In 2007, Terry Crawford-Browne published the explosive Eye On The Money. It was primarily an account of the international banking sanctions campaign against apartheid during the 1980s, but also dealt with the early stages of the now well-documented South African arms deal scandal. Eye On The Diamonds is a sequel to the earlier book and provides updated information on the uncovering of the scandal. In 2008, Crawford-Browne was asked to lead a public interest application to the South African Constitutional Court after huge volumes of evidence confirmed how BAE and other arms companies paid massive bribes to politically well-connected members of the African National Congressthe so-called black diamonds”to secure their contracts.Eye On The Diamonds’ focus on diamonds links the colonial and apartheid histories of South Africa with the close histories of Israel and Palestine. It demonstrates how De Beers, the South African originated company which dominated the diamond cartel for more than a century, is fast losing control to far more ruthless Israeli players. Crawford-Browne suggests that the diamond trade, which is critical to the twenty-first century war business, makes every diamond a blood diamond’. Blood diamonds provide the ultimate money laundering opportunity for organized crime, while the Israeli war business thwarts efforts at peaceful resolution of conflict.
