HMM. Maybe these stories of European support for Palestinian terrorism as a diplomatic move against America (“Schroeder claims that the EU funds Palestinian organisations, well aware that much of the funding ends up in the hands of terrorists. While Schroeder says that the EU does not exactly intend to wage war on Israel, it hopes that a deepening conflict in the region will highlight America’s inability to mediate a satisfactory peace deal – and that Europe will then be able to ride to the rescue.”) have finally started to generate some blowback.

At least, we’re suddenly seeing stories like this:

French prosecutors have launched a money-laundering probe into suspected million dollar transfers to accounts held by the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

I wonder how much of this is because of increased leverage — and intelligence — now that Saddam is in custody and, reportedly, talking. There’s more in this story:

In a parallel development, investigators from the European Union anti-fraud office (OLAF), who are looking into allegations that the PA diverted money from European donors into terror activity, have concluded that documents the IDF seized during Operation Protective Shield are authentic.

As the first story notes, this is the fruit of Ilka Schroeder’s very public effort to get the EU to account for this money — though I suspect that fears that the United States will reveal details of Saddam’s financial dealings are playing a role, too.