text:
Israeland the Ongoing Holocaust in Congo
By Keith Harmon Snow
7 February 2008
Maurice Templesman is one of the top funders of Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. Templesman was the unofficial ambassador to the
Congo( ) for years, but a new Israeli-American tycoon has replaced him. In the world of bling bling and bling bang, some things change, some stay the same. The CIA, the MOSSAD, the big mining companies, the offshore accounts and weapons dealsall hidden by the Western media. The holocaust in Central Africa has claimed some six to ten million people in Zaire since 1996, with 1500 people dying daily.[1] But while the Africans are the victims of perpetual Holocaust, the persecutors hide behind history, complaining that they are the persecuted, or pretending they are the saviors. Who is responsible? Congo
For Israeli-American Dan Gertler, business in blood drenched
is not merely business, it is a quest for the Holy Grail. Young Dan Gertler goes nowheredoes nothingwithout the spiritual guidance of Brooklyn-born Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Leibovitch, a personal friend of Condoleeza Rice.[2] Gertler and Leibovitch are two of the principals behind a diamond mining company, Emaxon Finance Corporation, involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Gertler and gang won the majority rights to the diamonds from the state mining company, Société Minière de Bakwange, MIBA, found near the government-controlled town of Congo , the rough diamond capital of the world. Mbuji-Mayi
Emaxon Finance Corp. has apparently out-maneuvered diamond competitors, especially the big rivals Energem and De Beers. Energem is one of the many shady mining companies connected to Anthony Teixeira, a Portuguese born businessman now residing in
whose daughter married Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba. The warlords deadly battle in Congo in March 2007 was a bid between rival agentsJean-Pierre Bemba and Joseph Kabilato be the black gatekeeper for the mining cartels run by dynastic families like Templesman, Oppenheimer, Mendell, Forrest, Blattner, Hertzov, Gertler and Steinmetz, and for companies like NIKANOR, whose stock prices rose early in July 2006 in expectation of a July 30th win for Joseph Kabila.[3] Africa Confidential called President Kabilas 2003 visit to the Bush White House a coup for the Israeli diamond magnates Dan Gertler and Beny Steinmetz. South Africa
Canadian-based Energem, formerly DiamondWorks, is owned by British mercenary Tony Buckingham and its director/shareholders include Mario and Tony Teixeira, J.P. Morgan, and Gertlers partner Israeli-American Beny Steinmetz (50%).[4] Through subsidiary Branch Energy, the Energem-DiamondWorks gang has perpetuated war in 11 African countries.[5] In December 2007, Energem re-launched itself on the London Stock Market with the newly laundered image of a renewable energy company. Regarding diamonds, it said only it had decided to give up exploration rights in the
.[6] The Energem spokesman explained that Tony Teixeira had a clean bill of health etc., etc. Of course, Energem quit the C.A.R. because Jean-Pierre Bemba marched his troops into C.A.R., where they raped and pillaged widely.[7] Energem is still operating in Central African Republic Congo, but Dan Gertler is the new, unofficial ambassador to the for the George W. Bush gang. Congo
Gertler and partners like Beny and Danny Steinmetz, Nir Livnat, Chaim Leibovitz and Yaakov Neeman run a hornets nest of companies involved in African hotspots, including: Dan Gertler International (DGI), Steinmetz Global Resources, International Diamond Industries, NIKANOR and Global Enterprises Corporate.
Dan Gertler is the new kid on the block, writes Yossi Melman in
s Haaretz news. Bold, sophisticated, brutal, he is an adventurer with a short fuse. Haaretz confirmed that Dan Gertler owns a complex network of interconnected companies, often registered in offshore tax havens and involved in Israel India, Russia, Belgiumand the , and that Dan Gertler is looking to God for guidance. [8] United States
In the diamond industry, Melman wrote, Gertler is considered something of an odd bird. He maintains few ties with the other merchants and is not very sociable... Alongside his business affairs, most of his energy is channeled into matters of faith. He is a donor to religious institutions and from time to time makes a pilgrimage to the rabbi he most admires, Rabbi David Abuhatzeira, from Nahariya, in order to consult with him and receive his blessing. Gertler is surrounded mostly by religious people and laces his speech liberally with praise to God. [9]
In 2003, Condoleeza Rice, then Assistant to President Bush for National Security Affairs, introduced Dan Gertler and Chaim Leibovitch to
U.S.official Jendayi Frazer, a Harvard Kennedy Schoolaffiliate and former National Security Council agent focused on Africa. On December 6, 2006, Frazer, then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, was one of seven special Bush delegates sent to the inauguration of Congos newly installed President Joseph Kabila in .[10] Kinshasa
When Dan Gertler and Chaim Leibovitch and their friends visit the luxury Gertler villa in Lumumbashi, the capital of
Katanga, Congos large southern province, their kosher meals arrive by private plane from . The special executive jet that flies their kosher meals a few hundred miles over the roadless Kinshasa Congocosts some $ 23,000 per trip.[11] US
The average income for Congolese citizens each yearif they survive itis about $95. Shootings at mining facilities and diamond mines are common, land is stolen from Congolese people, strikes are crushed by security forces that companies are partnered with, and black overseers of state terror routinely arrest and torture any vocal oppositionand sometimes disappear themin support of white bosses. The Société Minière de BakwangeMIBAand the diamond fields of Mbuji-Mayi in
Congohave a long history of bloodshed backed by Western powers, including , from the beginning.[12] Amnesty International points out that not a single state agent has ever been prosecuted for the extrajudicial executions of suspected illegal miners in Mbuji-Mayi.[13] Israel
After a century of exploitation and slavery, we find MIBA consistently withholding payment of salaries to starving Congolese laborers and middle managers for months at a time. April and May 2007 saw strikes and protests leading to the Kabila governments arbitrary arrest, detention and torture of trade union organizers like Leon Ngoy Bululu; police have also shot protestors.[14] So-called illegal diamond workersdisenfranchised local Congolese people forced into criminal activities to survivewere summarily executed on MIBA concessions in Mbuji-Mayi. MIBA security guards have also been sniping unemployed diamond miners.[15]
Meanwhile, Dan Gertlers kosher meals depart
Kinshasa, the capital of the big , through the arrangements of Rabbi Chlomo Bentolila, high priest of the Chabad of Central Africa. Rabbi Chlomo Bentolila has been a Kinshasa Rabbi since 1991, and he was a spiritual force who survived the terrorism of the old dinosaur, Mobutu Sese Seko, the way most elites did: by working with him. Rabbi Bentolila is a member of the Chabad Lubavitch Global Emissary Network, headquartered in Congo Brooklyn, New York, and his wife Miriam is the sister of Rabbi Menahem Hadad, a high priest in .[16] Brussels
Kosher does not mean that a Rabbi blesses the food, Rabbi Betolila corrected me, but rather that the food was supervised by a Rabbinical Thora [sic] authority who sees that the ingredients were in accordance with the laws of Kashrut expressed in the Bible (Leviticus and Deuteronomy). [17]
Dan Gertler often flies people into
, on his private jet, for sacred Jewish rituals. For the Bar Mitsvah of Rabbi Chlomo Bentolilas son Binyamin Avrahim in June 2005, guests included eminent Rabbis, Hassidic singer Yoni Shlomo and special orchestra Yossef Brami, all arriving in special flights from Congo Israel, New Yorkand . The reception was held at the luxurious and exclusive Memling Hotel. Joseph Kabila sent a sizeable delegation but did not attend: his closest advisers provided a blessing on his behalf.[18] Brussels
The Gertler, Steinmetz and Templesman interests are advanced in part through the support of the Committee of the Jewish Community of Kinshasale Comité de la Communauté Israélitethat is tightly coordinated with the power structure in
to exert influence and assure control of Israeli-Belgian-Anglo-American interests over the geopolitical arena. Kinshasa
From June 26-30, 2007, the Communaute Israelite de Kinshasa received a visit from the Israeli Ambassador Yaakov Revah, director of the Africa Department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Revah also flew to Lumumbashi for meetings with Dan Gertler and his agents, including Moishe (Moses) Katumbi, the Governor of Katanga, and they most likely enjoyed a lovely, $23,000 kosher meal sent from the Chabad in Kinshasa.[19] The Communaute Israelite de Kinshasa maintains very intimate political relations with President Joseph Kabilas PPRD party, the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy. On March 1, 2006, in a formal ceremony, the President of the Communaute Israelite de Kinshasa, Ashlan Piha, was awarded the
s Medal of Civil Merit. Congo
Before his assassination on January 16, 2001, Laurent Desire Kabilathe President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)made a deal with the Gertler gang that would play out in favor of the current President Joseph Kabila and, it seems, be a central factor in relation to both Congos ongoing war and the bloody warlords battle in Kinshasa in March 2007.[20]
Back in 2000, former Congolese president Laurent Kabila offered a monopoly on Congolese diamonds, and 88% of the proceeds, to Gertlers International Diamond Industries (IDI) in exchange for Israeli military assistance to his new government.[21] Top Congolese military officials apparently flew to
in 2000 to negotiate the deal. Gertler pledged military assistance to President Laurent Kabila through top Israeli officials.[22] Israel
The original Gertler-Kabila deal fell through after Laurent Kabila was assassinated for not cooperating with the Great White Fathers of industry (January 2001), but Gertler and Leibovitch and their disciples formed another company, Dan Gertler International, and advanced their Congo plan.[23] By 2002 Gertlers company was the leading exporter of Congolese gems, controlling a diamond mining franchise worth about $
1 billion annually. [24] US
In 2003, the mighty Congolese diamond parastatal Societe Miniere De Bakwanga (MIBA)which has been forever controlled by the Great White Fathers in
Belgium, Israeland signed an exclusive contract with Gertlers startup company, Emaxon Finance International. The deal involved Israelis Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization (SIBAT), and high-level Israeli defense and intelligence officials. Gertler and his buddies reportedly bribed Congolese officials and Angolan generals who, on and off, have commanded Angolan Army troops protecting America Kinshasa, s capital.[25],[26] Congo
Security for mining operations in
is provided by exclusive security companies like Overseas Security Services (OSS) one of the many DRC interests of Belgian billionaire tycoon Philippe de Moerloose. A member of the Congo elite, de Moerloose supplies jets and other presidential toys to DRC President Kabila. In 2006, President Joseph Kabilas campaign helicopter was at the centre of a legal battle involving Philippe de Moerloose.[27] De Moerlooses companies operated in Mobutus Kinshasa from at least 1991, backing state terrorism and Western corporate plunder that was rendered invisible by the Western media. De Moerloose is also an adviser to European Union (EU) Commissionerand diamantaireLouis Michel. Zaire
Dan Gertler and Philippe de Moerloose were, reportedly, the only two white men who attended the wedding of Joseph Kabila and the two clearly share interests in security provided by
OSSat MIBA and elsewhere in . The April 2003 secret agreement signed between the Gertler/Steinmetz company Emaxon Finance and the Kabila government involved MIBA and two de Moerloose companies, OSS-Congo and Demimpex, and other firms. Congo
Overseas Security Services (OSS) operations are apparently grounded in the experience of top expatriate security operatives formerly involved with the biggest security firm in Mobutus
.[28] According to Zaire public relations materials, these persons have a not unimportant experience in the safety of this country.[29] Providing mine security, body-guard and protection services, OSS OSSoperates in Burundi, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Dubai, South Africa, Republicof Congo(Brazzavile) and Belgium, placing them in cahoots with all sides warring and plundering eastern today.[30] Congo
Emaxon Finance International is a real gem, one of these octopuses of mining tangled up with interlocking companies and subsidiaries based in specious geographical offshore tax havens that work to shield from prosecution people who are responsible for money laundering, weapons and drugs operations, assassinations and other terrorism.
NIKANOR is registered as an Isle of Man (UK) company, an offshore tax haven that helps to conceal criminal activities and maximize profits. NIKANOR directors include Dan Kurtzer, former
U.S.ambassador to (2001-2005) and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research under Madeleine Albright. NIKANOR partners include Mende and Moshe Gertner [sic], Israeli property tycoons with vast holdings in Israel who control 22 percent of NIKANOR. Another partner is Israeli-born Nir Livnat, managing director of Johannesburg-based Ascot Diamonds, a member of the Steinmetz Group of Diamond Companies, and a principal involved in numerous U.S.-based businesses from London Miamito .[31] New York
Back in 2001, when the Gertler enterprises surfaced in dirty diamond deals, public relations was handled by Lior Chorev, the Special Strategic and Communications Consultant to International Diamond Industries (IDI), and Chorev continued in this role to support Dan Gertler businesses.[32] Today, Lior Chorev is partnered with the brothers Yuval and Eyal Arad as director-owners of the Israeli marketing and public relations firm, ARAD Communications.[33]
We do work for Mr. Gertler on some of his business issues, said Lior Chorev.[34]
ARADs many clients include Dan Gertler companies, Los Angeles-based Coral Diamonds and an Israeli aeronautics weaponry manufacturer producing Unmanned Aerospace Vehicles (UAVs)robotic weapons and intelligence platforms like those being used against the people of today.[35] As a political strategist, Lior Chorev has worked for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.[36] He has also participated in Israel-NATO defense planning conferences.[37] Congo
Dan Gertler is close to Israeli politicians, especially Avigdor Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, and he is very close to diamantaire Beny Steinmetz, a good friend of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Gertlers inseperable friend, Chaim Leibovitz, is also very close to Lieberman, and was a regular fixture in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus offices.[38]
Beny Steinmetz is considered to be one of the richest billionaires in
. The Steinmetz Group, controlled with his brother Daniel, is one of the biggest clients of the de Beers diamond syndicate. Steinmetz is also involved in an Israeli real estate group that purchased the assets of the British Haslemere real estate company for $1.46 billion. Steinmetzs real estate partners include the billionaire Israeli investors David and Simon Reuben, and the Saudi Arabian Olayan Group, an investment company that is deeply connected with Bechtel Corporation.[39] The Steinmetz web site map of operations hides their involvement in war-torn Israel .[40] Congo
Seems Dan Gertlers land grabs and exclusion in Congo have a lot in common with the current crimes against humanity being committed by Israel through its illegal partition in the Middle East. On January 3, 2008, the Jerusalem Post reported that Lior Chorev was an integral part of past Prime Minister Ariel Sharons advisers, and he was recently quoted to say that even though Sharon did not get to finalize Israels final borders (he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2006), the route of the security fencewhich he decidedwould ultimately serve as the basis for the border and as Sharon's lasting legacy.[41]
He felt he needed to set the border because he didn't trust the younger generations, Chorev was quoted to say. He knew the fence route by heart and the reason for every stretch of land being on one side or the other.[42]
In 2003, the U.N. Panel of Experts on war in
revealed that Emaxon Finance International is controlled by Israeli diamond traders Chaim Leibovitz and Dan Gertler.[43] Emaxon lists as its address an office in Congo Montreal, Canada, but Emaxons majority shareholder is listed as FTS Worldwide, a nebulous global corporation whose business address is that of a firm of lawyers, Mossack Fonseca & Company, in . FTS Worldwide is registered with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to lawyer Andre Zolty of Panama City Geneva . A copy of the MIBA-Emaxon contract was signed on 13 April 2003 by Israeli-Americans Yaakov Neeman and Chaim Leibovitz.[44] Switzerland
Yaakov Neeman is a founding partner of Herzog, Fox and Neeman, Tel Aviv, one of
s top law firms, and he has held Israeli government cabinet and ministerial positions.[45] Neeman is on the Advisory Board of Markstone Capital Group, a very influential group of investment bankers, with Eli Hurvitz. On the board of Israel s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries with Eli Hurvitz is Northrup-Grumman director Philip Frost.[46] Both Philip Frost and Maurice Templesman are top-level councilors for the American Stock Exchange. Eli Hurvitz sat on the International Advisory Counsel of Israel Harvard Universitys Belfer Center, 2002-2005, during the period when the and their intelligence operative Robert Rotberg formalized the Kimberley Process to officially whitewash blood diamonds.[47] Yakov Neeman is also a governor of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency for Belfer Center . Israel
One of the main objectives of the Kimberley Process, and the
s role, was to protect the South African Oppenheimer and De Beers diamond cartels and their leading buyers and agents like Maurice Templesman and Beny Steinmetz.[48] Added to those diamond industry firms whitewashed by the Kimberley Process are all the Zionist diamond dealers and cartels that have risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Harvard Belfer Center
The Israeli-American enterprises of the Gertler/Steinmetz gang have proliferated and today are major shareholders or owners of diamond concessions in
Congos Kasai province and copperbelt concessions in . The copperbelt is the big money in Katanga . Copper prices recently hit an all time high due to monopoly control by corporations and new applications in transportation, aerospace and weaponry. Cobalt is used in dye and paint processes for manufacturing. More importantly, it is elemental to superalloys used for tank armor, spacecraft, turbines, ship hulls, ship hulls, blast furnaces, refineries, petroleum drilling rigs, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Like coltan, or columbium-tantalite, cobalt is also used in cell phone batteries. The Congo copperbelt is also rich in germanium, a rare metal used in optical fibers, infrared lenses and telecommunication satellites.[49] Katanga
The entire military-industrial-prisons complex revolves around minerals like cobalt, niobium and heterogenite (cobalt oxide), yet the truth about what happens to African people in lands taken over by these mining companies is hidden by the corporate media. More and more land is being stolen, more and more atrocities committed, with less and less transparency, and less and less accountability, and fewer and fewer voices for the voiceless. And, as usual, there are always a lot of empty promises.
Over the past fifty years, elite Israeli nationals have perpetrated conflict and injustice in
Africa, fueled by and for minerals. Operatives associated with the Israeli military or intelligence servicesthe Mossadmaintain strategic criminal syndicates in competition and in partnership with other syndicates involving men like Philippe De Moerloose, Louis Michel, Viscount Etienne Davignon, John Bredenkamp and Tony Buckingham.
Israeli trained shock troops became Mobutus bodyguards, with Mossad advisers. According to a report by the American Jewish Committee: after 1980 Mossad agents, military emissaries, and a small group of private businessmen replaced diplomats as
s main interlocutors with African leaders and political (mainly opposition) groups. The report cites rising involvement of private defense and security interests, especially in Israel Angola, DRC and , since 1992.[50] Central Africa Republic
Israeli operatives and businessmen appear everywhere there is egregious suffering and dispossession. Dan Gertlers forays into the bloody world of diamonds involve Israeli arms dealers Yair Klein, who is reportedly wanted by the
U.S.for training Medellindrug-cartel militias in , and Dov Katz.[51] Klein was convicted by Colombia (1991) for his involvement with groups that targeted and assassinated Colombian politicians, journalists, and police. Jailed in Israel Sierra Leonein 1999, Klein was a field representative for Gertler in war-torn Sierra Leoneand . Gertler also mingles with the Russian Military Brotherhood, a group of retired Russian generals whom Gertler describes as good friends. [52],[53] Liberia
Retired Israeli Defense Forces Colonel Yair Klein reportedly organized arms for diamonds networks in
Sierra Leoneand after President Charles Taylor was deposed. In 1999 Klein was arrested in Liberia on charges of smuggling arms to the rebel Revolutionary United Front.[54] The U.N. also documented collaborations between Sierra Leone rebels and Lazare Kaplan agent Damian Gagnon; Lazare Kaplan International is one of the organized crime syndicates of Jewish American Maurice Templesman.[55] Sierra Leone
The Steinmetz Group of companies are also involved in the bloody diamond fields of
Sierra Leone, along with Energem (formerly DiamondWorks), the company described above that is connected to the white mercenaries depicted in s Blood Diamond propaganda film.[56] In December 2007, local people in Hollywood struggling to gain the smallest livelihood from their own resources were shot by police during peaceful protests against the Steinmetz-controlled Koidu Holdings site. Its the same old local peoples story, happening everywhere. These were people from communities driven off their own land by mining companies that promised the world, cajoled the trusting people, and gave nothing after. The Steinmetz gang called in the local paramilitary, a curfew was imposed and people were shot; the police, as usual, falsely claimed that protesters were armed.[57] Sierra Leone
Like most mining mafias in Africa, the Israeli octopusorganized crime syndicates, offshore subsidiaries, interlocking directorships and affiliated mercenarieshas gripped the very heart of Congo like an octopus grips and stuns its prey. Mining regulates the pulse of
, and foreign mining companies with their black sell-out agents are sucking the blood out of the people and the wealth out of the land. Congo
Beyond the intriguing Jewish rivalry for diamonds in the heart of darkness, this tale takes a chilling turn with the involvement of certain German firms and
lawyers. NIKANOR, another Gertler/Steinmetz company of dubious origins operating in DRC, has a subcontract with the notorious ThyssenKrupp conglomerate, a company comprised of two former Nazi weapons manufacturers linked to the New York law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, to Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., Lehman Brothers, Chase Manhattan Bank, J.P. Morgan, DuPont and IBM, in the great Nazi-American money plot.[58] New York City
These companies were all behind the Jewish Holocaust. The infamous German Krupp firm is the industrial corporation that collaborated with former CIA director Allen Dulles and former
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Clients of the Dulles brothers law firm Sullivan and Cromwell included Adolph Hitler.[59] Ted Terry, one of the senior counselors of the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell today, is also a director of a philanthropy called the Harold K. Hochschild (HKH) Foundation, named for the mining magnate behind AMAX, a company operating in the copperbelt in Zambia, but whose parent company, Phelps Dodge, operates in Katanga, Congo. Harold K. Hochschild was close to the CIA, and he appears to have backed the U.S. Katangasuccession in the 1960s just as Dan Gertler in recent years backed the reorganization of power in by force. Sullivan and Cromwell was also the law firm for AMAX. [60],[61] Congo
Brown Brothers Harriman & Company (BBH) was the primary Wall Street connection for German companies and the
financial interests of Fritz Thyssen, an early financial backer of the Nazi party. BBH bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, steel, fuel, coal, and U.S. U.S.treasury bonds to . These were used to build Hitler's war machine, and the ties proliferated even after the Nazi concentration camps began churning out skeletons. The horrors of the concentration camps at Germany Auschwitz, Birkenau and Buckenwald became public knowledge long before they became public outrage. It is the same story for . Congo
There are no records or statistics of the numbers of people brutalized or killed in the diamond or cobalt mining areas, like
Kolwezi, Mbuji Mayi, Tshikapa, Banalia, or Kanangain DRC, or Ndolain , and many of the victims of security abuses will never be known. Zambia
When Gertler and Steinmetz and their buddies came to Congo it was soon clear that they had to challenge Zimbabwean tycoons John Bredenkamp and Billy Rautenbachtwo cronies of dictator Robert Mugabe involved in pillaging Congo and Zimbabwe for decades. The United Nations Panel of Experts on DRC named both men for plundering copper and cobalt from
, and both deal globally in weapons. Bredenkamp is one of the fifty richest men in Katanga Englandand he reportedly owns a mansion several doors down from Margaret Thatchers residence in . London
On November 7, 2007 it was reported that Dan Gertler was instrumental in putting together a deal in which Katanga Mining Ltd. would buy rival NIKANOR for $2.1 billion and merge their adjacent mine projects in
to form the worlds largest cobalt company. Also announced was a joint venture between the Central African Mining & Exploration Company (CAMEC) and another Gertler-controlled firm called Prairie International Limited. Congo
The CAMEC/Prairie joint venture will exploit DRCs Luita copper processing facility, develop the Mukondo Mountain cobalt minecalled the world's richest cobalt mineand work on other exploration properties. Prairie is majority owned by the family of Dan Gertler. CAMEC is connected to Zimbabwean/South African/British tycoon Billy Rautenbach.[62] The DRC government effectively banned controversial Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach from the country by declaring him persona non grata in July 2007, but this doesnt seem to stop him from getting what he wants. Rautenbach is also wanted in
on 300 charges of fraud, corruption and theft.Rautenbach is a former motor car rally driver who controls a business empire in Southern and Central Africa through a South Africa British Virgin Islandscompany called Ridgepoint Overseas Development Limited. In 1998, the short-lived President of Congo, Laurent Kabila, named Rautenbach the managing director of La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines), one of Africa's biggest cobalt mines, the properties of the Union Miniere de Haut Katanga formerly developed by the Belgian colonial government. Rautenbach today is one of the Africa's largest exporters of heterogenite (cobalt ore) from the DRC through his Congo Cobalt Company (CoCoCo), but he also has shares in two other lucrative DRC mining firmsBoss and Mukondowhich reportedly earn over US$100 million a month.[63] Katanga
While there has been a lot of Western media fanfare over the Kabila governments supposed independent review of mining contracts, little substantive change can be expected.[64] Structural factors exploit the Congolese people and lands and benefit white businessmen, arms dealers, bankers, and their embraceable black agents. Big business benefits from perception management articles well-placed in media to give the impression that the international system is just, that there are watchdogs, checks and balances.
However, while the DRC and the World Bank present a propaganda front about their ostensible attention to mining reform and the new mining code, NIKANORMining Journal reportsis in the advantageous position of having entered into a post mining-code contract, which makes us [NIKANOR] relatively comfortable [65] In other words, the mining review is a sham, it may force some changes, but it will be cosmetic at best.
Dan Gertler and the Steinmetz Groups partner Jewish-American Nir Livnat is also a director of Anglovaal Mining with Rick and Brian Menell and Basil Hersov of the South African Menell and Hersov dynasties.[66] Hersov has been named as a beneficiary of fraud and racketeering involving British BAE Systems weapons deals with shady offshore companies.[67]
The octopus of South African connections is a story in itself, with links to top officials from
Britainto , like Canadian Senator J. Trevor Eyton, and offshore mining companies involved in all the big money (diamonds, gold, petroleum, cobalt) and big corporations with interlocking directorships: Coca Cola, Nestlé, General Motors, and the Bush-connected Barrick Gold Corporation. Barrick, of course, is partnered up with the Oppenheimer/De Beers firm Anglo-American Corporation at six sites in Africa, including Canada . Congo
Rick Menell is a director of Bateman Engineeringowned by Benny Steinmetzthe junior partner of the NIKANOR projects in
. Katanga s Earl of Balfour is a director of both Bateman and NIKANOR. Menell is also the director of Teal Exploration and Mining, whose directors include Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique; Murray Hitzman, a Clinton administration official with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (1994-1996); Hannes Meyer, who worked with Anglo-Gold Ashanti in Congo, 1999-2006, when militias in Ituri were funded to get the gold out. Teal Exploration also has ties to Anvil Mining and Anglo-American Corporation.[68] Britain
Brian Menell, Nir Livnats associate on the board of Anglovaal, is on the board of Energem (formerly DiamondWorks) with Tony and Mario Teixeira. The Livnat connection ties Teixeira into networks that have supported both Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba in
s bloody wars. Energem is also involved in the trans-Uganda-Kenya pipeline, along with Nexant, a subsidiary of the deep intelligence and defense insider Bechtel Corporation.[69] Congo
Brian Menell is also on the board of First Africa Oil, which operates in seven African countries, and First Africa Oil director John Bentley is a director of Osprey Oil and Gas, whose directors include Carol Bell, a director of the Rockefellers Chase Manhattan Bank. Bentley is also on the board of Adastra Mineralsformerly America Mineral Fields (AMF, AMFI, AMX), a company based in 1995 in Hope, Arkansasand set up by Robert Friedland and Max and Jean-Raymond Boulle, notable friends of Bill Clinton. Since 1995, American Mineral Fields has been involved in
Brazil, Russia, Norway, Zambia, and the DRC. A criminal backer of the war in DRC, Jean-Raymond Boulle, who holds 36.4 % of the company stock, was the former General Director of De Beers in Zaire, part of the Templesman alliance of terrorism under the Mobutu regime.[70],[71] Angola
The Gertler/Steinmetz interests apparently curry huge favors with
Congos number two most powerful man, Augustine Katumba Mwanke, one of Joseph Kabilas closest allies and financiers, former Governor of Katanga (1998-2001) and director of s Anvil Mining. The UN Panel of Experts (2002) cited Mwanke for illegal arms deals and plunder of Australia : Mwanke negotiated arms purchases through Belgian banks and the DRC mining company MIBA.[72] Reportedly, Mwanke personally clears $ Congo US1,000,000 a day through his interests in mining deals.[73] Katanga
Anvil Mining has been involved in massacres in DRC.[74] Anvil directors include former U.S. Ambassador Kenneth L. Brown, who served at
U.S.embassies in Brussels, Kinshasa, Congo- Brazzavilleand . Brown was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Africa Africa(1987-1989) under George Schultz and George H.W. Bush and Director of Central African Affairs (1980-1981). The former top internal intelligence and security chief of the United Nations Observers Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has been worked for Anvil mining in Katanga since 2006.[75]
Gertler/Steinmetz interests have also been jostling for copper and cobalt concessions with Kinross-Forrest Group. Gertler has bought up or invested heavily in companies just to close them down. George Forrest also made the UN hit list of
s looters and Forrest and his three sons helped bankroll Joseph Kabilas 2006 election victory.[76] George Forrests daughter is reportedly married to the son of Louis Michel. Congo and George Forrest are controlling directors in Katanga Mining Limited. Malta
Born as Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest, the Belgian Forrest interests have been pillars of exploitation in
Congosince at least 1922, when they launched mining operations in . Forrests Katanga Mining directors include: three Canadians; Katanga s Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo, a former Governor of DRC and high official at the IMF and World Bank; and the current Governor of the Central Bank of DRC. The Forrest dynasty has munitions factories in Congo Belgiumand Kenya, and has partnered with OM-Group, in Ohio[ USA], dealing in s cobalt and coltan. Forrest International also operates in Europe, Congo Burundiinvolving him on both sides of Congos bloody warand the Middle East.[77] Forrest interests in DRC include aviation, foods, plantations, construction, logging, copper and cobalt mining. Forrest companies are enmeshed in the coltan plunder in eastern . Congo
Katanga is the worlds richest mining metropolis, part of the vast copper belt that stretches across northern Zambia and southern Congoand the home to unprecedented human misery due to state orchestrated repression and communities overrun with toxic mining, tuberculosis, cancers, immune disorders, racial discrimination and slavery. The Zambian copperbelt concessions over the border involve many of the same companies and interests mentioned above, and others.[78]
Workers and communities in and around these mines suffer all the standard treatable maladies (typhoid, malaria, tetanus, polio, malnutrition) as well. However, such stories are off the agenda for the North American, European, Japanese, Australian and Israeli media corporations providing the mainstay of English language indoctrination meant to instill racial superiority and a vast ignorance and obliviousness that leaves westerns populations shaking their heads and wringing their hands and clicking their tongues, while all the while wondering what is to be done? It does not cross peoples minds that their own hands are dirty, that their own consciousness has been falsified, as all the raw materials from
Congoenrich the lives of people in the United States, Canada, Europe and . Israel
The immediate capital investment required for just one Gertler project in
the Komoto Oliveira Virgule (KOV) projectis reportedly $US 1.8 billion dollars, income to kick start billions of dollars of unused equipment mothballed in the middle Mobutu era. There are rumors that Bechtel is involved, but the KOV project involves ThyssenKrupp AG as a minor player.[79] Katanga
The Krupp firm is one of several German firms involved in the plunder in eastern
, exploitation which involves the DeutscheGesellschaft für technische ZusammenarbeitGTZa German technological cooperation agency whose Supervisory Board has representatives of four Federal [German] Ministries.[80] Krupp industries use coltan and cobalt for superalloys.[81] Dr.-Ing. Ekkehard D. Schultz, a ThyssenKrupp director, is also a director of Bayer AG, the Congo Germanyfirm whose subsidiary H.C. Starck was named for its involvement in the ongoing illegal plunder of coltan and cassiterite (tin) in eastern . NIKANOR director Jay Pomrenze is also a consultant for the Deutsche Bank.[82] Certain German and U.S. firms benefit from the military occupation of Rwandan-backed warlord Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, DRC, where Nkunda controls the Lueshe niobium mine owned by Gesellschaft fuer Elektrometallurgie GmbH, a subsidiary of New York-based Mettalurg Group.[83], [84] Congo
Dan Gertlers grandfather, Moshe Schnitzer (d. November 2007), was known in Israel as Mr. Diamond; in youth he joined the pre-state underground organization Etzel (Irgoun), an Israeli military cell self-defined as an untra-nationationalist Jewish militia, but one that committed acts of terrorism in service to the Israeli cause.[85] Moshe Schnitzer assumed a major role in the Africa-Israeli diamond trade in the 1950s in a partnership business called Schnitzer-Greenstein. Schnitzer later founded the Israel Diamond Exchange in Tel Aviv in 1960, which today brings Israel $14 billion annually in blood business, and is the countrys second-largest industry, but Israels top export. King Leopold III of
Belgiumdecorated Schnitzer in recognition of his activities favoring the close relationship of Belgium, Israeland the DeBeers diamond cartels, and Schnitzer was also President of the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museumin .[86] Israel
The diamond jewelry trade in the
is more than $30 billion annually, and 99%everything that is not synthetic or artificial diamondsinvolves blood diamonds and the above organized crime syndicates. United States Israelbuys more than 50% of the worlds rough diamonds, and the buys two-thirds of these. The diamond factories are located in Nethanya, Petach Tikvah, Tel Aviv, U.S. Ramat Gan, , and other cities around the country, but most of the offices were in Tel Aviv in the financial district on Jerusalem Ahad Ha'am Street.[87] Dan Gertlers father, Asher Gertler, and his uncle, Shmuel Schnitzer, manage the original family business, and Shmuel is Vice-Chairman of the Belgian-based World Diamond Councilthe entity that spends more money promoting the false image of conflict-free diamonds than it does helping any of the people dispossessed or brutalized by the diamond industry.[88]
On August 16, 2007 Rabbi Bentolila in
received a communication asking: What does the Torah say about men exploiting other men for vast profits while other men are starving and dying all around them? Is there some hierarchy to the Torah that suggests, for example, that black people or Africans are lesser beings, and therefore not to be a concern where profound profits are being made? Kinshasa
There was no reply from Rabbi Bentolila, he was apparently busy readying for another Bar Mitsvah in
. Unfortunately for Dan Gertler and his spiritual advisers, the Torah says that a Jew can keep a slave, but a Jew kept as a slave must be redeemed, and thatan empty, foolish justification for exploiting innocent peopleis how religion falsifies spirituality. Belgium
[1] In January 2008 the International Rescue Committee, who is also discussed in this article, released its second survey of mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo, estimating that 5,400,000 people have died, or some 1500 people every day. Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: an Ongoing Crisis, International Rescue Committee, January 2008, http://www.theirc.org/special-report/congo-forgotten-crisis.html. However, IRC statistics are highly biased and politicized. See: keith harmon snow, Over Five Million Dead in
? All Congo , January 3, 2008, http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=71. Things Pass
[2] Personal interview, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 2006.
[3] keith harmon snow, Warlords Deadly Battle, Toward Freedom, 2007.
[4] Officers: Antonio Teixeira, President & CEO; Robert G. Rainey, CFO; Brett Thompson, COO, Mining; Dimitri (Jimmy) Kanakakis, Vice President, Corporate & Legal Affairs; Bernard Poznanski, Corporate Secretary; Board Members: Brian Menell, Richard Dorfman, Bruce Holmes, Robert Rainey, Antonio Teixeira, www.energem.com.
[5] See: Africa/Diamonds: Rough diamonds, Africa Confidential, 5 March 2004, Vol. 45, No. 5; and
: All Theft is Property, Africa Confidential, 17 Nov. 2006, Vol. 47, No. 23: p. 12. Equatorial Guinea
[6] Tim Hoare, the head of the advisers that launched it, Canaccord Adams, sits alongside rock star and champion of Africa Bob Geldof on the board of the television-production company Ten Alps. See: Ben Laurance, Energy firm link to blood diamonds, The Sunday Times, December 30, 2007.
[7] See: keith harmon snow, A Peoples History of Congos Jean-Pierre Bemba, Toward Freedom, September 18, 2007.
[8] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, Diamond in the rough, March 24, 2005, www.haaretz.com.
[9] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, Diamond in the rough, March 24, 2005, www.haaretz.com.
[10] See: keith harmon snow,
s President Joseph Kabila: Dynasty or Travesty? Toward Freedom, November 13, 2007, http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1171/1/. Congo
[11] Private interview,
, August 2006. Kinshasa
[12] See: Terror in the Diamond Fields: Excessive Force and Impunity in the DRC, Amnesty International Canada, http://www.amnesty.ca/realsecurity/DRC.php; Democratic Republic of Congo: Government should investigate human rights violations in the Mbuji Mayi diamond fields, Amnesty International, October 22, 2002;
[13] Making a Killing: The Diamond Trade in Government Controlled DRC, Amnesty International, 2002, AFR 62/017/2002 22/10/2002.
[14] See: ICEM protests
Congos Transport, Diamond Injustices, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Union, May 7, 2007, http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2243-ICEM-protests-Congo%E2%80%99s-Transport-Diamond-Injustices.
[15] Diamond miners killed in DR Congo, BBC News, 7 August 2006, http://22.214.171.124/search?q=cache:z9WCcOGeL8MJ:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5254006.stm+%22MIBA%22+%22illegal+miners%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4.
[16] See: http://www.jewishafrica.com/ and http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.htm/aid/117894/jewish/Chabad-of-Central-Africa.html .
[17] Private communication, Rabbi Chlomo Bentolila, August 16, 2007.
[18] Lag Baomer in
, June 2005, www.hassidout.org/page_derniere26.htm. Kinshasa
[19] Visite de lAmbassadeur Revah a
, Kadima 010, June-September 2007, http://220.127.116.11/~sefarad/kadima/kadima10.pdf. Kinshasa
[20] See: keith harmon snow, Behind the Scenes: Warlords Deadly Battle in
, Toward Freedom, August 9, 2007. Congo
[21] Nicole Gaouette, "Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family affair," Christian Science Monitor, 21 February 2002, http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules6437.php.
[22] Yitzhak Danon, Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals:
Israel: Lawsuit claims corruption in Congodiamonds for arms deal, Globes ( ), 18 February 2004, http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press269.htm. See also: Column One: What Lieberman Wants, Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2006. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193481395&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter. Israel
[23] Christian Dietrich, Blood Diamonds: Effective African-Based Monopolies, African Security Review, Vol. 10, No 3., 2001, http://www.iss.co.za/ASR/10No3/Dietrich.html.
[24] Yitzhak Danon, Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals:
Israel: Lawsuit claims corruption in Congodiamonds for arms deal, Globes ( ), 18 February 2004, Israel
[25] Yitzhak Danon, Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals:
Israel: Lawsuit claims corruption in Congodiamonds for arms deal, Globes ( ), 18 February 2004, http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press269.htm. See also: Column One: What Lieberman Wants, Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2006. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193481395&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter. Israel
[26] See: keith harmon snow, Behind the Scenes: Warlords Deadly Battle in
, Toward Freedom, August 9, 2007. The Angolan military protected Congo Kinshasaduring the so-called rebellion involving Rwandaand . The Angolans do not like the Rwandans or Ugandans due to their military and commercial relations with Angolan rebels, the União Nacionalpara a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), and because Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers invaded Uganda Angolaafter their failed bid to control the s strategic Inga Dam power station and Matadi port between 1998 and 2001. Congo Angolasent troops to in July and August 2006, and there were black Angolan troops amongst the European Union mercenary forcesEUFORsent to quell any possible rebellions during the historic national elections. Congo Angolaalso sent troops to to back Kabila during the warlords deadly battle of March 2007. Congo
[27] Presidential Chopper,
AfricaConfidential, Vol. 47 Number 23, November 17, 2006.
[28] See: Overseas Security Services Congo sprl web site, www.oss-congo.com.
[29] See: Overseas Security Services Congo sprl web site, www.oss-congo.com.
[30] OSS-Congo owner Philippe de Moerloose communicated with this author after his name appeared in a prior story mentioning OSS-Congo and offered to meet in Europe and provide the author with the correct information about his companies operations in
. Repeated communications with De Moerloose seeking clarifications and information for this story were not answered. Congo
[31] See e.g., SEC info on Lenorth Holdings: http://www.secinfo.com/dsvrw.z14q.htm and SDG Marketing: http://www.secinfo.com/$/SEC/Filings.asp?As=M&Name=incmarketingsdg.
[32] Lior Chorev, The First [DRC] Diamond Polishing Plant to Move into Full Production, Press Release, DGI Group of Companies, January 11, 2005, http://www.pressemeldinger.no/read.asp?RecNo=8106.
[33] ARAD Communications web site,
[34] Private communication, Lior Chorev, January 19, 2008.
[35] See: keith harmon snow, Over Five Million Dead in
? January 30, 2008. Congo
[36] Private email communication, Lior Chorev, January 19, 2008. See also: Gil Hoffman, Olmert, Netanyahu Rivalry Gets Personal, Israel.jpost.com, March 26, 2006; Sharon allies and foes joust over new party as March 28 elections are set, Associated Press, November 22, 2005, http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/7095.htm;
[37] NATO Transformation, the Mediterranean Dialog, and NATO-Israel Relations, October 23, 2006, http://www.nato.int/med-dial/2006/registered_participants_isr.pdf.
[38] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, Diamond in the Rough, Haaretz.com, March 24, 2005.
[39] The Olayan Group web site: http://www.olayangroup.com/directory.asp.
[40] The Steinmetz Group, http://www.steinmetz-group.com/.
[41] Gil Hoffman, Politics; Unconscious Legacy, Jerusalem Post, features.jpost.com, January 3, 2008.
[42] Gil Hoffman, Politics; Unconscious Legacy, Jerusalem Post, features.jpost.com, January 3, 2008.
[43] United Nations Panel of Experts Confidential Report.
[44] Under the contract Emaxon granted Miba loans totaling $5-million in 2003, and a further $10-million subsequently. In exchange, Emaxon gained rights to 88% of Mibas production at a discount, formally, of 5%.
[45] Herzog, Fox and Neeman web site: http://www.hfn.co.il/pages/lawyers/neemany.htm.
[47] See: keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception About those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire, Z Magazine, June and July, 2007.
[48] On Neeman and Hurvitz, see Markstone Capital Group, http://www.markstonecapital.com/markstone2_5.htm; on Robert Rotberg, Maurice Templesman and the
, see: keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception About those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire, Z Magazine, June and July, 2007. Harvard Belfer Center
[49] Criminal rackets known to the United Nations security were or some time illegally shipping uranium and cobalt out of
Katangaby road to Zimbabweand (private interview, U.N. Official, 2006). Tanzania
Israeland Africa: Assessing the Past, Envisioning the Future, The Africa Institute American Jewish Committee and The , May 2006. Harold Hartog School Tel Aviv University
[51] Ron Ben-Yishai and Molly Camprier-Kritz, The Murder Request Went to the Wrong Address, Yediot
Aharonot weekend supplement on 19 September 1999.
[52] Nicole Gaouette, Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family affair, Christian Science Monitor, 21 February 2002, http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules6437.php.
[53] For a discussion of the veracity of these facts and more on the Russian Military Brotherhood see: Central Africa Minerals and Arms Research Bulletin, Edition 2, International Peace Information Service, June 18, 2001.
[54] Jimmy Johnson, "Israelis and Hezbollah Havent Always Been Enemies," Appearing in Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions USA, 6 September 2006, http://184.108.40.206/search?q=cache:pYAbqkMgTJ4J:www.icahdusa.org/2006/09/06/israelis-and-hezbollah-haven%E2%80%99t-always-been-enemies/+%22hezbollah%22+%22congo%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=15.
[55] Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuan2t to UN Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to
, December 2000, http://www.sierra-leone.org/panelreport-I.html. Sierra Leone
[56] Energem web site: http://www.energem.com/energem_logistics_industrial.html; and also: keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception About those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire, Z Magazine, June and July, 2007.
[58] Charles Higham, Trading With The Enemy: The Nazi-American Money Plot, 1933-1949, Delacorte Press, 1983.
[59] Charles Hingham, Trading With The Enemy: The Nazi-American Money Plot, 1933-1949, Delacorte Press, 1983.
[60] Susan Mazur, Deeper Into the Dillon-Euphronios Nexus with David N. Gibbs, SCOOP, April 26, 2006, http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00323.htm.
[61] David Gibbs, The Political Economy of Third World Intervention: Mines, Money and
U.S.Policy in the CongoCrises, Press, 1991. Universityof Chicago
[62] Eric Onstad, UPDATE 2-CAMEC shares soar after agrees
joint venture, Reuters, Nov. 7, 2007. Congo
[63] Brenna Chigonga,
: Meet Countrys Richest People, The Herald, July 14, 2007. Zimbabwe
[64] See: Maurice Carney,
s Contract Review, Pambazuka News, January 17, 2008. Congo
[65] Martin Creamer, Funded NIKANOR presses on with $1,8bn copper mine, refinery, Mining Weekly, September 21, 2007.
[66] Julie Walker, Hersovs and Menells are in no hurry to yield control of Anglovaal, Sunday Times, http://www.btimes.co.za/98/0517/comp/comp17.htm.
[67] Evelyn Groenink, Arms deal: Who got R1bn in pay-offs? Mail & Guardian, January 12, 2007, http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=295457&area=/insight/insight__national/.
[68] Teal Exploration & Mining web site: http://www.tealmining.com/tp/brief.asp.
[69] Press Release: Kenya-Uganda Oil Products Pipeline, Kenya-Uganda Joint Co-coordinating Commission for Extension of Oil Pipeline, August 17, 2005, http://www.energyandminerals.go.ug/Press%20Release_Oil%20PipeLine%20Extension.pdf; see also: Energem web site: http://www.energem.com/energem_corporate_info.html.
[70] François Misser and Olivier Vallée, Des matières premières toujours convoitées. Les nouveaux acteurs du secteur minier Africain, Le Monde Diplomatique, May 1998, p.24-25; also Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in
Africa, 1993-1999, Mellon Press, 1999.
[71] Diamond Fields International Management: http://www.diamondfields.com/s/Management.asp.
[72] Inculpations à la Belgolaise, Le Libre Belgique, 4 June 2004.
[73] Private interview,
, DRC, April 2007. Kinshasa
[74] Norm Dixon, Congo Massacre: Australian mining company's managers indicted, Green Left Review, November 4, 2006 http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/689/35790.
[75] His name is known, but he threatened to track down and break the authors legs if he is revealed.
[76] See: Barry Sergeant, NIKANORs Quandry: Meet Dan the Man, King of the Congo, MoneyWeb, 4 April 2007, http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page1329?oid=84351&sn=Detail; Congo Kinshasa: After the Election" Africa Confidential, Vol. 47, No. 23, 17 Nov. 2006; and United Nations Security Council Report to the Secretary General, S/2003/1027, 23 October 2003.
[77] George Forrest International, http://www.forrestgroup.com/uk/home.html.
[78] Personal investigation,
copperbelt mines, 2000. Ndola, Zambia
[79] http://www.nikanor.co.uk/default.asp?page=15
[80] These are: the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); Federal Foreign Office; Federal Ministry of Finance; and Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor. Since 1998 the Supervisory Board Chairman has been State Secretary Erich Stather from the BMZ.
[81] Karen Hayes and Richard Burge, Coltan Mining in the Democratic
: How tantalum-using industries can commit to the reconstruction of the DRC, Fauna & Flora Intl, 2003. Republicof Congo
[82] NIKANOR web site.
[83] Metallurg Group www.metallurg.com.
[84] See keith harmon snow, Three Cheers for Eve Ensler? Propaganda, White Collar Crime, and Sexual Violence in
Eastern Congo, Z Magazine on-line (Z-Net), October 24, 2007.
[85] Yossi Melman and Asaf Carmel, Diamond in the Rough, Haaretz.com, March 24, 2005.
[86] Moshe Schnitzer: Un Legende sen est Allee, Kadima 010, June-September 2007, http://18.104.22.168/~sefarad/kadima/kadima10.pdf.
[87] The
Diamond Exchange - Kiryat Moshe Schnitzer, Diamond Key, 2002, http://www.diamond-key.com/diamonds-newsletter/. Israel
[88] Nicole Gaouette, Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family affair, Christian Science Monitor, 21 February 2002, http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules6437.php.


text:
The famous Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded in the tower...and after his execution, his Bible was found, and in it some notes that he had written the night before his execution. Among the notes were these striking lines. "Even such is time that takes in trust our youth. Our joys are all we have, and pays us but with age and dust to win the dark and silent grave. When we have wandered all our ways, shuts up the story of our days, but from this earth, this grave, this dust, my God shall raise me up, I trust."
Was he right? Could he have that confidence? Is there a resurrection?...The world hopes so. It's amazing to me that in the midst of their insistent and persistent sinning, the world stops every year at this time to celebrate...hope, life after death, resurrection; and even though it is only a token...of religion offered to Christ, it nonetheless manifests that from deep within the human heart there is that hope. That as Sir Walter Raleigh put it, "My God shall raise me up, I trust." Some even more religious souls feel that you sort of have to work your way up to resurrection Sunday, and so they celebrate what has become known as Lent. Forty days of eating no meat and, supposedly, expressing penitence for sin. I suppose its, in most cases, hypocritical, since penitence for sin is not accomplished by some self-directed abstinence or some self-motivated plea toward God, and its hypocrisy is also seen, I think, in the fact that before Lent, people tend to really pile up the sinning since they have to do without for a while...
In fact, there are two words that come to mind when you think of the pre-Lenten season. One is the term Mardi Gras, and the other is carnival. In our country, we're familiar with Mardi Gras. In other parts of the world, they celebrate carnival. It is a time of unbridled sinning, of drunkenness, rioting, sexual misbehavior, getting ready for penitence...in view of Easter. In fact, Mardi Gras comes from two French words. If you know French, you know that the French word Mardi means Tuesday, and gras means fat. Fat Tuesday is the last day before Lent, and you better get fat now, because you're gonna go without for a while. Carnival comes from words that we're familiar with. Carne, we know from chili con carne, means meat. Val, we know from high school days when somebody was the valedictorian and gave a farewell speech, means farewell. Carnival means farewell to meat. So you have a big party before you get spiritual just to make sure you don't miss anything; and then you hope against hope that it'll all turn out in the end if you're penitent enough and abstain from enough, maybe someday God will raise you up. By the way, as a footnote, Lent is not from the Bible. There is no such thing in the Bible. It comes from the mystery religions of the cults of Babylon and was connected with the supposed killing of Baal by a wild boar; and for forty days and forty nights, the priestesses and the followers of Baal mourned his death until, supposedly, he rose from the dead on the 40th day, and that is where Lent came from, and it has been superimposed on Christianity...
The world rather confuses the issue further by throwing into the already hashed up situation eggs, rabbits, candy, rites of spring, new clothes, and hopes the mix will solve their destiny...So for most people Easter is simply an event, a break in the sinning. But for the Christian, every day is resurrection day; because we walk and talk with the living Christ every day; because His living is through us every day. We do not celebrate an event. We do not remember a dead Savior. We are not attracted by painfully distorted crucifixes. We worship, we love, we live every day in the presence of a risen, living Lord Jesus Christ. So every day is an Easter celebration for us. Every day is resurrection day. That doesn't mean it's wrong to focus on this in a special way. While the world's attention is brought to Christ, we wanna take every opportunity to speak of our Lord's resurrection, for that is ever and always our message; and for a brief time today, I want us to look at the resurrection. I suppose most times we are drawn to deal with the skeptics, and we're drawn to ask the question, "What proves the resurrection?" But I don't wanna deal with that question today. I think that question has been answered already myriad of times. The proof of the resurrection is so complete that only willful unbelief is still asking for more. I'm not interested today in the question, "What proves the resurrection?" I'm interested in the question, "What does the resurrection prove?"
Give that Jesus rose from the dead, and it's hard...hard, by the way, to argue with an empty tomb...and 500 eyewitnesses. Given that He did rise from the dead, so what? What does that prove? What does that mean? What does that guarantee? What does that provide? What does that do? Why is that valuable? Why is it important? And so think of the question then, "What does the resurrection prove?" Let me give you some key answers. First of all, it proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. The truthfulness of the Word of God. The Bible claims to be the Word of God. The Bible claims to speak the truth, authoritatively, inerrantly. Is that claim justified? Perhaps the greatest of all proofs that it is, is the resurrection. Lemme show you why. Turn in your Bible for a moment to Acts chapter 2 verse 22. Acts chapter 2 verse 22. Peter is preaching the first apostolic sermon. The Lord has ascended into Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit. Peter stands up now to fulfill the calling of his apostleship, and he preaches, "Ye men of Israel, hear these words...Acts 2:22...Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, and ye yourselves also know - Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." And he indicts with those words the populace for the death of Christ.
Then verse 24, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it." God raised Him up, and then Peter immediately proceeds to explain the meaning of Psalm 16 verses 8 to 11, written by David. Verse 25 begins, "For David speaks concerning Him." And he picks up this prophecy of the Old Testament, and he quotes it. "I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope, because Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou allow Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou has made known to me the path of life; Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy countenance."
And there Peter quotes Psalm 16, and he says, "David was speaking, and David was speaking concerning Him when he said that His flesh would rest in hope." Verse 27, "That His soul would not be left in a waiting place, that His body would never see corruption; but, rather, He would go into the grave and find there the path of life, and go right back into the joyous presence of the face of God." It is a prophecy of resurrection, clearly, and it is understood to be a prophecy of resurrection. But to whom does it apply? Verse 29, "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day." Point No. 1, it can't refer to David. He's still dead. But David, verse 30, "Being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh He would raise up Christ or Messiah to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Christ that, 'His soul was not left in Hades, neither His flesh did see corruption.'" In other words, David was speaking of the One who would be from his loins, the Messiah; and, by the way, the key to that is in verse 27. He calls Him the Holy One. "Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." David knew that that was not a reference to him. Everyone knew the Holy One was Messiah, even the demons knew that; and in Mark 1:24, the demons cried out and said, "Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art - the Holy One of God." Even the demons knew that that was a Messianic title.
So Psalm 16 then predicts the resurrection of the Messiah from the dead. Now, when the Bible makes a prediction, if it does not come to pass, then the Bible shows that it is invalid, so that the truthfulness of the Word of God is dependent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and when He came out of the grave, the prophecy of Psalm 16 was vindicated and verified, proven to be true, and that stands as evidence for the veracity of the Scripture. Go with me to another passage in the 13th chapter of Acts, verse 30. Not Peter this time, but Paul, and Paul speaking of the resurrection. It says in verse 30, "God raised Him from the dead," and then Paul goes on, "And He was seen many days by them who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings...now watch this...how the promise which was made unto the fathers: God hath fulfilled." In other words, Paul says, "This is fulfilled prophecy," and where is the promise? Verse 33. "It is written in the second Psalm." Psalm 2 verse 7, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee." Not only was He begotten once in His incarnation, He was begotten secondly and manifested His Sonship in His resurrection. Psalm 2:7 fulfilled. Verse 34 speaks of Isaiah 55 and verse 3, "And as concerning that He raised Him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said in this way: 'Will give you the sure mercies of David.'" Now, how can He give Him the Davidic throne? How can He give Him the promised mercy to David? How can He give Him the Kingdom if He's dead? He can't, so the promise of Isaiah 55:3 to give Him the sure mercies of David is a promise of resurrection. For Isaiah 53 speaks of His death. Isaiah 55 of His inheritance, and, therefore, between His death and His inheritance, there must be a resurrection. And then in verse 35, he refers to Psalm 16. He says, "Also in another Psalm: 'Thou shalt not allow Thine Holy One to see corruption.' For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption." It couldn't be David. "But He whom God raised again saw no corruption." It always interested me that Christ was in the grave three days, and the Jewish tradition even was that decay began the fourth day...and so even the tradition was accommodated in the resurrection. In Luke chapter 24, Jesus on the road to Emmaus walks alongside two disciples, and He speaks to them and says they are slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. In other words, if you'd have understood the prophets, you'd have understood the resurrection. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and implied then to enter into His glory? And he began at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He explained His death and resurrection in every manner possible through the Old Testament. It was prophesied. Not only was it prophesied in the Old Testament, but it was prophesied, as well, in a sense, in the new, in John chapter 2 verse 19. "Jesus said this, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'" Now that's a prophecy of resurrection. "The Jews said, "Why, forty-two...or rather... forty-six years we've been building this temple. How You gonna raise it in three days?' But He spoke of the temple of His body." They never did understand what He was saying. "And when therefore he was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered He had said this unto them...now, listen to this...and they believed the Scripture, even the Word which Jesus has said." The Old Testament Scripture, the New Testament Scripture predicts the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When He rises from the dead, then, what does it prove? It proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. You can trust it, and of all of the things that the Word of God predicted, that is the most marvelous that has yet happened, that one would die and, in death, have the power to raise Himself from the dead...It proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. Secondly, what does the resurrection prove? It proves the deity of the Son of God. It proves the deity of the Son of God. In fact, there's no greater proof in existence for the divine nature of Jesus Christ than His rising from the grave. There are many witnesses in the Bible to the deity of Christ, many of them. The demons in Mark 5 say, "Jesus, Son of the Most High God." The demon in Mark 1, "We know You, the Holy One of God." Even the demons affirm His deity. A man born blind in John 9, who was given sight, affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ when he gave his testimony to the skeptical Jews who were unconvinced because of the hardness of their own hearts. The disciples, Peter, James, John, all acknowledge the deity of Christ. Thomas, "My Lord and my God." Nathaniel, "Thou art the Son of God." Matthew, "He is God with us." Mark, "Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Luke, "He is the Son of God."...And His close friends, people like Martha, "I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God," said Martha. John the Baptist, His cousin, "And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God." A Roman soldier, "Truly this Man is the Son of God."
But, unquestionably, the greatest testimony to the fact of His deity came from the mouth of the Father who said, "This is My beloved Son," and confirmed that in the resurrection, and that is why Romans 1 is so important. It says in verse 3, "Jesus Christ our Lord was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." And listen to this, "Declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead." In other words, the resurrection of Christ from the dead was a monumental declaration of the Sonship of Christ. God declared Him deity in resurrection. God raised Him from the dead as an affirmation that He was the second member of the Trinity. The resurrection was the declaration of His deity. Peter, in that great sermon that we just read in the Book of Acts, in a later portion, verse 36, says, "That the resurrection of Christ...listen...proves that He is both Lord and Messiah." ...Acts 2:36...
The Bible tells us that Jesus came as a prophet, and the prophetic ministry of Christ, though largely fulfilled on earth prior to His death, needed the authentication of the resurrection. Why would we believe His words if He died like any other man and never came from the grave, when He had promised to rise? We would not trust His Word. If His Word couldn't be trusted in that, how do we know it could be trusted anywhere else? The authentication of His prophetic office is dependent on His rising from the grave. If He doesn't rise from the dead, He's a false prophet, and all of His ministry is subject to question. Take His priestly office. The Bible says He came as a priest, and that as a priest, He is to intercede before God on the behalf of men; but if He is dead, how can He be a priest? How can He be a priest, as the writer of Hebrews says, after the order of Melchizedek with an eternal unending priesthood? How can He be a priest forever, as it says in Hebrews? How can He ever live to make intercession for us? He cannot fulfill a prophetic office, because He cannot authenticate His Word. He cannot fulfill a priestly office, because He isn't around to intercede, and the Bible also says He has the office of a king; and how can He be a king if He's dead? How can He inherit a throne if He's not here to take a throne? The kingship of Christ, the priesthood of Christ, the prophetic office of Christ are all utterly dependent upon His resurrection; and His deity is all bound up in the fact that He rose from the grave. So the resurrection proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. It proves the deity of Christ. No man could do that. No man could do that. Only God can conquer death. Only God can prophesy the future and have it come to pass with absolute accuracy. Thirdly, what does the resurrection prove? I believe it proves the completion of the salvation of God. The completion of the salvation of God. The Bible tells us that God designs to save sinners, that Christ came into the world, He said, to save sinners, to seek and to save the ones that were lost. He over and over said He was gonna go to a cross, because sin demanded death, and He would die that death and pay that price. He would be the sacrifice. He would save men from their sins; but if he had gone to the cross and died...and stayed dead, He would have been Jesus Christ Superstar, nothing more. His death would... would have been the death of an ordinary man. The death of Christ would have been a nice effort with no value and no efficacy. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "If Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain. We are yet in our sins, and we are of all men most miserable." There is no hope, none at all; but Christ did rise, and when He rose from that grave, He proved that He had completed salvation. He had paid the price. He had conquered the enemy, which is sin. He had broken the bands of its executor death, and He was free. And then when God lifted Him to His right hand and exalted Him, God accepted His death. God accepted His substitution. God said, "It is efficacious. It is of high value. He is to be exalted to My right hand for having utterly accomplished the task." And so in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you have the obvious picture that sin and death was destroyed, and the obvious consummation that the Father was pleased. Jesus was raised to assure us that His sacrifice did work, and the Father exalted Him to show us the extent to which it worked. It was ultimately successful, so that He could be exalted to the very right hand of God. I might hasten to add that it is significant that those who deny the bodily resurrection of Christ always deny His substitutionary atonement for our sin also. Because if you're gonna deny that He rose, then you're gonna have to deny that His sacrifice was efficacious, because only if He shattered death did He prove the value of His dying for our sins. Every element of salvation is dependent on the resurrection. Every one of 'em. If He didn't rise, He didn't accomplish anything. For example, salvation means God granting us eternal life. He can't give us life if He doesn't have it. He can't give us life if He can't conquer death, but it says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "As in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." In John 14:19, he said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." And He said in John 11 to Martha that tremendous statement, in verse 25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." And it was His ability to conquer death that gave Him the ability to give us that same life. Our eternal life is dependent, then, on the resurrection. If He can't rise, the He has no life to give. Secondly...our having a Holy Spirit is dependent on the resurrection. In John 14:26 and John 15:26 both, the Lord said, "When I go back into Heaven, I will send the Holy Spirit," and it wasn't until the Holy Spirit came that they could preach with power. It wasn't until the Holy Spirit came that they could be regenerated and placed into the body, for we are born of the Spirit. It wasn't until the Holy Spirit came that we could be filled with His power. It wasn't until the Holy Spirit came that the world was convicted of sin and righteousness and judgment. The work of the Spirit is essential to salvation. If Christ doesn't rise, He doesn't ascend; and if He doesn't ascend, He doesn't send the Spirit.
Thirdly, if Christ doesn't rise, there is no forgiveness, because 1 John says, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is our advocate in regard to our sin." And if He didn't rise, He isn't advocating for us. He isn't interceding for us, and there is no intercession on our behalf; and, therefore, there can be no forgiving of sin...if He's not our advocate, then we have nobody on our side in the presence of the Father. Fourthly, His work of intercession. His work of advocacy takes care of our sin. His work of intercession takes care of God's perfect work in our lives; and in a sense, they're two sides of the same thing. One negative, one positive. I believe He intercedes for us. The Bible says, "He ever lives to make intercession for us." I believe He seeks the Father's best for us, and He can't do that if He is not alive. So if He's not alive, there's no salvation. There's no eternal life. There's no Holy Spirit. There's no forgiveness. There's no interceding. You can go on and on. There are no spiritual gifts given to us, because it was when He died, Ephesians 4, and led captivity captive that He gave gifts to men. There would be no spiritual power, because it was in resurrection that He said, "All power is given unto Me." And Paul in Ephesians says, "We have that resurrection power." If there's no resurrection, there's no power. We're impotent. There's no position. He has raised us up together with Christ to sit in the heavenlies. If there's no resurrection, we're not there. You see, nothing happens apart from resurrection; but where there is a resurrection, there is the absolute completion of salvation. The resurrection then is the heart of the Christian faith. It means the truthfulness of the Word of God. It means the deity of the Son of God. It means the completion of the salvation of God. Fourthly, the resurrection proves the establishing of the church of God...What does it prove? It proves that the church is the church. It isn't an earthly organization. It isn't a human club. It isn't some kind of religious exercise. It isn't a satanic counterfeit. The church is the church, the body of Christ, who is the head. Our Lord said in Matthew 16, "I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." That is a very specific statement. "I'll build My church, and hell won't be able to hold it in." If He had not risen, that never would've happened; because the church was born on Pentecost when the Spirit came; and there would have been no Spirit; and there would have been no regathering of the apostles. They would've remained scattered. So whoever would've preached, and what would have been their message with no resurrection? There would have been no church. There would have been no filling Jerusalem with resurrection truth. There would have been no turning the world upside down. You wouldn't be here and neither would I, for this cult of a would-be Messiah Jesus would long ago have died out with so many like it...
But because he did arise, He became, as Peter calls Him, "A living stone," and He became the head of His church. In Ephesians 1, it says, "That God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body." In other words, the church, the body, its head, Christ, was born in the resurrection, established in the resurrection. The apostles, they were transformed from scattered, fearful, faithless doubters and cowards into world-changing apostles. The little band of followers in addition to the apostles, who had been so maligned and so persecuted, grew to fill Jerusalem. They grew by the thousands immediately, and their doctrine covered that city, and soon it turned the world upside down. Jews who had met all their life and for centuries on Saturday, instantly began to meet on Sunday. Something had happened of a monumental consequence in history, and the church has since marched through time triumphant in the power of the risen Christ. The church lives today despite its constantly being attacked, its constantly being corrupted, besi...be...in spite of its counterfeiting, which goes on all the time. It has fought off false teachers, false doctrine, false representation. It has fought off sin and worldliness, and it is still alive, and it is still changing the world. The reason is because resurrection power has sustained the church. Because He lives, His church lived, and it still lives. I mean what regathered the scattered sheep? What transformed them? What took a little sect of followers of Jesus and made it a worldwide reality that has done more to preserve truth, justice, and benevolence in human history than everything else put together?...What did it? One event. The resurrection, and it proves, beloved, the establishment of the church of God. No resurrection, no church, but there was a resurrection, and there is a church. Death couldn't hold Him. The hymn writer said, "Death cannot keep its prey. Jesus my Savior. He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph for His foes. He arose a victor o'er the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign."
Yes, we His saints live with Him, because He arose, and this is not a human institution. This is not a manmade organization. This is a living church, and Christ is the head. Now you can see that those are very essential truths in the Christian faith that the resurrection proves. The truthfulness of the Word of God. The deity of the Son of God. The completion of the salvation of God, and the establishment of the church of God.
Now, lemme speak of two more and see if I can personalize them as we close. Fifthly, the resurrection proves the inevitability of the judgment of God. The inevitability of the judgment of God. When our Lord first came into the world...He was hated, maligned, mocked, scorned, despised, and murdered. He was humbled. He allowed Himself to be treated more terribly than we can ever imagine. The prophet says He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. They even said He was from hell... They battered Him and they spit on Him. They shoved thorns deep into His brow, rammed a spear into His side after they had nailed Him to a cross, naked; and, while He hung in display, they laughed. That's how it was when He came, but all along the time that He was here, He warned them that it would not always be that way. They would not always be judging Him. One day, He would judge them...He would judge them. The New Testament presents to us that Christ is to be the judge of every human being who ever lives. That's right. Every human being who has ever lived on the face of this earth will someday stand face-to-face with Jesus Christ in regard to eternal destiny. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 and 11, it says, "Every Christian will be there." In Matthew 24, it tells us Israel will be there. In Matthew 25, it says the nations will be there. In 2 Peter 2 and Jude 6, it tells us even the angels face Him in judgment...The Bible says that all of the wicked dead of all time will someday face Christ. It's an incredible thought; and, you know, it must have shattered to pieces the people who heard Peter preach on Pentecost; because he preached that Jesus rose from the dead; and he said at the end of his sermon, "Now, let all the house of Israel know this for sure, that God has made the same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. He is alive, and He is the Lord." And when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. It was as if a knife went into their heart, and they said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
What was that? What were they saying? They realized that if Christ was alive, and if He was the Lord, that they were going to have to face Him, and so are you. Look with me for a moment at John chapter 5...In Revelation 20, it pictures the great white throne, and at the great white throne, Christ is seated there in judgment on all men; and we see something of that here in John 5 verse...22. "For the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." In other words, the Son Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, will render the verdict. Verse 25, let's look at it. "Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in Himself." Now, as the Son of God, He has the ability to give life, and it's talking about spiritual life. He has the power to give spiritual life. The spiritually dead shall be given life. The only one living in the world of death and desolation who can do it is Christ, so those who hear...the voice of the Son of God shall live. They receive life. That is the promise of spiritual life, and He has it to give, verse 26, "For the Father has given it to Him." Now, we move in verse 27 to physical life. "He has also given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." Now, in His divine office, He gives eternal life. In His office as Son of Man, He renders the verdicts on men who are not possessors of divine life. That's why the difference between Son of God and Son of Man. As Son of Man, He doesn't need really to function in deity, because men will simply have rendered the judgment by their own works; and it can be obvious no miracle is needed. As Son of God, it takes miraculous divine power to give life, but Son of Man, He gives them nothing miraculously, but rather the consequence of their own sin; and He says, "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, come forth. The ones who've done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." Every person will face Jesus Christ. Now, listen, that couldn't happen if He didn't rise from the dead, right?...Listen, don't think of the resurrection only as a positive thing. It's a negative thing. If you reject Jesus Christ, if you trample underfoot His blood, if you ignore Him and refuse Him, then someday you will face Him...In Acts 17:29, this is what Paul says..."Don't think that God is gold and silver and stone, carved by art and man's device. Don't...don't think that God is an idol. Don't think that...and don't be lulled because God has been patient in the past and overlooked some things...before the Gospel came, but now God commands all men everywhere to repent...Why?...because He has appointed a Day in which he will judge the world in righteousness." In other words, He'll judge the world rightly by the proper divine standard, and He'll do it by the Man whom He has ordained." Who's that? John 5, Christ. "And He has given assurance of this unto all men, in that He hath...what?...raised Him from the dead." The resurrection was a guarantee that everyone would face the very Christ they had refused; and that's why those people in Acts 2 were so shocked, and why a knife went into their hearts, because they knew they were gonna stand before the very Christ they had despised...And so the resurrection proves the inevitability of judgment from God. What a solemn truth. If you don't come to the cross of Christ to take the redemption offered to you by Jesus Christ, then someday you will face Him, and you won't be rendering a verdict on Him. He'll be rendering a verdict on you...with infinite and eternal consequence. The resurrection guarantees that every man will be raised to face Jesus Christ; and if you do not know Him and love Him, you will be condemned to an eternal hell without Him. Dr. Donald Barnhouse says, "This resurrection is a combination of power and holiness. Do not think that you can escape it. Holiness will demand to be satisfied, and power will be able to reach you where you are and silence your proud lips forever." End quote. But, if your name is written in the Book of Life, because you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and confessed with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believed in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you will be saved from that judgment. Other than that, there's no way to escape. In Terwyn Churchyard, which is a short distance from Kings Cross Station in England, stands a four-trunked tree. Massive thing growing out of a grave. Its presence has given rise to much speculation among the residents of the section, and the grave from which the tree grows is that of Lady Anne Grimston. It's a very interesting story... Lady Anne Grimston didn't believe in life after death. When she lay dying in her palatial home, she was very wealthy. She said to a friend, "I will live again as surely as a tree will grow out of my body." She was buried in a marble tomb. The grave was marked by a large marble slab and surrounded by an iron railing. Years later, the marble slab was found to be moved a little. Then it cracked, and through the crack, a small tree grew. The tree continued to grow tilting the stone, breaking the marble masonry, until today it has totally surrounded the tomb with its roots, has torn the railing out of the ground with its massive trunks, and the tree at Lady Anne Grimston's grave is one of the largest in England. Maybe God took her challenge as an illustration. But believe it, because He rose, judgment is inevitable. Finally, the resurrection of Jesus proves, not only the truthfulness of the Word of God, the deity of the Son of God, the completion of the salvation of God, the establishment of the church of God, the inevitability of the judgment of God, but, wonderfully, the eternal bliss of the people of God. "For those who believe, resurrection proves that we, too, shall live," John 14:19; and John 11:25, "Because I am the resurrection and the life. Therefore he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Because he rose, we have the hope of eternal life, and nothing can take that hope from us. Oh, what a glorious truth...
A Methodist missionary was visiting the Ryukyu Islands in Japan, and he came across a huge grave on the island of Amakusa, and it was marked with a very interesting headstone. It said, in Japanese, "This grave contains the heads of 11,111 Christians." The date of the grave is 1637. That was the very year the Japanese government ordered all Christians exterminated...Further insight found that this grave contained only 11,111 heads. The bodies were taken and buried somewhere far away and unmarked. This was done to prevent the Christians...from rising from the grave, because God wouldn't know which head went with which Christian...The silliness of paganism...The folly of such thought. We will rise, because we have already risen in Christ to newness of life; and someday we'll know the fullness of that in Heaven with Him. Let's pray...
I want you to just have your head bowed for a moment. No one moving...We've tried in a very simple way this morning to just give you the real message of resurrection. To sum up all that is there, so that you'll understand its meaning. Those who are Christians, we oughta be grateful and thankful, filled with praise. Those who are not, I trust you see both the value and the virtue of the resurrection, and the fearfulness of it...We don't want you to leave today without knowing our risen Christ. You have all the world and eternity to gain and nothing to lose...and if you refuse, you have everything to lose. Father, bring those that You would have to come...Make this a very special day...By Your Spirit, bring many to life in Christ. Bring us together again tonight as we see those who have come to Christ and hear the marvel of their testimony. And behold, again, the miracle of resurrection in their lives, and we'll thank You for all that You're doing this day in Christ's name. Amen.
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Homes with bathroom walls painted in shades of blue may sell for a lot more, according to an analysis by Zillow.
A bathroom painted blue, particularly powder blue or light periwinkle, helped homes sell for $5,440 more than expected. Homes with walls painted light gray, or oatmeal also overperformed.
The standard thinking when trying to sell is to go neutral, but Zillow found homes with white bathrooms sold for an average of $4,035 less than similar homes. Homes with darker walls sold for $2,031 less than expected.
As for exterior walls, Zillow says homes painted a mix of light gray and beige sold for $3,496 more than similar homes painted in a medium brown or with tan stucco.
Going for accents? Zillow says homes with front doors painted in shades ranging between dark navy blue and slate gray sold for $1,514 more.
"Painting walls in fresh, natural-looking colors, particularly in shades of blue and pale gray not only make a home feel larger, but also are neutral enough to help future buyers envision themselves living in the space," Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell said in a statement.


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Been hankering for that new iPhone 4S? Yeah, there's a bit of that going around. But which carrier has the best deal? Which plan is right for you? Well PC Magazine whipped up this super handy chart.
As PC Mag notes in the original article, from a price point perspective Sprint is the hands-down winner. $99 bucks a month on Sprint will get you 900 minutes of talk, unlimited texting, and unlimited data. That same amount will only get you 2GB of data on AT&T and Verizon. Click the chart to see the whole thing, or head over to PC Mag for the full article. [PC Magazine]
Update: It's worth noting that Sprint's iPhone plans actually start at $80/mo. for unlimited data, unlimited texting, and 450 anytime minutes. If you can skate by on only 450 minutes, that's pretty damn sweet.
You can keep up with Brent Rose, the author of this post, on Google+ or Twitter.


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Andale Construction Inc is an Arizona based industrial and commercial construction company that has been taking the local community by storm. The company is recognized in the underground utilities industry as an outstanding service provider as measured by its core values and quality workmanship.
ACI specializes with Underground Utilities focusing with these 3 business units:
• HDD- Horizontal Directional Drilling AKA Trenchless technology.
• Water, Sanitary Sewer, Fire Service Lines, Irrigation and Storm Drain facilities.
• Manhole installations, rehabilitation and epoxy coatings.
Andale Constriction Inc. is proud to have a record of completing 96% of their projects on time!
ACI has an extensive background in the construction industry. The company operates by taking into consideration integration & observation of local concerns and working with other agencies representatives to achieve best results. ACI supports the fundamentals of a TEAM concept environment. Our safety program is known as:
STP: Safety Top Priority
Underground utilities is a very specialized branch of the construction industry. In todays environment there are many environmental agencies and municipalities involved in environment management. ACI incorporates working methodologies and materials to full compliance. All materials and applications are pre-approved and authorized by regulatory commissions.
Training and educating our employees is a key pillar of success. Having our staff well informed and certified in the use of equipment, materials, and existing conditions achieves tremendous results by way of significantly improved project success rates. We constantly monitor programs available and required to help ACI achieve its Safety, Quality Workmanship, and Professional Standards goals.
The success of ANDALE Construction, Inc. is largely recognized by the resources and friends that have been contributors to education, training and information provided to our small minority construction business enterprises.Luis De La Cruz ACI and Wink Ames - INSURICA


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Home » Products » Labels » Laser Labels » Laser Label LASCL-S49
Laser Label LASCL-S49
Drug Package Laser Label Forms combine pressure-sensitive labels and bond paper or all pressure sensitive labels to create forms that run trouble-free through your laser printer. Many of the stock formats illustrated bellow are compatible with existing software. Should your system require a different configuration, just send us a sample of your present form for a price quotation.
8.5″ x 11″
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O'Fallon, MO 63366
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