The Awful Truth About Blood Diamonds Revealed By Author Janine Roberts

Delves into the horrors of diamond mining. Extremely timely book to coincide with the release of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond.

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 20, 2007 -- The mining industry, led by De Beers, fears that the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Blood Diamond will spoil the romantic excitement of diamond rings. It's estimated that the World Diamond Council spent over fifteen million dollars for a spin campaign aimed at lessening the film's impact. One of the efforts touted in the campaign is the US Clean Diamond Trade Act and the Kimberley Process, provisions that are supposed to ensure the elimination of blood diamonds and guarantee that the diamonds we buy are morally clean. Yet, the US General Accounting Office reported in September 2006 that these guarantees are worthless illusions. There are no verifiable checks done on most diamonds.

Janine Roberts, journalist and human rights activist, has been researching and writing on De Beers and the diamond trade for over twenty years, and this explosive book reveals the very secret and unromantic world of the diamond industry, one that is dominated and controlled by a handful of mighty corporations. Glitter & Greed (April 2007, ISBN: 1-932857-60-5, $15.95), just out in paperback with new information about the dangerous and deadly mining conditions faced by diamond miners, is the most expansive and explosive expose ever on diamonds.

In addition to some startling revelations about the diamond industry that have come to light in the last few years, Roberts reveals unsettling news about the dangers of diamond mining that the major diamond corporations don't want you to know. While these companies tout their compliance with the US Clean Diamond Trade Act and the Kimberley Process as proof they no longer selling tainted gems, Roberts presents evidence exposing the complicity of diamond industry leaders who have chosen profits over principles. They claim they no longer deal in diamonds used to fund wars-but this is not the only way to create blood diamonds. De Beers produces millions of them by mining its diamonds in a cut-rate way that wrecks the lungs of the men in its mines, causing incurable misery and death.

The Clean Diamond Trade Act and the Kimberley Process does nothing to protect the diamond mineworkers of South Africa from dangerous working conditions not permitted in other mines. The book provides powerful evidence that De Beers' mines are often filled with a deadly dust that cuts and scars the lungs of its mineworkers, which could easily be removed if De Beers employed normal dust-suppression methods. De Beers currently holds a legal exemption in South Africa from the mandatory dust suppression method of spraying water when drilling, on the grounds that the dust in its mines is uniquely harmless.

Glitter & Greed is the book that De Beers and the Oppenheimer family-who control the cartel-did not want, that its top people tried to stop. If you have ever wondered what tales might lie behind the glitter of a diamond ring, read this account of the most international media investigation ever launched.

About the Author - Janine Roberts

Janine Roberts has been investigating the diamond business for more than 23 years, during which time she has led numerous newspaper investigations and produced several documentary films, including The Diamond Empire, which led to her invitation to testify before the United States Congress. She was also a principal speaker at the first post-apartheid conference of Southern African diamond mineworkers.

About The Disinformation Company:

Based in New York, The Disinformation Company (www.disinfo.com) is active in book publishing, film/DVD distribution and other home entertainment. Recent book releases include Jim Marrs' The Terror Conspiracy, Graham Hancock's Supernatural, Circle of Six, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Everything You Know Is Wrong. Disinformation books are distributed to the trade by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution (www.cbsd.com).

About the Book:

GLITTER & GREED

April 2007 -The Disinformation Company

408 pages

ISBN 1-932857-60-5

Trade Paperback

$15.95

For more information, please contact David Samra at Disinformation at

(212) 342-7394.

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