Polonium, a highly radioactive material

[FarCenter]

AFP - Polonium, the poison scientists suspect may be the cause of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death in 2004, is a highly radioactive material rarely found outside military and scientific circles.

Swiss radiation experts have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Arafat which "support the possibility" the veteran Palestinian leader was poisoned.

Arafat died in France on November 11 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow's request.

His remains were exhumed in November 2012 and samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned -- a suspicion that grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

That investigation is ongoing, conducted separately by teams in France, Switzerland and Russia.

http://www.france24.com/en/20131014-polonium-highly-radioactive-material

[stevenleser]

1. Had he pissed off Russia? That is their M.O. Nt

[FarCenter]

5. Israel also has the stuff

According to the book The Bomb in the Basement, several deaths in Israel during 1957–1969 were caused by 210Po.[87] A leak was discovered at a Weizmann Institute laboratory in 1957. Traces of 210Po were found on the hands of professor Dror Sadeh, a physicist who researched radioactive materials. Medical tests indicated no harm, but the tests did not include bone marrow. Sadeh died from cancer. One of his students died of leukemia, and two colleagues died after a few years, both from cancer. The issue was investigated secretly, and there was never any formal admission that a connection between the leak and the deaths had existed.[88]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium

It was used by the US as a component of the trigger of implosion devices.

[stevenleser]

8. Many countries "have the stuff" only one is known to have used it as an assassination tool.

I've researched that particular use and it is a dumb tool to use. It's very dangerous for the assassin, it tends to expose the assassin, its much easier to poison the person with something else, or shoot them, etc. It leaves a tell tale trail of radiation from beginning to end, that's how the Brits traced the one use from London all the way back to Moscow and were able to identify everyone in between.

This seems very much counter to the way the Mossad operates. They only take risk when absolutely necessary and then work to mitigate it as much as possible. They also are loathe to do things that expose the identity of their agents, many of whom worked for years to insert themselves into sensitive positions.

The reason the Russians used it is because they (Putin in particular) wanted to make Alexander Litvinenko suffer for what they considered was being a traitor and alleging all kinds of criminal acts to bring Putin to power and keep him there, such as the assassination of journalists. And suffer Litvinenko did, for three weeks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko_poisoning#Illness_and_poisoning

Arafat died two years before Litvinenko. If he was murdered with Polonium, my guess is it was one of the Russian secret services at the direct behest of Putin.

[FarCenter]

9. What would be the Russian's motive to assasinate Arafat?

I would think that a number of secret services would have used polonium prior to the Litvinenko assassination.

The Litvinenko assassination appears to have been badly done. Properly done, the person dies and no one ever looks for polonium.

[stevenleser]

10. This might offer some hints

http://www.meforum.org/690/putins-pro-israel-policy

In November 2003, Sharon and Putin once again met in the Kremlin. While Sharon expressed dislike for the Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council Resolution 1515 endorsing the U.S.-sponsored "road map,"[37] he called Putin "a true friend of Israel." For his part, Putin reiterated his concern about the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on migrants from Russia to Israel and proposed that Russia open an exhibit "devoted to the tragedy of the Holocaust."[38]

In January 2004, Russia, along with seventy-three other countries (including all those from the European Union), abstained from a U.N. General Assembly resolution asking the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the security barrier that the Israeli government was constructing to protect Israeli communities from Palestinian terrorism. Russian diplomats had tried to persuade the Palestinians and others not to put this resolution to a vote. Again, Russian concerns about its own Chechnya problem mitigated its historically pro-Palestinian position. This was because, as two Kommersant journalists noted, the resolution "sets a precedent in which an international organization … is asking the court to provide an expert assessment of the legality of actions by a country that is not prepared to accept its verdict. If the hearings go forward and the court decides in favor of the Palestinians, in the future nothing will prevent the European Union or the [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] from asking The Hague to assess, for example, the actions of the Russian authorities in Chechnya."[39] Nevertheless, after the International Court of Justice ruling, Russia voted in July 2004 to condemn the wall's construction.[40]

Also in January 2004, the Palestinians witnessed eroding Russian support when Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority's chief foreign representative, met with Ivanov in Moscow to discuss the impasse in road map talks. Shaath blamed the Israelis, but Ivanov would have none of that. Ivanov reportedly told Shaath that, "the only person who can take the terrorist groups in hand is Yasir Arafat. But the Palestinian leader, who remains firmly in control of the situation … doesn't want to lift a finger to rein in the terror." The clear implication was that Russia considered Arafat the main obstacle and might even withdraw their diplomatic support for Arafat's continued leadership. Ivanov further chided Shaath for the claim that the Palestinian Authority's and Russia's positions coincided, insisting that the Palestinian Authority not seek to use Shaath's visit to Moscow for propaganda purposes. [41]

[MADem]

6. Yep--anyone living over there who is "political" needs to watch what

they ingest, and avoid any sharp umbrella tips, too...

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, FarCenter.

[BainsBane]

3. The Russians used Polonium on Ltvinenko because they wanted to send a message

to the dissident community. There are lots of ways to kill someone, and Polonium is far from subtle. So I don't see how it would have been the poison of choice to take out Arafat, certainly not by the Israelis anyway. If they did kill him, they wouldn't want it traced to them.

I'm pretty sure Arafat's wife declined an autopsy because of Muslim practices. The body must be buried within 24 hours.

[MADem]

7. Suha, his wife, was born Catholic--educated in convent schools.

She converted when she married him but that may have been just for show. Yassir (who himself wasn't excessively religious or fundamental) had other health issues, it is alleged, that she may not have wanted to come to the fore after he died, for the sake of their child. She and he were not close in the years preceding his death. Supposedly she wanted a divorce and he said 'Hell, no.'

If he was, indeed, poisoned, she may have done a cost-benefit analysis and decided that keeping his health history under wraps was more important than "proving" he was murdered, particularly given the mood around the time of his passing (to be clear, on edit, she was the one who OK'd his exhumation last year). It was a very emotional period not just in Palestine, but throughout the Middle East, SW Asia and northern Africa. There was an enormous outpouring of grief from many quarters when he died--he'd transformed from grubby hijacking terrorist to elder statesman of a sort down the years, a lot of folks remembered that journey and remembered how they were affected by the events in which he played a large role.

[dkf]

4. Very curious.