Oh Lord. Is this for real?

From the SFist inbox this morning we received alarming news that Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel, like, totally hate Africans, or something like that. After the New Year's Eve announcement that the two were to enter holy matrimony, one concerned reader called "Mayor Newsom's Communication Office," wondering if the "rock he bought for his fiancee was not a blood diamond."

After talking to an "incompetent" Newsom staff member - kudos to the unfortunate staffer who had to field this call - the blood diamond crusader was told to call Tiffany & Co. to find out more about the possible sanguinary gem adorning the future First Lady of San Francisco's dainty hand. (Funny, Jen and Gav seem like a Zales kind of couple to us.) After being "put on hold for 10 minutes until a recorded announcement said no one could take [her] call," we here at SFist got to the bottom of this international scandal percolating right before our eyes. (Africa isn't in California, right?)

According to CommonDreams.org ("Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community"):

Out of 30 companies that were asked about their policies on conflict diamonds by letter and a follow-up telephone call, only five responded, according to Global Witness. They included Fortunoff, Pampillonia, Tiffany & Co., the Signet Group, and Zale Corporation.

Of those five, Global Witness said, Tiffany stood out because it described how it has tried to strengthen its sourcing and auditing policies precisely to ensure that it was not dealing in conflict diamonds.

So...there you have it. We can all sleep at night now. And why Tiffany & Co. didn't just explain the above right away is beyond us. But we suspect the human rights advocate personality on the other end of the conversation might have had something to do with it. (Who we officially love, by the way.) We're just saying.

To read the accusatory email in its entirety, follow the jump.