The story of a man who is known as Khalid Salam (or Muhammad Rashid) should be told some day. This is a man who was nicknamed by Yasir `Arafat as "al-Jasus" (the spy), but `Arafat would allow people he suspected of being spies to get close to him because he thought (foolishly of course) that he was penetrating or infiltrating foreign intelligence service. This man first came to Lebanon as a member of a small Iraqi communist group and fought in the Lebanese civil war alongside the Lebanese-Palestinianian coalition. He then joined Arafat's entourage under mysterious circumstances. No one knew how he rose, but that he was very good with numbers. In the Oslo period, his influence grew and he aligned himself with Muhammad Dahlan. A highly reliable source told me that the PLO came to a well-known law firm in London a few years ago and submitted to them paper work regarding the missing $1.2 billion of PLO funds. After studying the case, the law firm told the PLO officials that they have a strong case agaisnt Khalid Salam. `Arafat, however, did not want to proceed against Salam but he distanced himself from him (and from Dahlan) until his sudden illness when both Dahlan and Salam flew to Paris with Arafat and prevented others from getting close to him. Salam now lives in Cairo and it is not known what role he is playing. He in fact has become quite close to Sayf Al-Islam Al-Qadhdhafi (and they do business together) and there is a theory that Rashid was the one who convinced the Libyan regime to shift and to align itself with the US after the Amerian invasion of Iraq. If you care about the Palestinian movement and run into this man, you are obligated to spit (spitting is offensive in Arab culture but is a sign of affection and tenderness in Western cultures).
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Khalid Salam (Muhammad Rashid): the story of massive embezzlement and espionage
The story of a man who is known as Khalid Salam (or Muhammad Rashid) should be told some day. This is a man who was nicknamed by Yasir `Arafat as "al-Jasus" (the spy), but `Arafat would allow people he suspected of being spies to get close to him because he thought (foolishly of course) that he was penetrating or infiltrating foreign intelligence service. This man first came to Lebanon as a member of a small Iraqi communist group and fought in the Lebanese civil war alongside the Lebanese-Palestinianian coalition. He then joined Arafat's entourage under mysterious circumstances. No one knew how he rose, but that he was very good with numbers. In the Oslo period, his influence grew and he aligned himself with Muhammad Dahlan. A highly reliable source told me that the PLO came to a well-known law firm in London a few years ago and submitted to them paper work regarding the missing $1.2 billion of PLO funds. After studying the case, the law firm told the PLO officials that they have a strong case agaisnt Khalid Salam. `Arafat, however, did not want to proceed against Salam but he distanced himself from him (and from Dahlan) until his sudden illness when both Dahlan and Salam flew to Paris with Arafat and prevented others from getting close to him. Salam now lives in Cairo and it is not known what role he is playing. He in fact has become quite close to Sayf Al-Islam Al-Qadhdhafi (and they do business together) and there is a theory that Rashid was the one who convinced the Libyan regime to shift and to align itself with the US after the Amerian invasion of Iraq. If you care about the Palestinian movement and run into this man, you are obligated to spit (spitting is offensive in Arab culture but is a sign of affection and tenderness in Western cultures).
