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Greg Campbell

Greg Campbell

The Role of Sierra Leone, Conflict Diamonds and the International Diamond Industry in Global Terrorism
Benefiting the Library Endowment for the College of Liberal Arts

Greg Campbell, author of "Blood Diamonds; Tracing the Deadly Path of the World´s Most Precious Stones" and the editor-in-chief of Fort Collins Weekly, will host a conversation on the international diamond industry and how its centuries-old policies, designed to corner the market on precious stones, have enabled and equipped some of Africa´s most ruthless rebellions as well as the United States´ most hated enemy, Al Qaeda.

It´s said that diamonds are forever. The strong and beautiful gemstones that have been coveted for centuries by kings and brides alike have been known throughout human history as talismans of love, honor and devotion.

But there is a much darker side to the production and marketing of these gems that is almost entirely unknown to those who shop for engagement rings and tennis bracelets at the local jewelry store–some diamonds have been mined by the most ruthless insurgencies to have ever stepped on a battlefield, rebel groups who have used proceeds from their illicit diamond sales to purchase weapons and armor to continue their campaigns of mayhem and murder. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in three African countries have died or been permanently and intentionally mutilated to facilitate this trade in so-called "conflict diamonds."

"Blood Diamonds; Tracing the Deadly Path of the World´s Most Precious Stones" takes its readers to the jungles of Sierra Leone, where for the most of the 1990s a rebel group called the Revolutionary United Front pulled off one of the bloodiest and longest running jewelry heists in human history. Child laborers and prisoners of war mined millions of dollars worth of diamonds from Sierra Leone´s extensive diamond fields. They were smuggled from the country and sold, with complicity, into the maw of the world´s largest corporate monopoly, the international diamond industry whose policies and practices were established by the South African company De Beers. Conflict diamonds were laundered and sold to unsuspecting lovers around the world while proceeds from their sale continued to fuel brutal civil wars. Although the percentage of conflict diamonds on the world market is thought to be small, it´s been enough to cause an estimated 3 million deaths and displace another 6 million people living in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unfortunately, exploitation of the diamond industry´s policies was not restricted to African rebellions but also by international terrorists. Osama bin Laden´s Al Qaeda network laundered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of diamonds in the days and weeks leading to the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. "Blood Diamonds" is a look at how seemingly isolated regional conflicts can have distinct and tragic impacts close to home.

Greg Campbell has been a journalist for more than 12 years, starting as a freelance reporter for a small newspaper in Boulder. Early in his career, he accepted an assignment to cover the end of the war in Bosnia, an experience that led to his first of many journalism awards and later, his first book contract to write about the emergence of war in Kosovo. That book, "The Road to Kosovo, a Balkan Diary," was a finalist for the Colorado Nonfiction Book of the Year for 1999. His experiences in the Balkans ignited a passion for travel and international journalism, leading him to Nigeria where he covered a variety of stories for The Christian Science Monitor and the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2001, Campbell made several trips to war-torn Sierra Leone in West Africa, again writing for the San Francisco Chronicle and conducting research for his second book, "Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World´s Most Precious Stones." That book accomplished was his first didn´t and won the Colorado Nonfiction Book of the Year for 2001. It has been lauded as an important work that shed light on a previously unreported topic, how the international diamond industry was complicit in arming ruthless insurgencies in at least three African war zones. It proved to be very timely as well—not only were African warlords benefiting from the diamond industry´s century-old policies of price fixing, so too was America´s No. 1 enemy, Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

Throughout his career, Campbell has won numerous awards from prestigious journalism organizations, including the Colorado Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Inland Press Association, which honored him with a national First Place Award for Investigative Journalism for his coverage of a massacre in Kosovo. He has appeared as a guest on numerous radio and television shows, including Hardball with Chris Matthews, Fox News´ Crier Report, CSPAN´s Booknotes and has been a regular guest on National Public Radio.

Today, he is the founding editor and part owner of Fort Collins Weekly. He lives in Fort Collins with his wife and 9-year-old son.

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