Bush gets failing marks for ‘reckless lack of leadership;’ Senate plans hearing on proposed ‘Clean Diamond Trade Act’ on Wednesday WASHINGTON -- World Vision, along with several other leading humanitarian and human rights, and faith-based organizations, are urging the Bush Administration to take a stronger role in stopping the flow of conflict or “blood” diamonds into the U.S., which provide funding to terrorists around the world. “The Administration’s lack of leadership in demanding that an international diamond tracking system is enacted is reckless when European and U.S. intelligence officials have reported that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network reaped million of dollars from the sale of illicit diamonds,” says Serge Duss, World Vision’s Director of Public Policy and Advocacy. Not only do diamonds help finance terrorists, but the battle over diamond territories is being fought in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in rebel wars, claiming the lives and limbs of thousands of civilians. Rebels maintain their control over diamond-rich territories through campaigns of terror that include killing, mutilation, rape and forcing children at gun-point to join their armies. The diamond industry, as well as the governments of the U.S. and other nations, which are developing an international agreement, known as the Kimberley Process, receive an ‘F’ for not fulfilling a demand by the United Nations for a “clean diamond stream,” in which the origins of rough diamonds are tracked and authenticated. Americans buy 65 percent of the world’s diamonds, and U.S. diamond sales account for more than half of the estimated $57 billion market. Therefore, the diamond buying American public is unwittingly helping to fund terrorist organizations, Duss says. On Valentine’s Day, World Vision, along with Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, Oxfam, and more than 150 humanitarian organizations, are calling upon the Bush Administration to work with the Senate to enact so-called “clean diamonds” legislation. “This legislation demonstrates real leadership in supporting strong controls for an international system, which includes effective monitoring, coordination and statistics, “Duss says. “Without the President’s full support for effective legislation and a strong international diamond certification system, diamonds can no longer be considered the ‘international symbol of love,’ but a resource that provides terrorists with the financial support to continue their atrocities.”