http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1002
Americans Recover Arafat's plundered hoard
>From DEBKA-Net-Weekly - March 11
March 20, 2005, 9:01 PM (GMT+02:00)
A part of Yasser Arafat's secret hoard - $4 bn - has been documented
and accounted for in a painstaking project undertaken by Nigel
Roberts, the World Bank's country director for the West Bank, and
Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayyad. They have obtained partial
information about another $1-2bn and found a further three to four
billion invested on Arafat's behalf by two individuals, his chief
financial adviser Mohammed Rashid, and Palestinian-born international
tycoon Samer Khoury.
This was reported exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly's exclusive sources
for the first time in DNW Issue 197 on March 11.
To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .
"You can stop going around with your hat in your hand," a stern US
secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas (Abu Mazen) at the London conference on Palestinian reforms
earlier this month. "You have all the money you need to transform the
economic situation in the Palestinian Authority."
She told Abbas to go back to Ramallah and assume immediate control of
the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) where the bulk of Arafat's money
was stashed, or forget about receiving a single aid dollar from
international donors.
Pressed for details on their findings, Roberts and Fayyad explained:
Arafat kept an iron grip on all the moneys flowing to the Palestinian
Authority after it was established by the 1993 Oslo Accords. World
donors contribute at least $8 bn towards the creation of jobs and
building infrastructure - schools, medical facilities, water works and
roads. According to the Los Angeles Times, the PA was awarded "one of
the most expensive development programs ever granted on a per-capita
basis."
But Arafat had other goals in mind. He diverted the lion's share to
profitable investment on the advice of Rashid, who conferred with
Khoury at his offices in Greece on the highest-yielding outlets.
Khoury often secretly handled the investment through his own company,
In 2002, world aid givers began demanding guarantees that that their
contributions were not being spent to fuel the Palestinian terrorist
war against Israel then raging in its third year. The Palestinian
Investment Fund was set up to provide "responsible stewardship" for
Palestinian Authority assets and holdings and ensure they were used to
stimulate economic growth – not buy guns.
Before long, Khoury got himself appointed to the PIF's audit and
nominations committees and Rashid joined the board of directors. This
gave them the run of the Fund and kept all investments under Arafat's
thumb. Arafat's secret business empire sprawled far and wide, ranging
from telecommunications companies in Brazil to Guinea Bissau's
national airline and a coffee plantation in Zimbabwe.
Eighty percent of international donations accumulated over nearly a
decade was invested for profit. The remainder financed terrorism, arms
purchases, training, subsistence and payouts to families left bereaved
by suicide bombings and other casualties. A portion of the profits
supported Arafat's corrupt entourage of cronies, hangers-on and their
life style. Not much was left over for creating jobs or building
hospitals.
Abu Mazen was sent off from London to start selling off these assets
to finance urgent projects for his impoverished people. He was warned
that the $350 million pledged the Palestinians would be transferred
only when it was matched by income from the sale of PIF properties – a
dollar-for-dollar deal. The World Bank has projects ready to go.
Roberts cited a $1bn plan to create 50,000 jobs in the Gaza Strip.
Back in Ramallah, Abu Mazen ran into his first major obstruction to
divestment: Prime minister Ahmed Quriea (Abu Ala), who by withholding
his signature has the power to block any Palestinian Authority
measure, accused Abbas of surrendering to US-British dictates and
opening the door for them to take over Palestinian funds. Then, most
of the 11 PIF board members resigned or are about to do so, further
disabling the fund's operations.
As a result –
1. Projects in which funds have already been invested are left high
and dry for lack of anyone to take charge of direction. Most PIF
staffers are offspring, relatives or mistresses of senior Palestinian
officials who have ordered them to down tools until their own
political and financial future is settled.
2. The departure of Arafat, Khoury and Rashid leaves no legal
authority to administer the Fund, sign documents on its behalf or
appoint new board members. Fayyad is seeking legal advice.
3. Palestinian security and intelligence chiefs are scrambling for PIF
appointments and jobs.
Abu Mazen's close allies warn him, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's
Palestinian sources, that without control of the PIF, he will never be
more than a figurehead,
His rivals have come to the same conclusion and are all now chasing
after the billion-dollar fund hoping to lay hands on the wherewithal
for buying a following. They are racing all the harder with the
approach of the next Palestinian ballots – the April 28 municipal
election and the July 17 parliamentary vote. A hefty cash campaign
chest can promise victory. It can also buy the undying loyalty of all
or some of the endemically corrupt Palestinian security and
intelligence services. Conversely, candidates strapped for funds may
as well give up.
Control of the PIF will also buy political control within Abu Mazen's
unruly and divided Fatah party. At the same time, some central party
figures warn that the gold rush could destroy the Fatah from within.
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