Yasser Arafat
A 9 month investigation has revealed that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was likely poisoned with a radioactive element in 2004, causing his death.
Levels of Polonium found on some of Arafat’s personal effects registered “more than 20 times the dose to kill an average human being,” Al Jazeera reports. The same element killed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Al Jazeera initiated the investigation. The tests were carried out at The Institute de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland.
More importantly, tests reveal that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analyzed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” said Dr. Francois Bochud, the director of the institute.
……
[P]olonium’s most famous victim was Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian spy-turned-dissident who died in London in 2006 after a lingering illness…..Litvinenko suffered severe diarrhea, weight loss, and vomiting, all of which were symptoms Arafat exhibited in the days and weeks after he initially fell ill.
The French hospital that treated Arafat has all the data about his illness and death
afai knew they refused to release the information on the grounds of respect to privacy
of his family (ie his wife Suha) that refused to release the information to the public.
So this is all very interesting.
I wonder why they are stirring this now.
Is this what it is, in your mind? Stirring? annoying someone? Creating problem out of spite? If tomorrow it will come to light that according to impeccable sources it was found that Netanyahu’s brother in Entebbe was killed by Israeli gun, would you also think that releasing this info would be spiteful? Stirring?
Are you finding no news value in the implication? Is poisoning ok as long as it doesn’t inconvenience Israel?
Your flippant post shows complete inhumanity of your response to a death of human being. Is this the first reaction that comes to your mind when people question gas chambers of Auschwitz? Gassing people was, like, soooo long ago? Why stir it now?
“I wonder why they are stirring this now.”
Yeah, it couldn’t be “hey, this is interesting news. It appears that Arafat was assassinated using nuclear material.” No, they must have some devious reason. You know those inscrutable Arabs, always up to something.
It’s no secret that your Eastern European brethren — aka Israelis — tried to kill the man; looks like they succeeded.
I agree with all of the comments below, but you might also like to know that polonium is not a conventional poison and was not among one of the ones they tested for back in 2004.
roya, something tells me oleg was more interested in getting first comment than opening the links and reading the article, which explains that, and that his wife cooperated with the investigation. thanks.
“I wonder why they are stirring this now.”
Feb 8 2012 Ronen Bergman, Israeli journalist & mouthpiece re assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist and possible Israeli use of MEK “from the day of its establishment Israel has used assassination more than any other country in the world . . .hoping that by taking out individuals they can change history. . . .I think it is morally justified . . .Once your archnemisis is labeled as ‘Hitler’ all means are justifiable to protect your people . . .”
June 30 2012 David Pollock of WINEP on C Span Washington Journal re Syria & efforts to remove Assad from power:
Caller: Wouldn’t it be a good idea to assassinate Assad?
Pollock: Yes. There are indications it’s been tried. One of Assad’s associates was poisoned; he was hospitalized but he did not die. It is very hard to assassinate someone.
The list of everyone murdered by the Ziobots is a very long one. Lord Moyne, Falke Bernadotte, Ghassan Kanafani, Arafat, Abu Jihad, countless Lebanese civilians, Sheikh Yassin, thousands of Egyptian soldiers and on and on.
The funny thing is that violence hasn’t worked for them . They could have had a stable state by now but they don’t. And soon they will lose it.
Zionism is vicious.
Seafoid said:
“The funny thing is that violence hasn’t worked for them . They could have had a stable state by now but they don’t. And soon they will lose it.
Seafoid, I think you may find the article by Akiva Eldar linked below of interest.
link to nationalinterest.org
Thanks, lobewyper
That brings it all together. The growth of the Haredi population, the fact they are not educated, their position on the far right of the political spectrum- all of these mean the secular Israelis are in trouble.
Israel is like a car that is moving at speed that will fall apart if it stops.
several factoids gleaned from lectures on Jewish & Israeli history:
In the early 20th century, population of Jews in Europe, especially Germany & Austria, skyrocketed, due to a combination of migration from Poland & Russia to Germany & Vienna, where universities were best, as well as from high birth rates.
High reproduction rates were noticed mostly among Slavic Jews, generally ultra orthodox.
According to his biographer, Vladimir Jabotinsky was repulsed by orthodox Jews. So was Arthur Ruppin, who put them on the bottom of the list of acceptable “human material” eligible for migration to zionist Palestine.
Jews in Germany, likewise, were none too pleased with the presence of so many orthodox Jews, and their American German Jewish brothers shared the sentiment. They made collections to try to keep all these low-born Jews from embarrassing established Jews in Germany and USA, but it was not a happy form of philanthropy.
The growth of a similar class of Jews in Israel must create a similar dynamic among Israel’s Jewish elite.
Jewry is on a trajectory to civil war.
Will a ‘new zionism’ emerge to solve the new “Jewish question?”
That’s the curse of having a land of your own — the land has windows, and people can see how you conduct yourself inside your own land.
It is just past 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time and NPR has yet to mention this in their hourly news, though they had a moment to mention what happens when Palestininian refugees in Syria attempt to enter Jordan. For a media so disproportionately Jewish, this is a tough story — Do they think it will dissappear?
==============================================================
From Uri Avnery:
On the way back from Arafat’s funeral in 2004, I ran into Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Israeli Knesset. I asked him if he believed that Arafat was murdered. Zahalka, a doctor of pharmacology, answered “Yes!” without hesitation. That was my feeling too. But a hunch is not proof. It is only a product of intuition, common sense and experience.
Recently we got a kind of confirmation. Just before he died last month, Uri Dan, Ariel Sharon’s loyal mouthpiece for almost 50 years, published a book in France. It includes a report of a conversation Sharon told him about, with President Bush. Sharon asked for permission to kill Arafat and Bush gave it to him, with the proviso that it must be done undetectably. When Dan asked Sharon whether it had been carried out, Sharon answered: “It’s better not to talk about that.” Dan took this as confirmation.
link to guardian.co.uk
Given the power relationship that exists between the United States and Israel, I find it surprising that Sharon would ask Bush for permission to do anything. More likely he told Bush what he planned to do and named a date by which he expected the US to have provided any necessary assistance.
Too hot for Huffington Post.
Actually, it would be quite cold. Polonium 210 has a half life of about 138 days.
Since Arafat died 1n 2004, the amount has decreased considerably.
In fact, there would be less than 1 millionth of the original amount of Polonium 210 remaining.
Maybe too hot for HufPo and NPR but wikipedia has the story.
A 50 minute documentary on the Al Jazeera investigation.
link to aje.me
Suha Arafat has requested that her husband’s body be exhumed and the PA has agreed. No date has been announced.
wow, thanks Ira
I guess it’s understandable that Russians might kill Litvinenko, but why would they do in Arafat? I assume whoever it was didn’t want people to know they killed Arafat, but in using the same method, doesn’t one think that it could have been the same people. By the way, Litv. had converted to Islam before going down. Strange.
The Jazeera piece does’t infer Russians killed Arafat.
It does cover Israeli threats against Arafat’s life in the years before he was killed – Ira links above to the full AJ piece, well worth a watch.
Kudos to Clayton Swisher.
“The Jazeera piece does’t infer Russians killed Arafat. ”
I think you mean “The Jazeera piece doesn’t imply Russians killed Arafat.”
Definitely knot.
Why point to Russia ? Any other hints ? :
According to the book The Bomb in the Basement, several death cases in Israel during 1957–1969 were caused by 210Po.[70] A leak was discovered at a Weizmann Institute laboratory in 1957. Traces of 210Po were found on the hands of professor Dror Sadeh, a physicist who researched radioactive materials. Medical tests indicated no harm, but the tests did not include bone marrow. Sadeh died from cancer. One of his students died of leukemia, and two colleagues died after a few years, both from cancer. The issue was investigated secretly, and there was never any formal admission that a connection between the leak and the deaths had existed.[71]
link to en.wikipedia.org
Did you read the linked report? There’s no reason it had to be the Russians.
I don’t see that anyone here is implicating Russia . . .yet. They’re just pointing out the same effective modus was used by the Russians in a prior hit. But now that you ask. . .
Why would the Russians kill Arafat? 1) Russia was “reimbursing” Israel for the US secret documents Pollard stole. 2) Russia had access to Arafat.
If that story about Bush signing off on the hit is true, wouldn’t it be ironic if Israel pulled it off by calling in a favor from Putin for the US documents? Wouldn’t be the first time Israel played both sides of a fence. Nor Russia.
The interesting thing is that these isotopes have signatures. It might show up as the same batch that killed Litvinenko 2 years later. The half-life is fairly short, but it only takes micro-gram quantities to kill.
Another interesting thing is (and there’s lots of interesting things here): why in the world did they go public before the final results were in? Who will get to these Swiss scientists before Arafat’s decomposed body parts arrive, Mossad or the FSB? Or maybe the CIA, since Obama keeps his own hit list.
Well, I think the “whodunnit” part is obvious. Who had means, motive, and opportunity?
Hint: Mossad.
According to Litvinenko’s father, there is a link between Litvinenko’s death and Alex Goldfarb, friend of dissident oligarch Berezovsky; who worked in Kurchatov institute of Atomic Energy in Moskow and later studied in Weizmann institute in Israel.
@W. Jones
I think the most likely perpetrators are the Mossad or a rival faction among the Palestinians. Mossad has the history of similar crimes. i.e. Khalid Meshal. And there is a rumor. See Uri Avnery above.
Fahmi Shabana (Shabaneh), according to the Voice of Israel radio told some radio host over a year ago that Arafat was poisoned with polonium. He also said the culprits were Palestinian.
I read that polonium has a signature and that it is possible to trace it back to its source.
How would a rival faction of Palestinians have access to polonium? Surely only if somebody gave it to them. Who?
They bought it at the “Grasping At Any Straw To Deflect From The Fact That Israel Did This Crime” store.
“I think the most likely perpetrators are the Mossad or a rival faction among the Palestinians.”
You need a nuclear program to produce polonium, and the Palestinians don’t have such a program. The polonium has to come, ultimately, from a nuclear power. Of course, it’s possible for Israel to have colluded with Palestinians rivals to poison Arafat.
I do find it strange that only now I suddenly hear that Litvinenko had converted to islam. I saw that also in the Justin Raymondo piece. But it’s funny that I can’t remember seeing anything to that effect at the time, and I read much about the Litvinenko poisoning.
Is it my memory or is the claim false or was there some reason that this was not an important piece of information to include in the many news accounts of the time?
I must admit – I never doubted it was Lugovoi (there, the name came back to me) and the Russians that did Litvinenko in. What was never convincing were the reasons why they’d want to go to the trouble and take such a risk.
I start smelling little fishies….
“I never doubted it was … the Russians that did Litvinenko in”
That was the official story, so I never really believed it.
Danaa
I recall his father talking about it at the time of his death, so it must be somewhere online.
What this does also is raise questions about Litvinenko’s murder. It might have been a complicated tale than just a Russian revenge plot. In fact, it would have to be very complicated because the Russian would-be culprit (forgot his name now) would have had to be contaminated as wll. Plus, who knows what the motive was? at the time the Mossad conspiracy did n0t make sense to me because I did not see the benefit. But it is possible that we were not aware of all the issues surrounding Litvinenko and/or the news and accounts may have been themselves “contaminated”. BTW, if that is what actually happened then hats off to the Mossad – it was a heck of a FFO.
I remember a very pro-Israel friend tell me during Arafat’s days: “Arafat got to go – then everything will work out all right.” Arafat is gone now since 2004 – nothing worked out all right.
On 9/18/1997 (then) Brigadier General Baruch Spiegel gave a talk at Brown University. According to my notes, one of the things he said was that “if anything should happen to Arafat” the results would be very bad because there was no Palestinian figure able to replace him in terms of readiness for leadership or breadth of support in Palestinian society. I interpreted this in light of press leaks at that time to the effect the option of having Arafat assassinated was being considered by ruling circles in Israel and the US. That is, I suspected that Spiegel was trying to issue a warning and oppose the idea. It was naturally assumed that decisions regarding who should represent the Palestinians and whether they should live or die are made by Israel and the US.
I wonder why they chose a means of poisoning him that could so easily be tied to a nuclear power.
Almost as if they wanted it to be obvious that they had done it.
@lysias
“Almost as if they wanted it to be obvious that they had done it.”
I do not know if you could say “they wanted it to be obvious.” After all, it took 8 years and then a 9 month investigation to get this far. Getting away with murdering someone as famous as Arafat is not so easy.
If it was Israel, they did a lot better this time than their attempt on Khalid Meshaal.
Israel does like to make sure everybody knows what she did sometimes. Remember that Dubai assassination? They couldn’t have been that clumsy.
Note that such behavior does serve a couple of purposes. First, it obviously intimidates anyone who would oppose Israel. Secondly, every time it happens, and no one says anything, it serves to create a tacit right for Israel to kill whomever she likes, wherever she likes, however she likes.
The use of Po-210 to poison someone has to be one of the worst ways if the goal is to disguise the act. Remember the Litvenko poisening — he left a trail of radioactivity all over London and there was also a trail found leading up to the assassination scene.
It is hard to imagine that if Arafat had a lethal dose when admitted to the French hospital that the radioactivity would not have been detected. Strange story. I have always agreed with Avnery that Arafat was poisoned but would have thought a more subtle means would have been used. The Po-210 would have experienced 15 half-lives since Arafats death but there would likely still be traces today and the decay product, Pb-206 might also provide evidence. So it should be possible to prove that in fact Po-210 was indeed the toxin if they exhume his body.
It’s likely that the French government and by extension its security services knew that Arafat was poisoned — and by whom — but chose to feign ignorance lest they get themselves tangled in an international mess.
Andrei Lugovoi, suspect in Litvinenko poisoning, was himself poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 link to bbc.co.uk
The Russian oligarchs behind scammers like Jack Abramoff, now back Romney who recently said the current anti-oligarch Russian govt is “enemy #1″.
link to rt.com
RE: “A 9 month investigation has revealed that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was likely poisoned with a radioactive element in 2004, causing his death. Levels of Polonium found on some of Arafat’s personal effects registered ‘more than 20 times the dose to kill an average human being’, Al Jazeera reports.” ~ Annie Robbins
ALSO SEE: “Who Killed Yasser Arafat? Now we know he was poisoned – but by whom?”, by Jason Raimondo, Antiwar.com, 7/04/12
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to original.antiwar.com
P.S. ALSO SEE: “If Arafat were still alive”, by Uri Avnery, Guardian.co.uk, 1/30/07
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to guardian.co.uk
P.P.S. RE: “Uri Dan. . . published a book. . . It includes a report of a conversation Sharon told him about, with President Bush. Sharon asked for permission to kill Arafat and Bush gave it to him, with the proviso that it must be done undetectably.” ~ Uri Avnery (above)
ALSO SEE: “Sharon won’t rule out attack on Arafat”, by The Associated Press, 4/23/04
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to usatoday.com
RE: “Who Killed Yasser Arafat? Now we know he was poisoned – but by whom?, by Jason Raimondo…” – me (above)
CORRECTION: I meant Justin Raimondo, of course. Take note, Annie “Roberts”!
P.S. RE – “CORRECTION: I meant Justin Raimondo…” – me
ADDENDUM: Apparently it’s one of “those” days ! ! ! I expect/suspect beaucoup dyslexic errors.
There’s been a lot of unsecured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union. It wouldn’t be the first time that GOI was able to procure nuclear materials from out of the way sources.
RE: “It wouldn’t be the first time that GOI was able to procure nuclear materials from out of the way sources.” ~ Rusty Pipes
FROM AL JAZEERA (by Gregg Carlstrom, Last Modified: 04 Jul 2012 15:05):
SOURCE – link to aljazeera.com
P.S. FROM JUSTIN RAIMONDO, 7/04/12:
SOURCE – link to original.antiwar.com
“…and Israel (sic?)…”
That really takes the cake. Probably in absolute terms, and certainly proportional to its size, Israel conducts more covert international assassinations than any other country on the planet. This leaves aside everything else she does. It is definitely reasonable to describe her as ‘a particular terrorist threat.’
[Why was it missed by hospital technicians?]
Ingesting Just one microgram is fatal – and becasue it only emits very shallow penetrating alpha particles, it is very hard to detect even as the person is dying from the alpha bombardment of their organ and marrow cells – the symptoms of such being very nonspecific and ambiguous. Thus, if handled with extreme care so that the poisoner does not himself become poisoned, it is the perfect tool of the cloak-and-dagger trade.
link to commondreams.org
Lexis/Nexis says the NY Times mentioned polonium and Litvinenko in 97 articles
Lexis/Nexis says the NY Times mentioned polonium and Arafat in 1 article
Here it is complete with code words “might,” “contradicted,” “resurrected”, + “conspiracy,” “theories,” “Twitter,” — The Times missed the irony of its mention that Arafat died “mysteriously,” of “unnannounced causes,” from an infection that was “mysterious,” and that the Palestinian inquiry into his death was “inconclusive.”
July 4, 2012 Wednesday
Late Edition – Final
Al Jazeera Says Arafat Might Have Been Poisoned
BYLINE: By RICK GLADSTONE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Foreign Desk; WORLD BRIEFING MIDDLE EAST; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 176 words
The widow of Yasir Arafat, the father figure of Palestinian nationalism who mysteriously died more than seven years ago, said she would seek permission to exhume his remains for an inquest, after a report by Al Jazeera that said he might have been poisoned with polonium, a rare radioactive isotope. The report, which contradicted Mr. Arafat’s medical records, resurrected conspiracy theories on Twitter that he had been killed by agents of Israel or by Palestinian rivals. Al Jazeera said its report was based on traces of polonium found on his underwear and other belongings given by his widow, Suha, to the Institute of Radiation Physics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Mr. Arafat, left, fell ill in October 2004 and died at a hospital in France on Nov. 11 of unannounced causes. He was 75. An inconclusive Palestinian inquiry in 2005 ruled out cancer, AIDS or poisoning. His medical records, obtained by The New York Times that year, showed that he had died of a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by a mysterious infection.
Washington Post article also on an inside page of the first section of today’s print edition: Yasser Arafat’s body may be exhumed to investigate claims that he was poisoned.
But note that the most recent AP report has the PA leadership backing down from automatically approved the exhumation: Aide: Palestinian leader seeks more information from Swiss lab before ruling on Arafat autopsy:
If they don’t allow the exhumation, they will not only foster the belief that Arafat really was poisoned, they will open themselves to the suspicion that they were involved in the poisoning.
Let’s cut to the chase. Israel is implicated and as Meshal said, Arafat recognized Israel and look where it got him?
Hamas are right. Israel was never interested in peace. Zionism wants it all and there is no room for Palestinians in Erez Israel Hashlemah
Here are some interesting comments to a Jerusalem Post article – 7/5/2012
ANALYST: POLONIUM FOUND ON ARAFAT’S CLOTHING WAS PLANTED
iCry•3 hours ago
“Every single thing having to do with these Arabs is fraudulent.”
ichisonsarason•an hour ago•parent
“I am starting to believe there’s something wrong with their genes.”
Paul•32 minutes ago•parent
“Inbreeding, that and having sex with farm animals over thousands of years tends to screw up an entire race of people.”
klaus, as i mentioned earlier the beastiality accusations are very popular in zio circles. nasrallah too. so silly. 6th grade humor. they might as well be telling fart jokes.
I would just like to point to the fact that the above comments are straight anti-Arab racism – unlike cultural islamophobia.
If Deepa Kumar (author of ‘Islamophobia’) wore a hijab and I would say: ‘She looks stupid with her hijab, uptight, inhibited, somehow un-American’ – that would be cultural dislike.
But if I said: ‘Her hijab-inhibition is due to her Arab ancestors “having had sex with their farm animals over thousands of years, that screwed up her entire race”‘ – that would be straight racism.
Not really. Fart jokes aren’t exactly edifying — but they’re harmless enough.
The accusations of inbreeding and bestiality serve to reduce Arabs from human beings to vermin — and that is an essential preliminary to extermination.
Uri Avnery has now weighed in on this:
Sharon’s Lethal Obsession
Poisoning Arafat
by URI AVNERY
Tel Aviv.
For me, there was no surprise. From the very first day, I was convinced that Yasser Arafat had been poisoned by Ariel Sharon. I even wrote about it several times.
It was a simple logical conclusion.
[For the complete article in today's Counterpunch
link to counterpunch.org ]