EU unit confirms PA terror links

The European Union's anti-fraud unit (OLAF) believes documents Israel provided showing Palestinian Authority financial support for terrorism are authentic, Israeli diplomatic officials said Thursday.

The German daily Die Welt reported last week that suspicion is growing that money from PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's office was transferred to terrorist organizations.

This means that EU funds were used to help finance terrorism for the first two years of the current violence.

The EU budgeted some 10 million euros a month to the PA from the fall of 2000, when the current violence erupted, to the fall of 2002, when questions about usage of the funds forced the European Commission to stop payments.

The documents Israel provided were taken from Arafat's office during Operation Defensive Shield in March 2002 and transferred to the EU by the Defense Ministry.

OLAF representatives reportedly visited Israel recently and are in the midst of writing a report on the matter that will be submitted to the European Commission, and will also be presented to the European Parliament.

Israeli diplomatic officials discounted the possibility that this report will be buried, like a recent European Commission report from a think tank on a rise in anti-Semitism, because the OLAF report is akin to a state comptroller's report.

According to Die Welt, the documents indicate a link between Arafat and the Aksa Brigades, which is part of his Fatah movement.

OLAF responded to the report by issuing a statement saying it has "not finalized its investigation."

"Therefore, any conclusions attributed to OLAF are premature and are not confirmed by evidence."

The statement said that, while the investigation is continuing, "OLAF expects all the institutions with whom it holds briefings in camera to refrain from comments or speculation on the OLAF inquiry."

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, head of Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center, has filed a NIS 100 million suit in Tel Aviv District Court against the EU on behalf of the Blumberg family, which was decimated by a terrorist attack in August 2001.

Palestinian policemen opened fire on the Blumberg car near their home in Karnei Shomron, murdering Tehiya Blumberg, the mother of five and five months' pregnant, and leaving her husband Stephen and daughter Tziporah seriously wounded.

The law suit alleges that the EU recklessly provided the PA with massive sums of financial aid, while knowing that the money was being diverted from its intended civilian purposes to Palestinian terrorist groups. The court papers assert that the EU was repeatedly warned by Israel that its aid was financing Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

The plaintiffs allege that the EU failed to undertake any steps to monitor or scrutinize how the PA was utilizing the donated money. Darshan-Leitner on Thursday called for the OLAF report to be released, and said its findings – as reported in Die Welt – support the plaintiffs' claims.

The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist regime. Any funds sent to it, will in the end be used for terror. This is so clear, yet millions continue to be streamed from the EU, the US, and the UN. This is nothing new, and this has been known for years already. How many deaths will be saved if this is realized?

2 posted on 02/13/2004 10:12:10 PM PST by Southack (Media bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)

I think that some major EU politicians are getting kickbacks from the PA out of the very funds that the EU is sending. Killing Jews is once again profitable.

> I think that some major EU politicians are getting kickbacks from the PA out of the very funds that the EU is sending.

Yes, which makes me wonder why they're finally admitting the PA-terror ties now. Are some EU politicians in danger of being exposed as beneficiaries of PA kickbacks due to recent intelligence collected from Iraq, Libya, and Pakistan, so they're now willing to cut loose the PA to protect themselves? Must be something motivating the EU anti-Semites to change their tune on this so abruptly.

I think Israeli intelligence has pushed the investigation to the point that the game had to be shut down. But I'm guessing that the increased US intelligence scrutiny in the ME is probably driving a lot of it. The present US administration has got to make these thugs nervous. After all those years of seeing Saddam strutting around, defying us, to see him dragged out of a hole by US soldiers has got to make some trousers wet. What do you think the odds are Assad will live to old age? He's got to be wondering too.

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