Trail of 'targeted killings,' repeated threats stir suspicions of Israeli hand in Arafat's death
Was it an Assassination?
by Trish Schuh
September 22, 2005
Lebanon Star - 2005-09-10
Lebanon Star's Editor's note: With recent media reports suggesting that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's death may have been the result of foul play, and with theories speculating that the late leader may have been poisoned or infected with the HIV virus, the question of who is behind the assassination has also been raised. Suggesting that Israel had the most to gain from Arafat's death, Middle East reporter Trish Schuh has compiled the following timeline of developments in Israel and the United States leading up to Arafat's death on November 11, 2004. Schuh is a freelance journalist who has worked for ABC News, Al-Arabiya, Muslim's Weekly, Asia Times, Tehran Times and Counterpunch. She studied Arabic and Islam at Bir Zeit University in Palestine and observed the 2005 elections in Palestine.
Yasser Arafat's removal was a triumph for Israel. It fulfilled demands for the election of anti-Intifada Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his associates who "work well with Israel and America," and whose commitment to disarm the Palestinians will enable Israeli land theft for settlements to continue without resistance or reprisal from undefended Palestinians.
Israel achieved Arafat's demise: "The obstacle to peace will be eradicated forever."
A 'road map' for the end of the Arafat era
According to President George W. Bush's closest advisers, the American president had a radical change of heart in January 2002, when he decided for the first time that Arafat was an irredeemable terrorist unfit as a peace partner. Israel confiscated the Iranian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea with a cargo of munitions, en route to Gaza militants. Upon receiving evidence from the CIA via Mossad that Arafat had knowledge of the shipment, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon got what he always wanted: America's de facto elimination of Arafat as leader of the Palestinian Authority.
With Washington watching, Israeli tanks surrounded Arafat's Ramallah compound while Sharon's Cabinet discussed deporting Arafat. Under intense American and European pressure, Sharon promised Bush not to assassinate Arafat. Middle East Newsline reported that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell then approached Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia to provide Arafat safe haven. All refused.
On April 1, 2002, World Tribune.com reported that Morocco agreed to provide Arafat asylum. After insisting that 70 Hamas and Fatah colleagues accompany him, the Knesset rejected the proposal, arguing that he would be far more dangerous out of sight, operating a government-in-exile. A month later, both U.S. Houses of Congress passed resolutions of overwhelming support for Israel and condemning Arafat as a "terrorist" and a "despot."
On June 24, 2002, from the White House Rose Garden, Bush issued a critical foreign policy shift. In what analysts deemed "the death knell for Yasser Arafat," Bush publicly called for regime change in Palestine. He later began to parrot Sharon rhetoric, saying the U.S. would no longer deal with Arafat or acknowledge him as the Palestinians' leader.
In the final months of 2002, Israeli experts advised U.S. Justice Department lawyers on how to legalize extrajudicial killings. The February 7, 2003, edition of the Jewish Forward reported on an unprecedented legal document developed for the U.S. by Israel. It contained a comprehensive set of justifications for state-terror assassinations, and revealed the Bush administration's involvement in such schemes. Bush now characterized terrorists caught - but denied rights to trial - as being "otherwise dealt with." Israeli sources also revealed that Mossad was training the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency on how to implement covert "hits" with expertise gained fighting the Palestinians - car bombs, snipers, cell phone explosives, high tech devices and poisoning - and how to disguise them as "unexplained events and accidents."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SCH20050922&articleId=984
Of greatest interest to me have been the many "accidental" deaths that have occured among jounalists in Iraq who have written articles that were NOT approved of by the U.S. government.
From the offices of Al Jazeera and other Arabic medi headquarters, to the attacks on Italian jounalists, adn finally they arrest of four Reuters journalists who were filming too close to Abu Graib prison for the comfort of Americna troops. They are still INSIDE Abu Graib even though IRAQI courts have ruled that American troops have NO legal justification for holding them.