17-Mar-15: French investigators: Arafat's death in 2004 was not from poisoning

Mr and Mrs Y. Arafat [Image Source]

This just in from Agence France-Presse:

Nanterre (France) (AFP) - French experts reexamining evidence have confirmed their earlier conclusion that the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not the result of poisoning, a prosecutor told AFP Monday. The prosecutor for the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said the experts found there was no foul play in Arafat's death, which sparked immediate and enduring conspiracy rumours... French experts "maintain that the polonium-210 and lead-210 found in Arafat's grave and in the samples are of an environmental nature," Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said... This confirmed French findings from 2013, which also matched those of a Russian team. However, a Swiss probe has said that the poisoning theory is "more consistent" with its test results. Arafat died aged 75 on November 11, 2004 at the Percy de Clamart hospital, close to Paris. He had been admitted there at the end of October that year after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he had lived since December 2001, surrounded by the Israeli army. Arafat's widow Suha lodged a complaint at a court in Nanterre in 2012, claiming that her husband was assassinated, sparking an inquiry. The same year, Arafat's tomb in Ramallah was opened for a few hours allowing three teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators to collect around 60 samples. Many Palestinians believe that the Israelis poisoned Arafat with the complicity of some people in his entourage. ["French experts reaffirm conclusion that Arafat was not poisoned", AFP, March 16, 2015]

It's unlikely that conspiracy theorists will be deterred by something as flimsy as expert conclusions: Arafat was poisoned - any idiot knows that. Some of those idiots:

• "It’s now clear too that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned, probably by the Israelis, with radioactive polonium" [Tony Gosling, a British land rights activist, historian and investigative radio journalist | RT | June 20, 2014]
• "A leading Jordanian doctor, Ashraf al-Kurdi, who regularly examined Mr Arafat, and last saw him two weeks ago, has said poisoning was the "highest" possible cause of death, the Associated Press news agency reports..." [BBC, November 12, 2004]
• "Bassam Abu Sharif, former senior advisor to Yasser Arafat announced Monday the results of the tests conducted to identify the kind of poison that killed the late Palestinian president... This fatal substance is extracted from sea weed and comes in the form of a liquid that is colorless, tasteless and odorless. The tests, Abu Sharif explained, revealed that the poison used to kill Arafat is called “thallium,” a rare chemical substance whose effects are very hard to detect... Abu Sharif pointed out that the information he uncovered is part of a more comprehensive report whose details he will announce soon. “The information I have is not yet complete. This is just part of it.” ...Abu Sharif said that he also warned Arafat a few months before he was poisoned. “I specifically told him that poison is Israel’s main weapon.” [Al Arabiya News, January 11, 2011]
• "A Palestinian commission of inquiry has concluded that ousted Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Dahlan was involved in the “poisoning” of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. The commission’s report was published on Sunday by a number of Arab news websites, including al-Jazeera..." [Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post, July 8, 2011]
• "Farouk al-Kaddoumi, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization leader, claims that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas was directly involved in the murder of former PA chairman and terrorist leader Yasser Arafat..." [Israel National News, July 14, 2009]
• "Evidence Indicates that Ariel Sharon Ordered the Assassination of Yasser Arafat" By Stephen Lendman [Center for Research on Globalization | January 2, 2007]
• "A top Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshaal, accused Israel Thursday of having poisoned veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in a French hospital aged 75. "I accuse Israel of having poisoned the blood of Abu Ammar," Meshaal told Arab television network Al-Jazeera" [Middle East Online | November 11, 2004]

Whatever did bring about his demise, there is little argument over the phenomenal wealth Arafat not-so-mysteriously accumulated in his lengthy career as a statesman. He died a billionaire, presiding over a nation that was essentially penniless and that has grown even needier over the past decade.