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.COM
Thursday, 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 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, according
to a report in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com.
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.
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Christopher Stone" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> Note: Good, another terrorist is dead. Now look out for a civil war
in the
> region.
>
>
>
> PARIS - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is dead in a Paris
hospital,
> according to Israeli television reports.
>
> Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat helped out of a helicopter Oct. 29
in
> Amman, Jordan.
> He had been receiving treatment at the hospital for an unknown
condition
> since last Friday.
>
> Arafat's condition worsened on Wednesday, with Israeli media
reports
> suggesting he had organ failure.
>
> French President Jacques Chirac visited Arafat Thursday morning,
but didn't
> comment on the Palestinian leader's health.
>
> Over the weekend, Arafat had been reported to be improving while
undergoing
> tests in a French army hospital.
>
> He was rushed there on Oct. 29 after collapsing two days earlier in
his
> Ramallah compound in the West Bank.
>
> On Wednesday, his aides said he sent a message of congratulations
to U.S.
> President George W. Bush for winning a second term, urging him to
help bring
> peace to the Middle East.
>
> Aides initially said that Arafat, who has been ill for three weeks,
was
> suffering from gallstones or a bad flu.
>
>
> Written by CBC News Online staff
>
>
>
>
>
> Chris.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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