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Arafat "Heaped Cash" on Cronies


(London Times-Honest Reporting) Justin Sparks and Tom Walker- Arafat has enriched a privileged inner circle of cronies and salted away billions of dollars in secret bank accounts, according to his former treasurer. Jaweed Al-Ghussein, 74, described last week how, during his 12 years as chairman of the Palestine National Fund, the financial arm of the PLO, he gave Arafat a monthly check for $10.25m - amounting to $123m every year. He was told the money was being spent on the Palestinian movement's paramilitaries and on families who had lost "martyrs" in the struggle. Arafat would hand bodyguards wads of cash from a briefcase he kept in his office and instruct them to take it to individuals he had decided to help. Each day the briefcase would be refilled from bank accounts that Arafat controlled. Al-Ghussein believes investigations should be carried out into many contracts awarded by the PA to Arafat's friends. "Before Oslo these people had no money. Now look at them," he said.
2004-08-17 00:00:00
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