And a Thief, Too: Yasser Arafat takes what he likes.

President Bush's call to change the Palestinian leadership and to bring reform, accountability, and transparency to the Palestinian Authority should focus attention on the financial corruption of Arafat's regime. Before Bush's speech, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, accurately summed up the situation in the San Jose Mercury News: "Frankly, the Palestinian Authority, which is corrupt and cavorts with terror, . . . is not the basis for a Palestinian state moving forward." Judging by the response of Yasser Arafat and his lieutenants, however, no such change is likely anytime soon.

How corrupt is the PA? How much money have Arafat et al. stashed away? Where did the money come from? How long have we known about it?

The first public evidence that Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization had at least $10 billion came to light when the Pakistani-owned rogue Bank of Credit and Commerce International was shut down by the Bank of England on July 5, 1991. Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) published its own estimate of the PLO's loot in a 1993 briefing paper on organizations threatening the UK, calling it "the richest of all terrorist organizations." NCIS estimated the PLO's ill-gotten gains at $8-10 billion. In addition, the PLO enjoyed an annual income of about $1.5-2 billion from "donations, extortion, payoffs, illegal arms dealing, drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, etc."

In the U.S., the General Accounting Office investigation of Arafat and the PA's wealth in November 1995 was kept secret because the CIA insisted that the publicity would hurt the "national security interest." This despite the CIA's own report in 1990 that the PLO had $8-14 billion.

Then came the Oslo accords. Following the 1993 ceremony on the White House lawn, Arafat pleaded poverty and set out, hat in hand, on a world aid tour, claiming that the peace process would collapse without financial support from the international community.

Exactly how much money Arafat and his gang have pocketed is hard to ascertain. But the conspicuous consumption of Arafat and his inner circle -- rows of ostentatious villas, shopping sprees in Paris, and late-model Mercedes-Benzes -- has not gone unnoticed by ordinary Palestinians, who live in dismal conditions.

When $326 million disappeared from PA coffers in 1996, the Palestinian Legislative Council established a special commission to investigate corruption within the PA. The ensuing report found that nearly 40 percent of the PA's $800 million annual budget (coming mostly from foreign aid) had been lost through corruption and mismanagement. The PA's comptroller wrote: "The overall picture is one of a Mafia-style government, where the main point of being in public office is to get rich quick." Arafat suppressed the report but promised reform.