The body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be exhumed on Tuesday, Palestinian officials say.
His body is to undergo tests to find out whether his death in Paris in 2004was caused by poisoning.
Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.
But France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts working witha documentary crew found radioactive polonium-210 on Arafat's personal effects.
Analysis
Richard Galpin
BBC News, Ramallah
The chief investigator Taufik alTirawi said they had recently asked the Russians to take part in this investigation because they had "anhistorical relationship" with Moscow.
It seems the Palestinians do not fully trust France and Switzerland when it comes to proving or disproving that their former leader was murdered.
It is not known how long it will take the three countries to complete their tests. But it will be a key moment - and it is possible they will reach different conclusions.
While most Palestinians are certain their leader was murdered, there are serious questionsabout the validity of testing for polonium poisoning eight yearsafter Mr Arafat's death. The half-life ofpolonium is less than five months.
His tomb, in Ramallah in the WestBank, was sealed off earlier this month.
Once the body is removed from the tomb inside the stone-clad tomb mausoleum, scientists from France, Switzerland and Russia will each take samples, former Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi told reporters.
The experts will then take these samples to their respective countries to be tested for Polonium 210 and possibly other lethal substances.
Arafat's body will be reburied the same day with military honours.
Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fellviolently ill in October 2004 at his compound.
Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.
His widow, Suha, objected to a post-mortem examination at the time, but later appealed to the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation "to reveal the truth".

"Unexplained, elevated" level of polonium-210 on Arafat's clothing, keffiyeh and toothbrush
Highest levels found on items with bodily fluids
Toothbrush measured 54 millibecquerels (mBq); underwear 180mBq compared with 6.7mBq from another man's specimen underwear
More than 60% of polonium was not from natural sources
Source: Al-Jazeera TV
Many Palestinians continue to believe that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied any involvement. Others allege that he had Aids.
In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat's medical records, which it said showed he died of a massive haemorrhagic stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection.
Independent experts who reviewed the records told the paper that it was highly unlikely that he had died of Aids or had been poisoned.
A murder inquiry waslaunched by French prosecutors in Augustafter an investigationby al-Jazeera TV , working with scientists at the Institute of RadiationPhysics (IRA) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, found"significant" traces ofpolonium-210 present in samples taken from Arafat's personal effects, including his trademark keffiyeh headdress.
In some cases, the elevated levels were 10 times higher than those on control subjects, and most of the polonium could not have come from natural sources, the scientists said.
But the institute also said Arafat's symptoms - as described in medical reports - were not consistent with polonium poisoning.

yep,Israel would be stupid enough to use a Compound which they are known to posses!

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

Of course, everyone will jump to the conclusion that it would be Israel that poisoned this a$$hole. No-one will ever entertain the possibility that it was one of his opposing factions.

Hamas/Iran!

Mr. Conrad, let us not forget Russia, America, Iran, N Korea, Japan, China, England, France, and Germany.

But historically the ONLY nation so far to use a Radioactive as a poison I am aware of is the KGB of Russia. And the description of contamination points at the idea this man may have been present for the possible assembly of a dirty bomb! All they have to do is scatter radioactive dust on the wind and let the fun begin. Now granted polonium is different from Plutonium, the thing is Plutonium outside of being very radioactive is also chemically poisonous to us. Just physical contact with less than a gram of it is lethal. Polonium possess a similar chemical reactivity to our biology. It isn't QUITE as bad as Plutonium but Polonium is MUCH easier to get. Cadmium is not radioactive per say (although there is a radioactive form) it still possesses a lethal chemistry for us but it also is used as a shielding for radiation. Go figure...

Ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital on 23 November 2006 from radiation poisoning.
Mr Litvinenko meets two Russian men at a London hotel - one a former KGB officer.
Health experts say they believe Mr Litvinenko was deliberately poisoned by radioactive matter, believed to be polonium-210.
Police find traces of radioactive material at the sushi bar and the hotel where the former spy had meetings on 1 November, and at his north London home.

From my Link.

Polonium is highly dangerous and has no biological role.[14] By mass, polonium-210 is around 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide (the actual LD50 for 210Po is less than 1 microgram for an average adult (see below) compared with about 250 milligrams for hydrogen cyanide[59]). The main hazard is its intense radioactivity (as an alpha emitter), which makes it very difficult to handle safely. Even in microgram amounts, handling 210Po is extremely dangerous, requiring specialized equipment (a negative pressure alpha glove box equipped with high performance filters), adequate monitoring, and strict handling procedures to avoid any contamination. Alpha particles emitted by polonium will damage organic tissue easily if polonium is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed, although they do not penetrate the epidermis and hence are not hazardous as long as the alpha particles remain outside of the body. Meanwhile, wearing chemically resistant and "intact" gloves is a mandatory precaution to avoid transcutaneous diffusion of polonium directly through the skin. Polonium delivered in concentrated nitric acid can easily diffuse through inadequate gloves (e.g., latex gloves) or the acid may damage the gloves.

The median lethal dose (LD50) for acute radiation exposure is generally about 4.5 Sv.[60] The committed effective dose equivalent 210Po is 0.51 µSv/Bq if ingested, and 2.5 µSv/Bq if inhaled.[61] Since 210Po has an activity of 166 TBq per gram (4,500 Ci/g)[61] (1 gram produces 166×1012 decays per second), a fatal 4.5 Sv (J/kg) dose can be caused by ingesting 8.8 MBq (238 microcuries, µCi), about 50 nanograms (ng), or inhaling 1.8 MBq (48 µCi), about 10 ng. One gram of 210Po could thus in theory poison 20 million people of whom 10 million would die. The actual toxicity of 210Po is lower than these estimates, because radiation exposure that is spread out over several weeks (the biological half-life of polonium in humans is 30 to 50 days[62]) is somewhat less damaging than an instantaneous dose. It has been estimated that a median lethal dose of 210Po is 0.015 GBq (0.4 mCi), or 0.089 micrograms, still an extremely small amount

Which will only prove, Rats eat poison.

Thallium actually would have been more appropriate!

I don't know why Israel would bother to deny that they killed him if they did. The leaders that they do assassinate they brag about it and put it on national television.

They might say, "Sure we did it, so what? Its what we do."



I suspect he was murdered for some political reason, but there is no telling who did it. You would really have to know all the details surrounding the situation to even venture a guess.

Well, I'll venture a guess anyway. It was a super secret intelligence agency that is so secret it has no initials.

C.H.A.O.S ?

No, it was more than likely "Control."

Maxwell Smart did it.

This is one Israel didn't do. They had many chances to kill him and they didn't They didn't want to make him a martyr and were also more afraid who would take his place. Arafat was the most tolorable out of all the options.

I don't think Israel did it either, although they could have. It's not their style. Their usual targets are usually well defined as "terrorists" before they drop a bomb on them.

If it turns out that they did, they will just say: "Well We have a right to defend ourselves, and this was simply a preemptive strike because we suspect he was planning to annihilate us."

the name was "S.A.L.T.S.H.A.K.E.R.

Arafat was indeed a terrorist and a ruthless one at that. He was indeed an EVIL person.

Oh they will say that about every enemy dictator. I'm sure they say that about our president.

It's the new buzz word. "Terrorist."

But a dictator and a terrorist are a bit different. Not much, but a little. One has political power, the other, not so much.

Not many dictators got into office by being beloved nice guys. Can you think of any off hand?

what else do you call someone who ordered the Munich massacre not to mention all these other attacks he ordered.........

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

Then there are his militant activities and his PLO labeled as a terrorist orginization by the majority of the countries world wide.

Who cares about Arafat's rotting carcass? He can't have changed much.

I say exhume him and fold him into the dung heap with the rest of
the camel's other lawn ornaments.