Yesterday, the PA and scientists who studied the skeletal remains of Yasser Arafat confirmed (full scientific report here) that he was assassinated, poisoned with the highest dose of polonium ever recorded in a human being. The level was either 18 or 36 times the normal level (depending on how one counts a normal dose). The scientists rated the certainty of their findings on a scale of 1 to 6, giving the results a 5 score, meaning they had an 83% level of confidence.
The scientists tested bone fragments from his body and the surrounding soil, where bodily fluids had leaked, and all the results were uniform. Thus, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Yasser Arafat was murdered in 2004. He originally became sick four hours after eating a meal in his compound three weeks before his eventual death. So just as Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by KGB agents via a cup of tea drunk in a London tea shop, Arafat was poisoned through food he ate.
Now we must consider who had motive, means and opportunity. Let’s consider means first, because it severely narrows the number of suspects. The only countries in the world doing serious research into polonium are Russia, the U.S., and Israel. That means that the source of the poison was likely one of these places. I think we have to rule out the U.S. because it maintains strict control on access to such a highly dangerous and lethal substance.
We’ve seen that Russia murdered Litvinenko with polonium in 2006, so it’s entirely possible it provided the material to poison Arafat. To do so, it would’ve needed to supply the polonium to someone in Arafat’s inner circle. In other words, either the Russians or the PA would’ve wanted him dead and would’ve had to collaborate in order to kill him. This seems highly unlikely. The Russians had no motive to kill him or allow anyone else to do so. In fact, Russia has always been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
That leaves Israel. Later in this post, I’ll republish an earlier post I wrote about Israel’s checkered past concerning polonium research. It will attest that Israel’s top-secret chemical weapons facility at Nes Ziona has been experimenting with polonium since the late 1950s. It produces the radioactive element at its Dimona reactor. Clearly, Israel of all the other suspects had the means to kill Arafat.
Now let’s explore motive: in the period leading up to Arafat’s murder Israel had laid siege to him in his Ramallah fortress, the Muqata. Over time, the Israelis had destroyed more and more of the complex so that Arafat and his followers were holed up in a small space surrounded by ruins. All contact with the outside world including electricity, telephone and water had been severed. Though it might not have been clear at the time, the Israelis probably were trying to force him into exile. They may’ve believed he’d relent and leave the Muqata for exile. If so, they didn’t bargain for Arafat’s unrelenting steadfastness to the Palestinian cause and his leadership of it.
Haaretz journalist, Danny Rubinstein, who wrote an earlier book about Arafat, spent many hours interviewing Israelis officials. He says that they were obsessed with destroying Arafat’s political credibility and ultimately getting rid of him:
In the weeks and months before Arafat’s death, he [Rubinstein] said, people in Sharon’s inner circle talked constantly about how to get rid of him. “For me, it was very clear from the beginning. Every day this was the topic – should we expel him, or kill him, or bomb the Muqata [Arafat’s HQ]. It was obvious to me that they would find a way.”
In September, 2003, Israeli vice-premier Ehud Olmert had told Israel Radio virtually the same thing, that murder was definitely under consideration:
“Killing [him] is definitely one of the options.”
Even as unlikely a source as Jeffrey Goldberg provides supporting evidence confirming Sharon’s enthusiasm for offing Arafat:
[Those in] the Israeli government [who deny Israeli leaders wanted to kill Arafat] should remember that it was the official policy of several past Israeli leaders to try to kill Arafat…I had several conversations on the subject of assassinating Arafat with his principal Israeli nemesis, Ariel Sharon, and today’s report sent me back to a profile I wrote of Sharon that appeared 12 years ago:
“…By Arafat’s own count, Sharon has tried to have him killed thirteen times. Sharon wouldn’t fix on a number, but he said the opportunity had arisen repeatedly. ‘All the governments of Israel for many years, Labor, Likud, all of them, made an effort — and I want to use a subtle word for the American reader — to remove him from our society. We never succeeded.’”
Ariel Sharon appointed Meir Dagan the new chief of the Mossad in 2002. He took over from the rather cerebral, Ephraim Halevy. Sharon essentially charged Dagan with being just the opposite: ruthless and conniving in fighting terror. He told him to “have a knife in his teeth” as he proceeded. So it seems that the two major culprits for this killing were Sharon, who ordered the hit; and Dagan who carried it out.
Killing the leader of an enemy people or nation, especially outside of wartime, should (and may) be a crime under international law. It should be beyond the pale for any civilized nation. We cannot bring Sharon up on war crimes charges, but we can Dagan. If there is any way to trace the polonium to its source.
I’ve reported separately that Ariel Sharon confidant, Uri Dan, wrote a book in which he claims Sharon once all but conceded he was responsible. This is from the Haaretz review of the book:
Dan…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.
What Dan meant is that Sharon arranged for Arafat to be murdered, but didn’t have to put a bullet into him to do it. The killing was done subtly, so that no fingerprints would be left. Certainly, knowing the ethical lows to which Israeli intelligence is willing to sink, the operation was a resounding success. Imagine: it took nine years for the world to learn the little it knows now. We may never be able to identify the smoking gun.
Though it would of course be helpful if we could (and we may yet as technology becomes ever more subtle and precise) know, it’s not necessary. Israel had the motive, means and opportunity.
I’ve offered ample motive in the above passages. Now let’s examine opportunity: Arafat was surrounded by a small Palestinian circle of those he trusted. Around them was an Israeli cordon sanitaire. Israel had full control of everything outside the complex. It also had control of what came in and went out. It would’ve been quite easy to poison anything that Arafat used during his meals: the raw foods used to make his meals, his utensils, cooking pots, plates. Finally, if it had to, Israel might’ve paid someone on the inside to do the dirty work, or it might’ve replaced an item used or ingested by Arafat that entered the complex, with a precise duplicate that was poisoned. Though many, including the Israelis, have attempted to divert blame by raising this possibility of internal intrigue, I think it’s unlikely Israel even had to go this route.
So there you have it: Israel is by far the most likely culprit. There’s one way to challenge Israel’s denials. Plutonium created in different reactors has different signatures. So the element created in a Russian reactor would have a different isotope signature than that created in Dimona. All Israel has to do is provide a tiny amount of plutonium created at Dimona for comparison to the polonium that murdered Arafat. This would be a definitive way to confirm or rule out Israeli involvement.
Various journalists have suggested that this murder is a historical footnote that will have little or no impact on today’s events. I disagree. The Israelis and Palestinians are now locked in tense negotiations about their future. If Israel would murder the father of the Palestinian nation, why should today’s Palestinians place any trust or faith in a nation that would commit such a crime? Why shouldn’t the Palestinians turn in disgust and say they want nothing to do with such murderers? I can’t speak for Palestinians and don’t pretend to. But the idea of making peace with Israeli leaders who conspired to murder one of Palestine’s heroes will be anathema to some and justifiably so. But for Bibi Netanyahu this will undoubtedly be just another one of those “artificial crises” he pooh-poohed in an interview yesterday.
The following is an earlier post I wrote detailing Israel’s long history of research into polonium. It sets the backdrop for what Israel did to Arafat by showing that Israeli chemical weapons scientists have long experimented with polonium. Israeli understands its lethality because its own researchers have been killed by it.
* *
With news breaking in Al Jazeera this week about the possible poisoning of Yasser Arafat by polonium, I thought it worthwhile to examine an interesting line in Clayton Swisher’s report, which refers to an accident in an Israeli lab involving the material. Through further research, I discovered that this was the first nuclear accident in Israeli history and it took the lives of a number of Israeli researchers, both immediately after the accident and even decades later.
This report by Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar is based on Michael Karpin’s book, The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Means for the World:
According to the book, in 1957 a leak was discovered at a Weizmann Institute laboratory operated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Traces of polonium 210 were found on the hands of Prof. Dror Sadeh, a physicist who researched radioactive materials, as well as on various objects in the professor’s home. The AEC handled the accident with deep secrecy. After a short investigation, whose results were not presented to even the workers, the lab was hermetically sealed for several months.
A month after the lab closed, a physics student died of leukemia. A few years later, Prof. Yehuda Wolfson, Sadeh’s direct supervisor, also died, and Prof. Amos de Shalit, the department’s director, died of cancer in 1969 at age 43.
When the leak was discovered, Sadeh was terribly anxious, but tests indicated he was well. But according to Karpin’s book, the tests did not include his bone marrow. Sadeh and his wife hid the facts from their family and friends until he died prematurely. The cause of death was cancer.
The Israeli authorities did not admit that the leak and the deaths were connected, but people close to Sadeh confirmed that the state took responsibility for the accident and compensated his family.
This obituary indicates Sadeh–who later became a renowned astrophysicist, proved a fundamental principle of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and was the director of the Israeli space agency–died at age 60 in 1993.
Here is another source offering more information on the cause of the leak, and the scientists contaminated, including the graduate student who died:
The first nuclear accident in Israel took place before the reactor was operational. In the years 1956-1957 scientists in the Weizmann Institute were preparing for the construction of the reactor and the production of a bomb. “Material which was supposed to seal the nuclear substance and protect it from leaking cracked and radioactive materials leaked. This was discovered late, and high reading of nuclear material was found in the laboratory and in the bodies of some of the workers. High radiation was also found in the homes of the young scientists, articles they touched and even their children’s beds. This was reported by Maariv in 2006 after a period of censorship in these matters for nearly 50 years (a report by Chen Kotz-Bar).
…Dror Sadeh himself wrote: “During 1956-1957 I was working in the radioactive laboratory in the Weizmann Institute. I was an employee of the Israeli Nuclear Energy Committee. As part of my work I treated a radioactive source which emitted alpha rays. This source was coated with a very thin layer of plastic material designed so that all the radiation would be directed towards the target. For a long period of time there was no monitoring of the radiation in the institute. Then one day a test was conducted on a table at the lab, and Alpha radiation well exceeding normal level was detected. Even in my home radiation was detected. The lab was sealed for some months. In my urine tests no radiation was found, but no attempt to test other organs (e.g. bone marrow) was made. One month after the lab was closed one of the physics students died from blood cancer. As far as I can remember his name was Yonathan Ramberg.
Asia Ramberg, widow of Yonathan Ramberg (the student who died of leukemia) recalled: “I remember that someone from the institute came and said that he had to go as soon as possible to the hospital.” Bamberg was a graduate student at the Weizmann Institute at the time and was the youngest faculty member in Dror Sadeh’s group.
“Yonathan was 28 at the time. He was feeling quite ill and large spots started to appear on his body. I was not even scared; I just saw the bright side of things. We went to the hospital Friday and on Saturday they told me that he was very ill. The day after that, Sunday, was our second anniversary. I picked a few flowers, and when I got to the hospital I saw Yonathan dwindle in front of my eyes. He died the same day. I was in shock. My parents collected me from the hospital like a broken egg-shell. I was helpless. I barely spoke for three years. I did not investigate what happened. Nothing.”
It makes perfect sense that Israeli intelligence, learning about both the accident and its repercussions for the health of the lab workers, would be interested in learning everything it could about polonium poisoning. When you have a lemon, make lemonade. Clearly, Russia had a similar program because its polonium was used, likely by its intelligence agents, to poison Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
Israel operates a major facility at Ness Ziona which experiments with chemical and biological agents. It would make sense if research was performed on polonium, it would’ve happened here.
Now that the PA has agreed to exhume Arafat’s body in Ramallah, further testing has at least a 50% chance of determining whether polonium killed him. Testing of his body tissues could also isolate the nuclear facility from which the polonium was produced. If Israel killed him, it would’ve been far smarter to have procured Russian polonium than to have used material from Israel’s Dimona reactor. But if the material is from Dimona, the killers would then be exposed.
Though we can’t know for sure whether Israel did it, we can see who is creeping out of the mire to debunk Al Jazeera. Josh Block and Lenny Ben David, both paid pro-Israel operatives (one formerly with Aipac and the second, the Israeli embassy) are circulating discredited claims that Arafat was a “sexual deviant” (Elie Leshem happily published this nonsense in The Times of Israel and justified it by falsely associating the term “pederast” with Arafat) who engaged in gay sex with his bodyguards and died of AIDS. The AIDS claims was convincingly debunked within the Al Jazeera documentary by a specialist who tested him (as did the French hospital where he died) and found him HIV negative. The gay sex smear was peddled in a smutty book by the Romanian ex-secret police chief under Ceausescu, who defected to the west. That was good enough for the “quality journalism” represented by the Times of Israel and its crusading, truth-seeking editor, Elie Leshem. ‘Nuff said.
The Jerusalem Post quotes an “expert” falsely claiming that polonium deteriorates so quickly that no traces of it could remain after eight years. This expert has no scientific training, and in fact has a PhD in political science and is a colonel in the IDF. Hussein Ibish, DC neocons’ favorite Arab, writes in Foreign Policy that the Al Jazeera story is bogus because the symptoms Arafat presented at death were inconsistent with polonium poisoning. Ibish offers no scientific support for his claims. In ad hominem tweets calling me “raving mad,” Ibish quotes a post I wrote in 2004, two weeks after Arafat died, speculating that he died of AIDS. This eight year-old post was first dredged up by Islamophobe pro-Israel blogger, David Lange. Neither Lange nor Ibish note that five years ago I posted that Sharon likely ordered the killing. If Arafat is found to have been poisoned by Polonium, that 2007 post will have been proven correct. In the world of intellectual sham inhabited by these two opinions, once expressed, turn into immutable stone
Returning to Arafat’s symptoms, at least one he exhibited, severe diarrhea, is consistent with such poisoning. Ibish, of course, doesn’t mention this. Though it is true that Litvinenko lost his hair and Arafat did not.
The fact that such figures have come out of the woodwork to protect Israel from culpability for Arafat’s death indicates there are those within Israel’s intelligence apparatus who want to obfuscate and confuse rather than shed light on these issues.
Thank you for today’s and previous reporting on the assassination by polonium-210 of Yasser Arafat.
I’ve followed this incident closely, gut I must take issue with the following line in above report:
We’ve seen that Russia murdered Litvinenko with polonium in 2006… this is not so! In the US there are blogs who point the finger at Russia for Arafat’s murder and not at the Israelis.
Originally posted in BooMan’s fp story – Did the Russians Poison Arafat?.
Yasser Arafat was holed up and under IDF siege in his Ramallah compound. Ariel Sharon wanted him dead, a clear motive. Russians did not poison Yasser Arafat in the fall of 2004, and as a consequence the Russians should not be suspect in the 2006 murder of Litvinenko, a MI-5 spy for the British. See article in The Independent – Censored: British intelligence links to murdered Litvinenko and the NY Times. Later it was stated Litvinenko was also employed by the Spanish secret service. By some estimates, a lethal dose of Polonium-210 might cost as little as $22.50, plus tax. After preventing evidence at Robert Owen’s coroner inquest, the British government has denied a public inquiry into Litvinenko’s death in July 2013.
The British have tried to frame the Russians for the murder out of self-interest. The British and Russians were in a bitter intelligence dispute. France and the US tried to prevent an investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat. The most trustworthy analysis will be from the Swiss – a 108 page forensic report.
○ Debunking the Putin Killed Litvinenko Story by soj on Nov 24th, 2006
○ A Not So Common Poison for Assassins by Oui on July 3rd, 2012
“poisoned with the highest dose of polonium ever recorded in a human being”
Out of curiosity, where did you get the information that Arafat had the highest dose of polonium ever found in a human being? I’ve been trying to get information to compare the circumstances of Arafat’s death and Litvinenko’s death but have yet to find any direct comparisons with respect to amounts of poison used in each case. As you point out, there is only information as to the amount of polonium found in Arafat’s bones (18x the normal amount). In Litvinenko’s case, the only available information is that he received a dose at least 200x stronger than the typical lethal dose for humans. Anyway, I have much, much more to write on this subject but I will not be able to do so until later this afternoon.
@ Ari Greenfield: It’s in one of the Al Jazeera videos I listened to.
[ed., comment deleted for comment rule violation]
Suha Arafat did commission the Swiss study. There are 2 more studies yet to be released.
Al Jazeera funded the first report which led to the polonium-210 poisoning find.
@Oui:
I do not disagree that Al-Jazeera might have funded the study of his belongings but Suha Arafat absolutely commissioned the Swiss study into his remains that resulted in the 108 page report released yesterday. Do not read this to imply that I believe the study should be dismissed simply b/c of who funded it, however.
@ Pip: This is a gross comment violation. Read the comment rules & follow them. Your next violation will result in moderation.
Why is questioning the source of Suha Arafat’s fortune a comment violation?
[comment edited for comment rule violation]
@ Pip: Read the comment rules & stay on topic. That subject is OFF-TOPIC. Follow the rules or face the consequences.
Unfortunately, this article does not hold up to scientific scrutiny:
Patrick Cockburn (not exactly a Zionist ideologue), in his article in the British “Independent” (again, not exactly a Zionist propaganda paper), points out the following:
“The radioactive substance used, polonium-210, has only a brief half-life of 138.4 days so traces detected eight years after he was supposedly poisoned would be difficult to find.
There is also the question as to why French doctors, who were looking after Mr Arafat in Paris – to which he had been flown when he first fell ill – did not find signs that he had been poisoned in the days immediately after his death. France had bad relations with Israel at the time and had no reason to participate in a cover up.”
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/was-yasser-arafat-murdered-lethal-levels-of-polonium-found-in-body-of-palestinian-leader-8925466.html)
Maybe the headline should read “Swiss scientists assume…”, but they definitely do not confirm anything, and their claim is not free of any doubts, scientifically.
benjamin, another apologist to the rescue, carrying water for murderous thugs, but not so much logic, alas.
With all due respect to Patrick Cockburn he, like so many other opinion writers, is not a scientist. I’ve heard the decay time of polonium cited over and over. With great precision too. But just because an element decays does not mean it disappears entirely. For one it will leave behind by-products, especially when the original element enters material, such as tissue, including bone. For another, there will be less of it left, but depending on the original amount, and where the residue has lodged, that amount can be highly indicative of the original dose administered.
If anything, the fact that the amount of Polonium discovered in bone samples and soil was 18 times normal, goes to show that originally, there was quite a bit of it, if that much can still be traced 8 years later. In fact, there are probably numerical estimates that would allowinformaed guesses as to the original dose.
Another factor is the manner in which Polonium was imbued. Note that Litvinenko fell ill immediately and was dead a 2 or 3 weeks later (need to check the exact time). Arafat lingered for 4 weeks and his symptoms were somewhat different – which indicates that there can be more severe effect on some organs than others. Litvinenko drank poisoned tea, where the Polonium was directly administered to his stomach with a relatively concentrated dose. Arafat poison may have entered his body in less concentrated but possibly more prolonged manner – say, through poisoned utensils, ones that only he would have used. Obviously there are many options, which is what makes this case complicated.
The leanings of the French dealing with Arafat and just who was who among those treating him is another avenue of inquiry. The absence of an autopsy was always suspicious, especially in a case where the cause of death was effectively unknown, and the victim was such a well-known figure. I happen to believe that it’s impossible to escape the conclusion that there were individuals in France (not necessarily on the doctors team) who participated, knowingly, in the cover-up. Too much was not investigated at the onset. While it is not my intent to point fingers, it bears to reason that even the choice of France was not without some undue influence. To suppose that there was someone(s) on the inside in the hospital is not exactly far-fetched and i reckon people have looked into that.
What is important is the these benjamin types be understood for what they are – carriers of water contaminated by allegiance to mafioso state. I would extend them the credibility due to any consiglieri.
Imbibed, not “imbued”. Oh well.
One question I have is how Israel would’ve known what particular piece of food, or other item it sent in to the compound would be used by Arafat and only Arafat? IIRC, Israel had him surrounded but he wasn’t alone in his compound and nobody else inside with him has died of radiation related illness.
Ari, that is my question too – the manner in which the Polonium could have been delivered is quite a good fodder for the who done it. Ithink there are several possibilities there and looking at foods that only Arafat would have consumed is a place to start. There are other good questions: as Richard points out Arafat was completely surrounded and Israel had control over everything that entered the Muqata. Surely, yhe possibility of poisoning was high on the list of the palestinians who surrounded Arafat and there’s a strong likelihood he’d have had a food taster or two.
Some good places to start is to look at the people who were around him at the time – investigate whether any had symptoms of any kind. Same with the visitors who’d come in – and there were some. Timing is everything with such a ssubtle case of poisoning.
There are people looking at symptoms and claims of variances with what litvinenko went through. but there was also the case of sadeh, who illness went over a protracted period of time. Not all radiation sicknesses are alike, and the specific manner in which Arafat was affected should hold a great number of clues as to the How and When. I heard there are clever scientists in israel with specialty in radiation sickness of all kinds. How about some of them lend a hand here? you know – light unto the nations and all that…..
@ Benjamin: Patrick Cockburn is not a nuclear scientist. The Swiss scientists are. I’ll go with them.
No one in the world in 2004 had ever diagnosed polonium poisoning so the fact that the French didn’t find the cause isn’t at all surprising.
The human and the reality are somewhat going apart, there is ISRAEL the land the buildings the olive trees, and there is Israel the people! the current problem is the people, ideology, Israel Palestine, Egypt this is just land on planet earth, as there in fact a French bush Is exactly the same as a Belgian bush, borders do not exist, and there is only one human race, humans are animals as well it is call the human animal. However humans now are in some world of illusion and believe they are only mind and neglect the body the flesh. Humans must calm down and come down to reality and understand they are mortal, exist for a definite time and are all the same. Better to help each other’s than to fight against each other’s, the fact is if they don’t they will perish and only a few will remain. land is the same here or in Japan, you folks got a very serious problem Fukushima; better get all scientist in iran and elsewhere and fix the problem instead of having BIBI disgust useless and senseless policies and idiotic ideologies…
The Russian’s findings have been released and are inconclusive:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=243873465
I don’t think the Russians were able to detect the polonium except in 1 of 4 samples. Either their work or capabilities leave something to be desired.
At this point, all the of investigations seem to leave something to be desired- mostly due to interested parties being involved. Sounds like the French will not be making their results public until the potential (or ongoing?) criminal inquiry is completed. I think the questions will continue to linger for sometime to come.
@ Ari Greenfield: I don’t think the Swiss report leaves anything to be desired. Rather than carp about who paid for or sponsored the investigation as you have, read the 108 pg report & poke holes in it if you can. The French may be no more reliable since they claim they did no autopsy after his death. Imagine the guy wastes away & French doctors know nothing about why he died & they don’t do an autopsy?? Sorry, doesn’t wash. I’ll trust the Swiss.
I do not know that the French report will be anymore reliable but it is related to the only criminal inquiry into the death, so I would hope it would be completed in a fair and impartial matter manner. I agree that an autopsy would’ve been helpful at the time, however, given that there was no criminal investigation at the time of his death, I am nearly certain the decision to perform or not perform an autopsy is left to the discretion of the family. I plan to read the report as time permits.
According to French newspapers Suha Arafat opposed an autopsy back in 2004, and according to an interview on Al-Jazeera she claims that she was never offered such an option and that it didn’t occur to her to ask. According to French law she was the only one to allow an autopsy. This is a very important topic, and we need to know who’s telling the truth.
It seems that the French report is being hold back because Hollande is going to Israel in a couple of days.
@Deir Yassin: Hollande’s trip to Israel may explain why his FM just single-handedly torpedoed an Iran nuclear agreement.
@ That’s what i thought too when I heard about this last night.
@ Deir Yassin @ Richard Silverstein
You two are absolutely right. After all the Zionist lobby has complete control not only over the US political system, but over the French one as well.
Hopefully you guys have a chart that demonstrates the balance of power in France.
On the other hand, is it possible that President Holland and his foreign minister Fabius didn’t want to be remembered in history like Édouard Daladier ?
@ Joe Black: You haven’t bothered to read the comment rules. Snark that implies anti-Semitic motives is absolutely prohibited here. You’ve been moderated and put on notice that further comment violations will result in your ban.
The news about the French role in the nuke talks is an interesting and fascinating development. I look forward (hopefully) to a new article on this as time permits.
Role of France? Pure self-interest at the cost of a global peace initiative.
Hollande’s Visit to Israel Gets Upgrade, Will Address Knesset
○ France Doing Israel and Saudi’s Bidding In Geneva
@ Ari Greenfield: You haven’t raised a single legitimate objection to the Swiss investigation. In fact, you said the fact that Suha allegedly was involved with it did not disqualify it. Now, only 2 hrs later, you’ve changed your mind.
All I said is that who paid for the report does not in itself invalidate any findings but it is something to take into consideration. I still believe that. If you hired me to poke holes in this study in a courtroom, I’d probably raise the following issues:
-the assumption that Arafat was in good health and/or otherwise healthy prior to the evening of October 12, 2004.
-the absence of some symptoms generally seen in someone with radiation poisoning- meylosuppression and hair loss.
-the study admits chain of custody issues with the personal items sampled.
-the study admits a lack of knowledge and available studies about polonium 210 poisoning and it’s breakdown inside the human body (in life and postmortem).
@ Ari Greenfield: Suha Arafat did NOT pay for the report. Al Jazeera did. She cooperated with it as her approval & participation was needed.
None of the objections you raise are significant.
I suppose I’d add these remarks from the Swiss researchers during their press conference to support my original statement that further inquiry is needed:
“The doubt is enough to induce more investigation, but at a judicial level, to open an inquiry to look at other kinds of evidence, not measurements, but contacts between Palestinians and other people,” Mangin told Reuters in an interview.
“Can we say with certitude that polonium was the cause of death of President Arafat? Unfortunately for those of you who want a clearly-defined answer, the answer is no. That is to say, our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/07/us-palestinians-arafat-swiss-idUSBRE9A610I20131107
@ Ari Greenfield: This is disingenuous. The scientist asked whether he could give a 100% assurance that Arafat was murdered by polonium, to which he says “No.” Can I be absolutely certain that the earth will exist tomorrow morning when I wake up? No. But will it? Yes.
They’ve told you their level of certainty is 83%. That’s good enough for me. If you want 100% you’ll have to move to a different universe.
I do not understand how you can call my quoting the scientists own words to support my argument that more research is needed disingenuous when the scientist says, “the doubt is enough to induce more investigation.”
With respect to Al-Jazeera’s 83% certainty statement, that is nowhere in the report & the scientists never said it. Al-Jazeera either misinterpreted or misrepresented the findings as stated pursuant to the “verbal probability scale” found on page 69 of the study. The study put forth 2 hypotheses, each with 3 possible outcomes (strongly support, moderately support & slightly support). H1 proposed that Arafat died as a result of polonium 210; H2 proposed Arafat did not die as a result of polonium poisoning. The study states that the findings “moderately support the proposition H1”- this finding was simply one out of six possible outcomes. It was not a 5 on a scale of 6 as Al-Jazeera led us to believe (5/6=83%).
My opinion remains that further inquiry is needed. Others may disagree.
Al Jazeera published an “excerpt” of the I. Buryazan Medical Center report dated July 31, 2013, adressed to V.V. Uyebe, Head of the Federal Microbiological Agency of Russia.
As polonium 210 decays by alpha emission with a 1/2 life of about 138 days, by eight years after a disputed event it would have become lead 206 a stable (non-radioactive) isotope of lead with a natural abundance of about 24% (the 204, 207, and 208 isotopes making up the other 76% of non-radioactive lead) Detecting the (former) presence of polonium 210 depends on determining the presence and abundance of lead 206. Mass spectrometry can do that.
What about Sharon? I remember something about some Israeli Rabbis getting together to put a cabballah witch curse on him for trying to give some stolen land back to the Panlestinians. Then Sharon went into a zombie like catatonic coma. I figured the cabal od rabbis borrowed some voodoo witchcraft and mixed up a batch of zombie juice from the puffer fish bladder and slipped it into his food.
Thank you for the report and background information.
I saw a report by NPR, “Clashing reports offer no firm answers on Arafat poisoning.” Nov 8, 2013
“The Palestinian committee investigating Arafat’s death is waiting for one more lab report from France, where Arafat died in a military hospital. Journalist Matthew Kalman isn’t sure how far the Palestinian investigators will be willing to go.”
http://www.npr.org
Not especially noteworthy, other than the mentioned French report.
I hope that the polonium 210 found will be traced to it’s source and the investigation will be conclusive, if possible.
@ jg: Matt Kalman is a hasbara stooge. Don’t believe a single word he says. Of course, he wouldn’t say the obvious because his goal is to protect Israel rather than report the news.
Noted, Richard. Thanks for the feedback, confirmed my suspicions.
In Wired magazine, a number of background articles. The Palestinian Authority initiated the investigation after the first Al Jazeera report and documentary. Plenty of domestic and international politics obcures the conclusion in the findings of polonium poisoning.
The Maybe-Murder of Yasser Arafat
One undisputable fact remains, Yasser Arafat suddenly fell ill after consumption of a meal and all modern science of doctors could not save him from dying nor provide conclusive evidence in the cause of his death. There was Palestinian infighting during his four weeks of illness and his resurfaced often. France nor Russia will be inclined to provide more fuel to the fire between Palestinians and Israel.
Now for some basic science every one who can open a wiki page can do.
But I expect you to censor me, like you always do when the facts contradicts your propaganda.
Here it goes:
Polonium 210 half life is less than 140 days.
Arafat is dead for 8 years.
Assume they found 2MG of it on his body, the dose he had in his body 8 years ago is about 2KG.
Now 2KG of this stuff is practically a dirty bomb.
In addition, polonium 210 decays into lead, which means they had to find about 2KG of lead in his body.
This is not even remotely close to what they found.
Therefore the whole 108 pages of report is pure BS.
Basic science.
So let’s see: you have no scientific expertise & the Swiss represent one of the finest facilities of their kind in the world. Who shouldd we trust? You or them? Hmm. Tough one.
To start with, you have no idea what kind of scientific expertise I have.
Yet, you form an opinion based on nothing and present it to the forum as fact.
I wonder how much of the other facts you present in this forum are just speculations based on nothing.
As for the facts I presented in my response, you failed to refute any of them, meaning that report is indeed BS.
Instead you chose to attack me personally like a bully.
Making the world a better place indeed.
@ free man: I’m smart enough to know that if you had any scientific expertise upon being challenged you’d reveal it if you had any. I’m also smart enough to know that what you presented as scientific evidence is nothing of the sort. So stop whining about me being a bully & tell us what that expertise is. If you don’t have any, then we’ll know who’s full of bullshit.
Again, My scientific expertise are none of your business.
You failed to refute any of the facts I presented and attacked me in person instead.
BTW, Bragging how smart you are, is not very smart.
In other words, you have none.
Have you been counting α-particles lately?
Health effects
Polonium is an extremely dangerous substance. When it breaks down, it gives off alpha particles. These particles are tiny, atom-sized particles that can destroy cells. Polonium is considered to be more than 100 billion times more dangerous than hydrogen cyanide. The maximum suggested exposure to the element is no more than about seven one-hundred-billionths of a gram.