Yasser Arafat was poisoned with polonium-210

[MadImmortalMan]

Al-Jazeera

What Killed Arafat?
Tests hint at possible Arafat poisoning
Nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera discovers rare, radioactive polonium on ex-Palestinian leader's final belongings.


It was a scene that riveted the world for weeks: The ailing Yasser Arafat, first besieged by Israeli tanks in his Ramallah compound, then shuttled to Paris, where he spent his final days undergoing a barrage of medical tests in a French military hospital.

Eight years after his death, it remains a mystery exactly what killed the longtime Palestinian leader. Tests conducted in Paris found no obvious traces of poison in Arafat's system. Rumors abound about what might have killed him – cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, even allegations that he was infected with HIV.

A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed that none of those rumors were true: Arafat was in good health until he suddenly fell ill on October 12, 2004.

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.

Unsupported polonium

The institute studied Arafat's personal effects, which his widow provided to Al Jazeera, the first time they had been examined by a laboratory. Doctors did not find any traces of common heavy metals or conventional poisons, so they turned their attention to more obscure elements, including polonium.

It is a highly radioactive element used, among other things, to power spacecraft. Marie Curie discovered it in 1898, and her daughter Irene was among the first people it killed: She died of leukemia several years after an accidental polonium exposure in her laboratory.

At least two people connected with Israel's nuclear program also reportedly died after exposure to the element, according to the limited literature on the subject.

But polonium's most famous victim was Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian spy-turned-dissident who died in London in 2006 after a lingering illness. A British inquiry found that he was poisoned with polonium slipped into his tea at a sushi restaurant.

There is little scientific consensus about the symptoms of polonium poisoning, mostly because there are so few recorded cases. Litvinenko suffered severe diarrhea, weight loss, and vomiting, all of which were symptoms Arafat exhibited in the days and weeks after he initially fell ill.

Animal studies have found similar symptoms, which lingered for weeks - depending on the dosage – until the subject died. "The primary radiation target... is the gastrointestinal tract," said an American study conducted in 1991, "activating the 'vomiting centre' in the brainstem."

Scientists in Lausanne found elevated levels of the element on Arafat's belongings - in some cases, they were ten times higher than those on control subjects, random samples which were tested for comparison.

The lab's results were reported in millibecquerels (mBq), a scientific unit used to measure radioactivity.

Polonium is present in the atmosphere, but the natural levels that accumulate on surfaces barely register, and the element disappears quickly. Polonium-210, the isotope found on Arafat's belongings, has a half-life of 138 days, meaning that half of the substance decays roughly every four-and-a-half months. "Even in case of a poisoning similar to the Litvinenko case, only traces of the order of a few [millibecquerels] were expected to be found in [the] year 2012," the institute noted in its report to Al Jazeera.

But Arafat's personal effects, particularly those with bodily fluids on them, registered much higher levels of the element. His toothbrushes had polonium levels of 54mBq; the urine stain on his underwear, 180mBq. (Another man's pair of underwear, used as a control, measured just 6.7mBq.)

Further tests, conducted over a three-month period from March until June, concluded that most of that polonium – between 60 and 80 per cent, depending on the sample – was "unsupported," meaning that it did not come from natural sources.

Well ok then. Does Iran have polonium?

[The Brain]

Not enough info in the article to say much. I assume the measurements were made in a meaningful way, but the article doesn't really say. For instance "mBq/underpants" wouldn't be a great unit. And it doesn't say what the levels in his body would have been and how those would compare to other cases.

[Zanza]

"Hi, sweety, how was work today?"
"Great, I analyzed some radioactive urine stains on the underwear of an old dead man."

[The Brain]

Levels of alpha-emitters in the body are best determined by measurements on fecal matter. Such measurements have been made on my personal poop.

[Malthus]

"Hi, sweety, how was work today?"
"Great, I analyzed some radioactive urine stains on the underwear of an old dead man."

Someone in Japan is probably jacking off to that image. 

[jimmy olsen]

I'm surprised this wasn't discovered earlier. I suppose Polonium poisoning is so rare they just didn't think of testing for it.

[Razgovory]

I'm surprised anyone cared.

[viper37]

From Wikipedia:

Tobacco

The presence of polonium in tobacco smoke has been known since the early 1960s.[86][87] Some of the world's biggest tobacco firms researched ways to remove the substance—to no avail—over a 40-year period but never published the results.[37]

Radioactive polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants (such as tobacco) and stored in its tissues.[88][89][90] Tobacco plants fertilized by rock phosphates contain polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation estimated to cause about 11,700 lung cancer deaths annually worldwide.[37][91][92]
Food

Polonium is also found in the food chain, especially in seafood.[93][94]

Wasn't Arafat a smoker?

[Sheilbh]

Hussein Ibish's article on this, 'Arafatuous', is worth reading.  Though you've really already read the best thing about it
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/05/arafatuous

[Razgovory]

From Wikipedia:

Tobacco

The presence of polonium in tobacco smoke has been known since the early 1960s.[86][87] Some of the world's biggest tobacco firms researched ways to remove the substance—to no avail—over a 40-year period but never published the results.[37]

Radioactive polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants (such as tobacco) and stored in its tissues.[88][89][90] Tobacco plants fertilized by rock phosphates contain polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation estimated to cause about 11,700 lung cancer deaths annually worldwide.[37][91][92]
Food

Polonium is also found in the food chain, especially in seafood.[93][94]

Wasn't Arafat a smoker?

That is interesting.

[jimmy olsen]

They've dug up the body to do more tests.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/27/15470795-arafats-body-exhumed-experts-to-investigate-if-he-was-poisoned?lite

Arafat's body exhumed; experts to investigate if he was poisoned

By NBC News staff and wire services

Updated at 4:45 a.m. ET: The remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were exhumed from his grave on Tuesday -- eight years after his death at age 75 -- as part of an investigation into allegations that he was poisoned, according to official Palestinian radio.

The remains were taken from the massive mausoleum in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Arafat was buried, and moved to a nearby mosque so that Palestinian doctors could take samples from his bones, Palestinian officials told The Associated Press. Several hours later, the remains were reburied.

The samples were handed over to French, Swiss and Russian experts who flew in for the exhumation and who will examine them in their home countries, the officials said. They said samples were taken earlier from Arafat's bedroom, office and personal belongings.

French judges opened a murder inquiry into Arafat's death in August after a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of radioactive polonium on his clothing.

The test results could still be months away.

"In order to do these analyses, to check, cross-check and double cross-check, it will take several months and I don't think we'll have anything tangible available before March or April next year," said Darcy Christen, spokesman for Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland that carried out tests on Arafat's clothes.

Rumors of foul play have long surrounded the sudden demise of Arafat, a champion of Palestinian statehood from the time he was 19, and eventually, the democratically elected president of the Palestinian Authority.

Arafat was revered by many Palestinians and Arabs as a freedom fighter and reviled by many Israelis and its allies as a terrorist for his relentless fight for Palestinian self-determination. But he also had enemies and rivals within the Arab and Palestinian political circles.

He died in November 2004 at a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill. The rapid deterioration of his health and death baffled doctors who were trying to treat him in France, and an autopsy was never performed at the request of his widow, Suha.

'A painful necessity'
While the immediate cause of death was a stroke, the underlying source of an illness he suffered in his final weeks has never been clear, leading to persistent speculation in the Arab world that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied such allegations.

Poisoning as a cause of death gained currency after a Swiss institute said it had found high levels of radioactive polonium on Arafat's clothing, which was supplied by Suha, prompting the French to open a formal murder inquiry.

Polonium was the substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Litvenenko was a Russian ex-spy who later became a relentless critic of the Kremlin.

"It is a painful necessity" to exhume the body of Arafat, said Tawfiq al-Tirawi, who is in charge of the Palestinian committee overseeing the investigation, speaking to reporters in Ramallah on Saturday.

Tirawi said the Palestinians had "evidence which suggests Arafat was assassinated by Israelis," Reuters reported.

The exhumation might not resolve the mystery. Polonium-210 decomposes rapidly, and some experts say it is not clear whether any remaining samples will be sufficient for testing.

NBC's Kari Huus, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Caliga]

 

[jimmy olsen]

Don't they usually just blow them up?

[derspiess]

Levels of alpha-emitters in the body are best determined by measurements on fecal matter. Such measurements have been made on my personal poop.

Braggart

[dps]

Well, this makes more sense than most conspiracy theories that come out of the Mid-East, given that they never actually figured out what killed him.  But I figured it was French medical care that did him in.