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She can earn spare cash for sure playing King Tut in the new Batman film . . . |
Posted on 04/30/2004 7:08:40 AM PDT by me_newswire
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The World Bank said last year that the Palestinian economy was in steep decline after the Israeli army blockaded and raided Palestinian towns and set up road checkpoints to crack down on a Palestinian uprising for statehood begun in September 2000.
But today we read in Irish Times the that French prosecutors have begun an inquiry into transfers totalling EU-9 million into bank accounts held in France by Suha Arafat, the wife of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. (ACPR.org) Rachel Ehrenfeld (June 1997)
Arafat's Wife on a Luxury Trip
NY DAILY NEWS (11/06/03)
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Last week we were told that "Malnutrition in the Gaza Strip and West Bank is as bad as in sub-Saharan Africa because the Palestinian economy has all but collapsed under Israeli restrictions." (Irish Times February 6, 2004)
A report by the cross-party International Development Select Committee also called on Britain to press the European Union to impose trade sanctions on Israel until it lifts its restrictions on Palestinian trade.
The Paris public prosecutor confirmed a report in Le Canard Enchaine magazine that an inquiry into Suha Arafat, who lives in Paris, was launched last October after information provided by the Bank of France and a government anti-money laundering body. (February 11, 2004)
It is unfortunate that this information may take the readers of the newspaper of record in the country holding the EU Presidency by surprise.
Three months ago, the Irish Independent ran a small story Arafat 'has built up fortune of $2.6bn' (November 7, 2003).
Palestinian president Yasser Arafat has amassed a personal fortune of up to $2.6bn and his wife is given tens of thousands of euro each week to fund a lavish Parisian lifestyle, an American television documentary is expected to claim.
Mr Arafat's 40-year-old wife Suha, who lives away from the struggles of her homeland, is given $100,000 a month from Palestinian Authority coffers, CBS show 60 Minutes is set to report:
We saw nothing further in the Irish media on this interesting twist on how EU tax money was being spent, so we decided to follow Paul Gillespie's advice and do a Google search ""60 Minutes" Arafat billions", which quickly took us to the official CBS News site and several other sites giving transcripts of the programme. It was revealing and compelling.
The November 9, 2003, CBS 60 Minutes programme "Arafat's Billions" claimed that "Yasser Arafat diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds and a lot more is unaccounted for.
60 Minutes interviewed Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank official whom Arafat was forced to appoint as Finance Minister after crowds began protesting his corrupt regime last year, and Jim Prince, an American accountant Fayyad hired to comb through Arafat's books, as well as former Arafat and Clinton Administration officials.
So far, Prince's team has determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion -- with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.
Although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And, Prince says, none of these dealings were made public.
According to Fayyad, "There is corruption out there. There is abuse. There is impropriety, and that's what had to be fixed."
According to Clinton administration Middle East adviser Martin Indyk, Arafat was always traveling the world, looking for handouts.
"Arafat for years would cry poor, saying, 'I can't pay the salaries, we're gonna have a disaster here, the Palestinian economy is going to collapse,'" says Indyk. "And we would all mouth those words: 'The Palestinian economy is going to collapse if we don't do something about this.' But at the same time, he's accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars."
The stockpile went well beyond the portfolio. Arafat accumulated another $1 billion with the help of -- of all people -- the Israelis. Under the Oslo Accords, it was agreed that Israel would collect sales taxes on goods purchased by Palestinians and transfer those funds to the Palestinian treasury. But instead, Indyk says, "that money is transferred to Yasser Arafat to, amongst other places, bank accounts which he maintains off-line in Israel."
Arafat's wife, Suha gets $100,000 a month from Arafat out of the Palestinian budget, and lives lavishly in Paris on this allowance. And Arafat handed out monopolies in commodities -- like flour and cement to his cronies.
Fayyad says it could accurately be seen as gouging his own people. "And especially in Gaza which is poorer, which is something that is totally unacceptable and immoral, actually."
Of all the monopolies, none was as lucrative or as corrupt as the General Petroleum Corporation, the one for gasoline. The corporation took the fuel it purchased from an Israeli company and watered it down with kerosene, not only defrauding the Palestinian drivers, but wrecking their car engines.
Fayyad says the Petroleum Corporation charged exorbitant prices, and Arafat got a hefty kickback. "To the president, I can tell you, if there was not money in the treasury, he went to the Petroleum Corporation."
Much of the money that should have gone to the Palestinian Authority was sent to Swiss Lombard Odier Bank, for a secret investment account that held over $300 million....
Minister Fayyad says that this of money was available only to Arafat. The Swiss account was closed out in 2001. No one knows where that money is today.
The next hint of this corruption leaking through to the readers of the Irish Times of which we are aware came on January 17, 2004 during Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen's visit the region on behalf of Ireland's European presidency.
At a speech at Tel Aviv University, Mr Cowen was questioned about the use made of EU money by the Palestinian Authority. He admitted there had been problems but added:
"There is no error-free party in relation to this conflict." He continued: "I believe that the integrity of the Finance Minister of the Palestinian Authority (Salam Fayyed) is beyond reproach."
The 60 Minutes programme left no doubt of Salam Fayyad's integrity, but it also left no doubt that Arafat and his cronies were blocking Salam Fayyed at every opportunity, and that a few billion Euro of Palestinian authority funds were missing. It seems that Mr Cowen's answer rather begged the question.
Meanwhile, Palestinian children are malnourished, and Suha Arafat, who recently became a French citizen, is shopping in Paris.
Today's Irish Times story ended
On Saturday more than 300 members of [Arafat's] ruling Fatah movement resigned collectively, demanding greater democracy within Fatah and the Palestinian Authority and an end to corruption.
We seem to delight in giving friendly advice to the Americans on how they should not prop up corrupt dictators.
The French government has belatedly started to investigate some aspects of this corruption. Should not we, holding the EU Presidency, feel free - or rather obliged - to do likewise?
And would not an informed readership of the Irish times be a good place to start?
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds carries this story and points to a Haaretz article that suggests EU money is funding more than Au Printemps:
In a parallel development, investigators from the European Union anti-fraud office (OLAF), who are looking into allegations that the PA diverted money from European donors into terror activity, have concluded that documents the IDF seized during Operation Protective Shield are authentic.
The documents suggested Arafat ordered that funds from European sources be used to support such activity - some of the money reportedly went to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in terror strikes.
France Probes Arafat's Accounts
By Arnon Regular and Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz, February 11, 2004
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Arab Intifada Is European Proxy War On America
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She can earn spare cash for sure playing King Tut in the new Batman film . . . |
Oh oh, this is serious. Suha must have missed a couple of bribery“commission” payments to Chiraq, so he sicced the dogs on her.
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