let the games begin...
Posted on 11/04/2004 5:16:57 PM PST by Time is now
Israeli and Palestinian officials said Arafat died on Thursday in a military hospital in Paris. They said Arafat was deemed clinically dead, but is still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his wife, Suha.
Palestinan Authority's Yasser Arafat: Abbas and Qurei sought to acquire his power to allocate money as the PA chairman departed for Paris. But as he boarded a Jordanian Air Force helicopter, Arafat refused. "I'm still alive, thank God, so don't worry," Arafat was quoted as saying. Reuters/Loay Abu Haykel --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"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. Even his wife is said to be unaware of how to access the funds.
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. Officials 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, Middle East Newsline reported. 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 the Geostrategy-Direct report.
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.
Fidel Castro, do I hear fate knocking for you next?
They are aying he is alive so that they can strap a load of explosives to him and say he died the death of a suicide bomber, a cowardly fate these heathens aspire to.
PLEASE God, let this be true. I'm crossing my fingers, walking on pins, holding my breath for this to be true.
Somebody please confirm for me that this old baby-killing goat-f***ers dead now, so I can get the party started!
I'm sure she and she also kissed and hugged. yuck!
Hey, Debka is a great source.
I can't *believe* it took 88 responses for that to show up...
Really a great year! Qusay gone, Uday gone, Saddam jailed and Arafat gone!!! A great year!!!
This better be true.
let the games begin...
Will there be celebratory fireworks or a synchronized bomb belt dance, I wonder?
I am sure the relatives of the untold numbers of murdered Jewish women and children will mourn his passing.
I don't know how they'll feel. Probably have a huge continent-wide funeral!
I'm sure she has him on life support to get things in order. Wonder how long that will take? There is a reason for all this.
But what................I don't know.
There are a few picture with them doing just that...I just need to find the ones where you can really see both of them...just to make sure no one thinks they are fradulent. I for one won't forget the Clintooons, and their appeasement of these murderous thugs.
Come on folks!!! Have a heart. He died a dozen times today because God doesn't want him and the real kicker is the devil doesn't either!
Virgins? I guess you haven't heard. Ol' Yassar is a butt pirate.
Thank God! The SOB has died at least 25 times today. I am glad it's official.
let's hope his money is locked up where his scions cannot get it - that'd be a rich laugh
"20 bucks says Clinton attends this pigs funeral"
Lets be sure to get some good Hildabeast quotes for use when she runs in 2008 !
"I have two things to say about that. One, God rest his soul. Two, next question."
His personal fortune has been estimated at between $2 and $3 billion, most of it in Swiss bank accounts.
Convincing teenage children to blow themselves up and kill other children pays well. Think he willed any of this to Chirac?
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