Posted on 11/04/2004 2:05:21 PM PST by 4kevin
Palestinian officials are starting to transfer some of Yasser Arafat's power, as the longtime leader's health appears to be deteriorating. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has taken over some of Arafat's financial control. A Palestinian official also said that Qureia plans to go the Gaza Strip on Friday to order security chiefs to unite and maintain a ceasefire. This comes amid conflicting reports on Arafat's health. Some have said that the 75-year-old man has slipped into a coma. There were even reports that he had died, but Arafat's doctors in France denied those claims.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc5.com ...
I wonder if they managed to get the Swiss account numbers
and passwords from him before what was left of his brain
shut down.
I suspect this was the reason for the last-minute visits
by various PA "dignitaries".
IOW, despite denials he's ....
How about transferring all of Arafat's assets to the innocent families who have lost loved ones to his suicide bombers.
Great idea!
Get'er done!
The gift that keeps on giving...Hanoi John was defeated...obstructionist Tommy Dashole was defeated...Pelosi put her "credibility" on the line predicting the Democrats (and a Kerry win) would take back the House...wrong! Now that murderous thug, Yasser Arafat is dying, and that's cause for more happiness.
PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Ailing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat smiled at Jacques Chirac when the French president visited him in a French military hospital on Thursday, a Palestinian official said, after reports Arafat was in a coma.
What a combination! Look for a complete violent meltdown of the pack of animals.
This should be dangerously entertaining as long as they fight among themselves. Arabs are good at that.
Not too late for Bob Woodward to interview him.
In other words, they're ransacking his house before the body is cold. Nice.
"Palestinian officials are starting to transfer some of Yasser Arafat's power, as the longtime leader's health appears to be deteriorating. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has taken over some of Arafat's financial control.'
Now we know why he is no longer dead. The PA officials paid the French Doctors to say Bernie, er Arafat is still alive and to witness his Xes on the transfer papers.
"In other words, they're ransacking his house before the body is cold. Nice."
Which ones. His wife owns at least two in France. They apparently own several ocean villas around the Med.
Probably gonna cut off his wife's $100 K a month stipend from Palestinian Authority funds.
The PA officials are now bribing ChIraq to say Bernie, er Arafat was still alive and smiling when ChIraq saw him signing all of the wealth transfer papers.
Here is a view from Memphis
http://www.memphisweb.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=436&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died.
Posted by: Admin on Thursday, November 04, 2004 03:54 PM
RAMALLAH Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died. He was 75 years old.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said Arafat died on Thursday in a military hospital in Paris. They said Arafat was deemed clinically dead, but still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his wife, Suha.
"He is dead, but neither Arafat's wife nor the Palestinian leadership is ready to announce this," a PA official said. "The announcement could take place on Friday."
The problem is that Arafat is still the only Palestinian official who can pay the bills. And it is unclear who, if anyone has access to the estimated $2-3 billion in his personal Swiss bank accounts.
Arafat continues to hold the purse strings to the Palestinian finances. For the last decade, he has been the final, and often only word on payment to everybody from the suicide bomber to the janitor. Not a dime was paid without Arafat's okay.
Before he left for Paris, Arafat approved a three-member emergency committee to operate the PA and PLO in his absence. Official said Ahmed Qurei was meant to run the PA's daily affairs while Mahmoud Abbas was appointed acting chairman of the PLO.
Palestine National Council chairman Salim Zaanoun, the third member of the committee, was said to be a symbolic figure.
Abbas and Qurei sought to acquire Arafat's power to allocate money during the absence of the PA chairman. But as he boarded a Jordanian Air Force helicopter for Amman, Arafat refused.
"I'm still alive, thank God, so don't worry," Arafat was quoted as saying.
Israeli officials confirmed that Arafat died on Thursday. They said Arafat was termed brain dead and physicians have stopped attending to him.
For Palestinians, the main question is where is Arafat's money?
Issam Abu Issa knows how Arafat appropriated and concealed money. Abu Issa was the founder and chairman of the Palestine International Bank from 1996 until he fled to Qatar in 2000.
"Rather than use donor funds for their intended purposes, Arafat regularly diverted money to his own accounts," Abu Issa said in a report for Middle East Quarterly. "It is amazing that some U.S. officials still see the Palestinian Authority as a partner even after U.S. congressional records revealed authenticated PLO papers signed by Arafat in which he instructed his staff to divert donors' money to projects benefiting himself, his family and his associates."
Arafat controls billions of dollars meant for the Palestinian people. In a word, he stole it, intelligence sources said, according to a report in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com.
His personal fortune has been estimated at between $2 and $3 billion, most of it in Swiss bank accounts.
In 1997, the PA auditor's office said in its financial report that $326 million, or 43 percent of the annual budget, was "missing."
The United States has been supporting former PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan as Arafat's successor. To his friends in the Bush administration, Dahlan, 43, has all the qualities for Arab leadership: a smooth talker and brutal cop. Arafat asked Dahlan to accompany him to Paris in a move designed to keep him out of the Gaza Strip and any coup plot.
Another challenger has been Fatah Secretary-general Marwan Barghouti, sentenced to life in prison for a series of terrorist attacks. Barghouti, 44, has followers in the West Bank but does not appear to have the iron will necessary to face Arafat loyalists.
Neither Israeli nor PA officials have been told much about Arafat's condition, and the only one authorized to issue information from his hospital bedside is the chairman's wife, Suha.
And Suha wants to keep Arafat alive for as long as possible to find out where his money is.
Woodward can easily interview Arafat after Arafat dies from DC to Paris without any travel, as easy as he could talk to Deepthroat or imagine what Condi Rice said when she watched tv.
It is amazing what old alcoholics of the MSM can do. Just look at Blather and his lies about GW.
Thanks for posting this.
"His personal fortune has been estimated at between $2 and $3 billion, most of it in Swiss bank accounts.'
Arafat did quite well killing innocent Jews didn't he?
Did $oreA$$ help with some good hedge fund investments in one of SoreA$$'s hedge funds? Like the help Godzillary got with her cattle future investments.
Gee I wonder why he did that? Too funny ;-)
Suha had better hold on tight. Those Parisian boutiques and pastry shops are her reasons for living.
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