Will you join me in condemning this leader for sending Palestinians youth to death when in his own life his activities centered on multiplying ill begotten assets? Instead of warrior of Palestinians he was bloodsucker of their collective body politics, his words and his actions were in conflict. You being an unabashed supporter of Palestinian leadership and their call to send their youth to death would definitely agree that you had a misplaced trust on a petty thug. Can we jointly agree that Arafat with this kind of wealth was a usurper of Palestinians and not a freedom leader; his name should be included with Marcos, Baby doc Devuliar, Shah of Iran in ‘global comity of disgraced corrupt leaders. Amen for your support ..
Arafat invested $1.3 million in bowling company, says report
NEW YORK: Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat invested $1.3 million in a company that owns a popular bowling alley in Manhattan, newly released documents show. Arafat made the investment in New York City-based Strike Holdings, owner of Bowlmor Lanes, through a holding company he created called Onyx Funds, Bloomberg Markets Magazine reported on Wednesday. Bowlmor is located in Greenwich Village and is popular with Manhattan hipsters, who pay about $8 a game per person to play on evenings and weekends. News of the investment disturbed some customers at the alley, which advertises on its Web site as an ideal location for bar and bat mitzvahs for Jewish teens. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have come, but I promised the kids,” said Steve Saslow, 55. Zeid Masri, managing partner of SilverHaze Partners, a Virginia-based investment firm, told Bloomberg Markets he invested the money in Strike Holdings for Onyx because he had been a former classmate of Strike Holdings’ founder, Thomas Shannon. Strike Holdings, which owns other bowling alleys in New York state, Maryland and Florida, said it was unaware the money had come from Arafat. She said Strike Holdings planned to return the money. The Bowlmor money was among $799 million in international investments by Arafat detailed in the newly released documents. Other holdings included $285 million in Orascom, an Egyptian cell-phone company, and $3.2 million in the US software firm Simplexity, Bloomberg Markets reported. ap
dailytimes.com.pk
If you remember earleir, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat made Forbes Magazine's list of the world richest people in a new category reserved for kings, queens, and despots. With a personal fortune of at least $300 million stashed away in Swiss banks, Arafat is featured in Forbes's special annual issue on the world's top 500 billionaires. Arafat placed No. 6 on a list of world leaders in the ''kings, queens, and despots'' category. Saudi Arabia's King Fahd topped the list at $20 billion, and Saddam Hussein was fourth with $2b.
Forbes wrote that Arafat has ''feasted on all sorts of funds flowing into the Palestinian Authority, including aid money, Israeli tax transfers, and revenue from a casino and Coca-Cola bottler. Much of the money appears to have gone to pay off others. New Finance Minister Salaam Fayad is cleaning up the PA's finances, cutting off much of Arafat's cash flow.'' The Forbes figure is modest in comparison to other estimates of Arafat's riches. In a briefing delivered last August to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, OC Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aharon (Farkash) Ze'evi reported his net worth at $1.3b. In 1990, the CIA reportedly estimated
that Arafat and the PLO had between $8b. and $14b. worth of assets at their disposal. In 1995, the US General Accounting Office compiled a report on Arafat's finances, but it was kept secret due to ''national security interests.''
Kept off the official billionaires list because, according to the accompanying text, ''they don't exactly represent success stories of entrepreneurial capitalism,'' Arafat, Saddam Hussein, and Fidel Castro, worth $110m., made it onto the list of rogue rich instead. The section features a two-page spread titled ''Auditing Arafat,'' which surmises he ''may be brought to heel by, of all things, honest financial accounting.'' |
