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WASHINGTON - In a new gifts twist, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly showered Bill and Hillary Clinton in gold and diamond necklaces, bracelets and earrings - $12,000 in gifts in all.
In addition, Arafat gave former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright jewelry worth $17,400, according to this week's New York Observer, which also reports the gifts to the Clintons.
The Clintons didn't take the gifts with them, so they were sent to the National Archives with other offerings from world leaders, said aides to the former president and Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.).
State Department spokesman Nick Griffith said he didn't know what happened to Arafat's gifts to Albright.
The Clintons were required to disclose all the gifts they kept when they left the White House - and the revelation that they tried to walk off with some gifts that were meant for the White House, not them personally, sparked a gifts-grab controversy that prompted them to return some gifts.
On their disclosure forms, there weren't any gifts listed as having come from Arafat, the Palestinian leader who has been strongly criticized - nearly to the point of being ostracized - by President Bush for Mideast violence.
Does anyone, other than former clinton aides, know this to be true?
Now we know why Maddie closed the gates and ran after Arafat in France,'come back here with my freakin necklace'
Something for the GUILD members............ladies ?
Hey! Were any of them-there gold and diamond necklaces, bracelets and earrings - bead/ball-like thangs really those anal ball-like thaings that Hillary seems to love so much?
...so that explains Hillary's embrace of Arafat's wife.
New T-shirt slogan:
"I gave $12,000 in precious stones and jewelry to the Clintons, and all I got was this insincere kiss."
The trick here, as in everything they do, is they then check out the gifts from the National Archives and use them. That is the case with a lot of the stuff given to the White House and now, supposedly, in the Clinton Library. So they can deny they have them while they have them. Very clever, these Clintons.
bttttttttttt
What a piker that Arafat. Geez The Rich's gave hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions. Maybe that is why Bush didn't invite Arafat to the WH, not enough in it. However I notice Powell wanted the Israelis to shell out the money they owed Arafat. Ummmmmm I wonder why. Bet he heard about those gifts to Maddie.
Geez, nothing changes just the names.
State Department spokesman Nick Griffith said he didn't know what happened to Arafat's gifts to Albright.
As a worthwhile democrat, we can be sure that she'll include it on her next tax return. Hmmmmm?
On their disclosure forms, there weren't any gifts listed as having come from Arafat
...so why would the felonious X42 and 97 turn them over to the National Archive? I'd like to see the documentation on that.
"so why would the felonious X42 and 97 turn them over to the National Archive?"
The Clintons could never be certain that anything from Arafat is not set to explode.
Sent this article to Senate Ethics Committee with a DEMAND for Clintons to show PROOF gifts were not in their possession.
The Clintons didn't take the gifts with them, so they were sent to the National Archives
Oh yeah right! Like I'm going to believe this now.
I agree that we need PROOF that the silverware thiefs do not have possession of the gems.
Aw gee.
Poor Palestinians. They starve and suffer while their "leader" gives gifts to Hillary. Doesn't he care about his people? He could be spending that money buying rocks for them to throw, or nails to stuff in terrorist bombs.
But nooooooooo. He lets his people starve while he sucks up to Bubba and the wifey.
Now the poor schmoe can't even get a WH invite from Bush. Oh well.
Arafat was too busy salting it away in his Swiss Bank Accounts. No wonder
he was giving these miserly gifts.
Backgrounder:
CORRUPTION IN THE PLO'S FINANCIAL EMPIRE
In a play for power within the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian
Legislative Council recently threatened Chairman Yasser
Arafat with a "no confidence" vote due to stalling in the annual budgeting
process. To forestall the vote, Arafat sacked his
ministers (then invited Hamas and the anti-Oslo Farouk Kaddoumi to
join a new cabinet).
A similar turn of events occurred one year earlier at budget time, when
Arafat's cabinet resigned over an internal report of
widespread corruption by PA ministries, including the Office of the
Ra'is—Arafat himself. This report, it should be noted, was
ordered by Arafat and conducted by a close relative out of Arafat's
own office, and concluded that US$326 million (or 37 per
cent of the PA's budget) was unaccounted for due to fraud, corruption
and mismanagement. Since the 1998 PA budget of $1,8
billion is 50 per cent dependent on foreign aid, a brief review of
past PLO financial dealings is instructive.
Combining a ruthless leadership style with business sense gained from
operating a successful construction company in the Gulf
states, Yasser Arafat took over as chairman of the PLO in 1969 and
built it into the world's largest, richest international terrorist
group. Some analysts attribute the key to his longevity as head of
such a violent, fractious organisation to his strict control over
the PLO's purse-strings.
As the PLO gained notoriety with high-profile terrorist acts against
Israeli and other targets, it received donations from
Palestinian sources abroad, and voluntary and involuntary contributions,
measured in tens of millions of dollars, from the Kremlin
and Arab-Muslim world. Even Western states are reported to have paid
the PLO "protection money" from time to time for
sharing intelligence on other terrorist groups and for keeping terror
at bay in their countries.
In 1970, the PLO set up a front company named SAMED as a commercial
and manufacturing entity serving as the economic
arm of the PLO's fighting forces. By 1989 it was a global operation
with revenues of $70 million per year. SAMED first used
cheap labor from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and expanded
into Arab and African states and communist Eastern
Europe with a diverse portfolio of factories, oil refineries and other
businesses. Eventually, it acquired large shares in airlines
(such as Maldive Airways, Caledonian Airlines, Air Zimbabwe and Air
Kenya) and duty-free shops (at Nairobi's Kenyatta
Airport, for example), thus providing the PLO with the means to move
arms and operatives inconspicuously.
Once the PLO was entrenched in Lebanon in the 1970s, Arafat eyed the
tremendous profits available from illicit drugs
produced in the Beka'a valley, and began exploiting the narcotics trade.
Although it is difficult to assess the amounts earned
through the PLO's narco-terrorism activities, it is safely estimated
to be in the billions of dollars.
During years of PLO-bred anarchy in what was once the banking hub of
the Arab world, Lebanon was looted. In one bank
heist alone, the PLO stole more than $600 million in gold from a Lebanese
bank by blasting a hole through the back of a church
and hiring Sicilian safe-crackers to open the bank's vault.
Much of this ill-gotten gain was funneled to secret Swiss bank accounts
kept under Arafat's control. When Arafat was missing
and presumed dead following an airplane crash in Libya in April 1992,
many in the PLO's hierarchy publicly voiced fears over
how his death could affect the whole organisation. According to knowledgeable
sources in the US Congress, the real concern
within the PLO at that time was whether anyone besides Arafat had been
entrusted with the access codes to these private Swiss
accounts. Apparently, Arafat kept the codes in a notebook which he
carried in the top-left pocket of his trademark military
uniform, and the only set of codes was feared to have been irrecoverably
lost in the rumoured inferno somewhere in the vast
Libyan desert.
With the Oslo breakthrough in September 1993, the PLO-dominated Palestinian
Authority began receiving billions of dollars in
funds from a number of previously reluctant Western donor countries,
including a pledge of $500 million per year from the
United States. Since any recipient of US foreign aid must open their
books to the US Congress, Ben Gilman, now Chairman of
the House International Relations Committee, asked the General Accounting
Office (a branch of Congress) to provide a report
on PLO assets and sources of income.
The GAO got little co-operation from American and British intelligence
and hit a solid stone wall with the PLO. Because of the
PLO's refusal to cooperate and to operate with transparency, Gilman
was able to slap a congressional hold on US funds to the
PA for the better part of a year. When the GAO finally was able to
deliver its report, it was classified "secret", but one source
familiar with its contents said it confirmed that Arafat and the PLO
held well over $10 billion in assets, even at a time when he
was publicly claiming "bankruptcy". (Middle East Digest 1998)
Yeah, those poor "Palestinians":
During years of PLO-bred anarchy in what was once the banking hub of the Arab world, Lebanon was looted. In one bank heist alone, the PLO stole more than $600 million in gold from a Lebanese bank by blasting a hole through the back of a church and hiring Sicilian safe-crackers to open the bank's vault.
(I wonder if they fixed that church after they blew a hole in it?)
What creeps. Hillary takes gifts and then gives 1000 dollars to the Israeli for protective equipment. Some hug she gave Arafats wife. Mafia Doness that's what she is.
Didn't Netanyahoo have a few financial problems? Sharon sure got himself a good ranch out of his government service. Such Patriots we all have serving all of our countries.
They sure no how to stick it to us.
Anarchist
A+Bert
The Clintons didn't take the gifts with them, so they were sent to the National Archives....
It would be more believable if they claimed the gifts were sent to the Clinton Library.
They sure no how to stick it to us.
Anarchist
A+Bert
Sad. Patty gets his butt whupped and the sheep scatter to the wind.. Some become communists, some fascists, and Bert becomes an anarchist. "Two wings of the same bird of prey" - hahaha.
"I gave $12,000 in precious stones and jewelry to the Clintons, and all I got was ...
...to wait in the Rose Garden until Bill was done with Monica."
At least you had the decency not to correct my spelling. No =Know.
In addition, Arafat gave former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright jewelry worth $17,400
Pearls before swine.
At least you had the decency not to correct my spelling. No =Know.
I hate spelling fascists.
$12,000 in GOLD and DIAMONDS? Where'd he get this trash, the Home Shopping Network? Considering all the money we and France give this guy, you'd think he could spring for something a little pricier.
$12,000 in GOLD and DIAMONDS?
Who did the valuation? The Clintons? There are many items they undervalued for their taxes and in the gifts they took, then gave back.
Not to worry. AP was quick to explain:
Arafat gave Clintons jewelry, archives took custody
On their disclosure forms, there weren't any gifts listed as having come from Arafat
Did they report them OR NOT?!
BTTT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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