Allegations of corruption, praise for terrorists not obstacles
The U.S. government recently awarded a batch of contracts worth up to $300 million to Palestinian construction companies, including a firm targeted in a Palestinian Authority corruption probe.
PA Prosecutor-General Ahmed al-Mughni, likewise, survived the investigation, having escaped a car-bomb assassination attempt related to his probe of Tarifi Contracting & Reconstruction Co., other companies and PA officials, the Jerusalem Post reported at the time.
The chairman of Tarifi Contracting is H. E. Jamil Al Tarifi, the former PA civil affairs minister. At the time of the investigation, he reportedly co-owned the firm with his brother, Jamal, who currently is not listed on the company roster. Neither man was implicated in the assassination attempt.
The Tarifi organization had come under fire for indirectly selling tens of thousands of tons of cement that the Israelis ultimately used in building the West Bank separation wall and settlements there and in Gaza. PA officials also were investigated for failing to collect taxes on the sale and import of the cement, which came from Egypt.
Now the Obama administration, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, has awarded indefinite quantity contracts, or IQCs, to the Tarifi Company and five other Palestinian firms, according to procurement documents WND located via routine database research.
Continued at WND.com...