Where Are Arafat's Test Results?

[panopticon]

The results of tests undertaken on Yasser Arafat's remains were initially supposed to be released mid-2013 then mid-September 2013 and now, well wait and see...

I have come across a brief report in Pravda that says the results have been handed to his widow and 'She will then decide what to do with this information and whether it is subject to official publication.'

It's also interesting that the recent journal article from The Lancet has been reported on in such a different fashion within different regions. For example a title in Haaretz reads 'Yasser Arafat’s underwear tells experts little about his death', while the widely redistributed AFP reports 'Swiss radiation experts confirm polonium on Yasser Arafat clothing'. Let's not forget the US ultra-orthodox weekly The Jewish Press. Their title reads: 'Arabs Launch the Great ‘Polonium Poisoned Arafat’ Hoax'. Now that shows impartial reporting if ever I saw.

Shows how the same news gets reported in different ways to different people.
Never let is be said that the media lets the truth get in the way of a good story...
Kind Regards,
Panopticon

[Tesseract]

been waiting for it as well... post if you hear anything.

[sigma6]

buried with him...

[vortex surfer]

There was an article about this in the norwegian press yesterday. It contained a link to this Aljazeera article: http://http://www.aljazeera.com/news...735508974.html

[vortex surfer]

Hm, link didn't work. This is it: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe...735508974.html

[panopticon]

There have been reports that Vladimir Uiba the head of Russia's Federal Medico-Biological Agency (FMBA) said that:

He could not have been poisoned with polonium. The research conducted by Russian experts found no traces of this substance.

The FMBA has distanced itself from this statement:

"The FMBA of Russia has made no official statement about the results of research on the remains of Yasser Arafat," FMBA said in a statement.
It added that it had completed its tests and given the results to the authorities.
(AFP & Reuters)

-- Pan

[panopticon]

Swiss, Russian experts rule out Arafat killed by radioactive polonium
Xinhua Online

RAMALLAH, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Swiss and Russian experts who participated in exhuming and applying tests on the remains of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ruled out in their report that radioactive polonium caused his death in 2004, local sources said Thursday.

However, the report, which the Palestinian National Authority ( PNA) received, did not discount the possibility that Arafat was intoxicated with a different poisonous material, the sources told Xinhua.

General Tawfiq Al-Tirrawi, the head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, declined to comment on the information obtained by Xinhua, but said a press conference will be held soon to reveal the results of the report.

In November, the Swiss, Russian and French experts took samples from Arafat's remains for more tests after an investigative media report found out that Arafat's personal belonging bore traces of the polonium-210.

The report was carried out by the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television network and the team of the documentary movie used a Swiss lab to examine Arafat's clothes, toothbrush and bedcovers after getting them from his widow.

Arafat died at a French military hospital in 2004 from an undisclosed or unknown condition.

At the time, Palestinian officials hinted that Israel was behind the death of Arafat after it prevented him from leaving his Ramallah headquarters for two years.

Source

[panopticon]

The Russian Daily paper, 'The Kommersant', had a report on the 14th October about the testing on Arafat's belongings and possibly on the samples taken from his remains. My Russian is non-existent and my Russian translator is on walk-abouts so I'm a bit confused by the auto-translation. It seems to be talking about the Lancet report (which makes sense given the date) however it has been referenced in a number of places saying that it was referring to the body samples. I reckon they're mistaken but thought I'd add the reference here for later.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2319540

[Tesseract]

Posted by panopticon (here)
The Russian Daily paper, 'The Kommersant', had a report on the 14th October about the testing on Arafat's belongings and possibly on the samples taken from his remains. My Russian is non-existent and my Russian translator is on walk-abouts so I'm a bit confused by the auto-translation. It seems to be talking about the Lancet report (which makes sense given the date) however it has been referenced in a number of places saying that it was referring to the body samples. I reckon they're mistaken but thought I'd add the reference here for later.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2319540

Thanks! Here is the translation:

The death of Yasser Arafat has become science fact

On the personal things in the body and died at the end of 2004, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat found traces of radioactive polonium-210. This is stated in the article, the investigation of Swiss scientists, published in the influential British medical publication The Lancet.Meanwhile, still not made public the results of the examination carried out on the request of the widow of Arafat forensic experts from the three countries, including Russia. According to the same sources, "b", the official investigation has been completed and has led to the same conclusion: the Palestinian leader was poisoned with polonium.

In the article with a boring name of "Improving the quality of forensic case of poisoning by polonium," published in the latest issue of The Lancet, are sensational conclusions: results of the samples of personal belongings and bioassay Arafat "speak in favor of the version of the poisoning him with polonium-210." The authors - scientists from the Institute of Radio Physics and the University Centre for forensic examination in Lausanne, Switzerland (CHUV).It is their preliminary findings last year formed the basis of the acclaimed documentary TV channel "Al Jazeera" the true causes of death of the first President of the Palestinian National Authority. This time, Swiss scientists detail the findings and give further evidence of their original hypothesis.

"We have analyzed 75 samples taken for testing, 38 of which were taken with personal belongings and bioassay of Yasser Arafat. Remaining 37 samples were taken for comparison and were not artificially contaminated with polonium-210 - the study says. - Several samples of Blood and urine (Arafata. - "b" ) contained inexplicably higher percentage of polonium-210 than the samples selected for comparison (and not belonging to Arafat. - "b" ). These findings are working on the version that Arafat was poisoned Polonium-210. "
75-year-old Yasser Arafat died in December of 2004 in a hospital near Paris. As stated in an article in The Lancet, the first symptoms of the disease appeared in his October 12 of that year: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea."Shortly thereafter, the general state of his health began to deteriorate, with symptoms of gastric illness grew in the absence of inflammation or fever, - stated in the article. - His condition worsened until kidney failure and neurological coma. He was transferred to intensive care, where he died of a hemorrhage in the brain. Although numerous clinical and toxicological studies, the cause of the disease still remains unknown. "

Official statements about the cause of Arafat's death was not followed, which gave rise to many rumors, including the poisoning. Last year during the investigation into the death of Arafat took the Qatari television channel "Al Jazeera". Journalists have received from a number of his family Arafat's personal belongings (including clothes and a toothbrush), and tissue samples are sent to Switzerland - the Institute of Radio Physics and University Centre for forensic examination. A preliminary analysis, scientists said: the sharp deterioration of health, and then the death of Palestinian leader could be caused by poisoning with radioactive isotopes.

After this, the French prosecutor's office on request of relatives of Arafat initiated the formal investigation for possible poisoning. Arafat's widow Suha gave its approval to exhume his body, which was done last fall. French forensic experts were asked to help colleagues from Switzerland and Russia. Their main task was to confirm or refute the version of poisoning Arafat polonium-210, and then in the case of confirmation of the version to try to determine where it was produced by a chemical agent. The results of the group are held in strict confidence. It was expected that they make public in September, but that did not happen. Experts do not rule out the possibility that the information is kept secret so as not to disrupt the intensified a couple of weeks ago, negotiations on the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.
Meanwhile, according to sources, "b", familiarized with the results of the investigation, "it confirmed the version of the polonium poisoning of Arafat."According to "Kommersant", the conclusions of the examination were first presented Suha Arafat. It is assumed that it must decide when to bring them public and do it all.

Personally, as a scientist, I have always thought that it should be all but impossible, for a professional lab, to get a false positive for polonium.

[Selene]

It's a fair guess that all the "nothing found" "it's an arab plot" stories are a preemptive attempt by the killers to use their media flunkies to create confusion ahead of the actual official test results. That and, oh, a little "intimidation" to help his widow "see reason" about releasing them. Nah.

Let's see how The Big Zio-controlled media - New York Times, CNN, etc - spin this story. Dollars to donuts they'll report it quietly, then call the results "controversial", ring in a few tame "experts"... and then bury the story forever in a maze of 9-11-like distortion.

Betcha.

PS: Why should anyone think Mossad done it? Ask yourself: Qui bono? Who benefits? And then consider motive, means and opportunity.

Regards,

Selene

[Tesseract]

In the years before Arafat died, Palestine was in the grip of the 2nd intifada. This uprising saw most of its action in the West Bank, unlike today where the Gaza strip is the site of most violence. Arafat’s compound was targeted by Israeli forces on many occasions, and heavily damaged. Arafat was pretty much under siege, and these attacks by Israel very easily could have caused his death. That may even have been the intention. There is an anecdote that an Israeli soldier accidentally broke into a room in which Arafat was sheltering, whereupon the Palestinian leader pulled out his revolver and pointed it at his own head, and the Israeli left.

At that time Fatah was politically ascendant over Hamas, whose political leadership was still in exile in Damascus. The elections that were won by Hamas didn’t happen until 2006. On the ground there were a number of groups that played key roles in the uprising including Al Qassam (Hamas) that Arafat did not have direct control over. Nonetheless, Israel blamed Arafat very publicly for every Israeli death that occurred at the hands of a Palestinian.

The constant Israeli strikes, general chaos and the siege of the compound in Ramallah made it virtually impossible for Arafat to govern in anything more than a kind of survival mode while the uprising was running its course. Some say Arafat was an ineffective leader by this point, but I would like to know how effective he was meant to be under those conditions. The PM of Israel at the time was Sharon, perhaps the most ruthless and murderous PM of Israel in modern times and there is no doubt that he wanted Arafat dead (he said as much). Despite Arafat’s struggles, he was really the only unifying figure in the West Bank that time. There is a cogent case to be made that Israel wanted him dead so that there would be a degeneration of the Palestinian politic, such that they lost any potency as a negotiating party on the world stage. This article that was written while Arafat was alive has more to say on that:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-mur...ael-since-2002

Israel would presumably be quite capable of supplying the polonium, given their nuclear programs. They also have a history of administering poison. In 1997 the leader of Hamas was attacked in a street in Oman by Israeli agents, a special poison was sprayed into his ear. Fortunately he fell into the care of brilliant doctors who guessed the right type of stabilising medication – meanwhile the Jordanian government forced Israel to confirm the antidote (and to release Ahmed Yassin). At the very least Sharon, Peres and Olmert would be likely conspirators, if indeed Polonium was the cause of Arafat's death, and if indeed Israel was behind it.




Israel is currently in the middle of releasing over 100 long-term prisoners, it's possible that Arafat's wife does not want to jeopardise that, given the potential violent reaction that may follow any confirmation (I won't accept the word of any 'sources' at this point, about what those results are) from her of the original Swiss results.

[panopticon]

I agree Tesseract.

The recent overtures of peace and Bibi seeming to be assisting in the "2 state solution" all are factors.
Abbas seems to be getting a lot of attention from the Kerry (which wont make Hamas happy either).
Israeli Governments continued rhetoric about Iran and their recent strikes on Syria also factor in.
The risk that a 3rd Intifada may eventuate if a Polonium-210 result comes back positive is also something that all would be considering.
There are so many factors involved (eg "Arab Spring" uprisings, Egypt, Syria, Jordan) that it is a powder keg in the region.
Arafat's results need to be watched out for because that could be the lighting of the wick.
If we're saying it, then we can be sure we're not alone on this.
That's why I think the results have been so long in arriving.
-- Pan

[panopticon]

The Swiss and Russian reports have now been handed over to the special Palestinian committee (no report on the French study as of yet) and officials are going over the reports before informing the Palestinian people as to their result.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/...854/story.html
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=23571

-- Pan

[Corncrake]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/yasser-araf...7.html#BORfO0y

Yasser Arafat 'Was Murdered With Polonium'
Sky NewsSky News – 8 minutes ago

Yasser Arafat 'Was Murdered With Polonium'
Forensic tests on former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's corpse have revealed he was poisoned to death with radioactive polonium, his wife has claimed.
Suha Arafat said the results of the tests in Switzerland revealed "a real crime", adding: "It is scientifically proved that he didn't die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed."
A team of experts have been examining samples taken from Mr Arafat's body since his grave was opened in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November, eight years after his death.
French prosecutors opened a murder investigation in August 2012, after traces of polonium-210 - the same radioactive substance that killed Russian spy Alexander Litvinkenko in 2006 - were reportedly found on Mr Arafat's personal effects.
Professor David Barclay, a British forensic scientist who has seen the results of the Swiss tests, said the findings were a "smoking gun" for those who suspect foul play in his death.
"In my opinion, it is absolutely certain that the cause of his illness was polonium poisoning," he said. "The levels present in him are sufficient to have caused death."
More follows...

[Bob]

6 Nov 2013 Al Jazeera also published news reports today - Swiss scientists have confirmed Polonium in higher than normal amounts in bones and in surrounding soil at the gravesite (leeching from body to the soil). Shua, his wife (whom I had met personally in 1987 in Cairo) vows to find the perps who killed her husband.

[Bob]

Huffington Post - 6 Nov 2013 - Potential Firestorm in the Arab world may be set off by this revelation



Professor David Barclay, a British forensic scientist retained by Al Jazeera to interpret the results of the Swiss tests, said the findings from Arafat's body confirmed the earlier results from traces of bodily fluids on his underwear, toothbrush and clothing.

"In my opinion, it is absolutely certain that the cause of his illness was polonium poisoning," Barclay told Reuters. "The levels present in him are sufficient to have caused death.

"What we have got is the smoking gun - the thing that caused his illness and was given to him with malice."

Finding the perpetrators -

"Barclay said the type of polonium discovered in Arafat's body must have been manufactured in a nuclear reactor." A reactor producing isotopes, or radioactive elements produces a spectral fingerprint. Each energetic signature presents what reactor made such items. This spectral finger print for instance allows a forensic researcher a tool to track backwards into the spectral records, where for instance, plutonium or enriched Uranium for an atomic device was made. The US Savannah river plants for instance, the custodians for parts of the stockpiles for the US atomic substances maintains such a signature database on US produced atomic substances. It would be curious to see if Barclay would request sample isotope signatures from Dimona Ness Ziona.

ref: http://www.srs.gov/general/srs-home.html Savannah River Site "Nuclear Knowledge for the Nation" is their motto
http://www.srs.gov/general/programs/...abs/index.html - the Analytic forensic Laboratories of Savannah River national site
http://www.srs.gov/general/programs/...s/methods.html - spectral analysis methods

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/20...with-polonium/ - Israel's lethal history with Polonium, from Richard Silverstein

Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona, photographed by American reconnaissance satellite KH-4 CORONA, 1968-11-11

Another facility capable of producing "medical" isotopes:
"The Soreq Nuclear Research Center is a research and development institute located near the localities of Palmachim and Yavne in Israel. It operates under the auspices of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC). The center conducts research in various physical sciences, particularly the development of many kinds of sensors, lasers, atmospheric research, non-destructive testing techniques, space environment, nuclear safety, medical diagnostics and nuclear medicine. It also produces various types of radiopharmacuticals for use by health care organizations throughout the country.

"Some of the institute's research facilities include a 5MW pool-type light water nuclear reactor supplied in the late 1950s from the USA under the Atoms for Peace program and a 10MeV proton cyclotron accelerator, as well as extensive laboratory and testing facilities. Currently under construction is a 40 MeV, 2 mA proton and deuteron superconducting linear accelerator scheduled for commissioning in 2013."

Ed Note: Polonium is manufactured in a reactor by irradiating Bismuth metal. The transmutation creates Polonium 2010. Russia has been cited as having "lost" 10kg of polonium. The radioactive element had disappeared from the Sarov facility, which produces the rare radioactive material and is described as Russia's own version of Los Alamos, the US government's nuclear research base in New Mexico. ref: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../27/2003338122

[panopticon]

So now we've got:

• Confirmation that Arafat was assassinated by persons unknown.
• A conspiracy that has been broken wide open by an Al Jazeera investigative report.
• Kerry busy in the Middle East negotiating an Israel/Palestine peace process/2-state solution since February.
• Kerry actively commenting (distancing?) on the new settler construction (3700 new dwellings) the Israeli Government are pushing ahead with in "contested territory".
• The Hamas/Fatah divide.
• Iran negotiating for a loosening of sanctions.
• Syrian civil war.
• The break down of Government in Egypt.

That's only just the surface stuff that pop into mind as I'm writing.

I have no idea whether this will start the 3rd Intifada, but given the conditions/restrictions under which the West Bank operates I wouldn't be overly surprised if this is "wick, match, light".
-- Pan

[panopticon]

AL Jazeera has released the full report here:
http://www.aljazeera.com/investigati...255163780.html

-- Pan

[Bob]

Pan - Suha when I met her, her whole focus was to protect the children. That was in '87. Folks obviously can change, she wasn't even married to her "boss" who was Arafat. She showed me a black and white picture of her and her boss (Arafat) prior to the peace initiative. She struck me as not under any situation wanting Intifada. I do know at that time there were peace initiative miracles happening and a lot of opportunities to work things out. Not taking any sides just saying what I observed back in '87. She is a woman of strong compassion. I think her expression in the photo above is genuine. And that is how I remember her from the early days.

[panopticon]

Posted by Bobd (here)
Pan - Suha when I met her, her whole focus was to protect the children. That was in '87. Folks obviously can change, she wasn't even married to her "boss" who was Arafat. She showed me a black and white picture of her and her boss (Arafat) prior to the peace initiative. She struck me as not under any situation wanting Intifada. I do know at that time there were peace initiative miracles happening and a lot of opportunities to work things out. Not taking any sides just saying what I observed back in '87. She is a woman of strong compassion. I think her expression in the photo above is genuine. And that is how I remember her from the early days.

Thank you for sharing your personal insight into Arafat's widow.

I fear that what she wants has little to do with what will occur.

The prospect of a 3rd Intifada is one reason I view that Abbas is getting so much attention at the moment and why the US and Israeli governments are so focused on directing attention towards a peace process.

If she is still as you remember her I hope she has some input into how the Palestinian people express their emotions in this matter. I doubt that Abbas will be able to control Hamas or the other militant/political groups involved and the Israeli's already have their rhetoric intact. Not to forget of course that we haven't seen the Russian or French reports (which may sing from a different hymn book to the Swiss). Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Authority must have a reason they released this report and not the Russian one as we know they have copies of both.

We live in interesting time...
-- Pan