"Farrow tells war crimes court model received diamond; Says Campbell ‘excited’ by gift" by Toby Sterling, Associated Press | August 10, 2010
LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands — Naomi Campbell told Mia Farrow that she received a “huge diamond’’ from the former president of Liberia, the actress said from the witness stand yesterday, contradicting the model’s testimony that she didn’t know the value of the gift from accused war criminal Charles Taylor.
Related: Memory Hole: Our Man in Africa
Until we turned on him.
The prosecution called Farrow, the American actress, and Campbell’s former agent to testify about uncut diamonds that Taylor allegedly gave the model after a September 1997 party they all attended that was hosted by then-South African President Nelson Mandela.
Prosecutors have pulled the celebrity witnesses into Taylor’s trial hoping they will show Taylor was in possession of at least one “blood diamond,’’ stones sold to fund wars. Prosecutors say Taylor traded guns to rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone in exchange for uncut diamonds during Sierra Leone’s 1992-2002 civil war, which left more than 100,000 dead in the West African nation.
Yeah, and the U.S. knew all about it.
Taylor says he is innocent of war crimes and has denied ever trading in diamonds.
Maybe not, but...
One can't blame him (or anyone else) for seeing it that way.
Campbell, who resisted appearing before the war crimes court for months, testified under subpoena Thursday that she was given several small stones by men she didn’t know after the dinner in Pretoria. The British model said she neither knew they were diamonds nor who had sent them.
But Farrow testified that Campbell had told other guests over breakfast in 1997 she had received a large gem from Taylor. She said Campbell said she planned to give it to charity, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. She added that Campbell seemed “excited, happy’’ at the gift.
Campbell’s former agent Carole White testified Taylor and Campbell had “flirted’’ across the table at dinner....
But during cross-examination, defense lawyers strongly challenged the testimony of both Farrow and White.
“You have a very powerful motive for lying,’’ Courtenay Griffiths said to White, noting the former manager is suing Campbell for millions of dollars over an alleged breach of contract.
Meanwhile, Farrow, 65, conceded she had never seen the diamond or diamonds herself.
Confronted with Campbell’s testimony that the gift was three small rough diamonds that looked like pebbles rather than one “huge’’ polished diamond, Farrow stuck by her story, saying, “I think I would have remembered diamonds in the plural,’’ it was “sort of an unforgettable moment.’’
Like the JFK killing or 9/11, Mia?
Or more like when you found the nude photographs of Soon-Yi in Woody's apartment?
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And you know what they say, readers:
Diamonds Are a Dictator's Best Friend
Especially when his country is broke and is suffering hunger and cholera crises.
"Controversial diamonds approved for sale" by Associated Press | August 12, 2010
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe began selling hundreds of thousands of carats of rough diamonds yesterday that were mined from an area where soldiers killed 200 people, raped women, and forced children into hard labor, Human Rights Watch contends.
Human Rights Watch seems to make my agenda-pushing Zionist-controlled AmeriKan newspaper a lot.
That is not to say they are not telling the truth or are not doing good work; however, I am suspicious of anything that turns up in the newspaper pages given all the things they omit or ignore.
Soldiers guarded security vaults built at the main Harare airport, where private jets brought buyers from Israel, India, Lebanon, and Russia.
(Blog editor just shaking his head)
Abbey Chikane, Zimbabwe monitor of the world diamond control body, certified the diamonds as ready for sale, saying the controversy-plagued diamonds from two mines in eastern Zimbabwe met minimum standards. Investigators for the diamond control body said last year the gems were mined at the Marange fields by virtual slaves who had been told to dig or die and were smuggled out by soldiers who raped civilians. Yet the Kimberley Process, the diamond body, said those gems did not qualify as “blood diamonds.’’
I don't buy them anyway.
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Also see: Memory Hole: Our Ally in Africa
But, you know, when it is our guys.....
