Soccer Dad

Shocked absolutely shocked

Contrary to a report that appeared last year in the German newspaper Die Welt the European anti-fraud organization, OLAF reported this week that it found no conclusive evidence that European aid was used to fund terror:

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has closed its investigation into the European Commission’s Direct Assistance to the Palestinian Authority’s budget. On the basis of the information currently available to OLAF, the investigation has found no conclusive evidence of support of armed attacks or unlawful activities financed by the European Commission’s contributions to the budget. However, the possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority’s budget and other resources, cannot be excluded, due to the fact that the internal and external audit capacity in the Palestinian Authority is still underdeveloped.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Hassan Abu Libdeh was quick to claim vindication:

Palestinian Cabinet minister Hassan Abu Libdeh welcomed the findings.

"These accusations have caused great harm to the Palestinian image and Palestinian interests. Several countries either reduced (aid) or transferred through a third party, but now it is clear that these accusations were untrue," he said.

However even the language that clears the PA seems less than enthusiastic:

However, the possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority’s budget and other resources, cannot be excluded, due to the fact that the internal and external audit capacity in the Palestinian Authority is still underdeveloped.

Besides Israel has found documentation of this sort of corruption. Did OLAF look at Israel's evidence? I suspect not.
And we have the following allegations from Ungar vs. PA

We have a tape of Mr. Jabali indicating that he providesHamas terrorists support. He puts them into his own security forces. We have Mr. Dahlan. Mr. Dahlan met with Mr. Deif who is the Hamas leader right around the time of the Ungar murder. And we have information that he was given a green light to specifically conduct terrorist activities in June of 1996. We’ve asked to depose Mr. Rajoub. His men, men under his control, were the ones who gave the fake PA police documents to the actual murder[er]s of the Ungars. They’re the ones who
supervised the Tzurif gang, the actual gang that was involved in killing the Ungars. We’ve asked to depose Tawiq Tarrari. He gave money. It’s been proven and documented that he gave money and weapons for specific terrorist attacks during this period of time. Mr. Al-Hindi has been accused and has documents of his same activities. Mr. Boughati is a mastermind of a series of activities during this entire period of time. Mr. Arafat, he is not just a person who happens to be a Palestinian Authority, but he himself has a direct hand in various forms of terrorism, and more specifically his signature itself was on a piece of paper indicating approval for the killing of Americans after the fact. He
rewarded Palestinian terrorists in the form of compensation, financial compensation, Americans.

If you don't look for something, you won't find it.
UPDATE: Thanks to Roger L. Simon and Secular Blasphemy for citing this entry. And also thank you to Ex Parte, the blog of Harvard's Federalist Society for quoting my entry (the one crossposted at Israpundit.)
It occurred to me that I actaully had posted on this issue before. I had. This past summer there had been a preliminary report clearing the EU of funding terror. In reponse I posted "Clousseau Lives."
Also, via a Technorati search on "Olaf" and "Palesitnian" I discovered a number of other skeptics of OLAF's efforts. While Yet Within the Heart points to a valuable website on the topic, EU Funding. Ex Parte and others quote a skeptical Israeli response from the Jerusalem Post.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at March 18, 2005 5:49 AM