Why Did Abbas Really Resign?

Day before he 'quit,' his brother dropped from Jordan fraud case

September 15, 2003
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

In what some Middle East intelligence sources believe is too remarkable to be coincidence, Mahmoud Abbas resigned as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority one day after multimillion dollar fraud charges were dropped against his younger brother, Ahmad Abbas, by the kingdom of Jordan, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

While the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas received a massive amount of international media attention, the case of his brother, Ahmad, was dealt with secretly by Jordan's State Security Court just one day before.

To all appearances, Mahmoud Abbas, 68, was involved in a power struggle with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. While Abbas was increasingly unpopular with the Palestinian Arab Parliament, he was the choice of leaders in Washington and Jerusalem as a negotiating partner.

Most observers believe Abbas was forced out of the prime minister job by Arafat. Abbas served only four months as prime minister but represented the great hope of those in the United States and Israel who believed the so-called "road map" to peace and a plan for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 hinged on a more reasonable leader than Arafat.

While officially blaming Israel for unwillingness to compromise as the reason for his resignation, Abbas was reportedly stung by accusations from leaders of his own Fatah party that he betrayed the Palestinian cause. Abbas demanded control over all security forces, but Arafat reportedly refused to relinquish that power.

But mysteriously, the day before the resignation, Jordan's State Security Court asked the prosecution in a $484.5 million fraud case against Abbas' younger brother Ahmad, 63, not to pursue the charges. Ahmad Abbas and a co-defendant, Bader al-Hirsh, reportedly agreed to repay some $42 million of the money embezzled through the use of fraudulent tenders to secure loans.

Ahmad Abbas carried a Jordanian passport and was believed to be in Qatar. He was being tried in absentia.

Abbas faced up to 15 years in prison. Four other co-defendants in the case, Majd Al-Shamayleh, Ayman Al-Shamayleh, both of whom pleaded guilty, and Ismat Haddad and Ali Seif, have all been recommended for maximum sentences by the military prosecutor. However, Haddad and Seif, too, are being tried in absentia.

The indictment of all defendants was handed down July 27 – just a little more than halfway through Mahmoud Abbas' brief, four-month reign as prime minister.

Altogether, the group was accused of a scam using 108 fake tenders involving a total of $484.5 million. Among those already convicted in the case is the former head of Jordan's intelligence department, Sameeh Battikhi. He is currently serving four years in jail.

But G2 Bulletin asks whether the dropping of charges against Ahmad Abbas in an otherwise high-profile Jordanian fraud case could have been part of a deal to secure the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas?

On the surface, King Abdullah of Jordan has been a strong supporter of Mahmoud Abbas and the peace process he led. Abdullah and his late father King Hussein both had uneasy relationships with Arafat.

Would Jordan want Abbas out of the way? If so, why?

One theory among intelligence analysts, reports G2 Bulletin, is that the removal of Abbas would lead exactly where it has led in the days since – to increased pressure for the exile of Arafat.

But that's just one theory. Here's another offered by G2 Bulletin's sources: Arafat is one of the wealthiest men in the Middle East. He has siphoned off so much of the Palestinian Arab wealth over the last 40 years, his personal fortune is estimated in the billions. Did Arafat agree to arrange repayment of the money Abbas' brother stood accused of embezzling in exchange for the resignation?

There are even more possibilities. And it gets even more complicated. Battikhi claims he was framed. His pleas of innocence have some convinced.

His trial was conducted entirely in secret. The testimony against him came from the Al-Shamaylehs. What's hard to believe for many is that Battikhi would choose this time in his life to abuse his authority for a payoff – even a relatively big one. He was once the country's most powerful man.

Four years ago, when King Hussein lay on his American death-bed, Battikhi, in effect, ran the kingdom. Colleagues dubbed him the kingmaker when he removed Hussein's patient brother, Hassan, from the succession, and put Abdullah, the king's son, on the throne instead.

But then, say the king's friends, he became hungry for reward. Not content with being intelligence chief, he aspired to such titles as prime minister or chief of the royal court. Abdullah, not caring for this, booted him gently upstairs to the Senate. But he continued to talk – including to such friends as Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet.

Some Jordanian sources say he blabbed to the Americans about the smuggling of Iraqi oil, allowed for Jordan's domestic consumption, to Egypt. In his last interview before his conviction, he accused senior politicians of being on the Iraqi regime's payroll. Jordan, he charged, had been taking money and praise from America while passing militarily sensitive technology and intelligence to Saddam. When Battikhi protested, he says, he was dumped.

Jordan has a historically strange – and sometimes strained relationship – with the Palestinian movement. Most of Jordan's population is Palestinian. In the early 1970s, Arafat sought to exploit this demographic reality by basing his terrorist operations there and virtually taking over the country. Eventually, King Hussein declared Arafat was on the Palestinian Liberation Organization and chased him and his guerrillas from the country.

Hussein later made peace with Israel.

If there is a real Arab-world rival to the Palestinian Authority as a representative of the Palestinian Arab people, some believe it is Jordan.

Whether any light will be shed on the mystery of the Abbas brothers when King Abdullah II visits the U.S. this week remains to be seen. His goal? He says: "Ensuring support for the Palestinian position." The king will be meeting with President Bush Friday "in a Jordanian attempt to urge the American administration to hurry the implementation of the roadmap."

The king pledges to support the new Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, the same way "we have supported the government of Abu Maze (Mahmoud Abbas).

He added that if the U.S. wants the government to succeed "there should be pressure on Israel to stop its provocations and the policy of assassination to ensure its security and prevent more attacks on its civilians."

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