Posted on 11/05/2004 1:38:56 PM PST by yonif
Yasser Arafat not only made a career out of terrorism in the guise of creating a new Arab nation, but he also became an extremely rich terrorist.
As father of the Palestinian nationalist/terrorist movement, Arafat combined the PLO's money with his own personal accounts. He reserved for himself sole signatory rights on the PLO's accounts, and never hid the fact that he often used the money for his own personal use. A special annual issue of Forbes Magazine reported that Arafat controlled $300 million, placing him among the richest in the "Kings, Queens and Despots" category. Some reports are that he controls five times that amount.
He also used the money for terrorism. Documents found by the IDF during its Operation Defensive Shield campaign in April 2002 showed that part of the huge budget of the Palestinian Authority - funded to a great extent by countries of the European Union - was diverted by Arafat for terrorism purposes. In one example among many, a letter was found signed by Arafat authorizing the transfer of thousands of dinars to Ahmed Mahmad Iz-A-Din Al-Kassam, a Hamas member who also represented Hizbullah in the PA and was responsible for transferring money for terror attacks and supporting terrorists' families.
Arafat turned down this week a request by his wife Suha, who lives in Paris, to write a will granting her his money. Experts say that the fact that he refuses to share his signatory privileges, even now, with anyone else, means that the tremendous amounts of money that were designated for the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza will either support bankers around the world in the best case, or will go to his relatives, or, in the worst-case scenario, will find their way into the Fatah coffers to continue to fund terrorism.
Arafat was born in August 1929, in Cairo - and not in Jerusalem or Gaza, as Arab sources often claim, although his biographer now admits to his Cairo birthplace. Over the course of his career, which began well before 1964 when he took over the PLO, he has been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis, untold numbers of Arabs and more than 100 U.S. citizens including two diplomats in Sudan whose brutal murders Arafat ordered by radio from his Beirut headquarters. Two of the Americans were diplomats, according to an investigative report in Insight (June 18, 2001). It states that the American government has tape recordings of Arafat from 1973 ordering terrorists in Sudan to execute a group of hostages, including US diplomats Cleo Noel and George Moore, as well as Belgian official Guy Eid.
In 1995, Ariel Sharon said, "I don't know anyone other than Arafat who has as much civilian Jewish blood on his hands since the time of the Nazis."
Arafat is also "credited" with turning airplane hijacking into an international terrorist scourge. Over two years ago, after an Israeli plane was almost shot down in Kenya, then-Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned, "Sky-jacking terrorism first began against Israeli targets abroad by Arafat and Fatah in the late 1960's, and it very quickly became an international plague...”
Sadly for the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat was one of the worst examples of humanity in the last fifty years. Although the numbers of deaths he was connected to didn't reach Hussein's or others numbers, he contributed to the prevention his people having an autonomous homeland for over 55 years.
Arafat ratholed away a vast fortune, that never got to the people it was intended to help. While he spent his life demagoguing Israel and blaming the fate of his people on it, he did nothing to end the strife and instill peace.
While the Palestinians would have been furious if Israel had assassinated him decades ago, it is likely their lives would have been vastly improved in his absense.
Let's just hope for their sake, that they do not pick another such individual to replace him. If they do, another generation will be bypassed by the modern world.
I'd love to see the look on his face as he draws his last breath and begins his journey to hell. While many Christians depart smiling, Arafat will probably have a look of utter fear.
Yeah, well I can't wait until he asks God where Allah is, and God says, "Who?" LOL
Arafat may be one of the world's richest terrorists, but his life has not been a happy one. He has crouched in bomb shelters or under house arrest for most of his life, like a giant rat. He has been unable to travel, walk in the country, have a real family, or enjoy life.
And now he is going to have to make an accounting to his Maker.
I don't think he'll even see God. He should go straight to hell where he'll meet his comrades and their leader.
Arafat One Of World´s Richest Terrorists
.......well 'oiled'.
Saw an article that some terror victims were suing Arafat's estate. They have the right idea.
I recall looking into that one. I think Forbes just announced this, without any backup sources.
Perhaps an urban legend.
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