PA officials smuggled $52 million in U.S. aid

PA officials smuggled $52 million in U.S. aid
Top security strongmen pocketed money, invested in Dubai construction projects
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By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

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.

Fayyad already reportedly obtained and confiscated from Dahlan $7 million in smuggled aid.

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