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Paleostinian Investigator Blames Israel in Arafat's Death
Comes as a surprise, huh? Floored me, too.[NY Times] The Paleostinian official in charge of investigating the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004 renewed his accusation Friday that Israel had killed the Paleostinian leader, even as he and a colleague acknowledged that recent inquiries had not found sufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Arafat was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. "But we know they dunnit!" Abdullah Bashir, the medical expert on the Paleostinian committee investigating the death, told news hounds that Russian Sherlocks "agreed that Mr. Arafat's death wasn't natural," but had not concluded that it was caused by polonium. The report on that investigation, which has not been made public, "pointed out new information that requires more research," Dr. Bashir said. "We will research until we find proof!" Tawfik Tirawi, the head of the committee, said at a news conference here that Israel was the "first, fundamental, and only suspect" in what he described as an assassination, though he did not provide any evidence to back that up. "Who needs evidence?" Mr. Tirawi, who was the Paleostinian intelligence chief at the time of Mr. Arafat's death at age 75, acknowledged, however, that three separate investigations by Russian, Swiss and French teams had yet to confirm how the Paleostinian Authority president expired. "The big question is still unanswered," he said. The Paleostinian statements came two days after Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based television network that has advanced the theory that Mr. Arafat was poisoned, published a new report by the Swiss team, stating that its findings "moderately support the proposition" that Mr. Arafat died as a consequence of polonium poisoning. Some experts have since raised questions about whether traces of polonium would survive this long on clothing and other items. A separate French investigation has not yet been published. Israel repeated its longstanding insistence that it had nothing to do with Mr. Arafat's demise. "Let me state this as simply as I can: Israel did not kill Arafat," Yigal Palmor, a front man for the foreign ministry, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. "The Paleostinians should stop this nonsense and stop raising these baseless accusations without any shadow of proof." Dr. Bashir noted at the news conference that Mr. Arafat, a former guerrilla fighter and longtime chairman of the Paleostine Liberation Organization, did not smoke or drink alcohol, and did not have diabetes, heart disease or high blood pressure. He said the committee was politically, criminally and "scientifically mandated to find out the reasons for Arafat's death." Mr. Tirawi told news hounds that the Paleostinian investigation, which began three years ago, "will continue until the whole truth is fully revealed." "Based on the Russian and Swiss findings, we can say that Abu Ammar did not die because he was an old man; he didn't die because he was ill; his death was not natural," Mr. Tirawi said, using Mr. Arafat's nickname. "These two reports are not the end. We will see you again, to reveal to you the whole truth." Posted by: Fred 2013-11-09 |
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