New Study Into Yasser Arafat’s Death Suggests He Was Killed By Polonium Poisoning

Yasser-Arafat-palestinian-leader-poisoned

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have died after being poisoned
by polonium, a new investigation suggests. His widow is now certain his
death was not natural, and wants his body exhumed for further study.

­A nine-month
investigation conducted by Al-Jazeera has concluded that Arafat’s
personal belongings contained abnormally high levels of polonium, a rare
and highly radioactive element.

The items, including his clothing, his
toothbrush, and even his iconic kaffiyeh, were supplied to Al-Jazeera by
his widow, Suha Arafat. They were then analyzed at the Institut de
Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“I can confirm to
you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported
(unnatural) polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained
stains of biological fluids,” said Dr. Francois Bochud, the director of the institute.

Scientists
found that the amount of polonium on some of Arafat’s belongings was
ten times higher than that on control subjects.

For example, his
urine-stained underwear contained 180 millibecquerels (mBq) of polonium,
compared to a control subject’s count of 6.7 mBq. Arafat’s toothbrushes
also had an elevated polonium level of 54 mBq.

The uncovered
traces of polonium, however, are mere fractions of what could have been
the cause of Arafat’s death.

The polonium-210 isotope has a half-life of
138 days, meaning half of the substance decays every four and half
months.

Given that Arafat died almost eight years ago, the current
amount of polonium present would be less than one two-millionth of the
original amount.

Additional tests indicate that most of the polonium in Arafat’s belongings was “unsupported,” meaning it came from unnatural sources.

Arafat’s death was “not natural”

 Doctors
in Lausanne also ruled out other possible causes of Arafat’s death. At
one time or another, there were claims he had died from leukemia,
cirrhosis of the liver, and even AIDS.

“There was no liver cirrhosis, apparently no traces of cancer, no leukemia,” Dr. Patrice Mangin, the head of the Institute of Legal Medicine at the Lausanne University, stated to Al-Jazeera.

“Concerning HIV, AIDS – there was no sign, and the symptomology was not suggesting these things.”

The
conclusions were based on documentation, rather than firsthand
examination of bodily fluid samples. Scientists in Lausanne hoped to
study samples of blood and urine taken from Arafat at the Percy Military
Hospital in France shortly before his death, but the hospital stated
that it had destroyed them.

“I was not satisfied with that answer,” Suha Arafat said. “Usually a very important person, like Yasser, they would keep traces – maybe they don’t want to be involved in it?”

Several of the doctors that treated Arafat also refused to discuss his case, saying it was considered a “military secret.

Suha
Arafat now wants her late husband’s body exhumed to obtain the truth
behind his death. However, that would require her to overcome a number
of legal hurdles; first obtaining permission to exhume the body from the
Palestinian Authority, and then receiving a formal sanction from the
Israeli government to take bone samples out of the West Bank.

Nevertheless, Suha Arafat is satisfied that at least some light on what killed her husband has been shed.

“We got into this very, very painful conclusion, but at least this removes this great burden on me, on my chest,” she explained.

“At
least I’ve done something to explain to the Palestinian people, to the
Arab and Muslim generation all over the world, that it was not a natural
death, it was a crime.”

Arafat was the founder of the
Fatah movement, and became the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO), the principal political organization of the
Palestinians, in 1967.

The Arafat-led PLO was hostile towards Israel
throughout most of the next two decades, but in 1993, Arafat and
then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Peace Accords,
establishing Palestinian self-government. Arafat was elected President
of the Palestinian Authority in 1996.

Negotiations between
the Palestinian Authority and Israel largely broke down with the start
of the Second Intifada in 2000. In 2002, the Israeli army besieged
Arafat in his Ramallah compound, preventing him from leaving it for the
next two years.

In October 2004, Arafat vomited during a meeting, with
doctors saying he contracted influenza. However, his condition rapidly
deteriorated, and Israel eventually allowed him to be transported to the
Percy Military Hospital in France, where he died on November 11, 2004.

In
the days before his death, Arafat suffered severe diarrhea, vomiting
and weight loss, all of which are signs of polonium poisoning. The same
symptoms were exhibited by former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who
died from polonium poisoning in 2006.

 

July 4, 2012 – RussiaToday

 

Photo…

A handout photo from Palestinian President office (PPO) shows ailing
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat inside the French government jet that
transported him to Paris for medical treatment after suffering a
potentially fatal blood disorder, 29 October 2004. (AFP Photo/Hussein
Hussein)

 

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