Arafat Reported Clinically Dead
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James Joyner | Thursday, November 4, 2004 |
Arafat Reported Clinically Dead (Reuters)
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was declared clinically dead on Thursday in a French hospital, Israeli television said citing French sources. But Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie denied the report, saying: “I have just spoken to the officials in Paris and they say the situation is still as it was. He is still in the intensive care unit.”
Israel’s Channel Two television cited unnamed sources in Paris saying that Arafat underwent a brain scan and was found to be “no longer alive.” Palestinian sources earlier told Reuters that the Palestinian president, who was admitted to hospital last week with a mysterious stomach illness, had slipped into a coma.
Update (1411): Arafat Fights for Life, Some Powers Transferred (Reuters)
A senior Palestinian official said: “President Arafat is in very serious condition. He is still in a coma. The sense people are getting is that they are increasingly pessimistic.” In the West Bank city of Ramallah a senior Palestinian official said Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, a leading moderate, had taken over some of Arafat’s powers for security and financing. Arafat has not named a successor and had earlier been reluctant to cede any powers. Palestinian security services were due to hold an emergency meeting in the evening at Arafat’s shell-battered headquarters in Ramallah, security sources said.
The slide into illness of the former guerrilla leader who has dominated the Palestinian scene for four decades has raised fears of chaos among Palestinians waging a 4-year-old uprising. The death of a leader Israel and Washington see as an obstacle to peace could also shuffle the cards in the Middle East conflict.
*** Asked about the reports that Arafat had been declared dead, U.S. President Bush told a news conference: “My first reaction is God bless his soul.” “And my second reaction is we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that’s at peace with Israel.”
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Good riddance Scumbag. Have fun in hell.
If Justice prevails, he'll get his 72 virgins for being such a good terrorist.
And they'll all look like Molly Ivans.
Let's hope all the virgins look like Helen Thomas.
With a face like that odds are she still is one.
The only problem is that the brainscan was done in 1985.
The worst headline I've seen so far on this subject has been “Arafat looks bad” which, IMO, could have been said forty years ago in two different senses.
And the kicker is the article on Drudge that Arafat is the only one that can get to the Palestinians 2-3 Billion dollars in his own personal Swiss Bank accounts. It seems unlikely, but one can always wish.
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