzania — The young miners here are known as wanapollo, Swahili for spacemen. Several
times a day, they emerge from half a mile below the earth, their dark bodies coated in glittering graphite
dust.
They are in search of tanzanite, a gem found in a 5- square-mile patch of scrub near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. A few months ago, Mohammed Abubakar supported his mother and eight siblings with money earned from mining the blue-violet stone. But since Sept. 11, reports that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network controlled a chunk of the tanzanite trade have sent the price of the
gemstone plunging by about 70%, slashing his earnings.
U.S. retailers Tiffany & Co. and Zale Corp. and the QVC
television shopping channel, which together sold about
80% of the tanzanite, have suspended sales, saying they
didn't want to be associated with Bin Laden--if
allegations regarding his links to the stone are true.
In recent years, tanzanite has become one of the most
popular colored gemstones in the U.S., thanks to
jewelers who tout it as less expensive and bluer than
sapphire.
"Soon, these stones are going to be as valuable as
concrete," Abubakar grumbled to a reporter recently.
Abubakar's economic pain demonstrates how the U.S.
war on terrorism is being felt across the globe--from
travelers at international airports to poor miners in
Tanzania's hinterlands.
Mererani has become a town filled with recrimination
and questions: Did an influential Muslim cleric
encourage believers to sell stones to people allegedly
linked to Bin Laden? What role, if any, did a wealthy
tanzanite dealer play in helping to fund Al Qaeda? And
most important, can tanzanite survive the taint of Bin Laden?
Tanzanite's links to Bin Laden were suspected long before Sept. 11, but no one seemed to care. During last year's trial of four men accused of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a prosecution witness testified that Al Qaeda operatives fattened the terror network's coffers by trading in commodities including animal hides, sugar and tanzanite.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Tanzanite was the code name for Bin Laden's personal secretary, Wadih El- Hage, who was convicted by a New York federal jury for his role in running Bin Laden's businesses during the mid-1990s.
From Nairobi, El-Hage operated a company known as Tanzanite King. El-Hage's diary, which FBI agents seized in 1997, detailed how he traveled to London, Los Angeles and San Francisco, marketing the gem to jewelry stores, according to federal sources. Another key player, according to miners, brokers and industry officials, was Sheikh Omar Suleyman. They said that as head of the Taqwa mosque here he encouraged believers to sell their tanzanite to Bin Laden loyalists, who smuggled the gemstones to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Suleyman denied the allegation.
Tanzanian authorities worry that reports about Bin Laden's involvement with tanzanite could destroy the livelihood of tens of thousands of mining families.
As the U.S. market for tanzanite is drying up, Mererani, which once resembled a California gold rush town, is slowly becoming a ghost town. Bars have gone quiet. Many people who came here dreaming of expensive cars and luxurious homes are returning to their villages empty-handed.
"It's all because of this Bin Laden," Abubakar said. "That man should be caught and killed straight away." 'It Doesn't Pay to Make the Americans Angry' Salome Chami, who runs a boarding house, complained that several tenants recently had skipped out without paying. "It doesn't pay to make the Americans angry at you," she said. "People know that if Americans [aren't] buying tanzanite, there's no reason to stay in Mererani."
Tanzanian officials say they would need to conduct an exhaustive investigation to determine Al Qaeda's interest in the gem. Patrick Rutabanzibwa, permanent secretary in Tanzania's Ministry of Mines, said the government could account for only about 5% of the nearly $400 million in tanzanite exported last year.
"We can't say that no, no, no, Al Qaeda has no interest in tanzanite," Rutabanzibwa said from his office in Dar
es Salaam. "What we can say is that there is a lot of smuggling of tanzanite, which really means the government doesn't know how it gets out of the country, let alone who is actually involved in it.
The wealth that they get out of that trade is something we can only speculate about." Abubakar and other miners say they long for the period preceding Sept. 11, when all that people in Mererani cared about was making money, providing for their families and having a good time.
Source: Gem Tied to Terror Loses Sparkle
