10% of Clinton Library was funded by Saudi Arabia

Bill Clinton's presidential library raised more than 10 percent of the cost of its $165 million facility from foreign sources, with the most generous overseas donation coming from Saudi Arabia, according to interviews yesterday.

The presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has for months faced questions about the source of the money for her husband's presidential library. During a September debate, moderator Tim Russert asked the senator whether her husband would release a donor list. Clinton said she was sure her husband would "be happy to consider that," though the former president later declined to provide a list of donors.

So, if Bill Clinton got Saudi money, then you know that Hillary Clinton, the post-menopausal menace, got Saudi money. Those two don't do anything apart except sleep together. This also explains Hillary Clinton's penchant for Arabian things considering that on November 11, 1999, during a Gaza appearance with First Lady Hillary Clinton, Suha Arafat, wife of Muslim terrorist and pederast Yasser Arafat stated:

"Our people have been subjected to the daily and extensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children."

Moments after Suha Arafat accused Israel of gassing palestinian women and children, (but not the men) and instead of confronting Suha Arafat and asking her for evidence of her fraudulent claims, Hillary Clinton kissed her instead.

Suha Arafat marries

Suha Arafat, widow of alleged homosexual, Yasser Arafat, secretly married Lahasn al-Trabulsi, the brother-in-law of the Tunisian president, a number of days ago, a Tunisian website reported.

As is fitting to the widow of the former Palestinian Authority chairman, this time Suha also married someone close to power. Al-Trablusi is the brother of Leila Ben Ali, who is the wife of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

The sister and her husband gave their blessing to the marriage.

The marriage followed a wave of stubborn rumors in Tunisia, according to which al-Trabulusi planned to marry Suha's sister. However, credible sources said that he divorced a few months ago to marry Suha and not her sister, and that one of the main reasons for the wedding is that is his interest in Suha's large fortune.

Two years ago, after Arafat's death, Suha was personally promised by Mahmoud Abbas' staff that she would receive USD 22 million a year, on the basis of an agreement Arafat himself sent his wife while on his death bed – USD 11 million to cover her lifestyle in Paris for half year.

Abbas and Palestinian senior figures were forced to come to a deal with Suha, after she "created facts on the ground," in accordance with French law, and prevented PA members from visiting Arafat as he was dying, or to take decisions on disconnecting the life support machine, until she received her promise. PA senior figures concluded it was worth paying her and ending the episode.

The money given to Suha comes from the "secret fortune" of the PA, managed personally by the PA president. The fortune is worth around USD four billion, and is kept in a number of bank accounts – in Tel Aviv, London, and Zurich.

Since Arafat's death, allegedly from AIDS, Suha refused to live in PA territory or any Arab capital other than Tunis, and enjoys close relations with the Tunisian president and his wife.

More on Suha Arafat here, here and here.

Suha's "special someone" was implicated in Sabra/Shatila massacre

Via Suha's "special someone" was implicated in Sabra/Shatila massacre:

French officials following the Arafat dead-or-alive fiasco were floored to discover that Suha Arafat's constant companion and financial adviser is none other than Pierre Rizk. Like her a Maronite Christian (although she went through a "conversion" to Islam when she married Yasser), Rizk headed the Phalangist intelligence service during the Lebanese civil war and was in close personal contact with the Phalangist guerrilla group which carried out the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in 1982.

An ally of Israel, Rizk was at the time the chief deputy of ElieHobeika, widely held directly responsible for ordering the bloodbath.

According to Daniel Nassif, Executive Director, of the American Lebanese Institute, "Elie Hobeika and Pierre Rizk,who shared command of the Lebanese Forces (Phalangists) at the time of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, have flourished in Syrian-controlled Lebanon. Hobeika has been one of the most trusted people in Lebanon by Damascus since at least 1985 and an influential minister in the Syrian-controlled Lebanese government since 1990. Rizk, who long collaborated with the PLO leadership, is currently reaping millions of dollars as a business front for Yasir Arafat and his wife Suha.

Hobeika was murdered in Beirut in 2002, reportedly as a result of his involvement in the massacre. Rizk himself was in 1997 sentenced to death for his collaboration with Israel, Maariv reported. Yet, according to Western intelligence sources, he continued to profit by millions from his contacts with the Arafats.

Rizk is well known to Israeli officials. Indeed, in his role as Phalange intelligence chief, he spent long periods in Israel, meeting and socializing with numerous government officials and businessmen. Israelis who have met with him in person describe him as a flamboyant figure and, according to the normally staid Haaretz newspaper, "something of a womanizer." Even after moving into the private sector in the 1990's, according to foreign sources cited by Maariv, Rizk maintained close connections with the Israeli Mossad.

No Rizk, no reward Living in Paris since his exile from Lebanon, Rizk is an international businessman with operations in Europe and the United States. In 1999, Rizk won a lawsuit filed in U.S. courts against the Palestinian Authority which caused quite a commotion in PA financial circles.

Apparently, Rizk had been promised, by the Ra'is Himself, a license for his U.S. corporation to develop the communications infrastructure of the West Bank. Unfortunately for Rizk, Arafat had make similar promises to many other people and companies, promising them jobs, tenders and contracts in his future government.

As was Arafat's usual practice, however, none of the promises were ever fulfilled. However, unlike other disappointed parties, Rizk decided to sue Arafat for violating his word and, lo and behold, was awarded $18 million by American reports. As a result, Haaretz reports, U.S. banks froze $80 million of the PA's money, threatening its financial stability. The crisis was eventually ended, according to the newspaper, when the PA sent special envoys to Rizk in Paris to negotiate a settlement.

Because Rizk now holds power of attorney for Suha, French and Palestinian officials have been negotiating with him over her financial demands which, she says, are intended to ensure the financial future of her and her daughter. The outcome of these contacts is still not clear, although Israeli papers reported Wednesday that she rejected a proposed settlement of $2 million offered by the Palestinian Authority, according to French sources.

That, apparently, would not be nearly enough to maintain the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed in Paris' super-rich sixteenth arrondissement, reportedly shelling out $15,000 nightly for a full floor of a five star hotel.

The settlement was intended to persuade Suha to allow completion of the tests to determine her husband's cause of death. Contacts between Suha Arafat and the Palestinian financiers began as soon as it became clear that Arafat would have to be flown to France for emergency medical treatment, Haaretz reports.

That didn't come for free either. The Washington Times reports that shortly before Arafat was flown to France, Suha "received $60 million in her Paris bank account." And that's on top of an alleged $11.4 million deposited in her accounts between July 2002 and September 2003 (which French authorities are investigating). Since the Washington Times article notes that at least 60 percent of the Palestinian Authority's budget came from international aid contributions, that means -- as Daniel Pipes points out -- that the taxpayers of the world are "footing the bill for Suha's legendary shopping expeditions."

The spy who loves me?

Apparently, the Western world has also being helping to cultivate the love affairs of Suha and her favorite Phalangist. She and Rizk have known each other for more than a decade. A special relationship reportedly arose between the businessman jilted by Arafat and the lonely and very, very wealthy wife of the Palestinian president...."

Tsk, tsk, poor Suha

It looks like Suha has really done it this time. Suha Arafat blames Sharon for all her problems. Via JPost:

Pity Mister Palestine. He is looking less the tragic King Lear these days than the mad King Canute, standing on the sea shore and ordering the tide to turn back. Even his most admiring devotees are having difficulty discerning the Mandela struggling to emerge from his trademark olive drab.

So, while the world leaders take off for their lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, Yasser ("what crisis?") Arafat remains entombed in Ramallah, beset by dissent in Gaza, threats of revolt in the West Bank, and reform-or-else ultimatums from his former security chief. And, to top it all, there are renewed questions about his wife's lavish lifestyle in French-occupied Paris.

Delivering his ultimatum in Amman this week, Muhammad Dahlan uttered the words that the rais - and his international donors - hoped they would never have to hear: All of the $5 billion in foreign aid that was destined to fund the Palestinian Authority has "gone down the drain - and we don't know where."

Well, the Post might be able to help with at least some of the answers: It would be absurd to suggest that the mellifluous Suha, sharing a tres chic bunker with nine-year-old Zahwa in the smart 16th arrondisement of Paris, could possibly have digested all those billions on her own, however acute her Gucci habit and however well-developed her digestive system.

We cannot account for every crepe, but we can point Officer Dahlan in the direction of some of Suha's more conspicuous comings and goings.

We know, for example, that she shunned the local midwives of Gaza, opting instead for the exclusive American Hospital in Paris when she gave birth to baby Zahwa - $10,000 per confinement; Jewish obstetrician guaranteed. ("Sanitary conditions in Gaza are horrible," Suha explained at the time. "I don't want to be a hero and risk my baby." Mercifully, we might conclude that she is not grooming Zahwa for martyrdom.

And when she moved to Paris four years ago, she chose to take up residence at the exclusive five-star Hotel Bristol on rue Faubourg St Honor. Not for Suha a modest room or two: she took an entire floor - $15,000-plus per night.

And finally, she settled for a pad in the Seizieme - home of the hyper-wealthy - in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe and just a few manicured steps away from the most expensive souk on earth.

Officer Dahlan should not despair at the relative paucity of our information. French prosecutors may be soon be able to fill in more gaps to explain the Palestinians' missing millions.

This week, they confirmed that they are continuing to investigate allegations of a money-laundering operation that involved the transfer of some $15 million from a Swiss bank account to two of Suha's Paris accounts - one at the Arab Bank, the other at the Banque Nationale de Paris - between July 2002 and September 2003.

Naturally, Suha rejects any responsibility for this embarrassment.

So who is responsible?

"Sharon is responsible for those wicked stories," she told the London-based daily al-Hayat. Why shouldn't Arafat support his wife, she asked plaintively, "especially since I am working for the Palestinian cause?" That did not cut much quiche with the French investigators. They are now expanding their inquiries to Brussels, where they are reportedly asking anti-fraud counterparts at the European Union about the alleged misuse of hundreds of millions of euros, ostensibly destined to prop up the PA and feed the Palestinians.

As if all that were not enough, a new financial scandal emerged this week to add to the Arafats' anguish. The latest disclosures reveal that Yasser is delivering some $150,000 a month to support Suha's ongoing struggle for The Cause.

When an inquisitive journalist pointed out that Palestinians closer to home must get by on somewhat less, an Arafat aide helpfully explained that, "For people forced to live on their salaries, that seems to be a huge amount of money. But Suha is the wife of the President of Palestine " Such payments, he added, are common for the wives of Arab leaders. "It is entirely up to Arafat to give Suha as much each month as he wishes."

Amid all their current travails, it seems unkind to intrude further into the Arafats' private grief. But Paris is for lovers, and malicious sources insist that Suha has, whisper it not, acquired a paramour: The First Lady of Palestine, the sources report, has lately been seen at some of the fanciest Parisian restaurants in the company of wealthy Lebanese businessman, Pierre Rizk.

Like Suha, Rizk is a Christian. But unlike Suha, he acquired a distinguished record of contacts with Israeli intelligence officials during the 1982 Lebanon War when he himself was head of intelligence for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia that fought bloody battles with the Palestinians and was, irony of ironies, closely aligned with Israel.

That war, of course, culminated in Arafat's expulsion from Beirut to Tunis, where fate propelled the blonde, doe-eyed Suha into his arms - first as his PR consultant, then as his bride.

Suha was not available for comment this week. Along with other European-based cause-workers, she was vacationing at an undisclosed destination (more likely Cap Ferrat than Jenin). Nor was the PA representative in Paris, Leila Shaheed, much help on the subject of the Palestinians' missing millions. She did not, she said, comment on "personal matters."

A new French citizen

Jean-Claude Gaudin, Mayor of the French city of Marseilles recently disclosed that "Palestinian First Lady Suha Arafat" received French citizenship. Perhaps Mrs. Arafat did that because, let's be truthful, folks, "Palestine" is not a real country, no matter what propaganda and fabricated rhetoric comes out of Arab newspaper articles, like the one posted below, Arab radio stations, Arab satellite dish networks, mosques or imam's mouths. So read the article below, and remember the source when you read the keyword Arab phrases like "occupied" and "first lady of Palestine". The following is from www dot albawaba dot com:

Bon Jour, Mrs. Arafat…

22-01-2004, 12:23

From time to time, the name Suha Arafat resurfaces in various media reports – usually as part of some controversial story, aimed at discrediting Palestinian leader Arafat. Obviously, such reports largely emanate from either Israelis or Israel supporters, but at times, also from sources in the Arab world who don't see eye to eye with Yasser Arafat's policies on different issues.

Jean-Claude Gaudin, Mayor of the French city of Marseilles recently disclosed that Palestinian First Lady Suha Arafat received French citizenship.

During a recent visit to Israel, Gaudin, considered a supporter of Israel, said that when he served as minister in charge of immigration, he himself signed the approval to grant Suha French citizenship.

Suha, originally raised in a wealthy Christian home in the West Bank, educated by nuns and refined at the Sorbonne, currently lives in France with her daughter Zahwa.

Asked if Yasser Arafat is now entitled to French citizenship as spouse of a French national, Gaudin said that according to French law, the Palestinian president is not automatically entitled to such citizenship, but if he meets certain criteria, he theoretically can get a French passport, Israel's mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily reported.

For years after they were secretly married in Tunis, Mrs. Arafat was dismissed as merely a "decoration" for the longtime bachelor, but was soon to show the entire world that through her humanitarian activities in the occupied territories and outspoken stance on the Palestinian struggle – she had much to offer.

President Arafat's marriage to Suha Tawil, a Palestinian half his age, was kept secret for over a year. She had already begun significant humanitarian activities at home, especially for disabled children, but the prominent part she took in the public events in Oslo was a surprise for many.

"It was not easy to enter into their world," Suha once said. "It is a man's world, and very closed - like a family with a lot of intermarriages, and, well, you know the result of that."

Throughout the years, and maybe perhaps due to the secrecy regarding Suha's personal life, there have been continuous rumors circulating about Suha's alleged shopping sprees abroad, spending fortunes on jewelry, clothing, handbags and other accessories.

Needless to say, elements that seek to harm Yasser Arafat's image have also given a hand in slamming the life and conduct of Palestine's First Lady.

Born in Jerusalem, Suha grew up in an affluent and political household, first in Nablus, then Ramallah. Her father was a banker, and her mother, Raymonda Tawil, a well-known journalist who was frequently placed under house arrest by Israeli authorities.

When Suha met the Palestinian leader, in the course of a trip to Jordan's capital of Amman, the young lady was working as a freelance journalist based in Paris. Yasser Arafat hired her to do public relations for the PLO in Tunis, where she nominally converted to Islam before they wed.

"I married a myth," she said. "But the marriage helped him step down from his pedestal and become a human being."

At the age of 32, Suha gave birth to the couple's only child (till date) in the Paris suburb of Neuilly. Zahwa was named after Yasser Arafat's mother, who died when he was five years old.

Asked by the French magazine Le Parisien why Zahwa was born in Paris instead of Palestinian territory, Suha Arafat explained, "Our child was conceived in Gaza, but sanitary conditions there are terrible."

Last year, in yet another report targeted at slamming Arafats' wife, the Israeli Ma'Ariv daily carried a story citing "sources" as saying a company, Al-Bahar, owned by Suha Arafat forged license plates for stolen cars. Israeli army sources, according to the report, had handed top government officials a document indicating that a company owned by Suha was forging license plates for cars stolen from Israelis.

Rumors of the 40-year-old Suha Arafat's "over-spending" - and her 74-year-old husband's use of public funds to pay her expenses have been circulating for years in the Arab world and beyond, and emerge from time to time.

Recently, reports said that Suha lives in Paris on $100,000 a month from Palestinian Authority funds. According to rumors, Suha Arafat's mother, Raymonda, also lives extravagantly - apparently off international generosity and the Palestinian taxpayers.

"The last I heard, she was living in the Bristol Hotel, which is regarded as one of the premier hotels - if not the premier hotel - in Paris," an Arab source told the New York Daily News last year. "It is not far from the Elysee Palace and the American Embassy and the fashionable shopping district, Rue St. Honor.

"I understand that she has a whole floor to herself and her entourage, and that she has been living there for over a year. Must be quite expensive, especially given the financial situation of the Palestinians. ... And that does not include shopping and dining!"

However, the concierge at the Bristol, where a suite and 19 rooms cost $16,000 a night said no one listed under the last name Arafat was living at the hotel.

Arafat's wife, who has been living away from her husband and out of the West Bank "for security reasons," said she wishes to be with him during the siege imposed on him in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "I am prepared to return [to the Palestinian territories] the minute I am asked to," she was quoted as saying.

However, it seems that as of now, harsh and fragile political conditions in the occupied territories may keep Suha apart from living with her husband. The first lady of Palestine may need to still live abroad till security circumstances enable the first family to reunite. (Albawaba.com)