Translated by Stefan Sharkansky from Die Zeit, “Arafat Bombs, Europe Pays” is a must read piece — particularly for those still skeptical about European involvement in Palestinian terrorism. An excerpt:

The Israelis found payment receipts with which the salaries for terrorists were paid, through a cascade of transfers, from accounts funded by the European Union. This is an indication that things are going in a frightful direction. But still not sufficient to prove that the blood money comes from Brussels’ slush pots. Therefore it is important to determine how reliable is the Israeli research on Yassir Arafat and his system. After all, the materials are being evaluated by Israeli intelligence. And the political interest of Premier Sharon, even as a man of peace is obvious: Arafat must go! Are we talking about information or war propaganda?

Practically every western government has been asking itself the same question since the files were discovered — including the Germans. The Germans therefore sent their own experts from the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) to conduct an investigation. In the middle of April the BND filed its first report. It considers the documents to be authentic and agrees with the Israeli conclusions. It finds only indications of Arafat’s involvement, not courtroom proof. On May 2, 2002, the BND filed another report. The author reaches similar conclusions. The first documents from Israel contained ‘no direct proof’ of the abuse of EU funds for financing terrorism. It is ‘acknowledged, however, that Arafat evidently doesn’t distinguish between the structure of the Palestinian Authority and his Fatah Movement’. Therefore one ‘shouldn’t rule out’ that subsidies were misappropriated. The report writes of ‘known mismanagement’ and ‘far reaching corruption’ and comes to the conclusion: ‘At no point could it be realistically assumed that EU-funds were … 100% accounted for’.

The author provides examples. Arafat apparently filled his coffers using financial legerdemain. For the salaries of Palestinian teachers, doctors and police, the EU paid in dollars. Arafat transfered the money in shekels, at a discount of 25%. The civil servants also had a tax of 3.7% withheld, without this money being recorded in the budget as tax revenue.

This begs the question, how exactly did the BND know all of this? Are the spies in Palestine so well-connected? The short answer is: yes. The long answer leads back to the European sponsorship for Arafat, which the BND has been part of for years — and of which the German public has been unaware until today. According to Die Zeit’s sources, the BND has been training and equipping Arafat’s intelligence service in the Gaza Strip since the 1993 Oslo Accords. The new security services needed help for exactly one mission: fighting terrorism. Now the German government is vexed by the question of whether the BND’s protege has redefined its mission and therefore converted itself from an anti-terror force to a terrorist organization.

(via LGF)

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