Arafat: Where's his money?

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_10.html>




 Mrs. Arafat keeps husband
 on life support
 Where's his money?

 Special to World Tribune.com
 GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COMThursday, November 4, 2004

 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 is still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his
wife, Suha.


 Palestinan Authority's Yasser Arafat: Abbas and Qurei sought to acquire
his power to allocate money as the PA chairman departed for Paris. But as
he boarded a Jordanian Air Force helicopter, Arafat refused. "I'm still
alive, thank God, so don't worry," Arafat was quoted as saying.
Reuters/Loay Abu Haykel

 "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, according to a
report in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. Even his wife is
said to be unaware of how to access the funds.

 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. Officials 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, Middle East
Newsline reported. 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 the
Geostrategy-Direct report.

 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.


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'