From 33613a85afc4b1481367fbe92a17ee59c240250b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Sven Eisenhauer Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2023 15:11:48 +0100 Subject: add new repo --- Bachelor/AKuT/plo_samed.txt | 166 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 166 insertions(+) create mode 100755 Bachelor/AKuT/plo_samed.txt (limited to 'Bachelor/AKuT/plo_samed.txt') diff --git a/Bachelor/AKuT/plo_samed.txt b/Bachelor/AKuT/plo_samed.txt new file mode 100755 index 0000000..5f63c23 --- /dev/null +++ b/Bachelor/AKuT/plo_samed.txt @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +How much is the PLO really worth? + +The Samed, the economic arm of the PLO, may have become dormant since +the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, but it is sitting on mountains of +gold. At least, that is what appears from data obtained by hackers who got +into the Samed's computers + + +By Ronen Bergman +Ha'aretz November 28, 1999 + +Ahmed Qureia, also known as Abu Ala, the speaker of the +Palestinian parliament, was and still is the head of the Samed (Sons of +the Palestinian Martyrs - the economic arm of the PLO). Both Abu +Ala and Muhammad Rashid, Arafat's senior economic adviser and +confidant, refuse to disclose any information on the PLO's assets +beyond the borders of the Palestinian Authority. The publication of +these details would undoubtedly cause an uproar in the streets of + Palestinian towns. How can it be, many would ask, that we are +suffering here from economic hardship while the PLO is sitting on +massive sums of frozen assets abroad, and not using them?.In the +middle of 1988 there was a breach of Samed's computer system, +which connects the PLO's headquarters in Tunis with its economic +representations abroad, and its financial records were revealed. These +records showed enormous fiscal activity, which included many bank +accounts in Europe, and a complex system of individuals and +institutions involved in the transfer of funds. The bank accounts were +spread out all over the world, including in Tunis and East Jerusalem, +and were never registered officially in the name of the PLO, but were +rather listed under the names of private individuals, including Abu Ala. +Computer experts understood that they had not uncovered the whole +picture. The accounts on the network documented only partial +information on funds transfered under the heading "The chairman has +transferred x thousand dollars to you." + +The hackers who had broken into the PLO's computers closely +followed the activities of the network, and were able to uncover the +whole process by which the funds were transfered - from their +beginning as a mysterious grant from somewhere, through several +couriers to their final destination. The hackers discovered, among +other things, allocations to "martyrs", which were paid through bank +accounts in East Jerusalem. The purpose of each bank account was +apparently determined by the activities of its bearer or courier. If, for +example, an account was registered to a person with known +connections to terrorist activities, the funds transfered through it were +used for such activities, if the person was involved in the PLO's +welfare projects, the money went to help widows and orphans. + +The system carried records of the transfer of tens of millions of +dollars, if not more. The experts who studied the data discovered that +some of those employed in the transfer of funds made a habit of +retaining a certain percentage of each transfer, and it is unclear +whether this was done with or without permission. The breaching of +the network did a lot to clear the deliberate smoke screen surrounding +the PLO's financial apparatus. Apart from Arafat himself, only Abu +Ala and Rashid know all of its secrets. + +A report compiled recently by qualified assessors in Israel, and which +was handed over to government officials, found that Samed continues +to hold vast sums of money and assets around the world, despite the +fact that it is an inactive organization in the advanced stages of +atrophy. The heads of Samed, said the report, systematically desist +from selling off these assets and transfering them to the PA territories +to improve the poor economic situation there. + + +Shares in Mercedes +The establishment of the Palestinian Authority entailed the +transformation of a secret underground terrorist organization into an +autonomous authority which was supposed to be law-abiding and +organized, on the verge of independent statehood. This transformation +is not complete. Arafat never ordered all the branches of the PLO to +internalize the character of this change. Samed was left as a white +elephant, perhaps paralyzed and deteriorating, but with a very high +monetary value. + +The PLO was an organization with massive economic power. For +years it received billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and from the +sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf. Those states also deducted 5 percent +from the wages of all Palestinians who were working under their +jurisdiction, and transfered those funds to the PLO's bank accounts in +Switzerland and Spain, for the "Palestinian Liberation Tax Fund." This +levy alone brought in about $50 million per year. + +The economic branch of the research department in Israeli Military +Intelligence estimates that throughout the 1970s and 1980s the PLO +added some $5 million to its coffers every day. The organization had +tremendous assets and many straw companies, which helped it +acquire shares on European stock markets. The Kuwaitis, for +example, aided the PLO in purchasing shares in companies such as +Mercedes. The organization had great economic influence in France, +Switzerland, Italy, Holland and Scandinavia. + +In order to control its vast assets, the PLO set up Samed, which +made investments for it. Samed's administration was highly classified +and under Arafat's direct command. Arafat himself signed all the +checks. The PLO was willing to reveal only the socialist-inspired +aspect of Samed's activities. The organization published a newspaper +called Samed al Ectsadi (The Economic Samed), which showed +photographs of Palestinian women weaving and Palestinian men +plowing fields in agricultural farms in Africa and Lebanon. + +Samed had several administrative divisions, including offices for +industry, trade and marketing, agriculture and agricultural produce, a +research and publications department, and a department for the +production of films and the dissemination of information. The latter +initiated the production of several public relations films and +propaganda films on the Palestinian struggle. At the end of the 1980s +it invested millions of dollars to produce a feature-length film. The raw +material was sent to a film lab in Rome for editing. One night, in July +1989, unknown persons broke into the lab and disposed of +everything relating to the film. + + +Investments on Wall Street +It is hard to determine the real value and scope of the PLO's total +assets. According to figures published in the world media, hundreds +of millions of dollars of PLO money were transfered from Lebanon to +Switzerland at the beginning of the Israel Defense Forces' siege of +Beirut in 1982. As early as the 1970s, according to those reports, +Arafat had already made huge investments on Wall Street, in London, +and in several Arab banks, with the help of sources in the former +Soviet Union, specifically the Moscow Narodny bank. The PLO had +also made substantial investments in large industrial firms which traded +on the stock exchanges of Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo, and had +purchased real estate in the upmarket Mayfair district of London. + +These reports also say that the PLO is the controlling shareholder in +the Monte Carlo radio station, and in other radio stations. He also +owns, or did own, a string of newspapers, (one of which, Suat al +Bilad, was edited by Muhammed Rashid during his revolutionary +period). In addition, the PLO owns many buildings in Cyprus, +Greece, France, Spain, Jerusalem and Lebanon, and has invested in a +number of airlines in Africa. + +In a report published at the end of 1996 in the French newspaper Le +Figaro, it was alleged that by the beginning of the Gulf War, the +PLO's cash reserves had reached more than $7 billion - an enormous +sum that Arafat disbursed in numbered accounts in Zurich, Geneva +and New York. The Israeli Military Intelligence estimates that the +figures quoted by Le Figaro are inflated, but they agree that in the +1970s and 1980s the PLO was a very strong economic power. + +According to various intelligence sources, the PLO was a partner in +several airline companies, which also functioned as a screen for its +secret activities. The PLO was a partner in the establishment of the +airline of the Maldives and was later the owner of the Guinea Bissau +airline, then headed by Faiz Zaidan, who is now in charge of civil +aviation for the Palestinian Authority. Samed acquired a duty-free +shop in the international airport in Tanzania. The PLO's representative +in Zimbabwe, Ali Halima, said that it was a purely economic +investment, and that during the same period, Samed bought several +other stores in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. + +In 1991, when the Persian Gulf states stopped supporting the PLO +and expelled all the Palestinian workers employed there following +Arafat's alignment with Saddam Hussein, the PLO reached the brink +of bankruptcy. It is well-known that some of Samed's assets were +sold during that period to finance the general operations of the PLO, +but it is unclear what portion of these assets was liquidated. Three +years ago, the comptroller's committee of the American congress +carried out a secret investigation of this matter, and even took +testimony from experts in Israel. To this day the report of that +investigation has not been published. It is known, however, that the +investigators reached an unequivocal conclusion regarding everything +connected with the extent of the PLO's assets abroad . -- cgit v1.2.3