Yasser Arafat died mysteriously with gastrointestinal symptoms that could not be explained or cured. He suddenly went from being a very healthy 75 year old to incurably ill. Rumors abounded that he died of cirrhosis of the liver or AIDS but Al Jazeera's investigation, involving medical experts, showed that there was no evidence what so ever of disease. When tests for the usual suspects in the death of a 75 year old failed, Al Jazeera pressed on to tests for more exotic causes. They were shocked when a Swiss laboratory with expertise in counting for alpha particles discovered uncontrovertible evidence of deadly Polonium-210 on Arafat's personal effects.
In nature, Polonium-210 is found at low levels, generally in "secular" equilibrium with Radium-222, which is produced by the decay of Uranium-238 and its "daughters". Marie Curie and early nuclear scientists concentrated radium and polonium from pitchblende (U3O8) uranium ore, but such processing is highly dangerous because of radon gas and radiation exposure. However, if Bismuth-209 is put into a nuclear reactor with a high neutron flux, it will produce copious quantities of Bismuth-210 which undergoes beta decay to Polonium-210 with a half life of about 5 days. Large amounts of polonium-210 are hard to handle because the recoil of alpha decay tends to scatter polonium atoms throughout the local environment, but if properly contained, it can be handled without special shielding because alpha particles have very shallow penetration into tissues. Skin offers protection from contained alpha sources.
However, if ingested into the intestinal tract, Polonium-210's high rate of production of alpha particles will rapidly destroy the gut from within. High amounts of radioactive energy are rapidly deposited in the intestinal tract, making Polonium-210 one of the most deadly poisons on earth when ingested.
Arafat suffered a range of gastrointestinal symptoms consistent with Polonium-210 poisoning.
The Swiss investigators found that 80% of the Polonium-210 they discovered was not associated with radium or uranium, indicating it was not natural. That is strong evidence that Arafat was poisoned if their tests can be confirmed by examining the body.
More investigation will be required to determine who poisoned Arafat if tests prove positive. Access to a nuclear reactor with a high neutron flux, and sophisticated knowledge of nuclear materials handling, would have been needed to pull off such a bold poisoning.
More importantly, tests reveal that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analyzed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” said Dr. Francois Bochud, the director of the institute.
The findings have led Suha Arafat, his widow, to ask the Palestinian Authority to exhume her late husband’s body from its grave in Ramallah. If tests show that Arafat’s bones contain high levels of polonium, it would be more conclusive proof that he was poisoned, doctors say.
“I know the Palestinian Authority has been trying to discover what Yasser died from,” Suha Arafat said in an interview. “And now we are helping them. We have very substantial, very important results.”
Short video on Arafat's polonium poisoning posted a few hours ago.
Source for this post & 25 minutes of new video at this AJ link.
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Previous diary on Arafat's Polonium contaminated personal effects.