PIN-HEAD ARAFAT'S TERROR '$TRIKE
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/37065.htm



December 23, 2004 -- Yasser Arafat was a secret investor in the city's hottest upscale bowling alley, according to a bombshell new report.

The Palestinian leader three years ago pumped $1.3 million into Bowlmor Lanes, the popular Greenwich Village recreation center that has attracted a galaxy of stars, from Cameron Diaz to Rudy Giuliani.

"This is a complete shock to us," said Bowlmor founder Thomas Shannon.

The entrepreneur said he had no idea he was pocketing money from Arafat when a holding company that handled some of the Palestinian boss' financial affairs began buying up 2 percent of Bowlmor's parent company in 2001.

Shannon said he became aware of the connection only after Bloomberg Markets magazine revealed it yesterday in an exposé on Arafat's finances.

Bowlmor does not want to have anything to do with the terror-linked leader.

"You can't imagine that something like this will show up on your doorstep," Shannon told The Post. "You feel the way you feel when your apartment has been robbed."

Just this summer, GOP delegates threw two convention bashes at the hipster Greenwich Village hangout. Bowlmor has also hosted Jewish Defense League events and is a popular place for parents to hold children's bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah parties.

Bowlers at the lanes, where pins signed by Giuliani — a vociferous Arafat critic who once had him removed from Lincoln Center — Carson Daly and others grace the walls, said the Arafat connection left a taste in their mouth as sour as an old bowling shoe.

"I can't believe it," said Marci Selsberg, of West Orange, N.J. "I don't want to come back. I don't want to be a part of his investments."

Arafat became involved with Bowlmor through a complicated investment scheme designed to get his money working for him outside his impoverished Palestinian territories.

His financial company placed money with a Virginia-based firm called SilverHaze, which set up some Delaware holding companies to invest in U.S. ventures.

One of those companies, Onyx Funds, invested $1.3 million in shares of the private company that owns Bowlmor, Strike Holdings.

Just how did Arafat's money get into a bowling alley, of all things?

It turns out that the SilverHaze executive who created the Onyx Funds, Zeid Masri, is a graduate-school classmate of Bowlmor founder Shannon.

Shannon said yesterday that Masri told him only that the SilverHaze money came from "wealthy European families."

"He never mentioned [Arafat]," Shannon said.

He also said that Arafat received no profits from his investment.

Masri could not be reached for comment. But he told Bloomberg that he believed companies in which Arafat's corporation invested knew were the money was coming from.

"When we invest, people want to know where the money is coming from," he said. "We're 110 percent comfortable about where the money came from."

A spokeswoman for Bowlmor said yesterday their lawyers were working "through the night" to sever the Arafat financial link, and the matter could be wrapped up as early as today.

The Bloomberg report also said that Arafat disclosed he had invested $799 million over the past two years. His money managers invested in venture capital funds, software startups and telecommunications company from Israel to Silicone Valley.

Arafat died in France on Nov. 11 at age 75.

But one bowler who was enjoying an afternoon at the lanes yesterday thinks she knew what he would have said if he ever ventured past the club's velvet rope and saw what was going on there.

"He would say, 'Look at these stupid Americans, giving me money,' " said Samanta Balassa, 27.

That's capitalism for ya!

Bush waives law forbidding U.S. aid to PLO

April 17, 2002 Posted: 12:15 PM EDT (1615 GMT)

From Major Garrett
CNN Washington

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush Tuesday waived for six months a law that forbids U.S. aid from flowing to the Palestine Liberation Organization because it engages in acts of terrorism.

But for the first time in his presidency, Bush warned the Palestinians that future waivers are not "automatic" and told Congress he would grant future waivers only if the Palestinians moved aggressively to stop terrorist attacks in Israel.

This was the third waiver Bush has granted the PLO, a move the keeps U.S. aid flowing and allows the PLO to maintain offices in the nation's capital.

In his message to Congress, Bush said: "I hereby determine and certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987."

A law forbids U.S. funding of the PLO because it was branded a terrorist organization and a threat to U.S. interests.

President Clinton first waived the prohibitions in October of 1999 and did so for six months.

The move signals that Bush is not prepared to withhold U.S. aid to the Palestinians as punishment for recent acts of terror committed in Israel. The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has branded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a "terrorist" and shared with the White House evidence Israelis say suggest a strong linkage between Arafat and suicide bombings in Israel.

Some Republicans and Democrats in Congress have also called for an end to U.S. aid to the PLO in light of the suicide bombing attacks in Israel and Arafat's inability to restrain the suicide bombers and, in their view, the Palestinian leader's unwillingness to denounce them on radio or television in Arabic.

In his message to Congress, Bush also outlined specific steps Arafat and the Palestinian leadership had to take to qualify for another waiver in six months.

"The president has made it clear this waiver is not automatic," said the president's message to Congress, which was obtained by CNN. "Future waivers will take into consideration PLO compliance with its publicly stated commitments and its efforts to fulfill the conditions outlined by the president in his April 4 speech."

In that speech, Bush called on the Palestinian leadership to "do everything in their power to stop terrorist activities, to disrupt terrorist financing, and to stop inciting violence."

Administration officials said Bush added this language to mollify lawmakers eager to strip the Palestinians of all U.S. aid.

The State Department has said the government provides no "direct" aid to the Palestinian Authority of the Palestine Liberation Organization but Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, has said the United States sends about $75 million in aid annually to the Palestinian Authority, aid administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Cantor has also said Congress approved a three-year package of $400 million in aid for the Palestinian Authority in 2000. Cantor has introduced legislation ending all U.S. aid to the Palestinians.

U.S. direct aid to Israel exceeds $3 billion for 2002.

Who cares? There are millions and millions of foreign dollars from investors that help this economy just as there are millions and millions of dollars from US investors in foreign markets. pffffttt... how is this newsworthy???

WE'RE BOWLING FOR TERRORISTS!

Shamelessly stolen from The Onion on May 1, 2002.


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God Re-floods Middle East


JERUSALEM - In what theological and meteorological authorities are calling "a wrathful display of Old Testament proportions," the Lord Almighty re-flooded the Middle East Tuesday, making good on last week's threat to wipe the region clean if there was not an immediate halt to the bloodshed between Arabs and Jews.

Picture: A 200-foot wave bears down on Palestinians clashing with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Hebron.

The Lord made the decision to go ahead with His second Great Flood after last-ditch U.S.-Saudi peace initiatives were rejected Monday night.

"The Lord thy God has warned you and warned you, but you have, in your hatred and selfishness, chosen to turn away from Him," read a press statement from God, delivered by seraphim and cherubim acting as His earthly agents. "Prepare now to face His wrath and be drowned beneath the cleansing waters of His righteous rage. Children of Israel and Palestine, you who would not repent your sinful ways and live together as God's children, prepare to face your doom under the unstoppable deluge of the Lord's retribution."

As of press time, a torrential rain continues to fall on Israel and the West Bank, with the downpour expected to continue for another 39 days and 39 nights. Thus far, flood waters have risen more than 200 feet, drowning most of the humans and animals in the vicinity. The few remaining survivors, most of whom cling to pieces of driftwood, have made desperate pleas for mercy, but their cries have fallen on deaf ears in Heaven, with the Lord refusing to stem the raging waters.

Though regretful over the severity of God's punishment, Mideast peace negotiators nonetheless praised Him for coming up with the first-ever viable solution to the ongoing crisis.

"Yahweh, or Allah, depending on what name you choose to call Him, has finally brought to bear upon this place a direct route to peace," said former president Jimmy Carter, who in 1978 brokered the Camp David Accords, one of the region's many short-lived peace agreements. "Lord knows that I and many others before and since Camp David have done our best to find a way for these two peoples to stop the killing and hatred, to no avail. But God, in His infinite wisdom, realized that it just isn't worth it anymore, and that the best thing to do is cut His losses, drown the whole lot of them, and start fresh once the raging waters subside."

In spite of repeated warnings from God, the flood came as a major surprise to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, who believed He would keep the promise He made following the Great Flood of Noah never to drown the planet again. Confident that God would honor the "Rainbow Covenant," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected the 11th-hour peace deal proposed by the joint U.S. and Saudi delegation.

"I believe Arafat and Sharon thought the Lord was bluffing and wrongly assumed they could call His bluff rather than make peace with each other," said Timothy Uselmann, a professor at Harvard's Center For Middle Eastern Studies. "Evidently, they were wrong. God has sent a strong message here: Obey His commands, or face certain peril at His hand."

Speaking on behalf of the Lord, an unnamed, non-denominational representative of Heaven said: "God only promised humanity that He would never again flood the entire Earth. He never said He wouldn't flood specific areas."

The most recent, clearest sign of the Second Deluge came last Thursday, when a tersely worded press statement from God's angelic hosts ominously stated, "If there are any species native to the area that you would prefer not to see go extinct, we strongly suggest you begin gathering them two by two."

In spite of this and other such warnings, Palestinian suicide bombings and the Israeli military's West Bank tank assault continued after God's April 21 cease-fire deadline passed.

"For too long, thou hast ignored the entreaties of thy Lord to let go of your wickedness and hatred and live together in peace, My children," God said. "Thou hast refused the lion to lie down with the lamb, and My rod and staff have been of no comfort to you. Instead, you have continued to kill each other without ceasing. The time has come for that to stop. You want to keep running each other over with tanks and strapping dynamite to yourselves, killing women and children in pursuit of your extremist political positions, that's just fine. Let's see how well you carry out your murderous agendas under 800 feet of water."

one reason this is "news" is that the bowling alley hosted many pro-Israel
groups who now went into shock for making Arafat richer.

reason two is this is a favorite hangout of Rudy Gulianni,who hated Arafat and didnt want to let him in New York.

So what your telling me is that when the Republicans find out who is/was a founding investor in JetBlue it will be news also.