U.S. PLANS GIVING BILLIONS TO PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS

 

 

---

Subj: U.S. PLANS GIVING BILLIONS TO PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS

 

Friends,

With elections in the air, the following article by Rachel
Ehrenfeld is a must read.  Far from a war on terror, the U.S. is
now becoming the financer of terror,
giving BILLIONS to the PLO, which will fund renewed terrorist
attacks against civilians.  This, despite the fact that Arafat
controlled 10 BILLION
and the PLO has an annual income of 2 BILLION!   More than that,
U.S. courts have awarded the terror victims of the PLO hundreds
of millions of
dollars in compensation, freezing their U.S. bank accounts until
they pay. So far, they've paid the victims nothing. So why give
them more?  Now, Condoleeza Rice is being asked  by the PLO to
side against U.S. law and terror victims and have these
judgements thrown out.

I am appalled  and you should be too.  We need to force Mr.
Obama, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain to comment on  the BILLIONS
FOR PLO TERROR plans of the present administration.  We need to
let President Bush know that this is a total betrayal of all he
promised.


Naomi
_______________________________

From: Rachel Ehrenfeld [mailto:ehrenfeld@fastmail.us]
Sent: 16 February, 2008 3:17 PM
To: Rachel Ehrenfeld
Subject: REWARDING PALESTINIAN TERRORISM by Rachel Ehrenfeld and
Alyssa A. Lappen


http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/rewarding_palestinian_terroris.ph
p


REWARDING PALESTINIAN TERRORISM

February 16, 2008 1:00 AM


Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen argue that a Palestinian
security plan backed by Washington calls into question President
Bush's commitment to secure Israel's safety.


by By Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen

Unwavering U.S. determination to fund, train, and arm more than
50,000 Palestinian "soldiers" raises serious doubts about the
repeated promises President George W. Bush has made to secure
Israel's safety and bring peace to the Middle East.

If the Bush administration gets its way, $4.2 billion to $7
billion in American taxpayer dollars over the next five years may
fund training and purchase arms for tens of thousands of seasoned
Palestinian terrorists. Many are veteran murderers, released from
Israeli prisons in "confidence building" measures repeatedly
demanded by the U.S.

It's as if the U.S. proposed sending money, arms, and military
instructors to help Sudanese strongman, Omar Hasan Ahmad
al-Bashir, assist Darfur refugees - against whom he openly
pursues genocide.

Rewarding Palestinian terrorism began in earnest in September
1993 with the Oslo Accords. Closely examining funds and
propaganda mechanisms that facilitated PLO persuasion of the West
should have indicated how al-Qaeda and other terrorist
organizations operate financially and otherwise. Alas, the U.S.
and the West paid no attention.

Instead, in 1994 the U.S. helped establish the Palestinian
Authority (PA), headed by one of the most wanted criminals in the
world - the Muslim Brotherhood member and Soviet-trained jihadist
Yasser Arafat. His comrade in arms, vizier, and chief negotiator,
Mahmoud Abbas, follows in Arafat's footsteps - albeit without the
trademark kafiyah and beard - even more successfully.

Ignoring $10 billion (PDF) in Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) loot that Arafat already controlled, plus more than $2
billion in illegal annual income, the West showered millions more
on Arafat. The West assumed that giving the PA legitimacy,
funding it, and persuading Israel to cede territory would
convince Palestinians to stop targeting Israel and the West.

As the world recognized the PA, however, Palestinians abused
their new status. They expanded their illegal activities and
terrorism. The more violent the Palestinians became, the more
money and concessions they exacted from the West.

In 2001, a year into the second intifada, official donations to
the PA jumped over 80% from $555 million to $1.002 billion (PDF)-
including at least $114 million from the U.S. Sure enough, that
year hundreds of Israelis were murdered and thousands injured in
at least 121 attacks.

The U.S. distributes funds to the Palestinians through the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID). Until now,
the U.S. funded only selected projects, which were expected to be
vetted and certified by the USAID to ensure recipients used the
funds only for their allocated purposes, and did not "commit,
threaten or support terrorism."

Yet, in dozens of cases the USAID mission for the West Bank and
Gaza failed to enforce federal laws requiring they bar
organizations and individuals that threaten, support, or are
affiliated with terrorism. The USAID also failed to certify that
recipients have not provided material support for terrorism.

In at least 74 cases, according to a December 2007 audit, the
mission "failed to comply" (PDF) with the anti-terrorism
requirements of Executive Order 13224. It failed to vet
subcontractors and require anti-terrorism certification for all
contractors and subcontractors who received money.

Yet, the USAID mission even now plans to forfeit requirements on
cumulative payments of under $25,000 annually. It should be noted
that $25,000 can buy 50 Katyusha rockets.

The USAID mission argued that the prohibition against cash
assistance to the PA is "technically an anti-corruption measure
and not an anti-terrorism measure." Thus, they claim they
violated no anti-terrorism clause.

Such clever manipulation of U.S. laws to prevent funding
terrorist and corrupt regimes seems equivalent to the irrational
Bush Administration rationale for giving $150 million in cash
directly to the PA within a new $555 million aid package.

This would be the first time the U.S. gives the utterly corrupt
PA cash to use as it likes, even to share with U.S.-designated
terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Notwithstanding Fatah-Hamas leadership disagreements branding
each other "murderers and thieves," on Jan. 30 Abbas agreed to
give Hamas $3.1 billion of $7.7 billion pledged by international
donors in Paris last December.

Money is fungible. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former World
Bank official, made this clear in a 2007 interview with London's
Daily Telegraph. "No one can [assure] donors" that funds reach
their designated destinations, Fayyad declared. He went on to
state that controlling Palestinian finances is "virtually
impossible."

But on February 11 at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.,
a straight-faced Fayyad claimed his "government's platform is
amongst the most progressive in the region.]" and that it has
ensured "transparency, accountability and adherence to the rule
of the law."

Even if true, the incitement to murder Israelis in PA media and
schools is reaching deafening decibels. The Bush administration
clearly needs a good oronthologist.

Even though Fatah took joint responsibility with Hamas for a
suicide bombing that killed an Israeli shopper in Dimona on
February 4, the Bush Administration may be considering a PA
request to intervene on its behalf in U.S. courts against the
families of Palestinian terror victims awarded compensation for
the loses.
"Frankly, the Palestinian authority, which is corrupt and cavorts
with terror, is not the basis for a Palestinian state moving
forward," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on June
24, 2002.

The more the PA changed, the more it stayed the same. Incredibly,
the only thing that changed was U.S. policy.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is author of Funding Evil; How Terrorism is
Financed and How to Stop It. She is director of the American
Center for Democracy and member of the Committee on the Present
Danger. Alyssa A. Lappen, Senior Fellow at the ACD, is a former
editor for Forbes, Corporate Finance, Working Woman and
Institutional Investor.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------