“Collaborator Confesses To Poisoning Arafat”, Al-Mayadeen Reports

by Saed Bannoura

The Al-Mayadeen TV, based in Lebanon, published a video reportedly documenting the confession of a collaborator with Israel, operating in the Negev detention camp, in which he said that “Israel recruited him to poison dinner meals of late President Yasser Arafat”.

 The tape was recorded in 2006; in it a Palestinian detainee was interrogating the collaborator, who was assigned to spy on the detainees at the Negev detention camp before he was exposed.

The alleged collaborator detailed how he smuggled poison, and with the collaboration of some persons and a cook at the then besieged presidential headquarter in Ramallah, he managed to poison one of Arafat’s meals, and even personally handed the meal to him.

According to the report, the collaborator was recruited by Israel in 2002, and poisoned Arafat’s meal in 2004.

The man explained how a collaborator recruited him and took him to Jerusalem where he met an Israeli security officer by the name of Yoram, and the two agreed to “work together” before he took him to a Border Guard Police base in Maaleh Adumim Israeli settlement, where he was allegedly trained for two months.

Following the training, the man was taken to Jerusalem before he and some other collaborators were taken by a number of Israeli security officers back to the base, and showed the officers a video about the presidential headquarters detailing the location of the Arafat’s bedroom, and the kitchen where his meals were prepared.

On July 6, 2004, the collaborators were given a poison bottle and some cash, and were told that if they do not go ahead with the plan, they will be killed.

The collaborators then went to the presidential headquarters and told the presidential guards that they work in the kitchen.

After gaining access to the headquarters, a guard, allegedly involved in the plot, granted them access to the kitchen.

The collaborator also stated he asked one of the chefs to place the poison in Arafat’s dish (soup, rice and roasted chicken), but the cook got scared, and another cook took over and placed the poison in the rice and the soup.

On Tuesday, and following a report by the Qatar-based news agency Al-Jazeera about the assassination of Arafat, the Palestinian Authority announced its support Wednesday for an international investigation into the late president's death including the exhumation of Arafat’s body.

Arafat’s widow, Suha, also requested the body of Arafat exhumed so that the needed analysis can be conducted.

The Al-Jazeera report came after a nine month investigation, and stated that the Institut de Radiophysique in Switzerland found abnormally high levels of a rare radioactive element called polonium-210 on Arafat's personal belongings, his widow, Suha, called for the exhumation of his body.

Questions have surrounded the circumstances of Arafat's death since his sudden illness during the second Intifada in 2004. PLO official Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority is looking to form an international tribunal to investigate the case modeled after the one that looked into the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

But the former head of Israeli domestic intelligence, Avi Dichter, told Israel's Army Radio that the Palestinians are responsible for the outcome. He asserted, "The body is in their hands. It is in Ramallah and, really, all the keys are in their hands."

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Arafat's nephew: Body should be exhumed if necessary

A woman walks past a mural depicting late leader Yasser Arafat in

Gaza City on July 4. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The nephew of Yasser Arafat said Thursday that the late president's body must be exhumed if necessary to determine the true cause of his death.

Nasser al-Qudwa, who heads the Yasser Arafat Foundation, met with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Thursday and discussed new allegations that Arafat was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004.

Al-Qudwa told Ma'an that Arafat's family and the Palestinian people were convinced the iconic leader was murdered. He said an investigation must be carried out to establish who was responsible for Arafat's death, involving international institutions and exhuming the body if necessary.

A Swiss institute that examined clothing provided by Arafat's widow Suha as part of an Al Jazeera expose said it found "surprisingly" high levels of polonium-210, though symptoms described in the president's medical reports were not consistent with the radioactive agent.

The Palestinian Authority said it would approve Suha Arafat's request to exhume Arafat's body from a limestone mausoleum in Ramallah for an autopsy.

'Lack of cooperation' hampered earlier inquiry

Palestinian Legislative Council member Hasan Khreisheh said Thursday that Palestinian and Arab officials had refused to cooperate with a 2004 inquiry into Arafat's death.

Khreisheh, who was head of the PLC in 2004, was involved in setting up a special committee to investigate the cause of Arafat's death.

The two-month investigation, headed by Abdul Jawad Saleh, failed to reach a conclusion because officials, as well as Arafat's family and those close to him, refused to disclose information, Khreisheh said.

Arafat's doctor Ashraf Kurd and Egyptian and Tunisian doctors refused to make any statements to the commission because of pressure by authorities in their countries, Khreisheh added.

The evidence suggested a regional agreement not to support an investigation into the cause of Arafat's death, the PLC member said.

Chief Islamic judge approves autopsy

Taysir Tamimi, the Palestinian Authority's chief Islamic judge, said Thursday that Arafat's body should be exhumed to determine the reason for his death.

Tamimi was present when Arafat died in a military hospital in France on Nov. 11, 2004. He told Ma'an that when he washed Arafat four hours after he died the president was still bleeding from his head and several parts of his body.

The sheikh said one of Arafat's doctors told him at the time that the bleeding was an indication of poison which prevented the blood from clotting. He pointed to Israeli threats to Arafat in 2004 as a sign that the leader was killed by Israel.

In 2003, Israel's security cabinet decided to "remove" Arafat, without elaborating publicly on the precise action it planned to take. An Israeli newspaper quoted Avi Dichter, Israel's spy chief at the time, as saying that it would be better to kill Arafat than exile him.

In 1997, Israeli assassins were caught trying to poison Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal in Jordan. Israel is also suspected in the 2010 death in a Dubai hotel room of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who UAE authorities said had been drugged.

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Israel Likely Killed Arafat

 

by Stephen Lendman

Credible information on Arafat's death surfaced years ago. It wasn't natural. Evidence suggests he was assassinated. Israel most likely was responsible. More on that below.

Al Jazeera provided new information. On July 4, it headlined "Arafat's widow (Suha) calls to exhume his body," saying:

"A nine-month investigation suggests that the late Palestinian leader may have been poisoned with polonium."

"Eight years after his death, it remains a mystery exactly what killed the longtime Palestinian leader."

"Tests conducted in Paris found no obvious traces of poison in Arafat’s system. Rumors abound about what might have killed him – cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, even allegations that he was infected with HIV."

"A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed that none of those rumors were true: Arafat was in good health until he suddenly fell ill on October 12, 2004."

Arafat's personal belongings were examined. They included his clothes, his kaffiyeh and toothbrush. Polonium traces were found. 

In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the substance. Laboratory exposure killed their daughter Irene. Marie died from symptoms related to radiation exposure. 

Science Daily calls polonium a "rare and highly radioactive metalloid." It's chemically similar to tellurium and bismuth. It's found in uranium ores.

It's "around 109 times" more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. Its main hazard is radioactivity. It's "most lethal when ingested" or inhaled.

Evidence showed that polonium caused former Russian Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko's 2007 death. In November 2006 he was hospitalized. Three weeks later he died. 

He became the first known polonium-210 victim. Acute radiation poisoning killed him. Tests found traces in his tea cup. Polonium is hard to detect because it doesn't emit gamma rays.

It emits only alpha particles. Normal radiation detectors don't recognize them. Hospital equipment only detects gamma rays. 

Ingesting or inhaling alpha particles causes significant radiation damage. Special equipment is needed to recognize them.

Switzerland's Radiophysique (SR) analyzed Arafat's belongings. Blood, sweat, saliva and urine samples were obtained. Tests showed abnormal polonium levels in his body when he died. 

SR director Dr. Francois Bochud said:

"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."

As a result, Arafat's widow, Suha, asked Palestinian Authority (PA) officials to exhume his body. If bone, tissue, and/or other bodily evidence substantiates SR's diagnosis, conclusive proof of his poisoning will be confirmed.

"I know the Palestinian Authority has been trying to discover what Yasser died from," she said. "And now we are helping them. We have very substantial, very important results."

In 2004, Abbas was complicit in a coverup. Suha's hopes may go unfulfilled.

Known polonium poisoning deaths are rare. Scientific consensus on its symptoms is lacking. Litvinenko suffered from diarrhea, weight loss, and vomiting. Arafat exhibited the same ones.

Animal studied found similar symptoms. A US 1991 study said:

"The primary radiation target….is the gastrointestinal tract. (It) activat(es) the 'vomiting centre' in the brainstem."

SR scientists found Arafat's belongings contained abnormally high polonium levels.

It's present atmospherically. Natural amounts accumulating on bodily surfaces barely register. They dissipate rapidly. Polonium-210 found on Arafat's belongings has a 138-day half life. It means half the substance decays around every four and a half months.

SR said "(e)ven in case of a poisoning similar to (Litvinenko), only traces of the order of a few" millibecquerels would be found.

However, Arafat's belonging had much higher levels. Further tests "concluded that....between 60 to 80 percent (of the polonium) was 'unsupported.' " It means it didn't come from natural sources.

SR scientists ruled out official or suggested causes of Arafat's death. Lausanne University Institute of Legal Medicine director Dr. Patrice Mangin said:

"There was no liver cirrhosis, apparently no traces of cancer, no leukemia. Concerning HIV, AIDS – there was no sign, and the symptomology was not suggesting these things."

HIV specialist Dr. Tawfik Shaaban agreed there was no evidence of the disease.

Lausanne doctors wanted to study blood and urine samples taken when Arafat was hospitalized at France's Percy Military Hospital. His wife Suha requested them. She was told they were destroyed.

"I was not satisfied with that answer," she said. "Usually a very important person like Yasser" would require they be kept. Something suspicious was involved.

Doctors who treated him were told not to discuss his case even with Suha's permission. It was considered a "military secret." Most of his former Cairo and Tunis doctors refused interview requests.

Perhaps official coverup of his true cause of death is why.

It's now up to PA officials to exhume him. Abbas may block credible efforts. He's a longtime Israeli collaborator.

PLO official Saeb Erekat said two committees will be formed to investigate his death. PA ministers will comprise one. The other will include Fatah central committee members.

Key is whether efforts will be pro forma or real. Will a credible autopsy be performed? If so, will full disclosure follow?

Most important is that if evidence proves Arafat was murdered, will efforts be made to assign blame?

Key also is that sending bone, tissue and/or other bodily samples to reputable labs abroad requires Israeli permission. 

Expect it to be denied. Doing so would raise obvious suspicions that Israel wants potentially incriminating evidence suppressed. 

It had clear motive and opportunity. Mossad has a long history of targeted assassinations. It uses many methods including poison. 

Attempts don't always succeed. In 1997, Mossad agents failed to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mashal by spraying poison in his ear in Amman.

Hamas' Mohammad al-Mabhouh wasn't as lucky. In January 2010, he was found dead in his Dubai hotel room. Initially it was believed by natural causes. 

Investigation determined he was injected with succinylcholine. It's a quick-acting depolarizing paralytic muscle relaxant. Motor skills are lost instantly. He apparently died from suffocation. Mossad agents were named responsible.

In his book titled "Gideon Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad," Gordon Thomas provided chilling examples of how it uses biochemists and genetic scientists to develop lethal agents.

They include nerve, choking, blood, and blister agents. Tuban is used. It's virtually odorless and invisible when dispensed by aerosol or in vapor form. Various other substances are used to kill.

Effective ones do it efficiently and covertly. They leave behind minimal evidence. None is ideal. They try to leave those responsible unidentified. Mossad's long history reveals a legacy of state-sponsored assassinations.

For now, Suha said:

"We got into this very, very painful conclusion, but at least this removes this great burden on me, on my chest."

"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."

In January 2007, this writer's article headlined "Former Longtime Confidant Accuses Ariel Sharon of Assassinating Yasser Arafat."

Uri Dan was close to Sharon. In 2006, his book titled "Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait" accused him of assassinating Arafat by poison.

He claimed George Bush approved it. At the time, he was under siege at his Ramallah compound. Israel destroyed most of it.

Israeli and Washington officials wanted Arafat removed and replaced. They succeeded. On November 11, 2004, he died in Paris. He was 75. 

In early October he took ill. On October 29, he was flown to France's Percy Military Hospital for treatment. Doctors examining him couldn't determine why.

On November 3, he slipped into a coma. Eight days later he was dead. French doctors prepared a 558-page report. They claimed he died of complications from a blood disorder.

They described what they called "disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC)." It causes malignancy and infection, they said. 

They claimed his blood vessels exhibited small clots. They deplete platelets and clotting factors needed to control bleeding. It can cause death by hemorrhaging. 

They also called DIC a secondary condition. In other words, it wasn't the main cause of his illness or death. Something else was responsible. They left that issue unanswered.

At the time, this writer said:

"He may have been the victim of a slow acting....hard to detect poison somehow administered to him inside his West Bank compound from which no cure was possible at least once (he) arrived in Paris."

Nothing was done to determine precisely what killed him. His longtime personal physician was suspicious. Dr. Ashraf Al Kurdi said Abbas blocked an autopsy.

"They didn't want to do it," he said. "When you talked to them about an autopsy they would get fits. (Abbas) said it would disturb relations with France."

Kurdi called this "stupid." In suspected criminal cases, autopsies are mandatory. Given the strong possibility that Arafat was poisoned, failure to determine cause of death was unconscionable.

French doctors would have conducted a thorough autopsy unless ordered to back off. If performed, it wouldn't have contradicted Islamic law.

Autopsies are permitted as long as performed as soon as possible after death and respect the deceased. Under normal circumstances, Muslims wish to bury their dead quickly. They also prefer to avoid embalming unless necessary.

On November 11, 2004, Arafat died. On November 12, he was buried beside his Ramallah compound. The ceremony was hurried. It didn't follow customary Islamic religious rites.

Chief Palestinian religious authority Sheikh Taissir Tamimi ordered Arafat disinterred for proper reburial on November 13.

In April 2005, Dr. Kurdi was interviewed by MiddleEast.org. He discussed Arafat's "stealth assassination," saying:

"If someone (of the Islamic faith) dies of unknown causes, it is mandatory to have an autopsy - mandatory. They know the regulations. Here in Jordan, bodies have been exhumed in criminal cases....I suspect Arafat died of a 'killing poison'....The death was due to this."

He said unfounded rumors claimed he died from HIV/AIDS. He conducted tests before Arafat died and dispelled them. He also said he had no longstanding health problems except a benign tumor. It caused a slight tremor in his lips and hands. It was not life-threatening.

Overall he was in good health. He saw Arafat on the 16th day after his illness became serious. It was shortly before he was flown to Amman then on to Paris.

During his last examination, Kurdi noticed what he believed to be signs of poisoning. Arafat had a reddish patch on his face and a metallic yellow coloring to his skin.

Before flying to Paris, he saw him one more time in Amman. He'd lost half his body weight. Reddishness and metallic yellow coloring were prominent. He was sure he'd been poisoned and was dying.

Fourteen months earlier, then Israeli Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israeli radio after a cabinet meeting:

"How are we going to" remove Arafat? Expulsion is certainly one of the options, and killing is also one of the options."

He'd been held captive in his Ramallah compound for 18 months. Supporters believed Israel wanted to kill him. Arafat addressed them saying:

"(S)hould the terrorist Sharon regime realize its threat to deport me, or assassinate me, the Palestinian people will continue, and even strengthen, the fight for national liberation and the independent statehood."

From his earliest days as PLO Chairman and President,  Arafat went from enemy to ally back to enemy. Agreeing to Oslo got him a 1993 White House signing ceremony. He and Prime Minster Yitzhak Rabin shook hands.

In July 2000, "permanent status" talks followed. Bill Clinton hosted Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David.

Barak insisted Arafat sign a "final agreement" and declare an "end of conflict." Doing so would have renounced any legal claim to Palestine land.

Nothing was put in writing. No documents or maps were presented. Barak wanted Palestinian land divided into four isolated bantustans surrounded by expanding settlements and other Israeli controlled territory.

He offered terms Arafat had to refuse. No responsible leader would have agreed. They demanded unconditional surrender. Peace hopes would have been dashed. 

He turned the deal down and was unfairly blamed. It very likely led to his death by assassination.

In February 2001, when Sharon became prime minister, he ended negotiations until George Bush's fake "road map" to nowhere.

Peace talks always ended up tragedies and travesties. How could Palestinians negotiate in good faith without a willing partner. They never had one and don't now with Netanyahu.

It shouldn't surprise if indisputable evidence proves Sharon assassinated Arafat. Israel targets all Palestinians it wants removed this way when other methods fail.

Arafat likely fell victim. Betting odds favor it. Hopefully one day we'll know for sure.

 

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Did the Mossad Murder Arafat?

by Richard Silverstein

Al Jazeera published a report Wednesday based on an extensive scientific investigation of the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat. Though he was 75 years old when he died, many noted the marked deterioration in his appearance in his final weeks and speculated that he was poisoned or that he had AIDS. An Israeli journalist who interviewed Ariel Sharon noted that the Israeli leader refused to deny Israeli involvement in Arafat’s demise:

[Maariv journalist Uri] Dan reveals a little and conceals much when he hints that Arafat’s death was not caused by any illness. He himself suggested to Sharon that Arafat be captured and brought to trial in Jerusalem, like Eichmann, but Sharon reassured him that he was dealing with the problem in his own way. Then Arafat fell ill, was flown to Paris for treatment and died. Was Sharon involved? This is what Dan wrote then in Maariv — that in the history books, prime minister Ariel Sharon will be remembered as the man who eliminated Yasser Arafat without killing him. Let every reader figure it out for himself.

Now, a team of researchers has tested personal artifacts provided by Arafat’s widow, Suha, and found highly elevated doses of polonium (in some cases 10 times the expected dose) in many of these objects. They found a type of polonium not occurring naturally that could only be produced in a nuclear reactor. Suha Arafat is asking that the PA exhume her husband’s body and test it for polonium. What they find will determine whether the element killed him or not.

This news returns us to 2006, when elements of the Russian intelligence services arranged to poison a former agent, Alexander Litvinenko, with polonium. It was the first known instance in which someone was killed by polonium poisoning. If the Al Jazeera report is correct, then the Russian may have to cede pride of place to Arafat, who would now become the unfortunate record-holder.

Next, we should turn to speculation about who might have been able and willing to kill the Palestinian leader. There are many who fit some of those criteria but few that fit all. The Israelis leap out in that regard. Not only does Israel have a highly developed research capability in chemical and biological warfare, its scientists and intelligence services would have the technical abilities to mount such an attack. It also has the nuclear reactor in Dimona necessary to produce the poison. In fact, the Al Jazeera article notes that two Israeli nuclear technicians are rumored to have died from accidental polonium exposure.

I got more than a jolt when I read my 2007 blog post about Uri Dan’s interview above in which I wrote:

I remember several years ago when Ehud Olmert was Sharon’s right-hand man and threatened Arafat with assassination in the pages of the Jerusalem Post. I had the strange feeling that if Sharon & Co. were willing to threaten to do it they were fully prepared to do it. Now, it appears they figured out a way to do it that would eliminate their fingerprints. Perhaps a polonium cocktail?

Polonium, though rare, is used in some industrial processes. So it’s possible to secure such material. Once you have it, you only have to get access to the victim through poisoning his food or some other material that he might ingest. Israel would, of course, have any number of means to gain such access, as would some Palestinians, though the latter wouldn’t have the technical ability to make, secure, or administer polonium. Israel could have had a double agent within Arafat’s entourage or it could’ve introduced the poison without any Palestinian knowing what it had done.

Well before Arafat died, Sharon’s chief lieutenant, Ehud Olmert, threatened to assassinate the Palestinian, as I mentioned in my earlier quoted post. Sharon, as Haaretz noted, looked like the cat that swallowed the canary when Dan asked about killing the Palestinian. Israel was highly motivated to kill him. In addition, it had a highly adept knife fighter, Meir Dagan, leading the Mossad at the time. Such a task would’ve likely challenged his sense of mission for his agency.

If Israel did it, it would’ve made some of the following calculations before doing so: polonium would be an attractive method since it would’ve been at the time entirely unknown as a method of poisoning. This means it would be difficult to prove what killed Arafat. In the unlikely event that someone did, it would be difficult to trace back the murder material to Israel. Chances of exposure in 2004 were almost nil. Israeli intelligence also takes perverse pride in being the first to use various methods of what I call terror but which it would call protecting Israel’s interests. It would appeal to someone like Dagan to be the trailblazer in that regard, though the rest of the world might find this far less appealing.

If Israel was the culprit, it would mean that both Israeli and Russian intelligence services were experimenting and perfecting such means of targeting and eliminating their enemies. I have not heard of any such U.S. program, though it wouldn’t surprise me if there was one. Indeed, Al Jazeera refers to a U.S. study on the effects of polonium poisoning.

Might I ask a naive question: How in God’s name can any nation justify experimenting with such weapons? Let’s call this what it is: state terror. Nations, except Israel, rarely assassinate heads of state of their political enemies. To those who might argue that Arafat was not a head of state, perhaps that might be true as far as Israel is concerned. But the rest of the world recognized Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian people and a head of state in everything but name.

Remember too that Israel has pioneered the use of cyberwarfare (Flame, Stuxnet, Duqu, etc.) in its battle against Iran’s nuclear program. Where many nations have trod very carefully, Israel has charged in, eager to explore weapons that might wreak havoc on its enemies.

Israel also has a history of using poisons and biological agents against its enemies. That includes the near-assassination of Khaled Meshal in Amman in 1997 by Mossad agents who sprayed levofentanyl into his ear and the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabouh in Dubai in 2010, in which succinylcholine was injected into him, immobilizing him as he was suffocated.

To be fair, anyone believing the assassination/poisoning argument would have to argue that the artifacts tested couldn’t have been contaminated by polonium after Arafat died. But given how rare the element is, I think contamination is almost impossible.

Again, if this speculation is correct, it would mean that Israel was the first nation known to have used polonium as a lethal weapon. It would mean Israel is again a pioneer, though not in the same sense that early Zionism saw its young followers as pioneers on the land earning redemption by the sweat of their brow. This is something entirely different, and not what those early Zionist idealists had in mind as the apotheosis of their movement for Jewish self-sufficiency and self-determination.

If Israel did assassinate Arafat, along with all the other known acts of political assassination it has engaged in during its history, is it any wonder that an Israeli extremist would himself turn to such a method to rid Israel of its own head of state, Yitzhak Rabin? In other words, Rabin’s murder is a manifestation of the chickens of Israeli political violence and state terror coming home to roost.

For a fascinating political and philosophical discussion of assassination and the various ways used to do it historically, read this aptly timed report from the Independent. In one of the most relevant passages to this discussion, Mohammad Aslan argues that such murders pose an extreme danger to the international order:

The arbitrary stretching of legal justifications for such assassinations, premised on what an individual country recognizes as self-defense, indirectly renders them to be bound by no limits — and by extension may serve as encouragement for other nations to follow suit, if they interpret their national security considerations being failed by international treaty and cooperation.

In this case, Israel would have felt little deterrence from acting, as it would have judged the Palestinians incapable of taking revenge if they discovered the real culprit. But as the Mossad discovered in the case of al-Mabouh, sometimes exposure itself can be the most damaging possible outcome. This may be the outcome of the Arafat case as well.

I have no doubt that Dagan and Sharon, if they ordered and carried out this killing, would have no problem taking credit for it. But the rest of the world may have a different moral standard, thank God.

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Who Killed Yasser Arafat?

Now we know he was poisoned – but by whom?

by Justin Raimondo


Yasser Arafat died on November 11, 2004, of a mysterious ailment. His enemies spread the rumor he had AIDS: David Frum, with typical classiness, claimedhe had contracted AIDS as a consequence of having sex with his bodyguards. Now, however, it has been revealed Arafat was poisoned: the cause of his death was exposure to very high levels of polonium-210 [pdf], a rare radioactive substance. An investigation conducted by Al Jazeera showed Arafat’s personal items, released to the media organization by his widow, contained several times the normal level of polonium that would normally be detected on such items. The Palestinian leader’s terminal symptoms were similar to those experienced by victims of polonium poisoning: the substance targets the gastrointestinal tract and the subject wastes away.

Arafat’s Ramallah compoundhad been bombedseveral timesby the Israelis, and they had the place surrounded – yet still he persisted. They couldn’tget him out. Worse, his plight was becoming a metaphor for the condition of his people, who were – and still are – prisoners in their own land. A former adviser claimed he was poisoned by the Israelis, who detained the Palestinian ambulance used to deliver Arafat’s medications to the Ramallah compound. At the time, one tended to write this off as a purely polemical exercise: in light of the new evidence, however, the question has to be asked.

Simply by continuing to exist in the face of such a sustained assault, Arafat was defeating the Israelis every day. They had to get rid of him. Did they? We’ll never know for sure, but it is worth noting that Israeli threatsto killhim preceded his untimely death by less than a year. As is well-known, Israeli intelligence has carried out numerous assassinations: it is simply another tool in their international operations, one they have never hesitated to utilize. A passport-falsification schemeinvolving New Zealand, Britain, France, Spain, and a number of other countries was widely believed to have been meant to equip the Mossad’s crack team of assassins, who could slip into – and out of – target areas at will.

The Israelis hated Arafat with a particular passion, for two reasons: 

1) His longevity – The Palestinian movement is thick [pdf] with factions, but thin when it comes to recognizable leaders. Arafat was the principal leader, and no one since his death has achieved his stature. He was a political survivor, having lived through numerous assassination attempts, and deflected the schemes of internal enemies to displace him. Simply by sticking around for so long, he became a living symbol of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination – and that is one big reason why the Israelis got rid of him.

2) His secularism – The Israelis encouragedthe growth of groups such as Hamas in the beginning, in order to split away the more religious elements from the decidedly secular Palestine Liberation Organization/Fatah, which Arafat headed. It is easy to sell the Palestinians as crazed jihadists when a group like Hamas or Islamic Jihad is the most visible champion of their cause: the secular PLO presented the Israelis with a public relations problem. There’s another reason for the Israelis to have knocked him off.

One aspect of this case is extremely odd: polonium-210 is the same poison Alexander Litvinenko was dosed with. Litvinenko, a former KGB official, converted to Islam, joined the Chechen rebels, and became an associate of Boris Berezovsky, the notorious Russian oligarch wanted on charges of embezzlementin his home country. Litvinenko and Berezovsky are the Russian version of 9/11 Truthers: they believe practically every terrorist attack on Russian cities has been “staged” by Vladimir Putin in order to keep him in power. When he became ill, Litvinenko charged the Russian spy agency with poisoning him – althoughthat seemshighlyunlikely.

Polonium-210 isn’tsomething you can buy off the shelf at your local Walmart. It isn’t even something a mad scientist might cook up in his home lab. About 100 grams are produced each year for specialized technical uses. The only entities with access to this sort of thing are state actors, or, at least, a private organization with very substantial resources at its disposal.

What’s interesting is that a diplomatic cable, dated Dec. 26, 2006 and published by WikiLeaks, details the conversation of a US diplomat with Russian spook Anatoly Safonov in which Safonov claims the Russians told the British about the importation of “nuclear materials” into London during the Litvinenko affair – and were told that the whole thing was “under control before the poisoning took place.” In the course of the same conversation, Safonov – Putin’s chief representative on terrorism-related matters – went on to describe a number of threats and their possible sources:

“Safonov noted the daunting number of countries that posed particular terrorism threats, mentioning North Korea, Pakistan, South Africa, Libya, Iran, India, and Israel (sic?). He described a range of dangers, stressing the more immediate threats posed by nuclear and biological terrorism, but also acknowledging the risks of chemical terrorism.”

While the use of “sic” is meant to indicate our diplomat’s incredulity at the inclusion of Israel in this list, what we now know about how Arafat died should tear away the blinders from several sets of eyes – yes, even at the US State Department.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN 

I note with sadness and a real sense of loss the departure of Scott Horton, the host of Antiwar.com Radio, from our staff. We wanted to keep him on, but we just couldn’t afford him anymore. Times are tough, but this is a big blow: Scott’s interviews with the Big Names in the foreign policy universe are always informed, and in his inimitable style he always laced his programs with humor and a keen intelligence. I can’t even begin to tell you how much he will be missed, ­ but that’s life these days, unfortunately.

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PLO Considers Halting Security Coordination with Israel

by Ghassan Bannoura

 Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), announced Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority is considering halting security coordination with Israel in response to the ongoing settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

 Abed Rabbo told the London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that halting security and economic coordination with Israel is now being discussed by the Palestinian leadership as part of response measures to the ongoing Israeli settlement construction, and the stalemate in the peace process.

“Everything is subject for reevaluation, but there is no final decision made yet” Abed Rabbo stated.

The Palestinian-Israeli security and economic coordination was set during the also accords of 1993. Recently Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, expressed dissatisfaction and frustration with Israeli plans to build more settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians are demanding Israel to completely halt its settlement activities before peace talks can be resumed; Israel refused what it called the “Palestinian preconditions”, insisting on what it called ”it’s right to build”. The U.S. Administration tried to revive the talks in 2010, but Israel refused to halt its settlement activities.

Last week, Israel announced it will be building 550 new homes in West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements. There are half a million settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlements, their roads and Israeli military installations, including its roadblocks, leave the state of Israel in control of the majority of lands occupied in 1967 where Palestinians are planning their future state.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/63074

Palestinians need high caliber leaders – urgently

By Stuart Littlewood
2 February 2012

Stuart Littlewood singles out Palestinian “President” Mahmoud Abbas’s recent visit to Britain as another example of his administration’s public relations incompetence and argues: “If Palestinians are to retain worldwide sympathy and support, build additional strength and galvanize the whole movement into action against the corrupt political class, they will have to find leaders of a much higher calibre – and fast.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in London recently.

Did anyone know? Did Western media care?

No. Not until reports appeared that Jewish community leaders cancelled a meeting with him after intervention by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Office and Israel’s embassy in London, and Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi condemned the move as "seeking to suppress and manipulate Jewish public opinion”.

It was also typical of Netanyahu’s "persistent efforts" to prevent dialogue, she said, according to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency.

Even then, Western media were not much interested.

The Palestinian London embassy’s “smart new website carries ... nothing journalists can get their teeth into. It doesn't introduce us to Palestinian chiefs and their ‘team’. It offers no strategic briefing material on current events. And, crucially, there is no attempt to set the news agenda.”

I put it to the Palestinian ambassador in London, Professor Manuel Hassassian, that such a blunder by Israel was a gift to any alert Public Relations/Public Affairs team. Why didn’t the Palestinian Authority seize it?

Hassassian denied the Palestinians asked to meet with the Jewish community.

It seems odd that Ashrawi, a shrewd, well respected politician and close colleague of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, could have got it wrong. Or indeed the normally reliable Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which reported that Hassassian himself, together with British diplomats, had pushed for Jewish leaders to meet with Abbas.

Confused? Me too. Whatever the truth, the Palestinian administration is in the habit of missing open goals. It has dumbed right down. The London embassy’s smart new website carries a selection of items from news agencies but nothing journalists can get their teeth into. It doesn't introduce us to Palestinian chiefs and their “team”. It offers no strategic briefing material on current events. And, crucially, there is no attempt to set the news agenda.

Information the embassy sends direct to people like me is mostly notification of social events and similar “froth”.

After all these years, and with momentous opportunities and threats looming, Ramallah still fails to give a good account of itself. Is that by accident or design?

If it was never Abbas’s intention to meet Jewish community leaders, what exactly did he come to the UK for?

What passes for “success”

 

The embassy says his "successful visit" included meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. President Abbas also met opposition leader Ed Miliband and other parliamentarians. In addition, he met the archbishop of Canterbury and other church leaders to brief them on the ongoing violations of places of worship and the Judaization taking place in East Jerusalem.

Cameron told him:

Obviously, as a friend of Israel and a friend of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, we want to see a strong, democratic, peaceful Israel alongside a strong, democratic and peaceful Palestine. We believe that is achievable, but we can’t achieve it without the two parties coming together and talking and discussing. In the end, this two-state solution can only come about from the two parties talking to each other. We cannot want it more than you want it.

So, we wish you well ... and we say that as a friend of Israel but also a very strong friend of the Palestinian people...

To which I understand Abbas replied:

Of course, nothing can be achieved without negotiations ... we hope that there will be something tangible as a result of these negotiations.

"Of course, time is of the essence; there must be speed, we must be fast in achieving those things because the settlements and the whole thing will go on – seeing the settlements going on, is going to help everything; it’s what stands in the face of everything at the same time. So, settlements have to stop. Settlements have to stop in order for us to be able to continue our negotiations; to come to some sort of solution and a solution which will encompass the vision of the Palestinian state to come in the future.

I personally know very well that you have a very balanced relationship, be that towards Israel or the Palestinian Authority. This at the same time is of great importance because you could play a political role, so to speak, so that we can find the balance that we all want to seek. We always need your help, sir.

Good grief, is that the best Ramallah's speech-writers can do? And what was that about Britain’s Israel-firster government having “a very balanced relationship”…?

"Where was Abbas’s concern for Gaza, or isn’t Gaza part of Palestine any more? Doesn’t the blockade of Gaza have to end before Palestinians even think about getting once again embroiled in futile negotiations?"

Where was Abbas’s concern for Gaza, or isn’t Gaza part of Palestine any more? Doesn’t the blockade of Gaza have to end before Palestinians even think about getting once again embroiled in futile negotiations?

The idea, voiced by Zionist Cameron and repeated by Abbas, that nothing can be achieved without negotiation is of course utterly false. There’s no mention – on either side – of international law enforcement and the essential role it must play before any negotiations can be considered fair or honourable.

Hague said after his meeting with Abbas: "I stressed the importance Britain attaches to a secure and universally recognized Israel living alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state, based on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem the future capital of both states, and a fair settlement for refugees.”

Only weeks earlier Hague, a fanatical Israel flag-waver, was preparing to betray the Palestinians by abstaining if their quest for statehood was pushed to a vote at the UN.

More pretty words devoid of meaning were paraded in the archbishop of Canterbury’s press release:

We continue to share the hopes of the Palestinian leadership for a lasting and just peace in the Holy Land, and we pray for the courage on all sides to break the current deadlock. Young people in Israel and in the Palestinian territories long for justice and stability and they must not be let down. We were deeply grateful to President Abbas for taking time to share with us his concerns and aspirations.

The only genuine boost he received was a remark by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, referring to Israel’s illegal settlements:

Once you place physical facts on the ground which make it impossible to deliver what everyone has for years agreed is the ultimate destination, then you do immense damage.

It's an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years and that is why we have expressed our concerns as a government in increasingly forceful terms.

He prefaced his comments by saying there was “no stronger supporter of Israel than myself as a beacon of democracy in the region”. It’s a sad reflection on the Westminster scene when Clegg, a Liberal Democrat and supposedly possessed of certain principles, feels obliged to say such a silly thing when it’s tantamount to defending the indefensible.

“This dreary ‘grey suit’ of a man might have done better to just meet ordinary people – people like the 40,000 or so displaced Palestinians living in the UK and longing to return, and the numerous activist organizations that devote much time and energy putting across the Palestinian case...”

Didn’t Abbas remind him about Israel’s abduction and imprisonment without trial of the 26 elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including its head, Dr Aziz Dweik? Dweik is reported to have been arrested by Israel three times since 2002 and twice held without formal charges. This wholesale kidnapping of democratically elected officials underlines yet again Israel’s disregard for international law and the absurdity of its claim to be the only beacon of democracy in the Middle East.

So, does Abbas seriously believe his visit was “successful”? This dreary “grey suit” of a man might have done better to just meet ordinary people – people like the 40,000 or so displaced Palestinians living in the UK and longing to return, and the numerous activist organizations that devote much time and energy putting across the Palestinian case, slapping down Israel's propaganda lies and generally doing the job that Abbas and his lacklustre Fatah outfit have failed to do.

That’s if he wanted their ongoing support. Maybe he’s not bothered.

Under orders not to rock the Israeli boat?

 

Some time ago Hamas complained that the Palestinian Authority was not getting its message across thanks to "poorly qualified or unqualified spokespersons with inadequate political and linguistic abilities". Diplomacy had failed and Palestinians needed “professional spokespersons with excellent knowledge of the world and mastery of foreign languages, especially English, to tell the world in a straightforward manner that Israel is a murderer, liar and land thief..."

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, who ran rings round the Palestinians while ambassador in London, recently addressed the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East. He said:

And how many times have members of this Council – and many others – repeated: “settlements are the primary obstacle to peace”?... The primary obstacle to peace is not settlements. The primary obstacle to peace is the so-called “claim of return”. Let me repeat that: the major hurdle to peace is the Palestinians’ insistence on the so-called “claim of return” [he means the “right of return”].

Any press team worth its salt could make mincemeat of Prosor. A competent Palestinian administration would have had a news release in every activist's inbox and on every mainstream editor's desk within hours and made spokespersons (speaking perfect English) available to follow through with additional briefings and further comment. It would have gone worldwide via all embassies and missions. But Prosor broadcasts his toxic nonsense non-stop, knowing there will be no effective rebuke from the Palestinians.

It is six years since the Palestinian Authority/Palestine Liberation Organization was urged to have all their key people professionally trained in media skills. They haven’t done so. Consequently, for the last six critical years the Palestinian people have continued to lose ground.

“Will the Palestinians ever seize the opportunity and gear up properly for the communications struggle to win justice? If it’s left to the likes of Abbas the answer is no and the outcome will be disastrous.”

The Palestinian high command behaves as if under strict orders not to rock the boat and not to make waves or even the slightest ripple. They continue to squander their chances and make little impact, even though truth and justice are on their side. So Israel has been the undeserving winner in the propaganda war.

Will the Palestinians ever seize the opportunity and gear up properly for the communications struggle to win justice? If it’s left to the likes of Abbas the answer is no and the outcome will be disastrous.

As campaigner Robert Stiver commented a few days ago, we need “ideas and commitments on how we can finally get serious, via a mass uprising, to ‘out’ Zionism beyond the choir and bring an end to the Palestinians’ unbearable torment”.

But hopes of mobilizing the necessary numbers are thwarted by the continuing presence of Mahmoud Abbas. His presidential term ran out long ago and he’s clinging to power unlawfully. He needs to step down or be removed. Someone with unquestionable legitimacy and true leadership qualities must fill the void and deploy skilled resources.

On Abbas’s watch disunity has triumphed. He rides roughshod over the Basic Law and has a crime sheet as long as your arm. He’ll be remembered mostly for doing the Israeli occupation forces’ dirty work.

Another problem is chief negotiator Saeb Erekat who has occupied that vitally important position for nearly 20 years and achieved – well, what? He must be the most unsuccessful negotiator on the planet. Why is he still there?

If Palestinians are to retain worldwide sympathy and support, build additional strength and galvanize the whole movement into action against the corrupt political class, they will have to find leaders of a much higher calibre – and fast.

 http://www.redress.cc/palestine/slittlewood20120202