ARAFAT'S 'INVESTMENTS'(Report estimated Arafat's assets at $1.3 billion spread across the world)

The New York Post ^ | 10/2/03 | Post Opinion Editorial (No Author Listed)

[all4one]

October 2, 2003 -- The next time you hear the Palestinians and their supporters bemoaning how Israel's determination to defend itself against terror has "crippled" the Palestinian economy, consider a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF recently disclosed that its own audit uncovered the fact that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat between 1995 and 2000 diverted fully $591 million from the PA budget into a special bank account under his personal control.

[all4one]

And the Palestinians are complaining about a fence so that Israel can protect itself from the Hamas/Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinian people who support this monster and his henchmen are getting what they deserve. Sad for the innocents within their midsts.

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[Cincinatus' Wife]

Terror Close to Home In Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends Mideast, Colombia and Cuba *** Venezuela is providing support--including identity documents--that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups, say U.S. officials. U.S. News has learned that Chavez's government has issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia, and Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations. An American official with firsthand knowledge of the ID scheme has seen computer spreadsheets with names of people organized by nationality. "The list easily totaled several thousand," the official says. "Colombians were the largest group; there were more than a thousand of them. It also included many from Middle Eastern `countries of interest' like Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon." The official adds: "It was shocking to see how extensive the list was." U.S. officials believe that the Venezuelan government is issuing the documents to people who should not be getting them and that some of these cedulas were subsequently used to obtain Venezuelan passports and even American visas, which could allow the holder to elude immigration checks and enter the United States. U.S. officials say that the cedulas are also being used by Colombian subversives and by some Venezuelan officials to travel surreptitiously.

The suspicious links between Venezuela and Islamic radicalism are multiplying. American law enforcement and intelligence officials are exploring whether there is an al Qaeda connection--specifically, they want to know if a Venezuelan of Arab descent named Hakim Mamad al Diab Fatah had ties to any of the September 11 hijackers. The United States deported Diab Fatah to Venezuela for immigration violations in March 2002. A U.S. intelligence official says that Diab Fatah is still a "person of interest" and that his family in Venezuela is "a well-known clan associated with extremist and illicit activity" in northern Venezuela. But when U.S. officials sought Diab Fatah for further questioning, they were told by Venezuelan officials that he was not in the country. Diab Fatah may also be tied to the Caracas mosque of Sheik Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz, which has caught investigators' attention. One of the mosque's officials, also a Venezuelan of Arab descent, was recently arrested in London for carrying a grenade on a Caracas-London flight. ***

[Diogenesis]

" Yes. I took the money intended for childrens' nutrition.
So what. We don't care. I am a general and
the children will soon die in bombings anyway."

[all4one]

Lucifer incarnate....and just a bit too close a visual for this early in the morning..

[all4one]

Thank you for your informative post. I have been following the unrest in Venezuela and Columbia, and I had a gut feeling that we would find Muslim extremists. Sounds like we have just scratched the surface to the links of the money and the connections.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thank you for your informative post.

Thanks for posting. U.S. News and World Report has really taken Chavez on.

[Psalm118]

This is the thing that gets me with you guys...pure envy!

What's a healthy looking, strappin' young buck, with a long life ahead of him to do, except stash away for a lavish retirement some-day-in-the-mid-twenty-one-hundred, when a can of Mecca Cola may retail for $300 ?

I just can't find it in muh bleedin' heart to blame the guy. Neither should y'alls.