EU to investigate money for terrorists claims

Euobserver.com ^ | 30.01.2004 - 09:47 CET | Honor Mahony

[ScaniaBoy]

The EU's anti-fraud office [OLAF] is to send a team of investigators to Jerusalem to look into reports that EU money is funding Palestinian terrorist organisations, according to German newspaper Die Welt.

Their investigations follow months of allegations and counter-allegations that money meant for the Palestinian Authority finds its way into terrorist channels.

If the Olaf team confirms the allegation then there will be "serious and personal consequences", said French Socialist MEP François Zimeray.

The German conservative MEP Markus Ferber said it was "very likely" that it would result in the resignation of External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten - who oversees the whereabouts of the money.

However, these claims about EU money funding terrorists have still to be backed up by hard evidence.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report last year saying that until 2000, a total of 900 million euro that was supposed to paid to the Palestinian Authority flowed into the hands of terrorists. Estimates say that around two thirds of the money, according to Die Welt, came from various EU funds, the rest came from EU member states and aid organisations.

Mr Patten has always said that the IMF checked where the money went and how it was spent. However, IMF officials have claimed that the organisation only checked that the money went to the right accounts at the right time. They had no control over how the money was spent, they said.

An ad-hoc Committee set up in the European Parliament to investigate the whole issue is waiting for OLAF to report back before publishing its report.

The EU is the biggest international donor to the Palestinian Authority.

[Diogenesis]

FLASHBACK: EU's leader Solana leads an EU queue
of to serially lick sputum directly from the lips of their hero,
Arafat-the-Egyptian and serial murderer of innocent and children.
By being the major funder of terrorism around the world, the evil EU remains proudly dedicated
for its second century to funding the extermination of Jews and the murder of Americans, worldwide.

[JasonC]

Of course the Palis are paid to commit terrorism. It is their job. The entire economy of the territories is based on foreign money that flows in solely because "there is" (delusional passive voice) "trouble". Nobody pays off Canada for not blowing up Jews. To be paid off for not doing it you first have to do it. If the payments never stop despite it continuing all the time, then they aren't payments for not doing it, they are payments for doing it. Murdering innocent people is their job, the international community are their bosses, and the bosses make sure they stay paid for doing their job "well".

[ScaniaBoy]

...and so do we think that OLAF will find any evidence that EU-funds have been misused?

In a month of only Thursdays, maybe....

[Diogenesis]

All depends on the meaning of "misused".

The EU money for murdering innocents and for terrorist support, in fact,
went exactly where planned, .... therefore no "misuse".

[Always Right]

If the Olaf team confirms the allegation then there will be "serious and personal consequences", said French Socialist MEP François Zimeray.

Yes, there will. The Frogs will throw a tantrum and then surrender and then give the Palistinian Authority twice as much money....

[tkathy]

If all victims of terrorists could sue the governments and all the organizations that are sheltering and funding these murderers, this might get big results. Especially the Saudis and the Syrians.