A big question for Palestinians: What became of the millions?

[question everything]

A big question for Palestinians: What became of the millions?

Yasser Arafat's presumed stash of millions of dollars could slip away in the behind-the-scenes battle over a succession.

By KARIN LAUB

Associated Press

JERUSALEM - In his four decades as Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat has run a murky financial empire that includes far-flung PLO investments in airlines, banana plantations and high-tech companies, and money hidden in bank accounts across the globe.

Jaweed al Ghussein, a former PLO finance minister, told The Associated Press the Palestine Liberation Organization was worth $3 billion to $5 billion when he quit in 1996. No one will say how much it's worth now -- some estimates say as little as a few million. But as 75-year-old Arafat fights for life in a hospital near Paris, Palestinians fear that what's left will disappear or be pocketed by Arafat cronies.

''It's the money of the Palestinian people,'' said Palestinian legislator Hassan Khreishe, adding that he would urge a parliamentary investigation.

That could prove difficult.

Arafat has long resisted proper accounting for the funds, which include Arab payments to the PLO in the 1970s and 1980s, and Western aid to his self-rule government, the Palestinian Authority, after interim peace deals with Israel in the 1990s.

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/10133364.htm?1c

[aquart]

1. I've been saying that for decades.

Aced a polisci class on International Relations when I asked how Arafat buys lunch.

[question everything]

2. And while his "people" live in filthy refugee camps

I think that most of them can't wait for his death. For a Palestinians leader to rise from the people, not imposed on them, when Arafat and his entourage came From Tunisia after the Oslo agreement, I think, completely distanced from the people who lived and fought there.

[TheIdiot]

3. They need a good PR guy...

Maybe now that we're DONE with McCauliff...