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Here is some of the current shame of Belgium: Blood Diamonds Belgium Accused Continuing Sale of Unita Diamonds Panafrican News Agency April 24, 2001 The Belgian mining marketing town of Antwerp has continued to buy diamonds from the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), according to a secret report released by the General Intelligence Service. The Belgian press on Monday quoted the report, which indicated that the sale of "blood diamonds" had continued despite the institution of a certificate of origin for diamonds originating from the civil war torn Angola. The head of the working group...

BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels. Viktor Bout, 41, whose dealings reportedly inspired a 2005 movie about the illicit arms trade, was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan. Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint...

Russian Mogul's Planes Took al-Qaida, Taliban Gold To Sudan9-3-2 Planes owned by Russian businessman Viktor Bout have been used to fly al-Qaida and Taliban gold to Sudan in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Several shipments of gold were delivered by boat from Karachi, Pakistan, to either Iran or the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said, citing unidentified European intelligence officials. From there, the gold was flown on charted planes to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where al-Qaida has broad business contacts, the paper said. European officials believe the gold was transported by Air Bas, an airline set up...

Hi folks, I've been reading lately some interesting articles about the UNITA armed struggle and the supposedly good supporters they have (as mentioned in the WND Articles). It's obvious that i'm very interested because i am a christian and i consider defending it and my fellows an important task. For a while i haven't read any article about the UNITA's and any recent updates about them, neither the current situation of the White Africans. Can you folks give me any present info as to the current situation of the mentioned group (UNITA)? I also read that White Africans or Afrikaners...

The relations between Russia and the Shiite's religious leadership in Lebanon started to develop in the beginning of the seventies. The spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community, Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, visited Moscow in 1972 and asked Soviet authorities to issue humanitarian aid to his people. At the same time cooperation between the Marxist factions of the PLO that were active in Lebanon and Soviet military intelligence – GRU, intensified greatly. Several soviet officers (speaking fluent Arabic) even visited Palestinian terrorist training camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon between 1972-1975. Using their connections in PLO they managed to establish...

<p>A national Identification card — complete with biometic identifiers, such as fingerprints or retinal scans — is coming. Only it's not being called that. House Resolution 4633 — the Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002 — would effectively create a national ID if it's passed. The bill would require each state to adopt a uniform standard for driver's licenses and link their motor vehicle databases to a central computer registry. H.R. 4633 would "amend title 23, United States Code, to establish standards for state programs for the issuance of drivers' licenses and identification cards, and for other purposes." It would make use of "encoded biometric data matching the holder of the license or card." In other words, American citizens who have never committed any crime would be subject to fingerprinting (or something similar, such as a retinal scan) and compelled to carry a card with an embedded computer chip containing reams of personal information.</p>

It's Here...The Federal ID card By Hari Heath Right now the U.S. House of Representatives is debating in committee what could be the single most federal power expanding bill in American history -- HR 4633, the "Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002." Since its passage last October during the post-Sept. 11 hysteria, many Americans thought the more ominously Orwellian "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act" was intended to bring about the federally-enforced police state. However, if you read the PATRIOT Act while comparing it with existing U.S. Code, it was mostly a housecleaning bill (The...

Fun with Fingerprint Readers Tsutomu Matsumoto, a Japanese cryptographer, recently decided to look at biometric fingerprint devices. These are security systems that attempt to identify people based on their fingerprint. For years the companies selling these devices have claimed that they are very secure, and that it is almost impossible to fool them into accepting a fake finger as genuine. Matsumoto, along with his students at the Yokohama National University, showed that they can be reliably fooled with a little ingenuity and $10 worth of household supplies. Matsumoto uses gelatin, the stuff that Gummi Bears are made out of. First...

The furor last month following the issuance of student visas to suicide hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi is wholly misplaced. As was the furor last October over the proposal by software magnate Larry Ellison that the United States begin issuing national identification cards. As at least Ellison should know, visas, passports and ID cards are wholly unnecessary. You are an identification card. A living, breathing one that is exponentially harder to forge than a laminated card, an application form or a pocket-size brochure of any kind. Matching the geometry of a hand is successful 999 times out of 1,000....

Speeding Up The Checkout Line With Biometrics March 13, 2002 A Seattle supermarket next month will begin using a service that lets shoppers use fingerprints to authorize payment for groceries. By Jennifer Maselli Customers at the Thrift Way supermarket in Seattle next month can speed through the checkout, using personal ID numbers and their fingerprints to authorize payment for groceries. "It's really about customer convenience and security," says Paul Kapioski, president and owner of Thrift Way, which is using biometric E-payment software from Indivos Inc. to set up the service. "For one, you won't have to dig your credit...

British Labor Party foreign affairs guru Jack Straw recently flew to South Africa. There he handed over 30 million pounds to the ANC for “land reform and justice.” This was reported as a one line item in the prestigious South African Mail & Guardian newspaper. The question begs: Why should the hardworking, decent British taxpayer have to finance the on-going genocide of the South African farmer? Since the ANC took power in 1994, more than 1450 farmers have been murdered, with another 8000 attacks. This does not include maimings. The South African farmer is the highest at-risk murder group on...

<p>LONDON, England (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday lifted all sanctions against the former rebel movement UNITA in Angola, one of the countries in Bush's so-called coalition of the willing supporting the war in Iraq.</p> <p>Angola was in the limelight as a U.N. Security Council member during the heated debate over Iraq. The country's support was courted by the United States, as well as by the leading opponent of the war, France.</p>

I just found out about this law a few days ago. It has already passed the House and Senate. According to www.geocities.com/larson_walker/body_conflictdiamonds.html President Bush also supports this law. I oppose this law because if I understand correctly it would place diamonds under the control of whatever government currently in power. I have read that in Angola, a diamond-rich country, the Marxist MPLA government seized control by killing elected UNITA officials, election negotiators, activists, and supporters in 1992. The MPLA government, I believe, has not allowed any fair elections since. The UNITA freedom fighters have been accused frequently of committing atrocities...

SOSSOSVLEI, Namibia – Despite the recent end of the decades-long civil war in Angola, a determined group of rebels in an oil-rich province continue to fight for autonomy from the ruling Marxist government, as revenues from the area's vast deposits of "black gold" hang in the balance. With the defeat of the anti-Marxist and anti-globalist UNITA rebel group, Angola has emerged as a vital new oil supplier to the United States (about 8 percent of America's total usage) and Great Britain. Angola's ruling government, the MPLA, stands ready to lead Angola into the 21st century as a major diamond and...

Luanda — The Angolan government and UNITA rebels have declared the official end to their nearly three-decade old civil war. "The war has ended," Defence Minister Kundi Paihama said during a ceremony in Luanda where 30 UNITA generals and high-ranking officers joined the Angolan army. Rebel leader General Paulo Lukamba Gato said that "UNITA has transformed and now there is peace." About 5,000 of the former guerrillas have already merged with the army under the terms of April's cease-fire. Most of the 80,000 former guerrillas and some 300,000 family members, however, face an uncertain future in a country facing famine...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. Arrest of Kenyan Exposes Massive Global Arms Trade The East African Africa News February 25, 2002 Monday Kenya L AST WEEKEND'S arrest of Kenyan-born Sanjivan Ruprah, who is alleged to be a part of a major arms smuggling operation to Africa, has brought into the open the extent of the multi-million dollar illegal business. The whereabouts of Bout remain unknown. Some media reports say he is in Moscow, while others say he is in the Congo or the United Arab Emirates. An international ...

April 4, 2002 Angola, UNITA ink peace deal LUANDA, Angola, April 4 (UPI) -- The Angolan government and UNITA rebels signed a cease-fire deal Thursday, formally ending a 27-year civil war that killed nearly a million people. Army chief Gen. Armando da Cruz Neto and UNITA head Gen. Abreu Muengo Ukwachitembo "Kamorteiro" signed the deal at the country's National Assembly. "Peace has a price but it is a lesser price than the price of war," Kamorteiro said. Neto said peace in the country would "benefit ... Africa and the world as a whole." The accord comes following a preliminary cease-fire...

Report Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal By Wayne MadsenSpecial to CorpWatchMay 17, 2002 As the US Congress continues its investigation of the Enron affair, human rights advocates are calling for a probe of the Bush administration's possible role in another energy and influence-peddling scandal. According to a recent report by the British-based non-governmental organization Global Witness, Bush and US oil interests have ties to some of the key figures in the arms-for-oil scandal which has devastated Angola.Known as "Angolagate" in France, the scandal involves arms-for-oil deals between French businessman Pierre Falcone, the head of a firm called Brenco...

DISPATCH FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA End of the road foranti-communist rebel Demise of Angola's Savimbi linked partly to Western oil ties Posted: April 25, 20021:00 a.m. Eastern WorldNetDaily.com international correspondent Anthony C. LoBaido has spent the past decade analyzing strategic issues in Southern Africa. He filed this report on the recent assassination of Angola's anti-globalist UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. By Anthony C. LoBaido © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com RUNDU, Namibia – "It was time for him to go. Savimbi was interfering with normal economic development in Angola," goes the talk in Southern Africa these days. In late February, UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was...

Angolan Officials Inform United Nations, Foreign Countries of Rebel Leader Savimbi's Death By Casimiro Siona Associated Press Writer Published: Feb 23, 2002 LUANDA, Angola (AP) - The body of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, scarred by 15 bullet wounds, is reportedly "unrecognizable," but the Angolan government on Saturday insisted the army had killed its longtime nemesis and informed the United Nations of his death. The government appealed to Savimbi's fighters still hiding in the bush to surrender. The reported death of the leader blamed by the United Nations for wrecking peace efforts has raised hopes for an end to two ...