Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Aid and Comfort to the Enemy

An article appeared the other day at Pajamas Media entitled Rewarding Palestinian Terrorism, by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen. The article can alse be found at Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld's website and at Alyssa A. Lappen's website. The original at Pajamas Media and the posting at Alyssa A. Lappen's website have links which I did not reproduce here, but which are well worth checking out.

(Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is in a legal battle with a multi-billionaire, Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, Financier of Holy Terror. See my sidebar for posts with details, and for a link to a documentary movie on the matter. Visit Dr. Ehrenfeld's website for more information and to make a contribution.)

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.


Or, it's as if the US were going to send money, etc., to some of Pakistan's madrassas for use at the terrorist training camps affiliated with them.

Perhaps we should check to see if that is happening?

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.


That was the Clinton Administration -- give the terrorists some of what they want so it will appear that something was being done for peace in the Middle East.

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.


About the same time, terrorists were taking root, with Clinton Administration backing, in Bosnia.

And, now we have handed Kosovo over to the KLA, which has extensive ties to organized crime. In fact, it is difficult to tell where organized crime ends, and where terrorism begins; it takes money to terrorize, and terrorism is incredibly lucrative.

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.


See any parallels in the Balkans?

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.


Did we expect that Clinton was suddenly going to have morals and a backbone?

But, this continued into Dubya's years, didn't it?

Well, we've given the terrorists no reason to stop, have we?

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.


It reminds me of that scene at the end of Batman (1989) where Joker points out that he's "giving away free money" then asks "And where is the Batman?"

That, of course, makes Bush out to be... who?

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.


That's $500 each! Rachel and Alyssa, you two ladies should shop around more. ;)

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.


As if giving money to mafiosos were better than giving it to terrorists -- especially when the mafiosos and the terrorists are one and the same!

I smell a kickback. With all those millions floating around, it's easy to steer a hundred grand in the direction of a couple of officials to spin this the right way.

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.


We had a post about this on the 9th.

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.


Since the US government is roughly $9,000,000,000,000 in debt (give or take a few hundred billion), this is paid for by loans taken out by the Bush Administration in your name, American Taxpayer.

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."


And, that's deliberate.

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.


Ah -- Condoleezza Rice (notice how I spelled her name correctly), aka the Warrior Princess, must be opting for delicate manners over steely nerves again if she's now going along with this.

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


Let me tell you what else is going on here.

Terrorists typically get their funding through criminal activities. Grants from the US government seem like more legitimate sources, so that helps launder the money the terrorists make from trafficking in sex slaves, arms and illegal drugs.

And let's not kid ourselves -- how else to do you think Arafat got so rich, if not through organized crime?

I am on a roll this week calling for indictments against government officials: Congressman Henry Waxman for ties to Turkish organized crime (the heroin lobby, and much more); Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for ties to Communist China's People's Liberation Army Intelligence Apparatus; I have pointed out Senator John McCain's ties to Islamic terrorists (and heroin traffickers -- more to follow on that); and I have touched on Senator Hillary Clinton's ties to Islamic terrorists and to the heroin lobby (more to follow on that, too....)

Why stop now???

Funding Islamic terrorists in the middle of a "War on Terror" is giving aid and comfort to the enemy -- and that's treason, as defined in Article 3, Section 3 of the US Constitution:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.


The President of the United States sets foreign policy, is responsible for seeing that the laws are faithfully executed, and controls the release of those funds to Palestinian terrorists and organized crime figures.

George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, needs to be investigated over this matter. A conscientious investigation will yield articles of impeachment for President Bush, and indictments for Bush Administration officials. The charges will include, but will not be limited to, money laundering, racketeering and treason.

Hat tip to my email tipster.

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