Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Charles Taylor Denounces War Crime Charges

" Never, ever did I receive - whether it is mayonnaise or coffee or whatever jar - any diamonds from the RUF. It's a diabolical lie " : Former Liberian president Charles Taylor
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Liberia's ex-leader denounces war crimes charges
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By ARTHUR MAX
Associated Press Writer

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- His combat fatigues were replaced by a dark suit and tie, and the tinted aviator glasses gave the former Liberian leader a haughty air as he took the stand Tuesday to emphatically denounce the war crimes charges against him as "disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumors."

Charles Taylor, once one of West Africa's most powerful men, is charged with 11 counts of murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers and terrorism in his role backing rebels in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

An estimated 500,000 people were the victims of killings, systematic mutilation or other atrocities in that war, with some of the worst crimes committed by child soldiers who were drugged to desensitize them.

The 61-year-old Taylor spoke with the confidence of a practiced politician as he began his defense by portraying himself as a peacemaker rather than the cannibalistic warlord described by prosecutors at the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.

"I am not guilty of all these charges, not even a minute part of these charges," he said from the witness stand, raising his voice in anger. "This whole case is a case of deceit, deception and lies."
Like other deposed leaders before him who faced judgment - Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic and Iraq's Saddam Hussein - Taylor used his day in court to display devotion to his people and deflect allegations of wrongdoing.

Critics say the courts have been too lenient, giving men who led their countries into mayhem a chance to rewrite history. Many legal experts faulted Milosevic's judges for letting the Serbian virtually seize control of the trial, which ended prematurely in 2006 when he died of a heart attack.

Prosecutors called 91 witnesses in pressing their case that Taylor provided arms, money and political support to Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for that country's mineral wealth, encouraging them to terrorize the countryside to suppress any opposition.

Dozens of witnesses, some missing their hands, testified in the past 18 months to the brutality of the rebels. Other witnesses formerly associated with Taylor claimed to have passed weapons and messages to the rebels on Taylor's orders and transferred illegally mined "blood diamonds" - sometimes in mayonnaise jars - in return.

Immediately addressing the worst accusations, his British attorney, Courtney Griffiths, asked Taylor to respond to charges that he is "everything from a terrorist to a rapist."

It is "very, very, very unfortunate that the prosecution - because of disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumors - would associate me with such titles or descriptions," Taylor said, speaking slowly and pausing for emphasis. "I resent that characterization of me. It is false; it is malicious."

He denied sponsoring the invasion of Sierra Leone, tolerating amputations, plotting the capture of the capital, Freetown, or receiving diamonds.

"People have me eating human beings. How can people bring themselves so low?" he said, dismissing the account of a former bodyguard who claimed to see Taylor eat a human liver.
Taylor's case has been hailed as a landmark in efforts to hold autocratic leaders responsible for human rights abuses that occurred under their regimes - a theme that President Barack Obama struck earlier this month as he toured Ghana and said, "Africa doesn't need strongmen. It needs strong institutions."

The case also may have contributed to an African backlash.

An African Union summit earlier this month rallied behind Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir has refused to recognize the court or surrender, and the African leaders said they would not arrest and extradite him to The Hague for trial.

Taylor said he worked during his 1997-2003 presidency to rebuild Liberia after a devastating seven-year civil war and to broker a settlement in neighboring Sierra Leone.

"We were just preoccupied with ... trying to bring Liberia back to life," he said. "Unless peace came to Sierra Leone, there was no way Liberia could make it."

Taylor voiced true outrage only once in his opening day of testimony when he recounted his betrayal by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who gave him sanctuary in 2003 and then acquiesced to his arrest three years later.

Asked what he would do if he were in a closed room with Obasanjo, Taylor said "you would see two presidents in a little tussle." He added: "I'm damned angry."

Taylor's defense team says the prosecution failed to link the former president to the atrocities that undeniably occurred during Sierra Leone's upheavals.

Guided by Griffiths, Taylor gave a quick sketch of his career, from his first involvement in expatriate Liberian politics as an economics student in the United States to his resignation from the presidency, which he said was forced by "regime-change politics" of President George W. Bush.

Taylor described his 1989 coup against the U.S.-backed regime of Samuel Doe as an effort to bring multiparty democracy and the rule of law to his country, which was founded by former American slaves in the mid-19th century and was governed by an upper class of Liberians of American origins until Doe seized power in 1980.

Taylor's testimony is expected to last several weeks. The defense has lined up about 200 more witnesses, although it was unclear how many would take the stand.

His appearance was widely broadcast in West Africa, giving Liberians their first chance to hear him since he resigned under international pressure in 2003 and went into exile in Nigeria. He was arrested in 2006, and the trial was moved to The Hague for fear it could provoke violence if staged in Freetown.

The event dominated street discussions and newspaper and radio news headlines in Monrovia. It "disproved the minds of many who had thought he was not going to cooperate," said Anthony Taylor, sitting in a downtown Monrovia cafe. He is not related to the former leader.
Yomba Sesay said she traveled 300 miles to Freetown to see Taylor testify.

"From the way Charles Taylor is speaking, I do not believe he is the only big man that was involved in the atrocities committed during the war that we in Sierra Leone suffered from," she said, hoping Taylor would disclose the names of others.

"During the war my brother, who was a police officer and the bread winner of our family, was killed by rebels and today I am suffering," Sesay said.

Saleh Mwana Milongo, a civil servant who watched the trial at her workplace in Kinshasa, Congo, said Taylor should be judged respectfully.

"It sickened me to see the way Charles was handcuffed and transported. It is as if he was a little child or a highwayman. And yet, he was a head of state," Milongo said.

Others in Kinshasa listened to the trial on the radio.

"It is good to have this trial but you need to trace it back to those who made him into a war chief and those who supplied him with weapons," said Hubert Mateke, 67.

Associated Press writers Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia, Liberia; Clarence Roy-Macaulay in Freetown, Sierra Leone; and Eddy Isango in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed to this story.
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Additional Reading:
Sierra Leone Diamond Sector The Sierra Leone Diamond Sector: My Heart Continues to Bleed- Monday 20 April 2009.
Diamond Thieves GlorifiedWeapons and Guns for Diamonds
Taylor war crimes trial resumes : The Analyst 7th January 2009
Additional Reading on Past Belgian Atrocities & More:
ILLICIT DIAMONDS FLOW Current: Antwerp during the Blood Diamond (Conflict Diamond) era and still today is the major world rough diamond recipient headquarter
ILLICIT DIAMONDS FLOW Current: Antwerp during the Blood Diamond (Conflict Diamond) era and still today is the major world rough diamond recipient headquarter
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Fair Trade Diamonds
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Bastille Day 14th July


Designed by Dr Joseph Guillotine, a man described as kindly and who wanted to make execution more humane, the guillotine quickly became a symbol of tyranny during the French Revolution.

Victims were placed on a bench, face down, and their necks positioned between the uprights.
The actual beheading was very quick - often to the gathered crowd's disgust - taking less than half a second from blade drop to the victim's head rolling into the waiting basket.

However, debate rages over whether the quickness of the execution was humane or not, as many doctors put forward the notion that it could take up to 30 seconds before the victim lost consciousness.

That piece of gruesome news would not have worried the crowd, which continually called for aristocratic and royalist blood to be spilt.

An estimated 40,000 people travelled on the tumbrils through Paris to die under Madame Guillotine.

Facts and Figures
Total weight of a Guillotine was about 580 kilos (1278lb)
The blade weighed over 40 kilos (88.2lb)
Height of side posts was just over 4m (14ft)
The blade drop was 2.3m (88 inches)
Power at impact was 400 kilos (888lb) per square inch.

French Revolution Posters

Picture of Louis XVI's Execution

Description of Louis XVI's beheading

Storming of the Bastille

The time was half past three, on the famous date of July 14, 1789. A huge, bloodthirsty mob marched to the Bastille, searching for gun powder and prisoners that had been taken by the unpopular and detested King, Louis XVI. Even elements of the newly formed National Guard were present at the assault. The flying rumors of attacks from the government and the biting truth of starvation were just too much for the angry crowds. The Bastille had been prepared for over a week, anticipating about a hundred angry subjects and along the thick rock walls of the gargantuan fortress and between the towers were twelve more guns that were capable of launching 24-ounce case shots at any who dared to attack. However, the enraged Paris Commune was too defiant and too livid to submit to the starvation and seeming injustice of their government. But nothing could have prepared the defenders for what they met that now famous day.

The Bastille was governed by a man named Marquis de Launay. On July 7th, thirty-two Swiss soldiers led by Lieutenant Deflue, came to aid de Launay, helping him to prepare for a small mob. Rumors were flying everywhere. The Marquis was expecting a mob attack, but certainly not a siege! The entire workforce of the Bastille had stealthily and furiously been repairing the Bastille and reinforcing it, all to prepare for a minor attack from a hundred or so angry citizens. At three o'clock that afternoon, however, a huge group of French guards and angry citizens tried to break into the fortress. There were over three hundred people ready to give their lives to put an end to their overtaxing and overbearing government. However the Bastille was threatened by more than the numerous crowds: three hundred guards had left their posts earlier that day, out of fear and from the rumors. The besiegers easily broke into the arsenal and into the first courtyard, cut the drawbridge down, and then quickly got through the wooden door behind it. They boldly demanded that the bridges be lowered, but they were refused. The Marquis de Launay said he would surrender if his troops were allowed to leave peacefully, but he was simply rebuked. They wanted de Launay on a noose or with his head in a basket.

The vicious crowds shouted for him to lower the bridges. De Launay sent a note to a mob leader named Hulin, claiming that he had 20,000 pounds of gunpowder and if the besiegers did not accept his offer, he would annihilate the entire fortress, the garrison, and everyone in it! Yet, they still refused. The bridges were finally lowered on de Launay's command, and he and his soldiers were captured by the crowds and dragged through the filthy streets of Paris.


The mob paraded through the streets, showing off their captives, and crudely cutting off many heads. The National Guard tried to stop the crowds from looting, but it was useless. They continued marching on, maKing their way to the Hotel de Ville. Upon learning that the Bastille had been taken, King Louis XVI, who was residing at Versailles, was reported to have asked an informer: "Is this a revolt?" and La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt said, "No, Sire, it is a revolution." Little did Louis know that the mob's next plan was to march to Versailles, and take him away with them as well.

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Vybornov Gets The Chop !

“Swarovski produces glass, but sells it as if it were diamonds. We produce diamonds, but sell it as if it were glass” : Alrosa’s Ex president Sergei Vybornov

Has one of The Three Industry Wild Cards been dealt a bad hand or will he be waiting to be reshuffled in the pack for a new game later ? Time will tell

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Sergei Vybornov Forced Out
of
Alrosa Top Seat
(July 13, '09, Edahn Golan)

Sergey Vybornov was fired by the chairman of Alrosa's supervisory board, the Alrosa president told the Russian daily Kommersant. He will likely be replaced by Fyodor Andreyev, senior vice president of Russian Railways and a recent appointee to the Alrosa board.

Controversial mining and rough diamond sales policies during the current economic crises may have caused the dismissal of Alrosa President Vybornov (above)Vybornov's confirmation to Kommersant that he is leaving the post as of July 13 ends many weeks of market rumors that he is on his way out.

"I am leaving the post of president of Alrosa as of July 13. This is the decision of the chairman of the supervisory board," Vybornov told the newspaper. Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is chair of Alrosa's Board

It is not known what stands behind Vybornov's dismissal, however he recently led a financially challenging policy that raised many eyebrows in the diamond industry. With very limited sales since November – estimated at below $500 million – Alrosa continued to mine diamonds at a great cost.

Alrosa insisted on very high prices, some 20 percent above current market prices, and failed as a result to find buyers. Limited sales of about $384 million to the state repository Gokhran did not offset mining costs, nor provide the type of income to meet financial obligations to its lenders and credit providers.

The company is believed to hold on to a stock pile of diamonds worth nearly $1 billion.

"The collapse of the company's sales policy became the main reason for the resignation," Kommersant quoted an unnamed source on the Alrosa supervisory board.

Alrosa did not issue an official statement about the changes.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
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After months of bluster, denials that his job was under threat, and attempts to intimidate reporting with phantom lawsuits, Sergei Vybornov has issued a lengthy interview to a Moscow reporter, in which he intimates that his ouster — made official by the Alrosa board last Friday — was the result of plotting by rivals in the Sakha republic, and among international and Russian diamond-buyers unhappy with Vybornov’s new marketing deals. The text of the interview was published in Kommersant in its July 13, 2009, edition.
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Asked to say why he had left Alrosa, Vybornov said he had not quarreled with the Sakha President, Vyacheslav Shtirov, a former CEO of Alrosa, or with anyone else. Sakha sources claim that Shtirov, who had helped Vybornov take the CEO post away from Alexander Nichiporuk in February 2007, has been trying to oust Vybornov for more than six months. But that conflict, the sources have also claimed, has been subsumed by the deterioration of Alrosa’s financial position since the collapse of the diamond markets last autumn. An investigation of the company’s books by the Accounting Chamber, the state auditor in Moscow, was for a time blocked by Vybornov. The results of the audit have been classified secret, Chamber sources have told PolishedPrices.com.
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The appointment of the Alrosa chief executive was for many years the prerogative of the Sakha region government, until the federal government in Moscow reasserted its power, and restructured the capital and shareholding of the state-owned company to reflect a majority for the federal government, and 40% for the Sakha region. The control stake is administered by the Ministry of Finance, whose minister chairs the Alrosa board. No decision to oust the CEO or pick his replacement can be dominated by the Sakha government or by Shtirov. The key decision-makers are the Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, who chairs the Alrosa board; and his advisor, a VTB banker named Otar Marganya. Neither has ever responded to direct questions about Alrosa personnel or policy issues.
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According to Vybornov, he has negotiated long-term diamond sales agreements for a total value of $900 million. He claims the pricing formula in the contracts was “the price-list of the Ministry of Finance plus 17 %”.
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Vybornov now says there are 15 such contracts. A month ago, Vybornov told a US newspaper that six contracts had been signed with the price set “at a midpoint between the peak last August and this winter.” Each contract, according to Vybornov, is for not less than $200 million, and for terms of 3 to 5 years. In Vybornov’s latest claim, the new contracts include Tiffany of the US; Dali Diamonds and Diarough of Belgium; and some unidentified Israeli companies. “We have begun with [the Belgian companies] for the simple reason that the Belgian government declared the granting of guarantees to the diamond banks for a total of $1 billion A bit later, this initiative got the [additional] support of the Flemish authorities, declaring guarantees for $250 million.” Vybornov said offers to buy from “ephemeral firms” for $10 million to $20 million in diamonds, “are not interesting”. Up to 40% of Alrosa’s total sales volume has been set aside, according to Vybornov’s scheme, for these long-term contracts.
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After running a campaign against Lev Leviev, the leading Israeli diamantaire, whom Vybornov once accused of securing unusually favourable terms of purchase of Russian rough, Vybornov now says that Leviev “is now thinking over our offer”, implying there has been no deal yet with Leviev, or with Ruis Diamonds, Leviev’s Russian subsidiary.
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Vybornov added that Smolensk Kristall, the state-owned diamond-cutting enterprise based in western Russia, had been offered the same long-term contract deal in April, Vybornov said; but had rejected it for being “expensive. And now the window of possibilities has closed. But their problem has been solved — they will buy their raw materials on the spot market.”
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Vybornov said his new marketing scheme ran into “a certain discontent” from “the authorities of Yakutia”. He claims that they had become used to the 50-year old system of favouritism in pricing and selection of stones. “Now conditions for all are equal, and this causes irritation, especially among those whose participation benefitted from preferences earlier.” Attacking “home producers” for falsifying the extent of their domestic beneficiation and diamond cutting as a cover for rough purchases and exports, Vybornov claims they benefitted from “the artificial difference between the prices on the internal and external markets. Discounts in the home market reached 30 %. The company could not support someone’s private interests indefinitely.”
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The 30% discount has also been charged by Vybornov’s powerful predecessor, Valery Rudakov, as the basis for Alrosa’s long-term sales contracts with De Beers’s Central Selling Organization. When Rudakov made that charge, he was the Deputy Minister of Finance in charge of the diamond sector and head of Gokhran, the state stockpile agency.
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It is unclear from Vybornov’s latest statements what sales of diamonds have actually been made, or will be made this year under the contracts he says he has signed. Vybornov claimed that while he sees signs of market stabilization, it “is extremely important not to break process of stabilisation by the desire to sell more in the market.” He said the Russian government will ensure there will be no dumping of diamonds from the state stockpiles at Gokhran. This year’s arrangement for Alrosa to withhold diamonds from the international market, as well as the fall in diamond prices, will cut substantially the total revenues the company will expect. “Last year,” according to Vybornov, “the volume of our annual sales was estimated at $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion. From that [for 2009] I would gather $2 billion from the market, with the understanding that the largest part goes to the Gokhran.”
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An international diamantaire told PolishedPrices.com that he believes there have been no sales under Vybornov’s agreements because the price is too high, and because the contracts he refers to are no more than frameworks for future transactions, not sale-purchase commitments. “The MinFin plus 17% price is good for Alrosa, but not for potential buyers,” the source said. “There is a big difference between contracts for $900 million a year and real transactions, because the contracts don’t provide guarantees for purchase for this or that exact price. The eventual sums of money can differ from those indicated in the contracts, so it’s too early to say exactly what sums of money will be spent.”
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An other well-known industry source told PolishedPrices.com that the formula of “MinFin plus 17%” is 20% above the current market price. “Only suicidals would buy at that price”, he said, adding he does not believe that there are 15 long-term sale contracts. “Fifteen contracts! Who ever saw those contracts? Nobody! I don’t believe what he says.”
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No question or answer relating to the state audit of Alrosa’s books was published.
by John Helmer - Monday, July 13th, 2009
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Additional Reading:
Alrosa's New CEO-Fyodor Andreev (Andreyev)
VYBORNOV : THRONE OFF ?
ALROSA ISSUES STATEMENT AGAINST HELMER
Alrosa Faces Debts Despite High Profitability
De Beers retreats from Russia for a third time
Russian Diamonds : Alrosa Take Control
Russia Now World's Largest Diamond Producer
Alrosa's Vybornov Walks the Plank ?
Alrosa Site Buyers ?
Alrosa's Vybornov's Position Threatened ?
Russian Diamond Giant ‘Committed To Armenia Projects’
Russian Diamond Protection
Rough Diamond Future Planning
Alrosa Clients Turn Down Rough Diamonds Buy Offer
Kimberley Process Threatened by Russia. Is it failing ?
RUSSIAN BEAR IN THE JUNGLE
Russian Expansion in Africa Continues
Africa: The Bear And the Dragon
Russian Beneficiation
The Morality of Diamonds : St. Petersburg: A Revolution in The Making
The Three Industry Wild Cards
Alrosa chief says weak dollar will force diamond industry to act
The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming
Luxury Versus Commodity
Around Alrosa Co. Ltd


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Alrosa's New CEO-Fyodor Andreev (Andreyev)

VYBORNOV : THRONE OFF ? Saturday, June 27, 2009
" Dear Mr Katz:
Sorry for my delay in replying. As you see from today's stories on the site, your question about what Mr Vybornov is sitting on has been answered, officially.
Best,
John Helmer "
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Greetings Fyodor
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Farewell Sergei
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ALROSA’S NEW CEO TAKES CHARGE
By John Helmer in Moscow

Fyodor Andreev (also spelled Andreyev — see picture) is the new chief executive officer of Alrosa, the state owned Russian diamond miner, and will take up his functions this week, a high company source told PolishedPrices.com today.

It turns out that Alrosa’s CEO has a seat on the company’s Supervisory Board (board of directors) after all.
But that is because Sergei Vybornov, the CEO since February 2007, has been replaced by Andreev, whose appointment to the board PolishedPrices.com reported on June 22.
At the time, it was also reported that removal of the CEO from the board was unprecedented.

Vybornov continued to fight the ouster move, issuing a statement the next day that “the President of Alrosa [the chief executive] in any case participates in the Council work as the head of an executive office of the company.”
A company announcement is expected to be made on Monday, and Andreev takes over in Vybornov’s place later in the week, the high company source said Sunday.

Andreev returns to Alrosa after leaving in 2003.
At that time, he was chief financial officer, and had piloted Alrosa through several debt issues on the international financial markets.
In 2001 Andreev had introduced international accounting standards reporting to enable Alrosa to develop an international credit rating, and lower the cost of its borrowings.
Before he joined Alrosa, Andreev spent three years as chairman of Baltoneximbank in St. Petersburg.
A St. Petersburger himself, Andreev managed the bank as an affiliate of Oneximbank, which was owned by the oligarchs, Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov; at one time in the mid-1990s, they had the ambition of converting Alrosa’s debt into a commercial privatization of the company.
But Onexim collapsed first in Augsut 1998, when the crash of the rouble and the national banking system left it with almost $2 billion in foreign exchange forward contracts it could not pay.
In February 1999, Onexim then defaulted on its Eurobond issues, and lost its banking licence on July 1 of that year.

Potanin and Prokhorov then arranged for Baltoneximbank as a bridge, to which the parent’s assets, employees, and clients were transferred, before the establishment of the successor bank, Rosbank.
Andreev was thus a key figure in the 1999 negotiations with the Central Bank and Onexim’s creditors, which resulted – in November 1999 – in a restructuring of about $1 billion in debts; a cash payment of $105 million; and the issue of $130 million in 12-year convertible Eurobonds by Rosbank.
The Onexim licence revocation was then suspended, and by September 2000, Onexim was merged with Rosbank, and the slate cleaned.

Andreev then moved to Alrosa, and left in November of 2003 to become the chief financial officer of state-owned Russian Railways (RZD).
At his departure from Alrosa, he was replaced by banker Alexander Nichiporuk, who took over the finance portfolio at Alrosa, and then in December 2004, the chief executive’s position.
In February 2007, Nichiporuk was ousted by Vybornov, who had served under him at an affiliate, Investment Group Alrosa.

Company sources claim that Vybornov’s appointment on July 1 of a new company sales chief, Vladlen Nogovitsyn, was not approved by the board, and will not be implemented.
by John Helmer - Sunday, July 12th, 2009
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Additional Reading:
ALROSA ISSUES STATEMENT AGAINST HELMER
Alrosa Faces Debts Despite High Profitability
De Beers retreats from Russia for a third time
Russian Diamonds : Alrosa Take Control
Russia Now World's Largest Diamond Producer
Alrosa's Vybornov Walks the Plank ?
Alrosa Site Buyers ?
Alrosa's Vybornov's Position Threatened ?
Russian Diamond Giant ‘Committed To Armenia Projects’
Russian Diamond Protection
Rough Diamond Future Planning
Alrosa Clients Turn Down Rough Diamonds Buy Offer
Kimberley Process Threatened by Russia. Is it failing ?
RUSSIAN BEAR IN THE JUNGLE
Russian Expansion in Africa Continues
Africa: The Bear And the Dragon
Russian Beneficiation
The Morality of Diamonds : St. Petersburg: A Revolution in The Making
The Three Industry Wild Cards
Alrosa chief says weak dollar will force diamond industry to act
The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming
Luxury Versus Commodity
Around Alrosa Co. Ltd
***
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~
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Monday, July 13, 2009

Buy Excellent Cut Diamonds


Excellent Cut Diamonds
~

When Quality Has No Alternative

Posted by The Diamond Guru

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Keeping Up With K K

Classy Sex Sells !

" It seems that sex is the driving force of all creation and death.
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The diamond industry has yet to learn that the old adage " Sex Sells " and harness it....tastefully !
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More sexy woman being marketed with diamonds will make more woman want diamonds.
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There is not a woman on earth who does not want to be admired. Diamonds enhance females. " : The Diamond Guru
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It is about time these overpaid marketing geniuses paid attention to The Diamond Guru or maybe they already did ?
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Kim Kardashian Proves Sex Sells Diamonds
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She is perhaps best known for her social life and sex tape scandal.
In 2007, a pornographic home video she had made with her then-boyfriend, R&B singer Ray J, was leaked.[17] Kardashian pursued legal action against Vivid Entertainment for ownership of the tape. Kardashian later dropped the suit and settled with Vivid Entertainment for US $5 million.[18]
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Kim Kardashian Promotes
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Botswana Diamonds
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Botswana government will pull itself to the international map when an American actor and creative designer, Kim Kardashian, comes to Botswana in a visit that is expected to promote the country’s diamonds in the United States of America.

The move comes at the height of horrible reports that Botswana’s rough diamonds sales—the backbone of the country -- fell by more than 68 percent during the first quarter of the year.

Head of De Beers in Botswana, Sheila Khama, told Sunday Standard Friday that Kardashian will be here as part of the Diamond Forum—a group that includes her estranged musician ex-husband, aimed at helping promote Botswana’s diamonds.

Some of the people who are in that group include the former US Ambassadors to Botswana.

And the board of that group has former President, Festus Mogae, and Central Bank governor, Linah Mohohlo.

Linah Mohohlo
Governor, Bank of Botswana
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”We hope that her visit will add to the voice of the Diamond Fund,” Khama said.

Kardashian, 28 years old, will visit Jwaneng mine [ that should be entertaining for the miners considering Kim has a recognised soft spot for Negro men and a passion for large diamonds like her men. Obviously any woman who says large diamonds do not count is kidding... ] , Diamond Trading Botswana and Motswedi Rehabilitation School in Mochudi.

They arrive on Tuesday and depart on Wednesday.

The visit also comes after the most encouraging diamond sales that were held last month, which is expected to add momentum to the next one, which starts next week.

During the last sight, all the 13 sightholders who are currently operational participated on the sight.

“We think cautiously that the worst is behind us now. We think that the actions that we took as De Beers, Debswana and DTC were right. Otherwise Debswana could have been faced with huge costs,” she added.

Debswana embarked on a four month mining suspension that ended in April following a slump in the demand of rough diamonds.

Elsewhere, Petra Diamonds, which has mining and exploration in a number of African countries, said this week that it is also “sensing some market recovery” compared to the last quarter of last year into the first quarter of this year.

As part of that recovery, its net profit of up to US $ 94.4 million—full year report to June -- up 22 percent compared to the same period last year.

Petra Diamonds has five mines in South Africa, one in Tanzania and is doing exploration work in the central Khalahari game reserve and in Sierra Leone.

Additional Reading :
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Sexy Diamond Prices Increase Sex & Diamonds....is it the cure ?
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" Sex Sells !
It seems that sex is the driving force of all creation and death. The diamond industry has yet to learn that the old adage " Sex Sells " and harness it....tastefully !
More sexy woman being marketed with diamonds will make more woman want diamonds.
There is not a woman on earth who does not want to be admired. Diamonds enhance females. " : The Diamond Guru
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Botswana Diamonds Additional Reading :
ABN AMRO Comes To Botswana
Creative Capitalism: De Beers Role in Africa
Debswana resumes production, but output to be sharply down in 2009
Botswana Minister Creates Change Was Debswana Caught Napping?
Botswana diamond industry loses 4,500 jobs
BOTSWANA: CRISIS OPENS A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITIES
De Beers & Botswana Beneficiation
Diamond Descent for the Purpose of a Diamond Ascent
Creative Capitalism: De Beers Role in Africa
Diamond Certification with Provenance
The Magic of Perseverance: Memoirs of a retired Botswana politician
David Magang : One is the Loneliest Number
Is Africa Ready For Beneficiation?
Botswana: Creating a New African Trading Diamond Market
De Beers Polishes Its Image
The Morality of Diamonds
Africa: The Bear And the Dragon
South Africa's Diamonds Loss of Influence
The Three Industry Wild Cards
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but let's not forget Micaela Reis , Miss Angola !
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Where is Miss Botswana ?
*

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~

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Internally Flawless Diamonds

26 magnificent D flawless diamonds

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Surat’s diamond sector rejoice over De Beers news

Commodity Online

SURAT/JOHANNESBURG: Even though Surat’s diamond industry is still struggling to recover from the blow it received following the recession, global diamond producers are on way to recovery.

According to news reports global diamond producing major De Beers has recovered from its earlier setbacks and is all set to achieve a positive interim and full-year bottom line despite slashing output by 90% in the first quarter.

This piece of information has sent a cheer among diamond traders in Surat because De Beers controls most of the diamond business in the world.

The diamond market, hammered by the global downturn, is slowly improving but De Beers is pushing forward with a plan to slash 2009 operating and capital costs by $1,5-billion.

According to newspaper reports, the company expects this year to be profitable.

De Beers controls about 40 percent of the rough diamond market.

Despite a slump in demand for the sparklers, China is still bullish on diamonds.

In USA also the demand is on the surge.

Sales of engagement and wedding rings have held up during the downturn and research has shown that people are delaying, not canceling other diamond purchases.

The increased demand may also spur a further rise in output in the second half after the heavy cuts early in the year that saw the group’s Debswana unit in Botswana shut down completely, cutting first quarter output by 91 per cent.

Botswana is back in production and the Namibian mines restarted this month.

Additional Reading :


NOVEMBER 18, 2008
U.S. Slowdown Dulls Sparkle of India's Diamond Capital

Diamond Growth:Spend, Impress or Save ?

Diamonds Piggy Bank Broken

Diamond Competitors : China -v- India

Diamond Processing On Road To Recovery

Diamonds Fund Terrorism in Surat, India

Rabbi and the Terrorists

Gandhi Items Are Sold for $1.8 Million

***
~
Kiss Her With A Diamond
~


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Iran: Uprising & Stonings



This cartoon was originally posted on July 16, 2003. From CNN: Iran's supreme leader warns protesters.

PJTV SPECIAL REPORT: The Real Tehran ... Under reported Facts About the Uprising.

Get the latest in Iran from Roger L. Simon, Michael Ledeen & Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, and find out how Russia is preventing operational freedom.

Angry at the Main Stream Media?

CLICK HERE

~~~

Poliwood: Writer/Director Cyrus Nowrasteh talks about The Stoning of Soraya M. with Lionel and Roger Cyrus Nowrasteh explains to Lionel & Roger his journey to develop.

The Stoning of Soraya M. and the burdensome challenge of creating an independent film.

Further, they distinguish the real life injustices that this film portrays.

Angry at the Main Stream Media?

CLICK HERE

WARNING THIS FILM CLIP MAY CAUSE DISTRESS




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Strongmen of Africa : African Political Role Models Part 2

" ...it is wrong to blame the problems of today's Africa entirely on colonialism. Much of history consists of peoples conquering or colonizing each other. Yet, from Ireland to South Korea, countries that were once ruthlessly colonized have nonetheless managed to build reasonably just and democratic societies.

The reasons most of Africa has not done so go far beyond the colonial heritage. One factor is the abysmal position of women and all of the violence, repression, and prejudices that go with that. Another is the deep-seated cultural tolerance and even hero-worship of strongmen like Mobutu, for whom politics is largely a matter of enriching themselves and their extended clan or ethnic group.

Finally, perhaps above all, is the way the long history of indigenous slavery is still deeply and disastrously woven into the African social fabric. These same handicaps exist elsewhere. Discrimination against women retards social and economic progress in many countries. " : Adam Hochschild

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Numbering The Days Of Dictators

by Caroline Glick

~

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had reason to feel good about himself this week. Less than a month after he secured his hold on power for another four years by rigging the presidential elections, Ahmadinejad felt comfortable addressing his subjugated nation as its rightful dictator. So in a chilling televised performance on Tuesday, he triumphantly declared the stolen June 12 poll the "freest" and the "healthiest" elections in the world and promised they would act as a harbinger for Islamic revolution worldwide.

Ahmadinejad's accomplishments these past few weeks have been vast and unmistakable. By securing the unconditional support of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his power grab, Ahmadinejad killed three birds with one stone. He ensured that the clerical hierarchy in Qom - which is dependent on Khamenei for its financial stability - acquiesced to his authority. He expanded the Revolutionary Guards Corps' control over the country by making it the indispensable guardian of the revolution. And he effectively transformed Khamenei from the "supreme leader" into a creature of Ahmadinejad's will. The moment that Khamenei gave Ahmadinejad his full support and gave a green light to the Revolutionary Guards to repress the protesters, Khamenei tied his own fate to that of his president.

This means that today Ahmadinejad is completely free to maintain and escalate his policy of international brinksmanship on all levels. From Iran's race toward nuclear capabilities, to its efforts to destabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, to its support for Hizbullah and Hamas, to its support for anti-American regimes in Latin America and its cultivation of terror networks in the Western hemisphere, to its strategic proliferation alliance with North Korea, Ahmadinejad's continued reign means that the world can expect expanded Iranian activity on all these fronts.

In the meantime, the rest of the world's response to events in Iran has been discouraging. The G-8's decision Wednesday to wait until late September to even consider stronger sanctions against Iran means that at a minimum Ahmadinejad has another three months to enrich uranium without worry. And given that US President Barack Obama is on record supporting pursuing negotiations with Iran until at least January 2010, it is hard to imagine that the international community will take any concerted action against Iran in the foreseeable future.

As he moves forward, no doubt Ahmadinejad takes heart from the supine US response to North Korea's July 4 missile launches. On Tuesday, Yediot Aharonot reported that Israeli analysts who reviewed videotapes of North Korea's missile tests concluded that alongside the various short range Scuds it sent over the Sea of Japan, Pyongyang also launched a Taeopodong-2 multi-stage long range missile capable of reaching Alaska. Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center, said, "The three seconds seen [of the Taeopodong-2] on the video prove how much North Korea's long range missile program has advanced."

At the same time, both South Korean intelligence and US Defense Department sources have accused North Korea of responsibility for launching massive cyber-attacks against US and South Korean computer systems over the past week. The attacks temporarily crippled multiple systems including those of the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, the South Korean Foreign Ministry, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, and The Washington Post.

In the face of all of this, the Obama administration has been disturbingly timid. The White House's most consistent response to North Korea's belligerent moves has been to ignore them and hope North Korea decides to behave itself.

Matching their meekness toward Iran, the G-8 leaders responded to Pyongyang's most recent provocations with an announcement that they would like to become friends with Kim Jong Il. As Obama put it, "It's very important for the world community to speak to countries like Iran and North Korea and encourage them to take a path that does not result in a nuclear arms race in places like the Middle East."

OVER THE past several weeks, as the regimes in Pyongyang and Teheran have become ever more brazen in demonstrating their belligerent contempt for the West, the prevailing wisdom has argued that the West has no good options for containing or defeating them.

The traditional take on North Korea is that the world's leading missile and nuclear proliferator poses less of a burden to global stability than a post-regime North Korea filled with millions of starving people who have been cut off from the world for 60 years. By this thinking, the world is better off living with a psycho-state capable of fomenting a global nuclear war than caring for its victims.

As for Iran, as Gabriel Schoenfeld wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal, due to the gutting of the CIA's capacity to conduct covert political warfare during the 1970s, today the US lacks the capability to assist Iranian regime opponents in their efforts to overthrow the mullocracy. As Schoenfeld put it, "the US appears utterly powerless to influence the course of events."

Schoenfeld urged the US to move swiftly to rebuild its covert political operations capacity. While this certainly makes sense, in truth, the US doesn't need to build up much of a capacity to topple either the regime in Pyongyang or the regime in Teheran.

Despite Ahmadinejad's success in maintaining his grip on power, it is an indisputable fact that regime opponents succeeded these past few weeks as never before in destabilizing the regime and in demonstrating its hollow core. Even as Ahmadinejad was glorying in his victory, his opponents - defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and former president Muhammad Khatami - were calling for a three-day national strike.

On Thursday, thousands of Iranians risked life and limb to heed the call to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the regime crackdown on university students. That the 1999 crackdown occurred on Khatami's orders shows that regime opponents are looking for fundamental, revolutionary change in the regime - not cosmetic reforms.

It is worth noting that Iran's current revolutionary ferment arose from the unlikeliest of sources. The June 12 elections were not supposed to pose a challenge to the regime. All they were supposed to do was pit one regime loyalist against three other regime loyalists.

The fact that the public could view Ahmadinejad's decision to steal the election from former prime minister and regime loyalist Mousavi as an opportunity to bring down the regime demonstrates clearly the magnitude of the public's rejection of the Islamic Revolution. Quite simply, if the Iranian people can take these elections as an excuse to call for the overthrow of the regime, any spark can light that fire.

WHILE A refurbished CIA would no doubt be helpful in this regard, it is not necessary. The international community already has the necessary tools to do the job. All it needs - indeed all any one country needs - is the will to actively assist Iran's disparate dissident groups who separately and together wish to see the end of the mullocracy.

Iran's borders are porous. Whether through international defense contractors or covert operatives working for any country, arms can be easily smuggled to various disaffected minorities from the Azeris to the Kurds, the Baluchis the Ahwaz Arabs, and the Baha'is. Iraq's ratlines run two ways. So do Afghanistan's.

As to the Persians, they are already taking the lead in calling for national strikes. They should be supported through Internet, radio and satellite broadcasts. Whether through the Voice of America, the Voice of Israel, Radio Free Europe, or Radio Free Iran, foreign agents can pump in truthful and relevant information about the regime and enable coordinated, countrywide unrest that could potentially topple the regime in a matter of days or weeks.

Then there is North Korea. As ailing dictator Kim Jong Il uses his brinksmanship to secure a smooth transfer of control over his malnourished slave state to his son ahead of his death, it seems as though no one in the West has a clue what to do about North Korea. The US, we have been told, is too overextended with its deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq to successfully deter or prevent North Korea from carrying out further provocations and proliferation activities. And anyway, for years we have been told that North Korea isn't really serious about its threats. As far as the "experts" are concerned, North Korea's leaders don't really mean anyone any harm. They just want to scare us all a little to make sure we don't get any ideas about bringing them down.

But the fact is that between its own provocations and its massive proliferation of missiles and nuclear technology, North Korea is an enormous threat to global security. And it is also a fact that overthrowing the regime in North Korea is the easiest, safest, fastest, and most humane way to prevent the likes of Kim Jong Il from provoking and proliferating the world into a nuclear conflagration.

All it would take to put an end to this monstrous regime is for South Korea to open up its borders. How long would it take for the last North Korean to turn off the lights when Seoul beckoned over the horizon?

THE MODELS for overthrowing the regimes in Teheran and Pyongyang are not new. Modified versions were successfully implemented just 20-odd years ago. The model for Iran is Poland circa 1981. The model for North Korea is East Germany in 1989.

Unfortunately, whereas in the 1980s the leaders of the Free World were committed to winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union by securing the freedom of those who lived under Communism's jackboot, today, led by Obama, the Free World behaves as though the Berlin Wall fell of its own devices. The will of free men and women risking everything to oppose tyranny had nothing to do with it, we are told. If we care about peace, we should appease the likes of Ahmadinejad and Kim, not bring them down.

On Tuesday, an insect wrecked Ahmadinejad's victory speech. As he bragged that Iranian democracy is a role model for the world, a large moth zoomed around him, breaking his train of thought. Ahmadinejad was brought low before his people by a moth he couldn't swat.

If a bug could humiliate Ahmadinejad in what was supposed to be his moment of triumph, surely the willing nations of the world - or even just Israel - together with the brave Iranian people can bring him down. It would certainly be more cost effective than trying to negotiate a deal with a nuclear-armed mullocracy.

And certainly the South Koreans and the Japanese can feed the starving North Koreans and free them from the bondage of their monstrous regime. Doing so would be vastly less expensive than living under the shadow of Pyongyang's nuclear-armed psycho-regime.

Just because the US is currently on vacation from its role as leader of the Free World doesn't mean that other free people cannot do the right thing.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
Posted on July 10

Additional Reading :

Mugabe Wants His Cake & Eats It Too

Reality of Muslim Brotherhood

USA Updated Foreign Policy

North Korea: Land of the Strong, Crazy & Well Armed. Why Shouldn't Obama Give Up A Missile Defense? : Video

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Diamond Diva Princess Mathilde Bonaparte

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Princess Mathilde Corsage Ornament
France, circa 1855, Theodore Fester Gold, silver, diamonds,

Designed as a large sculpted rose blossom, entirely decorated by old European, old mine and rose-cut diamonds, mounted in silver-topped gold.

According to historical documents the brooch contains "2,637 brilliants for 136 cts and 860 little roses not weighed"

Throughout the nineteenth century, flowers proliferated in jewellery design but the one image that was most reproduced and most loved, was the rose selected not only for its beauty but also for its symbolism of love.
Perhaps the one jewel that epitomizes this flower is the corsage ornament that was formerly in the collection of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon I.
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Roses would always be a part of her life. As a young woman, admiring young men would press a rose petal on her check to see whether it was possible to distinguish the petal from her cheek. Fittingly, when she died, a rose was placed beside her.
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Princess Mathilde was an intelligent woman whose literary and artistic salon in Paris was the most distinguished during the Second Empire. Notables such as Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert and Jean-Auguste Ingres attended her lavish receptions. Both salons were decorated with Ming vases filled with roses. In chateau de Saint-Gratien, nineteen miles from Paris, she felt at home, tending her rose garden. Perhaps it was caring for these flowers that prompted her to purchase the corsage ornament from Theodore Fester.
This splendid jewel captures the essence of the rose; a freshly opened flower in the center, surrounded by two buds and several leaves that curl naturalistically. The short stem completes the perfect life-like form.
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After Princess Mathilde's death in 1904, her jewels were auctioned at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. It was purchased by Janesich, a French jeweller and subsequently, sold by Cartier to Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt, III, Queen of New York Society.
*

Grace Wilson Vanderbilt

( Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III )

in the Salon of her great New York town house

at 640 Fifth Avenue, in 1940

It became her signature jewel. The corsage ornament was her preferred piece for formal portraits where she would wear it either on the bodice or at her waist.

*

The corsage ornament remained in Mrs Vanderbilt's collection. Many years later after her death it was acquired by Fred Leighton, a connoisseur of fine jewellery and a taste maker of nineteenth of twentieth century styles.

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Diamond Imports
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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Graphene Harder than Diamond


Diamond is one allotrope of carbon. In the diamond structure, each carbon atom is covalently bonded to four others and has a tetrahedal geometry.

New material one atom thick harder than Diamond

Some really smart people in white coats have discovered a new material that is harder than diamonds and conducts electricity 100 times better than silicon.

Sounds great right? Did I mention it is also only one atom thick?

Once you put those together you have the makings of something to set the computer and IC world on its ear.

The new material is being called graphene and is pure carbon. It is being earmarked for use in touch screens, solar cells and of course high performance computer chips.

The time when we will have graphene in our computers is still a long way off though. As it stands right now scientists have only recently figured out how to make it efficiently. Before they actually had to mount carbon atoms onto tape and then peel the take away to get the graphene layer.

Still there is hope that in the near-term hybrid graphene silicon devices will pop up and improve the current silicon only products we use.

The prinicple behind Graphene was first theorized in 1947. 2004 was the first time someone actually pulled a 2D sheet of graphene from a graphite composite. This was proven conclusively to be possible in 2005.

In 2007 the first transitor made of Graphene was produced
In 2008 a new method for creating Graphene was found.

It is the thinnest known material in the universe and the strongest ever measured, according to Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester, England., who was quoted in the journal Science. A gram is about 1/30th of an ounce.

This new material is similar to diamonds in that it is pure carbon. It forms a six-sided mesh of atoms that resembles a honeycomb when viewed through an electron microscope, says the article. Despite its strength, graphene is as flexible as plastic wrap and can be bent, folded or rolled up.

Potential graphene applications include touch screens, solar cells, energy storage devices, cellphones and eventually high-speed computer chips, according to the paper, but while graphene is seen as a possible replacement to silicon, reports say that it won't be in the near future.

Government, university laboratories and other companies are now working to solve difficult problems in making graphene and turning it into useful, commerical products.

Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips.

That's graphene, the latest wonder material coming out of science laboratories around the world.
It's creating tremendous buzz among physicists, chemists and electronic engineers.

"It is the thinnest known material in the universe, and the strongest ever measured," Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester, England, wrote in the June 19 issue of the journal Science.

"A few grams could cover a football field," said Rod Ruoff, a graphene researcher at the University of Texas, Austin, in an e-mail. A gram is about 1/30th of an ounce.

Like diamond, graphene is pure carbon. It forms a six-sided mesh of atoms that, through an electron microscope, looks like a honeycomb or piece of chicken wire. Despite its strength, it's as flexible as plastic wrap and can be bent, folded or rolled up like a scroll.

Graphite, the lead in a pencil, is made of stacks of graphene layers. Although each individual layer is tough, the bonds between them are weak, so they slip off easily and leave a dark mark when you write.

Potential graphene applications include touch screens, solar cells, energy storage devices, cell phones and, eventually, high-speed computer chips.

Replacing silicon, the basic electronic material in computer chips, however, "is a long way off . . . far beyond the horizon," said Geim, who first discovered how to produce graphene five years ago.

"In the near and medium term, it's going to be extremely difficult for graphene to displace silicon as the main material in computer electronics," said Tomas Palacios, a graphene researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Silicon is a multi-billion dollar industry that has been perfecting silicon processing for 40 years."

Government and university laboratories, long-established companies such as IBM, and small start-ups are working to solve difficult problems in making graphene and turning it into useful products.

Ruoff founded a company in Austin called Graphene Energy, which is seeking ways to store renewable energy from solar cells or the energy captured from braking in autos.

The Pentagon is also interested in this new high-tech material. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is spending $22 million on research to make computer chips and transistors out of graphene.

Graphene was the leading topic at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society — a leading organization of physicists — in Pittsburgh in April. Researchers packed 23 panel sessions on the topic. About 1,500 scientific papers on graphene were published in 2008 alone.

Until last year, the only way to make graphene was to mount flakes of graphite on sticky tape and separate a single layer by carefully peeling away the tape. They called it the "Scotch Tape technique."

Recently, however, scientists have discovered a more efficient way to produce graphene on an underlying base of copper, nickel or silicon, which subsequently is etched away.

"There has been spectacular progress in the last two or three months," Geim reported in the journal Science. "Challenges that looked so daunting just two years ago have suddenly shrunk, if not evaporated."

"I'm confident there will be many commercial applications," Ruoff said. "We will begin to see hybrid devices — mostly made from silicon, but with a critical part of the device being graphene — in niche applications."

Additional Reading :

Lonsdaleite - Harder than Diamond ?
Diamond: Molecule of the Month
Hardness:Rhenium Diboride V Diamond
Element Six's real hopes for artificial diamonds
Lab Grown Diamonds: Applications V Gems
Diamonds are a physicist's—and perhaps quantum computing's—best friend
Diamond Synthetics " Near- Forevermark "
Laboratory Grown Diamonds Take Shape
CIBJO, IDMA, WFDB Issue Joint Statement on Lab-grown Diamonds
GIA Examines the Newest Generation of Apollo CVD Synthetic Diamonds
" DiamondSure " & " DiamondView "
Historical Feature : Forevermark
CIBJO : De Beers Seduces it's Goomah
CYRUS JILLA NAMED CEO OF ELEMENT SIX: IS GEM "SYNTHETICS OF CHOICE" COMING FASTER THAN EXPECTED?
CARBON

***
~
Kiss Her With A Diamond
~


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Mugabe Wants His Cake & Eats It Too

~
~
in Zimbabwean Diamond Fields
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" Kimberley Process review team reportedly accuses Zimbabwe of human rights abuses. Government says they will demilitarize Marange diamond fields, but few believe them " :
Rapaport TradeWire - Friday, July 10, 2009
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" In a classic case of a despotic ruler taking over state assets to hold onto power, Mugabe, the guerrilla hero who drove out the British and the ruling white minority from the former Rhodesia in the 1970s to become president in 1980, allegedly used the funds from illegal diamond sales to buy the loyalty of his army "
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Zimbabwe army refuses to withdraw
from diamond fields
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HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe's army and police on Friday refused to vacate diamond fields where security forces are accused of human rights abuses, despite a pledge last week for their withdrawal.

The announcement came despite a call from the Kimberley Process, which works to end the sale of "blood diamonds", for the demilitarisation of the Marange fields, where security forces are accused of torture, killings and other abuses against civilians.

"The officer commanding Manicaland province, senior assistant commissioner Munorwei Shava Mathuthu, said security forces will remain in place to deal with illegal diamond dealers and panners," said the statement read on state television.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu "concurred with the security forces", state television added -- although on Sunday the government had said it would conduct a phased withdrawal from Marange.

A team from the Kimberley Process on Wednesday accused the military of being involved in illegal diamond mining in the Marange and of perpetrating "horrific" violence against civilians.
The team recomended that Zimbabwe remove the army from Marange by July 20.

The team visited Zimbabwe last week on a fact-finding mission, after Human Rights Watch accused the armed forces of using torture and forced labour to control the Marange fields, saying 200 people had been killed last year.
Zimbabwe has denied the allegations.

The Kimberley Process was launched in 2003 to stop the flow of conflict diamonds into the mainstream market following wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Zimbabwe has two other diamond mines, Murowa and River Ranch, which are Kimberley certified and are not involved the claims of abuses. Source

President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace celebrating

Grace Mugabe is also mulling over a multi-million pound diamond venture on the Chinese mainland, sending diamonds to be cut in Qingdao. In addition to the latest apartments, the Mugabes are thought to have several more properties throughout South East Asia and close links not only with the Chinese government, but also with the former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad.

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe 'buys £4m apartment in Hong Kong'

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Above Zimabweans burying their dead

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Above Zimbabweans digging for diamonds
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ABOVE: Zimbabwe farmers Netty and Bruce Rogers
savagely attacked (May 16,2008)
*Above
Zimbabweans dead and dying from cholera epidemic
*


Zimbabweans waiting for fresh water
*

ABOVE: In prayer and deep thought, Samson is a child victim of political violence

ABOVE: Zaka, Zimbabwe – A torched man lies haplessly after the milita left him for dead
Below children victims of political violence

Above Zimbabweans arrested by police
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Below Worthless Money

Additional Reading :
Zimbabwe Mining Minister Banned
*
*
" In a classic case of a despotic ruler taking over state assets to hold onto power, Mugabe, the guerrilla hero who drove out the British and the ruling white minority from the former Rhodesia in the 1970s to become president in 1980, allegedly used the funds from illegal diamond sales to buy the loyalty of his army "
*

Zimbabwe : Mnangagwa’s name linked to diamonds Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa

ZIMBABWE: Soldiers are the new illegal diamond miners

Blood Diamonds Plugging the Gaps

*

The Threat of Chinese Imperialism

Co-starring Russia

The Belgians occupied the Congo murdering over ten million Congolese in the worst forms of imperial colonialism between 1890 and 1907 under the reign of King Leopold II, historically regarded as the precursor to Adolf Hitler, barely noticed and never held accountable for their atrocities without any compensation for the pillaging of Congo's natural resources.

Did any of us ever learn from history ???

The incredible wealth of Communist China has now replaced the Belgians on even a larger scale with wholesale corruption of many greedy African leaders and their cronies for the purpose of supplying natural resources to China such as oil, gold, uranium, cobalt and diamonds.

China's latent racism is concealed under quiet and astute diplomacy. Blacks killing blacks, Muslims killing Muslims while the Chinese continue to plunder and occupy the African continent serves both purposes.

Sudan sells 60 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its total exports to China, which has invested heavily in Sudan's oil industry and sold weapons to its army. As long as Beijing continues this lucrative partnership, U.S. sanctions, already in place for a decade, are unlikely to prove effective.

The current African leadership be it Negroid or Afro-Arab makes no difference to the Chinese.

Killing each other will only make the Chinese occupation easier.

The Russians are not far behind doing the same thing. The big land grab is full on !

It ironic and Orwellian that two major Communist nations of Russia and China , once the great adversaries of Western expansion, imperialism and colonialism are now doing it themselves unashamedly.

RUSSIAN BEAR IN THE JUNGLE

Russian Expansion in Africa Continues

Africa: The Bear And the Dragon

The USA 's diminished influence is only disguised by it's efforts to be portrayed as the great democratic saviour and world policeman while it puts on a brave face knowing full well what many of us have now realised.It's a simple distraction and the Chinese are no different to how King Leopold II operated while he enriched himself at the expense of millions of murdered Congolese he never laid an eye on.

The USA is in financial debt big time ! and guess to who ? .... China ! and it only took about thirty years to become this incredibly wealthy and dominant while complacent Western leaders played the role of peacekeepers always trying to be the good guys.

Add the threat of Islamic sociopaths and religious fervour to the recipe and the world's balance of power is changing rapidly. Many of us will not be alive to see the legacy left behind that our children and grandchildren will inherit.

It is a dog eat dog world and our weak Western leaders do not seem to have the answers to combat the greed and vision of totalitarians and nut case dictators.

If you are depressed now you ought to be.

I count myself one of the lucky ones that I will not be around when the whole catastrophic vortex spirals out of control. : The Diamond Guru

Chinese Apartheid in Africa

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe 'buys £4m apartment in Hong Kong'

Robert Mugabe is their kind of boy

~

" In the greatest movement of people the world has ever seen, China is secretly working to turn the entire continent into a new colony.Reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries - but on a much more dramatic, determined scale - China's rulers believe Africa can become a 'satellite' state, solving its own problems of over-population and shortage of natural resources at a stroke.

With little fanfare, a staggering 750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade. More are on the way.

The strategy has been carefully devised by officials in Beijing, where one expert has estimated that China will eventually need to send 300 million people to Africa to solve the problems of over-population and pollution. " Source : How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried By Andrew Malone.

Africa: The Chinese Connection

No Gold Medals in Kimberley Games

China: Creditor to the Rich

Zimbabwe Conflict Diamond Informant Incarcerated

African Political Role Models

The Father of Blood Diamonds : Jamil Sayid Mohamed

Essay : A Treasure Found Among Blood Diamonds

Strongmen of Africa : African Political Role Models Part 2

Profiting from Zimbabwe's 'blood diamonds'

WFDB warns about use of conflict diamonds

Zimbabwe prisoners in 'hell on earth' die from disease and hunger

Zimbabwe: Global Diamond Body Orders Ban On Chiadzwa Diamonds

Zimbabwe's Deadly Diamond Fever

Zimbabwe's Deadly Diamond Fever Part 2

Kimberley Process Under Threat by Russia

Zimbabwe's Deadly Diamonds Part 4

Iran Nuclear Watch: Robert Mugabe - Iran, Zimbabwe “THINK ALIKE”

Blood Diamonds Flow From Zimbabwe

The Failing Battle Against Blood Diamonds

Kimberley Process Certification Scheme : The Farce Continues

Groups Put Kimberley Process on Notice - Plug the Leaks Now

Kimberley Process Fails Part 2

Kimberley Process Failing Part 3

Diamond Dealers : Pariahs of the Future ?

Kimberely Process Failed

The Morality of Diamonds

Zimbabwe Diamonds

Zimbabwe’s deputy prime minister condemns Mugabe’s regime

Zimbabwe seeks Namibian advice on diamond mining

Child Labor in Diamond Mines

Sexy Diamonds in Zimbabwe

Sierra Leone 'blood diamond' rebels found guilty of war crimes

Kimberley Process Still Threatened Part 3

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe 'buys £4m apartment in Hong Kong'

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Iran Nuclear Watch: Robert Mugabe - Iran, Zimbabwe “THINK ALIKE”

The Mad Mugs Wednesday, November 22, 2006
*

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) welcomes his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe during an official welcoming ceremony in Tehran November 20, 2006.
~
Iran and Zimbabwe “think alike” and “should fight against Western superpowers and their evil systems”, says President Robert Mugabe.

According to reports, the Zimbabwean leader, who was on a four-day state visit to Iran aimed at bolstering political and business ties, said his country and Iran had to come together and work out “mechanisms for defending ourselves”.

Iran and Zimbabwe had been labelled “outposts of tyranny” by American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

But Mugabe - who proudly described Iran as a great friend - dismissed the accusation saying that “only G-d can judge”.

Mugabe said: “Some people who regard themselves as demigods say we belong to the axis of evil.Who are they to judge us?”

He was speaking shortly before holding closed-door talks with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday 21 November 2005 .Two ROGUE dictators who COVET nuclear weapons think alike - how convenient.

And what is Ahmadinejad’s attraction to Mugabe and Zimbabwe?

URANIUM ( Mugabe hails uranium find and vows to pursue nuclear power 21st Nov 2005)

Surprised ???

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Fair Trade Diamonds ?????

Kimberley Process Certification Scheme :

The Farce Continues

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African Union Authority Defends Genocidal President

The African Union Joke

Genocidal Heads of State

13th African Union Summit
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" Among the objectives of the African Unity's leading institutions are to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent; to promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples; to achieve peace and security in Africa; and to promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights. "

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Robert Mugabe with an ever watchful eye arrives 2nd July Sirte Libya for the 13th African Union Summit hosted by Gadaffi of Libya .

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Robert Mugabe greets his good mate and bed fellow genocidal president from Sudan,Omar Al Bashir, accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

With Chinese oil interests and the corruption of Omar Al-Bashir, it has been estimated over 400,000 innocents have been murdered or starved.

In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.[8] The court issued an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir on 4 March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity

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Muagabe & Al-Bashir
Bedfellows
Both are defended by African Union Authority
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China has a financial stake in both
Zimbabwe and Sudan
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LEST WE FORGET
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" It was once said that not remembering the Holocaust means to side with the executioners against its victims; not to remember means to kill the victims a second time; not to remember means to become an accomplice of the enemy.
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On the other hand, to remember means to feel compassion for the victims of all persecutions.
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By solemnly commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust, we will keep history in mind, never forget the past, cherish all lives, and create a better future " :
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Posted by The Diamond Guru

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Diamond Growth:Spend, Impress or Save ?

Playing with Figures
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In our natural eagerness to search for silver linings in today’s economic crisis, there are as many different viewpoints and parameters as there are analysts. This week’s column focuses on the United States, where we try to figure out whether the diamond business fares better than other sectors of the economy. Allow me to walk through some random figures: the U.S. share of the world’s total imports is declining from 15.2 percent in 2006 down to an expected 12.5 percent for 2009. That only indicates that there is, relatively speaking, more trade in the rest of the world – and that the U.S. is becoming less important in world trade.
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It seems, however, that the U.S. share in world consumption of diamonds is not declining (yet). Is that good or bad? It simply means that the industry’s over-dependency on the U.S. market seems to be continuing. If the U.S. will get out of the recession faster than the rest of the world, this is positive. It depends how one looks at it.
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There also remains a growing uncertainty: once the recession ends, will the U.S. consumer resume its love affair with diamonds as if nothing happened? Let’s not forget that the Japanese diamond market never recovered after its last major recession.
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It seems that American consumers have already changed their behavior: they are suddenly shopping less and saving more. With unemployment up, home values down and retirement accounts plunging, Americans are once more putting money in the bank. Data based on the U.S. Commerce Department's national income accounts find personal savings rising from (on average) $50 billion a year between 2005 and early 2008, to $306 billion since the spring of 2008. The figure for the first quarter of 2009 was $475 billion. Thus, the resumed savings trend started before the credit crunch and the recession; it wasn’t necessary triggered by these economic calamities.
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Relative to GDP, Americans now save about 4.4 percent of their income, which is still relatively low by world standards. However, this figure is nine times the 0.5 percent average of 2005-2007 and the highest figure measured since the mid-1990s. And the savings rate is rising. McKinsey research notes that in March 2009, the personal-savings rate reached a 14-year high, at 5.7 percent of disposable income. While that represents a significant turnaround—the savings rate was zero just a year earlier—it’s not even two-thirds of the post–World War II average of around nine percent, suggesting that it may continue to increase.
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Money saved is money not spent. Does it represent spending postponed rather than spending lost? For the time being, consumers buy less. McKinsey believes that it will take quite some time before consumers will come back to the market. According to McKinsey, “There’s little reason to expect that U.S. consumers will return to their recent spending habits any time soon: in those categories with reduced spending, more than half of the respondents [in research surveys] said that they planned to keep their expenditures down after the recession. This finding suggests that [diamond] companies must develop a deep understanding of how such profound behavioral change will affect strategies fundamental to value creation: acquiring and keeping new clients, intensifying relationships with them, and improving service to consumers, for example.”
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While they buy less, says De Beers, consumers will buy more selectively – and the intrinsic value of diamonds will give it an edge over other luxury products. There are many reasons to support this view – even some unexpected ones.
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Says McKinsey: “The historically poor returns of U.S. equity markets during the lives of investors under the age of 45 may be creating a generation of equity-averse consumers. Less than half of U.S. respondents believe that the stock market will produce returns above inflation over the next 30 years. Eighty-five percent of consumers from 36 to 45 believe that it won’t.”
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Is there any way we can “guarantee” that diamond prices will outperform the U.S. inflation rate? If they would, that would be magic in terms of marketing themes. Those who stay away from the stock markets can be drawn into the jewelry stores. It might make an intriguing campaign.
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Unlike diamonds, some luxury items definitely don’t last. Some last hardly more than a few days – or hours. Look at champagne, for example. The U.S. champagne-import bill has dropped from $707 million for 51 million liters in 2007, to $629 million for 47 million liters last year, to a likely $450 million and 43 million liters this year. Champagne is outperforming diamonds. When you think about it, America imports one carat of diamonds for every 1.5 liter of champagne.
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Research by the Washington-based Democratic Leadership Council notes that “cashmere sweater-buying is down 22 percent, from 12.6 million sweaters last year to likely 9.8 million this year. Acrylic and polyester sweater imports are down too, but only by seven percent.” Is cashmere luxury? Let’s hope it isn’t. It’s doing better than diamonds and, come to think of it, three carats of diamonds are imported for each cashmere sweater.
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Depleting Inventory at Record Pace
Gem-quality diamond imports into the U.S. are off almost 40 percent, from 4.4 million carats in the first four months of 2008 to 2.7 million carats between January and April this year (The May figures will be released Friday.) Looking at the money, in 2009, polished diamond imports (during the four months) are down from $6.4 billion in the corresponding period last year to $3.1 billion – a decline of 51.1 percent. But in the same period, re-exports from the U.S. run at $2.5 billion – thus the total net imports in the first four months were around $600 million (or $150 million per month). “And these diamonds,” says one New York dealer, “are held in the offices of the exporter – and have not necessarily filtered down the value chain.”
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What about other stones? Imports of emeralds, rubies and sapphires are down 22 percent. But costume jewelry imports have declined by only seven percent. Junk, apparently, continues to outperform diamonds. Together with sweaters.
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So with all the “hype” around rough prices, playing around with figures doesn’t provide the silver linings. Whose export figures have been hit mostly?
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The U.S. import share of Israel’s diamond exports is down 57.3 percent, from India 46.6 percent, and from Belgium 42.8 percent – all in monetary terms. Return shipments are down in a similar manner, except regarding Belgium (where return shipments have reached 61 percent).
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Researchers warn that America's role as a buyer of the world's diamonds has changed suddenly and drastically. So far, we intuitively believe that America will remain our single-largest market consuming half of the world’s diamond jewelry (and about 43 percent of the world’s diamonds measured in polished wholesale prices). Most of us still presume that when the recession is over, everything will go back to normal rather quickly. Memories are short; appetite for diamonds is strong.
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It was with some amusement that I reread a theory on diamond prices once espoused by South Africa’s professor Duncan Reekie. Looking at diamond prices, and mindful of the Veblen-effect (the theory of conspicuous consumption), the professor argues that “it is this conspicuous component of price which matters; the higher the conspicuous price the more other people are impressed, and so the greater the satisfaction of the purchaser.”
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Dismissing the normal demand and supply curve in diamonds to arrive at the economically correct polished prices, the argument says that “individual demands, contrary to standard theory, are indeed affected by the demand of others – and in particular by the prices others are paying.” Indeed, some are convinced that a consumer feels better with a $2 million diamond than having the same stone for only $1 million…
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“Keeping up with the Joneses,” a comparison to one's neighbor that serves as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods, does not satisfy a diamond consumer. If one doesn’t do much better than just “keeping up with the Joneses,” one would be perceived as a socio-economic inferiority.
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Somehow, we think these ancient theories have now only a theoretical relevance. The massive discounting in last year’s Christmas sales and the enormous Internet noise around price comparisons and price point shopping may make the “conspicuous element” in pricing something of the past.
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We agree with McKinsey’s view that “the severity of the economic crisis - particularly its impact on house prices and the availability of credit - has prompted consumers to rethink, fundamentally, the way they act.” We are also mindful of Lawrence J. Peter, author of the famous The Peter Principle, who has defined an economist forecaster “as someone who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.”
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THURSDAY, JULY 9TH, 2009, CHAIM EVEN-ZOHAR
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Additional Reading:
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Diamond Imports
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Kiss Her With A Diamond
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www.DiamondImports.com.au
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Posted by The Diamond Guru

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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Reality of Muslim Brotherhood

Omar Al Bashir President of Sudan
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African heads of state discussed a drastic new decision against the International Criminal Court that in practice would give Sudan's murderous president impunity against prosecution for war crimes by the ICC.
In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Sudan sells 60 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its total exports to China, which has invested heavily in Sudan's oil industry and sold weapons to its army. As long as Beijing continues this lucrative partnership, U.S. sanctions, already in place for a decade, are unlikely to prove effective.
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Recession?
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What Recession?
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So, it seems that this "global recession" has not impacted negatively on everyone.
Check this out!

It's a Mercedes Benz owned by an Abu Dhabi oil billionaire (naturally). Featuring the newly developed V10 quad turbo with 1,600 horsepower and 2800nm of torque 0-100km/h in less than 2secs, 1/4 mile in 6.89secs running on biofuel.
That is NOT polished stainless steel people. It's actual WHITE GOLD!!
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Muslims killing Muslims

Blacks killing Blacks

Afro-Arabs killing Afro-Arabs

The African Union Joke

Genocidal Heads of State
13th African Union Summit

Where is the morality ?
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Is this the reality of
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Muslim Brotherhood?
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Will Sharia Law and Jihad help
this Sudanese child from Darfur ?
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This is the Greed of Oil Rich Muslim Arabs
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Who are they blaming this week ?
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Why do the wealthy Gulf oil countries refuse
to help their Muslim brothers?
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How many Darfur children can be fed
with a white gold Mercedes ?

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Posted by The Diamond Guru

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USA Updated Foreign Policy

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North Korea: Land of the Strong, Crazy & Well Armed. Why Shouldn't Obama Give Up A Missile Defense?
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Click on map to enlarge
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Avoiding an American Ambush
by Caroline Glick

It works out that US President Barack Obama is a man of heartfelt, long-held principles. It also works out that his principles are divorced from reality and unresponsive to any facts that contradict them.
This much was made clear by a New York Times report on Sunday which discussed a recently "rediscovered" 1983 article Obama published in a student magazine on the subject of nuclear disarmament when he was an undergraduate at Columbia University.
Obama's article, "Breaking the war mentality," was ostensibly a feature story showcasing two student organizations that advocated a freeze in the US's nuclear arsenal. But the young Obama didn't hesitate to use his platform to make his own, even more radical views known to his readers. As he put it: "The narrow focus of the Freeze movement, as well as academic discussion of first- versus second-strike capabilities, suit the military-industrial interests, as they continue adding to their billion-dollar erector sets.
"Citing a Rastafarian reggae musician as his foreign policy authority, Obama ruminated, "When Peter Tosh sings that 'everybody's asking for peace, but nobody's asking for justice,' one is forced to wonder whether disarmament or arms control issues, severed from economic and political issues, might be another instance of focusing on the symptoms of a problem, instead of the disease itself.
"As one of the freeze advocates explained gently, contending with "the disease itself" was an unachievable goal since "you're not going to get rid of the military in the near future.
"THERE IS NOTHING shocking about Obama's embrace of radical politics as a college student. Particularly at Columbia, adopting such positions was the most conformist move a student could make. What is disturbing is that these views have endured over time, although they were overtaken by events 20 years ago.
Just six years after Obama penned his little manifesto, the Iron Curtain came crashing down. The Soviet empire fell not because radicals like Obama called for the US to destroy its nuclear arsenal, it fell because president Ronald Reagan ignored them and vastly expanded the US's nuclear arsenal while deploying short-range nuclear warheads in Europe and launching the US's missile defense program while renouncing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
On Monday Obama arrived in Moscow for a round of disarmament talks with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. According to most accounts, while in Moscow Obama plans to abandon US allies Ukraine and Georgia and agree to deep cuts in US missile defense programs. In exchange, Moscow is expected to consider joining Washington in cutting back on its nuclear arsenal just as the likes of Iran and North Korea build up theirs.
Of course, even if Russia doesn't agree to scale back its nuclear arsenal, Obama has already ensured that the US will slash the size of its own by refusing to fund its modernization. In short, Obama is working to implement the precise policy he laid out as an unoriginal student conformist 26 years ago.
BY NOW of course, none of this is particularly surprising. Since entering office seven long months ago, Obama has demonstrated that his guiding philosophy for foreign affairs is that the US and its allies are to blame for their adversaries' hostility toward them. All that needs to happen for peace to break out throughout the world is for the US and its allies to quit clinging to their guns and religions and start apologizing for their rudeness. In furtherance of this goal, Obama has devoted himself to putting the screws on US allies, slashing America's defense budget and embarking on a worldwide tour apologizing to US adversaries.
The basic reality that the US is being led by a radical ideologue who clings to his views in the face of overwhelming proof of their falsity is the most fundamental fact that world leaders must reckon with today as they formulate policies to contend with the Obama administration. This is first and foremost the case for Israel.
Since the Netanyahu government took office three months ago, the Obama administration has placed inordinate pressure on Jerusalem in a bid to coerce it into making massive concessions to the Palestinians. These concessions are demanded not for peace, but simply for the sake of placing pressure on Israel. Obama wishes to pressure Israel to show his good intentions to the Arabs and Iran.
TO DATE, Obama's loudest demand has been to officially prohibit all Jewish construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Although the demand is intrinsically bigoted, illegal and immoral, and although the consequences of the expulsion of all Jews from Gaza in 2005 show that Israeli land giveaways and ethnic cleansing bring war not peace, the Netanyahu government has opted not to get into an open confrontation with the administration on the issue.
Instead, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government have sought to treat Obama's offensive as a routine disagreement between otherwise close allies. Rather than defending the principles of Jewish national, legal and human rights and the country's right to security, Netanyahu has sought to reach an accommodation with Obama by reducing the discussion to a conversation about the inevitable natural growth of Jewish communities due to expanding families.
But what Obama's slavish devotion to his radical world view shows is that Netanyahu's decision to seek an accommodation is not simply an exercise in futility, it is a recipe for disaster. Obama and his advisers do not care that Jewish fertility rates are the fastest rising in the world. They do not care that by arguing for a complete halt in "natural" growth, they are effectively adopting a eugenics argument the likes of which no US policy-maker has dared to advance since before the Holocaust. They are looking to fight because they believe that the US is best served by fighting with its allies - particularly with Israel. Any concession Netanyahu makes will just form the basis for the next round of demands.
Far from seeking an agreement with Obama, Netanyahu should realize that given the president's ideological rigidity, there is no agreement to be had. Instead of trying to resolve the issue, Netanyahu's goal should be to prolong discussions until Obama finds someone else to pick on.
Rather than making wrongheaded concessions to Obama on Jewish population growth in the vain hope of mollifying him, Israel should go on the offensive on issues where it has something to gain from a confrontation. Two specific issues - aside from Iran's nuclear program - should be raised in this regard.
FIRST, IN recent months the Obama administration has applied massive pressure on Israel to remove its military forces from Judea and Samaria, curtail its counterterror operations and allow US-trained, anti-Israel Palestinian military forces to deploy in the towns and cities. Rather than openly oppose these demands, in the interests of cultivating good relations, the Netanyahu government has gone along with the program. This it has done in spite of the fact that the Palestinian forces now deploying throughout the areas have a history of participating in and supporting terror attacks against Israel as well as terrorizing their own people.
Last week the government quietly announced that the IDF is pulling out of most Palestinian population centers and turning the keys over to these hostile US-trained forces. This was a mistake.
In the weeks to come, the government should bluntly and publicly discuss and protest Fatah political and military leaders' continued support for terrorists and terrorist attacks against Israel. Netanyahu and his government should also detail human-rights abuses Fatah personnel routinely carry out against Palestinian journalists, businessmen and other civilians. The administration should be forced to defend its decision to empower these corrupt, terror-supporting brutes at the expense of Israel's security, and to force US taxpayers to foot the bill for its cockamamie priorities.
THE SECOND ISSUE is US military aid. For years Israel's detractors have pointed to this aid as "proof" that Israel is a strategic burden for America. But in recent years, and particularly since the Obama administration took office, it is becoming increasingly clear that US military assistance may be a greater burden for Israel than for the US.
On Sunday The Jerusalem Post reported that the Pentagon has forced Israel Aerospace Industries to back out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role fighters to the Indian air force. And as the Post reported, this is the second major deal the Pentagon has forced Israel to withdraw from in the past year. Last summer it was forced to bow out of a $500 million tender to supply the Turkish army with a new main battle tank. In both cases, US firms were competing in the tenders and the Pentagon threatened that Israeli participation would risk continued US-Israeli cooperation.
Today the Israel Air Force faces the prospect of not having a new-generation fighter. The Pentagon has placed so many draconian restrictions on its purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and raised the price so high, that it makes little strategic or economic sense to purchase it. So too, last week the Israel Navy announced it has decided to explore the option of building its own warships rather than buy one of two competing US naval platforms as planned because the US contractors' costs have gone up so high. The Navy is also taking into consideration the fact that by building domestic platforms, it will provide needed employment to shipyard workers.
All in all, both in terms of pure economics and in terms of the massive and constantly escalating restrictions the Obama administration is now placing on Israeli use of US technologies and munitions, maintaining US military assistance makes less and less sense with each passing day.
Were Israel to initiate a conversation about cutting back on this assistance, it would be able to ensure that the talks take place on its terms. Moreover, given the fact that Israel may indeed be best served by simply ending its military assistance package, the risk involved in such discussions would not be particularly earth shattering. Finally, by making clear that it is not dependent on Obama's kindness, it would be expanding its maneuvering room on other issues as well.
What Obama's radicalism tells us is that he is not a man who is moved by rational discourse. He is not a man who is willing to be convinced that he is mistaken. But even in these dire circumstances, Israel is not without good options for securing its interests vis-à-vis Washington.
To do so, Jerusalem must first understand that it gains nothing from making concessions to a president bent on picking a fight with it. Then it must recognize that there are issues where a confrontation with Obama can serve its interests. Finally it must pursue those issues with energy and passion.

Posted by The Diamond Guru

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