"Arafat's wife on a luxury trip"

"Palestinian first lady Suha Arafat - whose husband regularly duns governments in the Middle East and Europe to help his poverty-stricken people - is living in Paris on $100,000 a month from Palestinian Authority coffers.

And Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has amassed a personal fortune estimated at $1 billion to $3 billion."

i wonder how Arafat got all that money. *sarcasm*



http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/134298p-119627c.html

peace
david
:hippie:

is one of the many reasons why I don't like Arafat (even though he may have the support od the Palestinians) Corruption...

just as all the ballyhooing last spring about Sadam Hussein masked the real issues about what was going on.

just like the fact that he was never democratically elected.

n/t

Are you serious?

Is there no piece of Israeli propaganda so obviously ridiculous that it doesn't bear repeating? He was elected by a huge margin in '96 and the idea that Arafat needed to gangrush people into the polls is absolutely absurd.

This is old agitprop from back in the days before the PLO and Arafat all left for Lebanon. Supposedly all the Palestinians except a few "extremists" who actually had the temerity to call for human rights in the same way enjoyed by Jewish Israeli's were making all the trouble and they needed to be "rescued" from the evil Arafat and PLO. They left. The pictures of Arafat remained. No one suddenly came out denouncing the tyranny of these evil bastards that the Palestinian people supposedly secretly hated. They became nothing but more popular in their absence.

However people who want to see something can't be convinced. It's a sad part of human existance that when people believe something that doesn't fit what happened they will throw away the fact and keep the framework of their belief instead.

One of the real issues is whether Arafat indeed has absconded with hundreds of millions of dollars and placed them in Swiss bank accounts.

Many on this forum dismissed that out of hand.

Mrs. Arafat's spending lends support to the lifestyle of their family (and where the funds have been 'obtained) vs the poor people their family supposedly cares so deeply about.

comes from an enormously wealthy Christian family.
She has lived in luxury every day of her life. Long before she married and converted to Islam.
As to Swiss bank accounts, how about making up some new propaganda to discredit a public figure?.....

"Unidentified sources have alledged that Ariel Sharon, the subject of two financial corruption investigations, has stashed millions of US aid dollars in secret Swiss bank accounts."

See how easy that was? Can you prove that Sharon DOESN'T have money in Swiss bank accounts? Of course not. It can't be done and that's why it is an effective propaganda tool.

good point SOS! One is supposed to believe everything (even without actual proof) just by the words, while if the same was said about those on the other side people would be screaming hell about lies...

Palestinians demand missing PA money

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1067162510178

Where are the millions?" is the name of a popular Arab song in which Lebanese singer Julia Botrus denounces the failure of the Arab world to go to war against Israel. The song is played repeatedly on Palestinian Authority radio and TV as a cry of despair aimed at mobilizing the Arab masses on the side of the Palestinians in their fight against Israel.
In recent weeks, amid reports that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat is in poor health, many Palestinians are also beginning to ask the same question, but in a different context: They are demanding to know what has happened to hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the Palestinian people.

Some Palestinians believe they already know where the money is: in secret bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere.

A group of Palestinian legislators, who form the Democratic Bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, is demanding an investigation into the whereabouts of the huge amounts of money.

Hassan Khraisheh, one of nine members of the Democratic Bloc, said he and his colleagues believe that Arafat's adviser on economic affairs, Muhammad Rashid (also known as Khaled Salam), is holding at least $200 million in a secret bank account. Rashid is now living in Cairo after he reportedly fell out with Arafat.

.........................................................

OR are they lying too??

Arafat has sequestered substantial sums on his own account. Money is power; it buys loyalty and cooperation. Arafat has at all times operated with an eye to maintaining and aggrandizing his own power.

I have no doubt much of that money can only be accessed by him for the exact reasons you state. It's the same reason he will never give up enough security forces outside his control that someone else could attempt a coup d'etat with and given American and Israeli past adventures in securing such things for their own benefit it probably needs to be done that way.

I think the reports of Arafat's vast sums of money are exxagerations, but I do not doubt that there is much corruption in the PA, some of it through him.

What overwhelming evidence provided by Richard Perles newspaper.

"Some Palestinians believe"

That's the evidence?

"Rashid refused to cooperate in revealing where the money is," Khraisheh said. "He also refused to meet with the PLO ambassador in Egypt to talk about the issue."

"This is money that belongs to the Palestinian people," Khraisheh added. "It could have been invested in establishing a social welfare system instead of shady deals. The Americans and the Egyptians are protecting , and Arafat provides him with cover. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars. How is it that one person can control such huge sums? When we asked Arafat about it, he said, 'Muhammad Rashid is my man. He is my financial adviser.' This is Arafat's method. The source of Arafat's power is money."


YEAH....I'd say that says alot.

they believe so fine. Excuse me for being suspiciuos about accusations of people that one side would want to discredit anyhow (no matter that my opinion of Arafat is actually low) I am sure that Sharon or his family has not been involved in any form of corruption. Or has he?

The Palestinian people are suffering, many children are undernourished, and there is little effort to build a viable economy. The money goes to Arafat's pet projects, his wife, for one, and incentive for suicide bombers is another. Perhaps he funds propaganda, and web sites for Palestinian anti-Israel activity. I wouldn't doubt it. Nothing goes to the Palestinian people who want peace.

In this case, corruption is a gross criminal act.

Some actual cites would help with credibility.

http://ww1.theherald.co.uk/news/4130.html

also i feel that with his money arafat could fix up his HQ, but it benefits him more politically to be the 'martyred leader' and live in the two rooms he does.


peace
david

:hippie:

Not repetition of the gossip.
Let me be clear, I am not interested in defending Arafat,
but this is slur and innuendo designed to titillate the
masses and distract them from less pleasant but more relevant
subjects. Pointing out that some politician is corrupt is
like saying the Sun rises in the morning. A politician who
is not corrupt would be news. But this does not even rise to
that level, this is just a bunch of hearsay by persons with
an obvious finger in the pie, not a fact in the whole thing.

This may be true.

After all, the members of the PA inner circle are on $20,000 a month apparently (according to Israeli sources).

Not really surprising. These guys are the well paid quislings, working for the colonial occupiers. The Indian security forces were paid pretty damn well by Britain, while the country went to the dogs and millions starved in famines. :eyes:

:thumbsup:

If the Palestine Authority is a quisling tool of the colonial occupiers, what leadership elements of the Arab Palestinian polity would you consider authentic?

I don't want to preclude what Mr. Priv might say,
but the two labels are not exclusive, one might be
authentic, that is having popular support I suppose,
and still be a quisling, not serving the interests of
those you govern, or serving the interests of the enemy.
I feel Arafat fits this quite well. Or Mr. Bush.

The question as to whether Mr. Arafat is indeed in cahoots
with the GOI is much more disputable or course, so perhaps
the use of "Quisling" is imprecise.

For the larger question I might hazard Mr. Barghouti. I
would be interested in what persons more informed than I
think about it.

Not the entire Palestinian Authority (I was basically sketching a rough approximation of the diplomatic interactions between the PA and Israel).

The PA is largely a quisling operation (no surprise, it was created to be exactly that), but it is not completely incapable of independent action. Even some high-level figures are quite genuine (i.e. the Labor guy is a decent fellow).

Of course, some PA elements are in bed with Hamas, some are against Arafat and more pragmatic etc, so it's a complex picture (like most things of this sort).

My definition of "authentic" is civil society (examples: the president of Birzeit, Hanan Ashwari), "leadership" figures who are interested in talks based on Palestinian rights, international law etc (example: Abdul Shafi), and largely legitimate resistence figures (such as Barghouti).

There is more to the topic than that of course, but that is a basic approximation.

The basic question is: "is this person a sell-out?". The answer in the case of the overwhelming majority of these PA top officials is yes. I should perhaps have been clearer on this point.

what a majority of them are is oppurtunists. You would find it next to impossible to show that Arafat is a puppet of Israel; he has likely done things, however, that could be portrayed as aiding the colonial force. He does such because he has one major concern and that is his own power; hence, he will not (whether or not he can) challenge terrorism and racism in Palestinian society, while at the same time he will not actively endorse it or aid it.

That is why I cannot accept the GOI's view of Arafat as a bloodthirsty terrorist, nor can I accept the view of some members of the other side that Arafat is a puppet of the colonial authority. It is the same thing, IMO, with the majority of the PA, regardless of what they were created to do.

That's the majority of these guys (like I said).

Honest people like Abdul Shafi refused to even attend Olso.

Or approve of hatred in PA-controlled media?

Taking Ariel Sharon's statement that the occupation must end (or whatever his exact words were) I could assume that he was a leftist and a peacenik when the truth is that he is nothing of the sort.

The clarafication is much appreciated, and a most reasonable view, as well. Mr. Bhargouti, despite his current predicament, seems to me a fellow worth dealing with: the objection some might raise that he has directed armed violence has no more weight than a similar objection against, say, Begin or Sharon or any of a number of other Israeli figures. In time of war, only people apt at that task are liable to rise to positions of respect and leadership.

As you might expect, the Oslo accords do not seem to me a "sell-out", but rather a potentially beneficial first step to a process of engagement and compromise, that it is unfortunant there have been better results to. Israeli continuation of settlement expansion is certainly one reason for that outcome.

If he was not being supported and published by Regnery Press. Much of what passes through their presses amount to nothing more than RW sponsored fiction. Tabloid quality books for the RW.


L-

from the link in the original message:

"CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl offers these and other choice nuggets Sunday on "60 Minutes." Stahl told me exclusively yesterday that Suha Arafat's mother, Raymonda Tawil, is also living lavishly - apparently off international largesse and the Palestinian taxpayers."

Do they care. Would they believe their great leader (sarcasm) would leave them in poverty so he and his could live in luxury? I'm betting no and no and no.

Statist bureaucrats and their families are generally a leacherous sort no matter what flag is involved.

That $1,000,000,000-$3,000,000,000 fortune figure seems dubious to me, however. Most people that rich can at least afford to hire all sorts of people to fix up their homes to appear as something presentable; Arafat's Muqata would have to be hit with a dozen nuclear weapons to be more of a wreck.

Report: Arafat funnels $100,000 PA aid monthly to wife

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/358045.html

WILLIE SUTTON would be envious.

Can you say...MURDER, INC ??

Never again.

Filling one's pockets when in power happens all the time. In different ways! The fact remains that only the Palestinian people have the right to throw him out, if that's what they want, in an election.

In a democracy, even one that makes a habit of bombing it's neighbor, the rights of the voters should be respected. Did they have a choice? I believe the last time, there was no one else on the ballot. Some choice. Arafat or no one. I guess that's what he'd have to do in order to win any contest.

"the last time, there was no one else on the ballot," then I don't understand why people didn't protest. In an election there should be at least two names on the ballot. But then, I also don't understand why people don't vote when there IS a choice. I'm talking about the American election. I understand only half the eligible voters bothered to vote. People are so strange.

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Lyndon larouche ??

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3001sharon_mafiya.html


youre kidding , right ??

I thought it was about the MESSAGE not the MESSENGER. Oh I see only when it's about bashing Palestinians, ok

IF you want to defend a "larouche" psycho-conspiracy rant,

dont let me stop you.

If you want to defend a right-wing rag like Arutz Sheva or JPost, don't let me stop you.

But I certainly won't pay much attention to it.

noooo problem.

out the hypocrisy, when things from Fox&Corkum, Foxnews, Jpost, Mark Steyn and similar are posted...

NOW....what do you think of sharonstone's lyndon larouche
non-linked posting??