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Poisoning Rumors Fail to Die Down
PARIS, 15 November 2004 — With the date of the Palestinian presidential election fixed for Jan.9 , one might expect it to be the hottest topic in the West Bank and Gaza. It is not. What most Palestinians are talking about with most interest is the mystery that still surrounds the cause of Yasser Arafat’s death.
“Arafat is a man of history’” says his personal physician Dr. Ashraf Al-Kurdi. “It is incomprehensible that such a leader could be pronounced dead, honored in a funeral, and buried without announcing what he died of.”
The refusal of the French authorities to reveal the cause of Arafat’s death has set the Middle Eastern rumor mills working overtime. The proverbial “Arab street” is asking whether Arafat might have been the victim of a complex international plot to remove him from the scene as a prelude to an “imposed solution” of the Palestinian problem.
As might have been expected Israel has been accused of having killed Arafat by poisoning. Statements by former Israeli officials about previous plans to liquidate the Palestinian leaders have fanned the fires of such rumors.
French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said yesterday there was no reason to suspect poisoning. “Medically, scientifically, technologically, everything was done in medical terms and by way of treatment, and nothing leads us to suppose there was poisoning,” said Douste-Blazy.
His comments came after the Palestinian representative in France Leila Shahid said earlier yesterday she thought it was possible that Arafat could have been poisoned.
“It is quite possible that he was poisoned because they (the Israelis) have poisoned others,” Shahid said on the private French radio station Europe One. “I cannot tell you that, medically, we have any proof.
“The doctors did not deny it. There is no proof of particular toxins but there are toxins that one does not find in the bodies of sick people.” She pointed out that “still today, there has been no diagnosis. The doctors have only confirmed what they saw, the symptoms. Medical tests cannot reveal everything.”
But she said there was “absolutely no question” of asking for another medical communiqué. “The file has been handed over to his family and we respect French law” on patient confidentiality, she said, but added “I won’t tell you what we will ask his wife.”
Arafat’s family, including his widow and nephew, has deepened the mystery with a series of enigmatic and contradictory statements. They have admitted that they asked the French authorities not to reveal the cause of death. But at the same time they insist there was nothing to hide.
Nasser Al-Qidwa, Arafat’s nephew and Palestinian representative to the United Nations, also demanded explanations in newspaper interviews this weekend.
“We can’t forget that there was no diagnosis and this case must remain open,” Al-Qidwa said in comments published yesterday by the Portuguese newspaper Publico.
“It is the right of the Palestinian people to try to obtain final and clear conclusions regarding this matter.”
Arafat died in Paris last Thursday aged75 . He had been flown on Oct. 29 to France for treatment after tests showed he had a low count of blood platelets. Neither the French hospital where he was treated nor Palestinian officials have announced a cause of death.
Douste-Blazy told Radio J station here only Arafat’s family had had full access to all medical records.
The medical team at the French military hospital where Arafat was treated for a blood disorder had shown the family the records, both while treatment was in progress and in summary, the minister said. “I was not personally acquainted with the files either as a doctor or as health minister,” he admitted.
But he continued: “I can tell you it appears nothing in the medical files indicated that there might have been such a case (of poisoning,) otherwise the legal authorities would have had to take the files in hand.”
“I draw this conclusion while noting that permission was given to bury the remains as a consequence of my certified statement,” he added.
http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=54528&d=15&m=11&y=2004
The refusal of the French authorities to reveal the cause of Arafat’s death has set the Middle Eastern rumor mills working overtime. The proverbial “Arab street” is asking whether Arafat might have been the victim of a complex international plot to remove him from the scene as a prelude to an “imposed solution” of the Palestinian problem.
As might have been expected Israel has been accused of having killed Arafat by poisoning. Statements by former Israeli officials about previous plans to liquidate the Palestinian leaders have fanned the fires of such rumors.
French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said yesterday there was no reason to suspect poisoning. “Medically, scientifically, technologically, everything was done in medical terms and by way of treatment, and nothing leads us to suppose there was poisoning,” said Douste-Blazy.
His comments came after the Palestinian representative in France Leila Shahid said earlier yesterday she thought it was possible that Arafat could have been poisoned.
“It is quite possible that he was poisoned because they (the Israelis) have poisoned others,” Shahid said on the private French radio station Europe One. “I cannot tell you that, medically, we have any proof.
“The doctors did not deny it. There is no proof of particular toxins but there are toxins that one does not find in the bodies of sick people.” She pointed out that “still today, there has been no diagnosis. The doctors have only confirmed what they saw, the symptoms. Medical tests cannot reveal everything.”
But she said there was “absolutely no question” of asking for another medical communiqué. “The file has been handed over to his family and we respect French law” on patient confidentiality, she said, but added “I won’t tell you what we will ask his wife.”
Arafat’s family, including his widow and nephew, has deepened the mystery with a series of enigmatic and contradictory statements. They have admitted that they asked the French authorities not to reveal the cause of death. But at the same time they insist there was nothing to hide.
Nasser Al-Qidwa, Arafat’s nephew and Palestinian representative to the United Nations, also demanded explanations in newspaper interviews this weekend.
“We can’t forget that there was no diagnosis and this case must remain open,” Al-Qidwa said in comments published yesterday by the Portuguese newspaper Publico.
“It is the right of the Palestinian people to try to obtain final and clear conclusions regarding this matter.”
Arafat died in Paris last Thursday aged75 . He had been flown on Oct. 29 to France for treatment after tests showed he had a low count of blood platelets. Neither the French hospital where he was treated nor Palestinian officials have announced a cause of death.
Douste-Blazy told Radio J station here only Arafat’s family had had full access to all medical records.
The medical team at the French military hospital where Arafat was treated for a blood disorder had shown the family the records, both while treatment was in progress and in summary, the minister said. “I was not personally acquainted with the files either as a doctor or as health minister,” he admitted.
But he continued: “I can tell you it appears nothing in the medical files indicated that there might have been such a case (of poisoning,) otherwise the legal authorities would have had to take the files in hand.”
“I draw this conclusion while noting that permission was given to bury the remains as a consequence of my certified statement,” he added.
http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=54528&d=15&m=11&y=2004
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Former White House speechwriter David Frum has joined the growing chorus of pundits, medical experts, and intelligence operatives who claim Yasser Arafat is likely suffering from AIDS.
Frum, a key figure in Republican politics and the man who coined the terms "axis of evil," writes in National Review Online that Arafat's undisclosed illness is well-known, but has been kept under wraps by the mainstream media.
"Speaking of media bias, here's a question you won't hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS?" asks Frum, who also writes for the National Post.
"We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight -- possibly as much as one-third of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like?"
Earlier, John Loftus told John Batchelor on ABC radio on October 26 that Arafat is dying from AIDS. Loftus said the CIA has known this about Arafat for quite awhile and that as a result the US has encouraged Sharon not to take Arafat out because the US has known Arafat was about done. It was deemed better to have Arafat discredited as a homosexual.
Although homosexuality is rife in the Arab world, it is at least officially considered a sin and a crime, and regarded--especially in fundamentalist circles--as a mark of great shame and depravity.
Intelligence on "the tiger" romping with bodyguards
Frum pointed to KGB evidence linking Arafat to homosexual activities, citing a 1987 book by Lt.-Gen. Ion Pacepa, the deputy chief of Romania's intelligence service under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
In his memoirs "Red Horizons," Pacepa relates a conversation in 1978 with Constantin Munteaunu, a general assigned to teach Arafat and the PLO techniques to deceive the West into granting the organization recognition.
"I just called the microphone monitoring center to ask about the 'Fedayee,'" Arafat's code name, explained Munteaunu. "After the meeting with the Comrade, he went directly to the guest house and had dinner. At this very moment, the 'Fedayee' is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He's playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena."
Munteaunu continued: "I've never before seen so much cleverness, blood and filth all together in one man." Munteaunu, wrote Pacepa, spent months pulling together secret reports from Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian intelligence agencies as well as Romanian files.
"I used to think I knew just about everything there was to know about Rahman al-Qudwa," Arafat's real name, "about the construction engineer who made a fortune in Kuwait, about the passionate collector of racing cars, about Abu Amman," Arafat's nom de guerre, "and about my friend Yasser, with all his hysterics," explained Munteaunu, handing Pacepa his final report on the PLO leader. "But I've got to admit that I didn't really know anything about him."
Pacepa wrote: "The report was indeed an incredible account of fanaticism, of devotion to his cause, of tangled oriental political maneuvers, of lies, of embezzled PLO funds deposited in Swiss banks, and of homosexual relationships, beginning with his teacher when he was a teen-ager and ending with his current bodyguards. After reading the report, I felt a compulsion to take a shower whenever I had been kissed by Arafat, or even just shaken his hand."
"If true, Arafat would have a great deal to conceal from his people and his murderously anti-homosexual supporters in the Islamic world," writes Frum, suggesting that Arafat was airlifted to France for medical treatment because he "could trust the French to protect his intimate secret."
The medical evidence adds up
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath Monday said that all types of cancer had been ruled out, and the latest news is that French doctors have ruled out poisoning.
Medical observers note that a low blood platelet count is a sign of a weakened immune system, and indeed last week there were reports of a complete collapse of Arafat's immune system. Other than the ruled-out cancer, the low count could be attributed to bleeding ulcers, colitis, liver disease, lupus, or HIV. It is believed that ulcers and colitis have already been ruled out.
Arafat has lost a considerable amount of body weight. Hopital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, southwest of Paris, is known to have some of France's best HIV/AIDS doctors. Other medical experts note that Arafat's activities in recent weeks and months suggest the dementia that accompanies late-stage AIDS.
Medical authorities not connected directly to his case are suggesting that he may have HIV/AIDS. One doctor reported to an Israel Insider source that his suspicions have been growing for more than a year.
"I began to see tell tale signs of kaposis sarcoma. His Parkinsonian tremor was more than just a Parkinsonian tremor and he was also showing signs of weakness. The rumor about homosexuality/bisexuality has been around for decades. So I put two and two together when they started talking about his health over a year ago. The talk of a mysterious illness in this day and age should be a tip-off. He has some of the best physicians in the world attending to him. He can be diagnosed clinically, without perfoming any tests. All the doctors surrounding him know what he has. All this cloak and dagger about tests is a ruse. They understand the implications of divulging that he has HIV. If I were Suha I would be getting a little concerned."
If Arafat has AIDS, that would also explain Suha's reticence to allow the release of significant information about Arafat's condition, and the almost ludicrously tight-lipped reports of the French hospital spokesman, and the refusal of anyone connected with Arafat to hold a press conference in recent days.
Frum, a key figure in Republican politics and the man who coined the terms "axis of evil," writes in National Review Online that Arafat's undisclosed illness is well-known, but has been kept under wraps by the mainstream media.
"Speaking of media bias, here's a question you won't hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS?" asks Frum, who also writes for the National Post.
"We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight -- possibly as much as one-third of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like?"
Earlier, John Loftus told John Batchelor on ABC radio on October 26 that Arafat is dying from AIDS. Loftus said the CIA has known this about Arafat for quite awhile and that as a result the US has encouraged Sharon not to take Arafat out because the US has known Arafat was about done. It was deemed better to have Arafat discredited as a homosexual.
Although homosexuality is rife in the Arab world, it is at least officially considered a sin and a crime, and regarded--especially in fundamentalist circles--as a mark of great shame and depravity.
Intelligence on "the tiger" romping with bodyguards
Frum pointed to KGB evidence linking Arafat to homosexual activities, citing a 1987 book by Lt.-Gen. Ion Pacepa, the deputy chief of Romania's intelligence service under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
In his memoirs "Red Horizons," Pacepa relates a conversation in 1978 with Constantin Munteaunu, a general assigned to teach Arafat and the PLO techniques to deceive the West into granting the organization recognition.
"I just called the microphone monitoring center to ask about the 'Fedayee,'" Arafat's code name, explained Munteaunu. "After the meeting with the Comrade, he went directly to the guest house and had dinner. At this very moment, the 'Fedayee' is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He's playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena."
Munteaunu continued: "I've never before seen so much cleverness, blood and filth all together in one man." Munteaunu, wrote Pacepa, spent months pulling together secret reports from Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian intelligence agencies as well as Romanian files.
"I used to think I knew just about everything there was to know about Rahman al-Qudwa," Arafat's real name, "about the construction engineer who made a fortune in Kuwait, about the passionate collector of racing cars, about Abu Amman," Arafat's nom de guerre, "and about my friend Yasser, with all his hysterics," explained Munteaunu, handing Pacepa his final report on the PLO leader. "But I've got to admit that I didn't really know anything about him."
Pacepa wrote: "The report was indeed an incredible account of fanaticism, of devotion to his cause, of tangled oriental political maneuvers, of lies, of embezzled PLO funds deposited in Swiss banks, and of homosexual relationships, beginning with his teacher when he was a teen-ager and ending with his current bodyguards. After reading the report, I felt a compulsion to take a shower whenever I had been kissed by Arafat, or even just shaken his hand."
"If true, Arafat would have a great deal to conceal from his people and his murderously anti-homosexual supporters in the Islamic world," writes Frum, suggesting that Arafat was airlifted to France for medical treatment because he "could trust the French to protect his intimate secret."
The medical evidence adds up
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath Monday said that all types of cancer had been ruled out, and the latest news is that French doctors have ruled out poisoning.
Medical observers note that a low blood platelet count is a sign of a weakened immune system, and indeed last week there were reports of a complete collapse of Arafat's immune system. Other than the ruled-out cancer, the low count could be attributed to bleeding ulcers, colitis, liver disease, lupus, or HIV. It is believed that ulcers and colitis have already been ruled out.
Arafat has lost a considerable amount of body weight. Hopital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, southwest of Paris, is known to have some of France's best HIV/AIDS doctors. Other medical experts note that Arafat's activities in recent weeks and months suggest the dementia that accompanies late-stage AIDS.
Medical authorities not connected directly to his case are suggesting that he may have HIV/AIDS. One doctor reported to an Israel Insider source that his suspicions have been growing for more than a year.
"I began to see tell tale signs of kaposis sarcoma. His Parkinsonian tremor was more than just a Parkinsonian tremor and he was also showing signs of weakness. The rumor about homosexuality/bisexuality has been around for decades. So I put two and two together when they started talking about his health over a year ago. The talk of a mysterious illness in this day and age should be a tip-off. He has some of the best physicians in the world attending to him. He can be diagnosed clinically, without perfoming any tests. All the doctors surrounding him know what he has. All this cloak and dagger about tests is a ruse. They understand the implications of divulging that he has HIV. If I were Suha I would be getting a little concerned."
If Arafat has AIDS, that would also explain Suha's reticence to allow the release of significant information about Arafat's condition, and the almost ludicrously tight-lipped reports of the French hospital spokesman, and the refusal of anyone connected with Arafat to hold a press conference in recent days.
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