Where is Wikileaks when you need them?
There's a fascinating archive of papers sitting in Tunisia. Its exposure would fascinate the world. It's the archive of Yasser Arafat's papers and it includes plans for terror attacks. Who knows - maybe it includes Yasser's secret Swiss bank account numbers.
There are at least three contenders for the archives: Fatah, Hamas and Suha. Who will get it? I would love to see
Wikileaks buy it and publicize it....
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that the archive of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be handed over to his care, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Thursday.
The documents, which are currently in Tunisia, reportedly contains fascinating information on planned terror attacks against Israeli targets, the funding sources of terror organizations and negotiations with Israeli officials from the political and security establishments.
The London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported this week that the archive has been a point of contention ever since Arafat’s death in 2004 and the Hamas-Fatah split. "Both Hamas and Fatah have wanted the archive…however, an agreement between the PLO and former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali did not allow for the archives to be handed over,” the report stated.
...
It was further reported that Arafat's widow, Suha, has also been trying to obtain the documents.
Abbas, Yedioth Ahronoth said, has filed an official request with the Tunisian government to have the documents transferred over to him. Sources told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the Palestinians will seek at least an electronic version of the archive.
"These documents are part of out national and operational history," a Palestinian news outlet said. "If there are secrets, it is time they are revealed, even if it causes embarrassment to leaders and heads of intelligence agencies in the Arab community."
Arafat refused to transfer the documents from Tunis for fear that Israel would get its hands on them.
Calling Mr. Assange! Calling Mr. Assange!
Labels: Fatah, Hamas, Julian Assange, Suha Arafat, Tunisia, Yasser Arafat, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
ROTFL: Suha says Tunisia trying to defame Yasser, 'Palestinians'
Suha Arafat says that the issuance of a
warrant for her arrest on corruption charges by Tunisia is an attempt to
defame her dead husband Yasser and the 'Palestinian cause.'
Suha claimed that the arrest warrant coincided with the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to seek membership in UNESCO and the UN with the aim of defaming her husband and the Palestinian cause. She said that if her husband were alive he would have told her not to worry about the allegations and that they [the Tunisians] can go to hell.
She added that the former Tunisian first lady kicked her and her daughter, Zahwa, out of Tunisia in a humiliating manner. "The Tunisian authorities packed all our personal belongings in cartons and asked us to leave the house which was given to us in Tunis,” Suha Arafat said. “Tarabulsi also threatened to throw our personal items to the street within 48 hours if we did not leave the country. She also stripped me of my Tunisian citizenship.”
She said that since Arafat’s death the Palestinian Authority has been paying her a monthly salary of $12,000.
In an interview with a Tunisian TV station, Suha said that the school was the only business she had with Tarabulsi. “It was a humanitarian deal,” she explained. “I wanted to start a university for unprivileged people. Leila [Tarabulsi] was the real president of Tunisia for 23 years. All of the Tunisian people were oppressed. I was also a victim of her.”
So if the charges aren't true, why would the opponents of the people who threw her out be going after her? An Arab/Muslim country trying to embarrass the 'Palestinians'? You've got to be kidding. And by the way, why is she getting $12,000 per month in foreign aid money (the 'Palestinians' have nothing else) as a salary for shopping in Paris? Hmmm.
Labels: corruption, Palestinian Authority corruption, Suha Arafat, Tunisia, Yasser Arafat, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Tunisia issues arrest warrant for Suha Arafat
Tunisia has issued an arrest warrant for Suha Arafat, the widow of 'Palestinian' leader Yasser Arafat. She is charged with - what else -
corruption.
The allegations go back to a 2006 business deal, when Suha Arafat had a fallout with former first lady of Tunisia over the establishment of an international school in Tunis, AFP quoted Tunisian newspapers as saying.
In 2007, Suha was declared persona non grata in Tunisia and had her citizenship revoked, reportedly by presidential decree. Suha was reported to be living in Malta, at least several months a year, where she owns a home.
Since the ouster of former Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, a number of former regime officials have been charged with corruption.
Suha was raised as a Catholic in Ramallah and Nablus and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Suha met Yasser Arafat when she was on assignment in Jordan for a French newspaper. She was immediately appointed as a public relations adviser to the PLO and later as an economic consultant to her husband. The two married secretly in 1990 at Arafat's house in Tunisia and kept the wedding secret for 15 months.
She drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians when she tried to prevent senior PA officials, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, from visiting her husband while he was being treated in a military hospital in Paris.
Heh.
Labels: corruption, Palestinian Authority corruption, Suha Arafat, Tunisia, Yasser Arafat, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Egyptians would be better off sending Mubarak into exile
Interesting take on the
Arab Spring from the Washington Post's Jackson Diehl (Hat Tip:
Soccer Dad).
It might look like the Tunisians have it worst, lacking any way to punish the man who oppressed them for 23 years, while the Libyans can rest assured that Gaddafi will sooner or later either die or stand trial. The Egyptians, who can’t feel sure that sympathetic generals and judges won’t eventually let Mubarak retire to his seaside villa, are somewhere in between.
In fact, the real calculus is something like the opposite. Tunisians are lucky to have Ben Ali off their hands while they try to set up a new democratic system. And Libyans are stuck in a civil war in large part because of Gaddafi’s international prosecution.
No, this is not the position of Western human rights groups, which have been hailing the ICC’s pursuit of Gaddafi, urging on Egypt’s prosecutors and suggesting that Bashar al-Assad of Syria should be next. But the history of revolutions against dictatorships — in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East itself — tells a different story: The more immediate and uncompromising the justice for a dictator, the worse it is for the post-revolution regime.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Arab spring, Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Deposed Tunisian President has stroke
Deposed Tunisian President Zine Elabidine Ben Ali could have saved his country a lot of effort if he had done this a month ago. Ben Ali, who now lives in exile in Saudi Arabia,
had a stroke and is in a hospital in critical condition.
Deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had a stroke and is in a coma, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Thursday.
"The former head of state was admitted to an institution for Saudi princes under a false identity for security reasons," the paper reported. "His condition is worrying."
Ben Ali, who was overthrown by riots in Tunisia in January, has reportedly been ill for several years.
Le Monde also reported that his wife, Leila Ben Ali, "is no longer at his side."
A diplomat told the French daily that "the new acting president in Tunisia is also aware and follows the events hour by hour."
Hmmm.
Labels: Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
There's a fascinating archive of papers sitting in Tunisia. Its exposure would fascinate the world. It's the archive of Yasser Arafat's papers and it includes plans for terror attacks. Who knows - maybe it includes Yasser's secret Swiss bank account numbers.
