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JERUSALEM-Mahmoud Dahlan, a strongman of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, and one of Dahlan's top associates pocketed $52 million in foreign aid-mostly assistance monies from the U.S. meant to bolster Fatah against Hamas, sources in the PA Finance Ministry told WND today.Dahlan used part of the American aid to invest in construction efforts in Dubai, the PA sources said.The information comes as the U.S. is poised to send millions more in financial aid to bolster Abbas' militias in the West Bank against Hamas there.Sources in Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad's office told WND upon recently checking the accounts in which about $60 million in U.S. aid was deposited, Fayyad was shocked to learn only $7 million remained.The sources said a Finance Ministry investigation determined Dahlan smuggled $27 million and Dahlan's no. 2, Rashid Abu Shabak, former chief of the Palestinian Security Services, smuggled $25 million into their own accounts. Dahlan and Shabak were two of only a handful of Fatah officials who had access to the PA accounts in which American aid was stored. Both officials fled the Gaza Strip prior to Hamas takeover of the territory and all U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds there last month.According to the Finance Ministry sources speaking to WND, there is evidence Dahlan used some of the smuggled aid to invest in construction efforts in Dubai and also for the construction of a building there for his own personal use.The officials said the vast majority of aid smuggled by Dahlan and Shabak came from the U.S. They said about $2 million was provided by Saudi Arabia.The report of smuggled U.S. aid comes as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced in recent weeks the U.S. will resume "full assistance to the Palestinian government," lifting an economic and political embargo against the Palestinian government enacted after Hamas came to power in March 2006. To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
