Hot on the heels of this morning’s post about the suspected financial impropriety of palestinian official Ahmed Qurei comes news that another Arafat-era palestinian official will be investigated for shady business dealings.
The Palestinian Authority will probe former Yasser Arafat economic adviser Mohammed Rashid’s connection to a multi-million dollar tourism project in a ‘neighboring state’, public prosecutor Ahmed Al-Maghni said Wednesday.
PA sources told Haaretz that the project was located in the south Jordan port city of Aqaba, and valued at $600 million. Senior PA officials other than Rashid had also been involved, the sources said. According to Al-Maghni, the PA plans to investigate the source of the capital which was invested in the project.
A number of observations:
1. What took them so long? Doesn’t being Yasser Arafat’s economic adviser automatically qualify you for a very detailed and lengthy investigation into your financial affairs?
2. It is refreshing to be able to include the words “probe” and “Yasser Arafat” in the same sentence, without also having to include references to a “tiger” or “hyena.”
