Tanzanite May Fund Terrorism

Dec. 14 -- The blue precious gem tanzanite is a hot item in shopping malls across America this holiday season, and if federal investigators are right, Osama bin Laden couldn't be happier.

"It's very clean, very bright and it does what a gemstone is supposed to do: excite people," said Cap Beesley, the president of American Gemological Laboratories.

When tanzanite was first sold to Americans more than 30 years ago, it was marketed as the most beautiful stone discovered in 2,000 years. Americans now buy about $300 million of tanzanite every year, making it the most popular colored gem after the sapphire.

But federal authorities and jewelry industry executives tell ABCNEWS some people in the tanzanite business may be using the gems to raise and move vast sums of money for bin Laden.

"There is no question that there is a connection to terrorism," Beesley said, agreeing further that there is a connection between tanzanite and al Qaeda, bin Laden's terror network.

The connection begins in the African nation of Tanzania, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. Investigators in the FBI and CIA trying to track bin Laden's money say for several years now his people have been buying up tanzanite in the small area of Tanzania where it is mined, something several miners confirmed for ABCNEWS. "I am not afraid to say that Osama has profit in the tanzanite, absolutely," said one miner.

Many of the biggest companies dealing in tanzanite said they were unaware of the allegations and the government of Tanzania flatly denies any ties to al Qaeda.

"There is no connection that has been established," said Mustafa Salim Nyang' Anyi, Tanzania's ambassador to the United States. "These are mere fabrications."

Diary Indicates Connection

But the bin Laden connection to tanzanite was well documented just this year at the trial of bin Laden's personal secretary, Wadih el Hage, who, according to his own diaries introduced in court, set up numerous businesses to deal in tanzanite.