When Yasser met polonium-210: Whodunit?

[Malthus]

Nothing, other than influence over the Syrians. Same reason they give the Syrians weapons and run interference for them at the UN.

I don't follow.

The Syrians get the idea they want their enemy Arafat dead. They have a traitor inside his compound ready to do the deed. They go to theor pals the Russians and ask for a difficult-to-detect poision to commit the murder with. The Russians, who as we know like to help the Syrians out for reasons of their own, give the Syrians the poision they are currently using with good effect - polonium.

We know the Syrians hated Arafat (not uniquely, it may be said).

We know Russia at the time gave aid to Syrian intelligence:

http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=9228

... the Soviet Union had a long history of support, economic, financial and military, for Syria and for Syrian-aligned terrorist groups. Russia has continued the military relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 ... In addition, there is a hidden dimension to the Russian-Syrian relationship that receives insufficient attention—intelligence cooperation. Syrian intelligence officers have often been trained in Russia and the two countries appear to maintain a close intelligence relationship.

We know Russia at the time poisioned people with polonioum from 2003-2006, there were al least three other cases.

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

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

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

It is alleged that the Russians investigating the incident have been told by their government not to find anything. The Russians are no friends of Israel and have no motive to cover up poisioning by Israelis.

The usual Israeli MO in assassinating people is to blow them up or shoot them, not to poision them.

Therefore, adding these facts, seems a reasonable speculation that it was the Syrians using Russian help that did the deed (or at least, they should be added to the suspects list) - assuming, of course, he was poisioned. 

[Admiral Yi]

I'm aware of the Russian proclivity to rid itself of nuisances through polonium poisoning, and their patronage of Syria, I just don't see what either had to gain from Arafat's death.

[Malthus]

I'm aware of the Russian proclivity to rid itself of nuisances through polonium poisoning, and their patronage of Syria, I just don't see what either had to gain from Arafat's death.

Syria had good reasons to hate Arafat, who had caused them no end of trouble in Lebanon.

[The Brain]

Nice theory, except there is nothing about this in the Vogue article.

[Admiral Yi]

Syria had good reasons to hate Arafat, who had caused them no end of trouble in Lebanon.

How?

[Malthus]

Syria had good reasons to hate Arafat, who had caused them no end of trouble in Lebanon.

How?

By setting himself against the Syrian-backed government. Arafat was declared "persona non grata" by the Syrian gov't, who then backed factions within Fatah opposed to Arafat.

Suffice it to say, they have a history (one which, BTW, includes Syria assassinating other Arafat-linked PLO leaders).

But the Syrian regime has always been the most hostile toward the Palestinians. During the Lebanon Civil War in the 1970s and '80s, Syrian troops based in Lebanon massacred thousands of Palestinians, at times shelling refugee camps with heavy artillery.

The Syrians then also played a major role in instigating a mutiny against PLO leader Yasser Arafat and assassinating top Palestinian officials. In the mid-'80s, Syria was the first country in the world to declare Arafat persona non grata, ordering him to leave the country within 48 hours. Many Palestinians back then saw Arafat's expulsion as a humiliation to all Palestinians.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2007/palestinians-deported-from-syria

[DGuller]

I wonder if Russians would really entrust their at the time secret poison to some Arab to off the guy they didn't personally care about.  It's not like Russians were running short on investigative reporters.

[Viking]

Not that I necessarily agree with your analysis of Russian foreign policy, but how did Arafat's death fuck up the West's plans for the Middle East?

I think Arafat died of old age and Suha is bringin it up for her own personal reasons.

[Malthus]

Interestingly, last year Fatah was accusing Syria of attempting to assassinate Abbas.

http://www.worldtribune.com/2012/04/03/fatah-syria-plotting-to-assassinate-palestinian-leader-abbas/

[CountDeMoney]

Arafat made himself persona non grata in most of the Muddled East over the course of his last 20 years, that's nothing new. 

As Yi has opined, there's no reason for any side to have him whacked, as he was either irrelevant or better than the alternatives, depending on which side you were on.

He died of old age, and this story simply feeds into Arabs' preoccupation with conspiracy theories.