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Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror

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Blood from Stones
By Douglas Farah

If the 9/11 Commission's report on intelligence shortfalls prior to 9/11 was hailed for its scope and completeness, it nonetheless failed to recognize the considerable role played by black market diamonds in al Qaeda's pre-attack strategic planning. Indeed, the report specifically downplays the activities of a small but clearly committed cadre of Qaeda operatives who bought millions of dollars worth of illegally mined diamonds from warlords in Liberia and Sierra Leone, saying reports of the group's use of African "conflict diamonds" lacked "persuasive evidence."

Given the secretive nature of the diamond business and the physical isolation and insecurity of Sierra Leone's and Liberia's interior (where most of the diamond deals were done), the commission's researchers might have been forgiven this omission, especially if other sources of information had not existed. But this was not the case. In fact, an exceptionally well researched record of al Qaeda's African diamond operations did exist. It was not buried in sensitive intelligence documents or stored on inaccessible government computers. It was all in the public record - specifically in the archives of The Washington Post, in two years' worth of articles by Douglas Farah that formed the backbone for his stunning book Blood from Stones.

That Farah's painstakingly researched portrait of al Qaeda's (indeed, many of the world's major terror groups') secret financial network was willfully dismissed by the commission is in large part a reflection of the powerful culture of denial in the American intelligence community - a culture the commission rightly detailed as partly responsible for pre-9/11 failures.

Fortunately for policy makers and readers interested in the shadowy regions of the global financial system, Farah's book offers an critical analysis of al Qaeda's strategic motives for buying diamonds, as well as the networks the group and its affiliates used to quickly and quietly move immense sums of cash around the world.

Farah's reporting is sharp, incisive and personal, informed by an impressive array of documents and interviews with American, European and other intelligence officials, as well as Farah's own on-the-ground reporting in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Gulf, Pakistan, Europe and Washington.

Blood from Stones reads like a classical primer on investigative journalism. From Farah's serendipitous discovery of the link between al Qaeda and West Africa (a Liberian source recognized several al Qaeda operatives in a post-9/11 issue of Newsweek that Farah had brought to a meeting) to his journeys to Sierra Leone's diamond fields, the hushed diamond buying rooms of Antwerp and Brussels, and the bustling souks and markets of Pakistan and Dubai, Blood from Stones is written with a precision verging on scientific. But perhaps more impressive than the bibliography of documents and intelligence files are Farah's interviews with current and former government officials who had, in the years leading up to 9/11, picked up on al Qaeda's effort transfer its assets out of formal finance and banking systems - but whose warnings were mishandled, misdirected or simply ignored.

These interviews illustrate the challenge American investigators faced as they sought to track a shadowy and agile enemy. In a series of candid interviews with former Treasury Department officials, Farah describes the molasses pace (and reluctance) with which the American intelligence community shifted gears from tracking criminals through the formal international finance system to the hidden-in-plain-sight but maddeningly secretive networks of traditional hawala money traders.

It is not surprising then, that Farah's first reports of an unexpected and non-traditional link between Islamic fundamentalists and West African warlords were greeted with suspicion by American intelligence. As Farah points out in his book signing appearances, "The first reaction from the CIA and others in American intelligence was: `If we don't already know about it, it can't be true.'"

Bureaucratic blinders are not uncommon in Washington's eternal inter-agency turf wars. But the CIA's steadfast reluctance to accept Farah's reporting - even after much of it was validated by European intelligence services - went beyond what might be considered the standard brush-off tactics employed by the Agency against an inconvenient journalist. Farah documents in troubling detail efforts by the CIA to discredit him and his sources, including a terrifying account of the detention and intimidation of Farah's key African source by US intelligence operators.

That the CIA allocated significant resources to destroy the credibility of the man who had guided Farah through the labyrinthine relationship between al Qaeda, the Liberian warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, and the brutal and bizarre Sierra Leonean rebel group the Revolutionary United Front, is an indication not only of the Agency's desperate desire to cover its own failures, but also of the US intelligence community's deeper disregard for Africa and its perennial crises.

To be fair, Blood from Stones gives credit to American officials who resisted the Agency's groupthink and valiantly tried to raise interest in Washington in the lawless areas of West Africa - regions where the terms "rebel group" and even "government" are often euphemisms for mafia-style criminal syndicates. In addition to the former Treasury Department officials who noted al Qaeda's move to protect its cash from international seizure Farah gives high marks to former US Ambassador to Sierra Leone Joe Melrose, and Representatives Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) and Tony Hall (D-Ohio).

The revelations Farah records in Blood from Stones may yet receive a stamp of approval from the American intelligence community. But even if public recognition doesn't come from the spooks, one hopes that bureaucratic pride hasn't prevented the CIA and other agencies from putting this book on the must-read list for every agent and analyst engaged in the global war on terror.

John Pitman, former Voice of America West Africa correspondent, 1998-2000.

The reason Blood From Stones is one of the most readable books on terrorism is due to Farah's straightfoward writing. Unlike other authors, Farah is concise, and wastes no time with personal emotions. Instead he presents cold, hard, solid facts, like a journalist is supposed to do.

Blood From Stones is a should-read for everyone skeptical of American intelligence and for anyone skeptical of the US's ability to win the War on Terror

This is an amazing piece of work from a man who has risked it all to get the facts that weave together this masterful story. It's style makes it an enjoyable and hard to put down, though its content is not that of the usual quick-and-easy read. It is the perfect book for those interested in the facts behind terrorism.

Farah's expose of Al Qaeda buying blood diamonds in West Africa is as important as it is frightening. Farah tells us how the CIA tried to discredit the story because they didn't discover it themselves, in spite of several attempts on the part of potential informants to give them information. But the book is much broader than that. From blood diamonds in Africa to gold in Dubai to the hawala system in Pakistan to Muslim charities in the US, Farah provides us with the most complete explication of how terrorist finances really work and why we have had so little success in cutting off the flow of terrorist money. This book is a must read, especially now that the CIA has been forced to back track and acknowledge that Farah was right.

This is a fantastic book for everyone interested in Africa, the diamond trade, or the money trail fueling global terrorist activity. The author takes the reader through the many webs of terrorist financing, including key personalities involved in the trade of diamonds and other precious stones. In addition, the author covers several civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Congo, which provides a great background to those conflicts. The author traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East to follow the money trail. Farah is an excellent writer who writes in a clear and concise manner. This is an impossible book to put down. Academics and as well as lay people will find this book valuable. In fact, the American people should rush out and buy this book.

Douglas Farah was not the first person to write about the conflict diamond trade but he was the first one to make the US government pay attention. His discovery that Al Qaeda was funneling their dollars for conflict diamonds so that the bush (not the president) wars could continue. This is truly one of the most horrifying operations occurring in the US where what can only be described as evil is profiting on all sides. It is an easy to read book with an important message. For those who want to learn more about the conflict diamond trade and the problems it causes this is a great book to start with.

I read through most of this book in the bookstore and found it quite disturbing. I'm not qualified to rate the accuracy of the authors claims, however, it wouldn't surprise me if they turn out to be 100% true. Sierra Leone and Liberia have suffered horrific civil wars. I have read other accounts of children being forced to join the army and turned into killing machines. I've also see photos of African children who've had their arms hacked off at the elbows by rebels.

Since almost nothing is made in America anymore I sometimes wonder how much exploitation goes into various sundry items. There's really not much that one person can do about the world's injustices, however, since a diamond is a major purchase it warrants a little investigation. My understanding is that synthetic diamonds are virtually the same quality and cost a fraction of natural ones.

Apparently there is also a lot of blood and destruction involved in gold mining as well, especially in Brazil right now.

Want to try and understand why the Patriot Act and actions (all belatedly) by the Homestead Security powers will not work in the face of groups that are non-country specific and not driven by personal financial gain (plus can finance their actions on a shoestring based on the examples of 9/11 in New York; Madrid Metro and most recently London on 7/7)? Then this book while written mainly around pre and post 9/11 actions will be an eyeopener being a rare case of a book on investigative journalism delivering more than a scare story and with a real message to consider and debate afterwards.

It is a book of two parts the first being the author's specific bad experience in Western Africa especially in Sierra Leone and Liberia pre and immediately post 9/11. This focusses on showing how use of high value non-monetary goods (diamonds in this case) allowed the use of non-banking arrangements like hawala and charities, to avoid standard intelligence approaches in blocking funds and in the process generate non-traceable routes.

The second part is even more depressing showing how the use since 9/11 of high volume/low financial value per item scams such as baby formula foods and cigarettes avoid detection under old methods of policing since they are too low to attract high level interest, but can ultimately generate millions.

Alongside this the stories told in passing of Russian and Israeli arms dealers cross border activities and endless in fighting between US government agencies over control not result, and the clear message is that the issues are still not fully understood or more critically the manner to detect and tackle yet been mastered and achieved.

I suppose Mr. Farah is the type of journalist who loves to be loved. In reading twice through Blood From Stones, I felt as if Mr. Farah was pistol whipping me into believing his reporting. The reader has to first believe that all of Mr. Farah's sources and methods are right, air tight, and without question telling the truth. Yet at the same time, the reader has to leave Mr. Farah the luxury of betraying his sources and running to the nearest US Embassy any time he, the journalist, was under threat from the nasty warlord turned president Charles Taylor. Ok, Al Qaida members bought some diamonds and Taylor allowed them to do so. Great, bad thing, I agree.

Several times through the first part of the book, Mr. Farah said this or that guy was his dream source. And if only those bunch of idiots back in Washington: CIA, DIA, State, etc, would listen, they would know that Al Qaida was operating in West Africa. While at the same time, Farah the patriotic journalist, turns over his sources to these same bumbling officials so that the sources can be polygraphed, debriefed, and prodded into turning coat and reporting for the good ole US of A.

There is a lot of truth in Mr. Farah's analysis and work, but I wondered why Farah is so patriotic? His reporting in the Washington Post probably led to some of his sources being strung up in some lonely part of Liberia and Sierra Leone; killed for being outted in one of Farah's editorials or articles. In the book, Mr. Farah runs to the US Embassy in Abidjan and clutches to Embassy security officers as he and his family leave Abidjan under a threat from warlord Taylor. I said to myself, ok, you're a journalist who happens to be a US citizen, why not stick it out with your sources, send your family home, and deal with it. Instead Farah runs to his editors at the Post, with eureka, I have it, from my dusty part of West Africa, Al Qaida.

At the end of the book, I just didn't know what to make of Mr. Farah's story: good information, nice second part on how terrorist networks work, and some good insider stuff on Liberia. But, comme meme, enough of Farah saying that these or those guys got it wrong, and I know better than you. Mr. Farah in the end is a journalist, who publishs stories about bad people, and hopefully someone does something about it. Not a patriotic dupe for the guys back in Washington who are dropping the ball.

Well, with Charles Taylor still back in Nigeria and threatenting to eventually come back to join in Liberia's new democracy and avoid war crimes. I only hope Mr. Farah can use the good analysis and work in this book, and there certainly are good parts in this well written book, to bring pressure in Washington for Taylor to be brought to justice. Not out of patriotism, but out of sheer revolt for what this killer has done. You know, the book was about Al Qaida and using diamonds to finance its operations. If that what US senators and congressmembers need as an excuse to get Taylor, then so be it. Farah makes a good argument for blood diamonds, but what the heck do you think the bumblers in Washington could do about it anyways?

The intial parts of the book which focus on the diamond trade in collapsed west african states was fascinating and a breeze to read due to it's succinct writing style. However , I was disappointed that the end of the book seems to lose focus and clearly strays from the book's very title. The last few chapters regard not Al Qaida and diamond smuggling, but fund raising for militant Palestinian groups from within the US using various scams in Brooklyn and elsewhere.I feel that defining Hamas as threat to the United States is highly inaccurate and also unbalanced with out al least a mention of Jewish diamond merchants and their support of militant, armed settlers.

Overall, a good read but, disappointing in the end with references to people like Steven Emerson, which takes away a bit of the credibility of an otherwise interesting work.