Deja vu all over again: Israel charges UN employee with providing aid to Hamas in Gaza
It's been just five days since Israel charged the head of the World Vision charity in Gaza with siphoning off $43 million for Hamas in the last six years.
Now, an employee of the United Nations' Gaza development agency, UNDP, has been charged with aiding Hamas.
Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said 38-year-old Waheed
Borsh has worked as an engineer for UNDP, the U.N. development agency,
for 13 years. It said he was arrested in July and confessed to using his
position to help Hamas.
The Shin Bet said Borsh used UNDP resources last year to build a
jetty for Hamas' naval forces and that he persuaded his managers to
prioritize the reconstruction of houses damaged in conflicts with Israel
in areas where Hamas members lived.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said it has informed U.N. officials of the
arrest and the allegations and expects the U.N. to "take concrete
measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in
need in Gaza instead of assisting the terrorist leaders of Hamas."
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said he was
concerned about a "worrying trend of U.N. exploitation by Hamas."
A U.N. spokesman in Jerusalem could not immediately be reached.
Imagine what would happen if Israel didn't have a 'blockade' of Gaza in place.
To ensure that its sellout to a nuclear Iran would make its way through Congress, the Obama administration withheld until after the Iran vote a letter written by al-Qaeda chieftain Osama Bin Laden pegging Iran as being the terror group's chief financier.
In a 2007 letter,
bin Laden criticized an operative for threatening to attack Iran. “We
expect you would consult with us for these important matters, for as you
are aware, Iran is our main artery for funds, personnel, and
communication, as well as the matter of hostages,” he wrote.
Ties between Iran and al Qaeda have been reported for years,
with numerous ways by which Iran served as al-Qaeda’s “main artery.”
The letter was part of a collection of 112 letters taken from bin Laden’s
compound by U.S. special ops forces after he was killed in 2011. The
collection was made public Tuesday by the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence. Long after the Iran deal was approved.
Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) on Tuesday
unveiled a bill that would prevent the Obama administration from lifting
economic sanctions on Tehran until these U.S. terrorist victims are
paid for the crimes committed by Iranian-funded terrorist proxy groups,
such as Hezbollah, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by
the Washington Free Beacon.
“Iran-sponsored terrorists have killed more Americans than the Islamic State,” Kirk told the Free Beacon. “Families
of Americans killed by Iranian-backed terrorism have used U.S. laws to
take Iran to court and lawfully win approximately $43.5 billion in
unsatisfied damages, so if the United States fails to ensure Iran fully
pays these judgments before Iranian terror financiers get over $100
billion in sanctions relief, we risk emboldening Iran and other state
sponsors of terror to continue targeting and killing more Americans.”
Iran has been held legally liable by U.S. courts for the murder of
scores of Americans, according to official government estimates.
Iranian-backed terrorist groups, for example, have killed more than 700 Americans, including at least 290 in Lebanon
over the past several decades. This accounts for the 241 U.S. service
members murdered during the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which Iran
sponsored.
Attacks by Iran and its terrorist proxies additionally have killed at
least 500 Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2000, according to
intelligence officials.
U.S. courts have awarded the victims and their families more $46
billion in damages as a result of Iran’s terrorism, according to the
Congressional Research Service (CRS). Around $43.5 billion of this has
yet to be paid by Iran.
I hope that this time, we at least get to a vote in the Senate. What happened with the nuclear sellout was disgraceful, but at least there were no Americans who were directly and immediately affected by it. This could be worse. Let's at least make Obama feel the pain of exercising his veto.
Congress seeks to hold up Iran sanctions relief until victims of Iranian terror paid
Congress is seeking to hold up the release of moneys to Iran until American victims of Iranian-financed terror are paid some $43.5 billion in compensation. A bill to do just that has been introduced by Representative Patrick Meehan (R-Pa).
Let's go the videotape, and then we'll hear about the bill from Adam Kredo.
Yes, before you click the video, that's my friend Arnold Roth's daughter Malki HY"D (May God Avenge her blood), second row from bottom, second from right (first full picture in the row), who was murdered in the Sbarro terror attack.
Adam Kredo reports on the bill.
The bill, which is expected to be brought to the House floor for a
vote this week, would require Iran to first pay $43.5 billion in legal
penalties awarded by U.S. courts to American victims of Iranian
terrorism.
President Obama would then be in a position to either disregard the
requirement under his executive authority, thereby clearing the way for
Iran to immediately receive $150 billion, or force Tehran to negotiate
settlements for these terror victims.
The legislation, called the Justice for Victims of Iranian Terrorism Act, comes after a lawsuit
filed by U.S. terror victims that argue they should first be paid
damages before Iran sees a dime of the money promised by the Obama
administration.
The victims said they fear that if the money is first released to
Iran, they will never receive the billions in compensation awarded to
them by U.S. courts.
Meehan told the Washington Free Beacon that the legislation
would create a circumstance in which “the president must certify that he
believes it’s more important to pay money to the Iranian terrorists
than it is to compensate the victims of Iranian terror.”
The bill, he said, “would prevent the president from releasing any
sanctions unless or until the full damages, which have already been
awarded in American courts to victims of Iranian terror, are paid.”
“I’d just like to understand why [Obama] thinks it’s more important
to give money back to Iran than it is to first pay the victims of their
past terror acts,” said Meehan, who released a video late last week detailing the stories of several Americans harmed by Iranian-backed terrorism.
While the bill has garnered at least 75 co-sponsors in the House,
Meehan said he is not certain whether supporters will be able to achieve
a veto-proof majority.
After the nuclear sellout, just bringing it to a vote would be an accomplishment.
But you can bet that Obama will veto the bill if it ever passes. His legacy is more important than compensation to ordinary American terror victims. May he rot in hell.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) has told the Washington Examiner that as a result of the Iranian nuclear sellout, President Hussein Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have become the World's leading financiers of Islamic terrorism.
"If this deal goes through, the Obama administration, President
Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, will become the leading global
financiers of radical Islamic terrorism," said Cruz. He further
criticized the deal for lifting the ballistic missile embargo, claiming
it is tantamount to arming a theocratic regime that has pledged to
murder Americans.
"In the middle of negotiating this deal, the Ayatollah Khamenei led
chants of shouting 'death to America'," stated Cruz. The 2016 Republican
candidate went on to compare Obama to former President Jimmy Carter,
charging that Obama has abandoned American hostages in Iran.
...
"Barack Obama left them in a squalid Iranian hellhole," Cruz said.
"Four hostages, Barack Obama cannot even bring himself to utter their
names."
Cruz extended his criticism to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton
and called on the media to ask her to say the names of the four
Americans being detained in Iran. "If she would be commander in chief of
this country, demonstrate leadership. Stand up and speak out," he said.
Cruz added that no conversation should have begun without the release
of the American hostages.
When asked about the likelihood of Congress stopping the deal, Cruz
said it is on the American people to engage their elected officials. But
he admitted that blocking the deal ultimately depends on Democrats.
The idea that solving the nuclear crisis would unlock a new Iran of economic riches and political moderation has been enthusiastically promoted
by the Rouhani administration and its supporters. This is good
political spin. But as a reflection of political reality it is seriously
flawed – for the simple reason that it conflates a process into a
single transformational moment; and perhaps more importantly, it fails
to account for the reality of contemporary Iran’s political landscape.
It is a landscape that has been sculpted by the Ahmadinejad years,
and in which the pragmatic presidency of his successor Rouhani stands as
an island in an ocean of hardline institutions. Hassan Rouhani has done
little to change this during his two years in power, in large part
because his strategy has been predicated on a successful conclusion of
the nuclear issue – gambling that popular support and economic necessity
will not only see the agreement through but release some political
capital to enact social and political reforms.
He is on firmer ground with the former – and while there continues to
be a popular clamour for change, it has been a long time since the
politics of the Islamic Republic has been dictated by the will of the
people.
Last week supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei decided to set the record
straight. This was in sum the pursuit of an arms control agreement, he
said – nothing more, nothing less, and certainly not a transformational
moment in the politics of the Islamic Republic.
If only they knew what the deal was.... What could go wrong?
A U.S. jury said
on Monday Arab Bank Plc provided material support to Hamas, and must
therefore compensate the victims of two dozen attacks the Islamic
militant group allegedly carried out in Israel and the Palestinian
territories.
Jurors needed less than two
days to deliberate, following a six-week trial in Brooklyn federal court
that lawyers described as the first terrorism financing civil case to
reach trial in the United States.
Nearly
300 Americans who were either victims or related to victims of the
attacks had sued Arab Bank in 2004, accusing it of violating the
Anti-Terrorism Act, which lets victims of U.S.-designated foreign
terrorist organizations seek damages. A trial on damages will be
scheduled for a later date.
Under cross examination by counsel for the plaintiffs Mark Werbner, Bishara’s tone changed from gregarious to acrimonious. A heated exchange took place when Werbner asserted that Bishara had released funds from a bank account belonging to senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan.
“You gave this terrorist $8,000, the man who moves weapons and explosives,” Werbner stated. “You had no other choice than to give this terrorist $8,000?” “My concern was to get rid of the account,” Bishara explained, having admitted he knew Hamdan was on the US terrorist blacklist at the time. “There was simply no way” to close the account without a court order or Hamdan being designated a terrorist by Lebanon, he said.
Defense lawyers say the so-called “Beirut account” was first brought to the bank’s attention in 2004 by this lawsuit. After waiting five or six months to find another solution, Bishara said, the Arab Bank ultimately cut a check to Hamdan and closed the account.
This fund transfer has burdened the bank’s main defense, which was that most transfers were made to those who were not on any US watch list at the time.
Of course there was 'another solution.' They could have gotten the court order. Or they could have held the money.
Here's hoping that Arab Bank is barred from using the US banking system. Other countries' banks have been threatened for far less harmful actions.
Tables turning? Israel preparing to take Abu Mazen to International Criminal Court
Israel is preparing to turn the tables on 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett told Army Radio on Sunday morning that Israel is preparing to file a war crimes suit against Abu Mazen in the International Criminal Court for financing terrorism.
“We are currently preparing an indictment for war crimes against
[Abbas] based on two rationales,” Bennett said. “The first is the daily
cash transfers to Hamas, which is firing missiles on Israeli citizens,
and the second is the direct financing of murderous terrorists
themselves.”
In order for the ICC to try the Palestinian leader,
Israel would first need to formally join. Only then would it be able to
lodge a complaint with the ICC prosecutor, who would need to decide
whether to launch an investigation.
Responding to recent developments, Shurat Hadin – Israel Law Center
said that although it has been doing serious case-intensive work on
potential International Criminal Court (ICC) complaints against the
Palestinians for a long time, the issue was now "becoming a game for
politicians, with less background on the issue, yelling slogans."
The
NGO added that some politicians have been raising allegations against
the Palestinians for crimes which the ICC does not even handle or which
would not be taken seriously by the ICC.
In contrast, Shurat Hadin
said it used a Facebook campaign since April 2013 to gather serious
allegations for potential concrete complaints against Palestinian
leaders to the ICC.
"Every year we renew a 'festival of threats': if we don't do what the
PA wants, they will go to the UN, they will turn into a country and
slam us at the Hague," Bennett wrote. "This is their 'judgement day'
weapon. A Defense Minister once gave it this name: the 'political
tsunami."
"But it's time to change this concept," he declared. "This is not the PA's 'judgement day' weapon. The rifle is empty."
"There is good reason why the Palestinians are not members of the
Hague, and not members of the UN," he continued. "There is a reason why
the gun is almost empty. What should be done about this threat?
Understand what it is, stop being afraid - and, of course, act on it."
Bennett noted that threats against Israel at the Hague may look
menacing on paper, but will probably not change much in reality.
"A lawsuit against us in the Hague will have Israel join the ranks of
other distinguished countries brought to court there, such as the US
and UK, and no one is telling London to withdraw from their land over
it," he stated.
If anything, according to Bennett, "Israel and other countries should bring the PA to the Hague over war crimes."
...
"There are two reasons for this: first - the PA's killing and terror
against innocent people," he continued. "The Palestinians deliberately
fired thousands of rockets at schools, hospitals and kindergartens.
Shooting to harm civilians is clearly a war crime."
Bennett also shot down possible counter-arguments to this, including the claim that the PA and Hamas are utterly unconnected.
"The PA leadership in Ramallah will tell them that it is Hamas who
shoots at civilians, not them," he said. "But this is like saying that
it is [Justice Minister Tzipi Livni's party - ed.] HaTnua that is
conducting negotiations with the PA, not the State of Israel. "
"Hamas is a political movement operating under the PA umbrella in
Gaza," he fired. "[PA Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas transfers funds every
month from the PA to Gaza for 'public servants' there."
"He believes that Gaza is part of the same 'Palestine' that he asks
the UN to unilaterally establish. Therefore, he is responsible for
Hamas's war crimes."
...
The second accusation Israel should launch against the PA, according to Bennett, is over its ongoing incitement against Israel.
"Every month the PA issues stipends to murders of women and children
that Israel released [as part of preconditions to negotiations - ed.],
as well as to those who are still in prison" Bennett noted. "They tell
murderers: go kill a Jew and instead of receiving compensation now,
you'll receive compensation later."
"This is encouraging terror. This is incitement."
Sorry, but I'm opposed to joining the ICC. I don't believe they'll judge our claims fairly, I don't believe they'll convict Abu Mazen or the 'Palestinians,' and even if by some miracle they do convict them, I don't believe that anything will come from a conviction (look at Sudan's Omar al-Bashir - he hasn't suffered much by being convicted, has he?).
On the other hand, we will expose ourselves to suits in the ICC. We have had very bad experiences with international tribunals and with anything connected to the UN. Why would we join and expose ourselves like that?
One of the recently released 'Palestinian ' terrorists has complained that the Arab Bank branch in Ramallah refuses to transfer money received from the 'Palestinian Authority' to his account. According to the terrorist, the bank says that the money is 'terror money.'
Each of the 26 terrorists released in the second batch of "gestures" to the Palestinian Authority (PA) received a $50,000 grant.
In addition, those imprisoned over 25 years received senior
governmental posts with a 14,000 shekels ($4,000) monthly salary, and
those imprisoned under 25 years are to receive a monthly 10,000 shekels
($2,800) stipend.
All of this comes despite high unemployment among PA Arabs and the PA's reported $4.2 billion of debt.
The Arab Bank's refusal to pay "terror money" to Musa Karan of
Ramallah, a terrorist freed after 23 years in jail, was reported by a
Hamas website. Karan's brother Mohammed told the site that Musa ran into
trouble opening an account due to his being a freed terrorist.
...
In April the Jordan-based Arab Bank lost its bid to
avoid a US trial over lawsuits brought by Israeli and American terror
victims who accuse the bank of financially supporting terror. The bank
operates in many countries, managing business ties with various
corporations and governments.
Most of the plaintiffs in that case were thrown out over the summer when the US Supreme Court ruled that only US citizens could file suit in the US. Still, the fact that the lawsuit is pending might be enough to make the Arab Bank - which is not 'Palestinian' - worry about its own financial standing.
It's not clear why Turkey's response to the FATF has been so slow.
One reason perhaps is that the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) doesn't view terrorism in the same way that the FATF does.
For one, Turkey has emerged in recent years as one of the primary
patrons of Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by Washington, the
EU, and most of Western Europe. In early December 2011, Erdoğan
reportedly "instructed the Ministry of Finance to allocate $300 million to be sent to Hamas' government in Gaza." Turkey has also earmarked funds for hospitals, mosques, and schools in the Gaza Strip, with other funds slated to help rebuild the territory after the Hamas war with Israel in November 2012.
Turkey reportedly began providing financial support to Hamas after
Iran, suffering under a US-led sanctions regime for its illicit nuclear
program, found it increasingly difficult to part with its foreign
currency reserves. But now, in a strange twist of fate, Turkey is
helping Iran skirt sanctions.
Iran has been receiving payment for its natural gas in Turkish Lira,
which has then been deposited in Turkey's Halkbank. Iran has reportedly
used Lira to purchase gold. In May 2012, Turkey's trade with Iran rose a whopping 513 percent. In August 2012, "nearly $2 billion worth of gold was sent to Dubai on behalf of Iranian buyers." By December, Iran was considering the creation of a joint barter company with Turkey to evade U.S. sanctions. The Turkish Zaman news outlet indicates that the Iranian gas-for-gold scheme continues, although recent reports note that Dubai gold dealers are scurrying, for fear of sanctions.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned state-owned bank, Halkbank, has
reportedly played a role in facilitating several important deals with
Iran.
Here's an interesting story about how terror victims from all over the world have been using US courts to pursue the banks that fund terror.
Arab Bank, which is headquartered in Amman, is accused of aiding and abetting terrorist acts by providing extensive banking services for several organizations that gave money to suicide bombers’ families.
Among those organizations is the Saudi Committee, which is alleged to have routed over $100 million raised in a Saudi-government-supported campaign to Palestinian terror groups.
According to Prof. Reuven Paz, an Israeli expert on Islamic movements who has been involved in 18 of the terror-funding lawsuits, Arab Bank acted as a “pipeline” that channeled funds to Gaza bank accounts.
“Arab Bank transferred the money to the families of Hamas ‘martyrs’ killed in the second intifada,” said Paz.
According to the Arab Bank complaint, the Saudi Committee paid money into an Arab Bank account opened for the family of Izz Ad-din Shuhail Ahmad al-Masri, the Hamas suicide bomber who murdered 15 people and wounded 130 in the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem.
Arab Bank is also alleged to have set up an administrative process whereby the relatives of suicide bombers had to receive official certification of their deceased family member’s “martyr” status before receiving funds.
According to attorney Richard D. Heideman – whose Washington firm Heideman Nudelman and Kalik, PC, represents American terror victims in several civil actions – although Arab Bank filed a motion to dismiss the suit in the US District Court of New York, the judge overruled that in a published opinion and has allowed the case to proceed. It is expected to go to trial.
...
Although Arab Bank denies knowingly providing support to terrorist activity, it has frozen the accounts of the Saudi Committee.
“Arab Bank is in a panic,” Paz added. “It is a very large private bank in the Arab world, and it is a very important basis of the Jordanian economy. It even had relations with the Bank of Israel. If Arab Bank collapses, it will hurt Jordan and the West Bank.”
According to Paz, the Arab Bank lawsuit has also been effective in impacting other governments in other Gulf States.
“Governments like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states were afraid to be harmed economically and financially,” he said. “And also, of course, they are linked economically and financially to the USA.”
As far as the banks themselves are concerned, Paz said the lawsuits were forcing them to look more carefully at who their clients were.
“The problem is to prove the bank’s involvement in the transfers,” he added. “In many cases the banks are just passive.”
THE GLOBAL nature of banking operations means that even non-US banks must face the consequences of transferring funds to terror groups or to NGOs connected with them.
Several more Western banks are also facing terror-funding lawsuits.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
