Philzone.org Discussion Board: Archive 2004: Politics Archive 2004: Arafat DEAD (unconfirmed) announcement expected later today..

"TOP OFFICIAL ADMITS HE HAS ALREADY DIED AND ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE MADE LATER TODAY. BURIAL PLANS ARE ALREADY SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY."

(Above quote from FOX News Channel)

FOX News Source

Yasser Arafat's Condition Worsens
Tuesday, November 09, 2004


PARIS — A deeply comatose Yasser Arafat clung to life Tuesday after suffering another downturn, his major organs still functioning but his survival dependent "on the will of God," the Palestinian foreign minister said.

Palestinian leaders made preparations for Arafat's eventual death. They said they would bury Arafat at his sandbagged headquarters in the West Bank (search) and turn the site into a shrine.

But the 75-year-old leader, whose condition has steadily worsened since he was flown to a military hospital outside Paris on Oct. 29, would not be removed from life support, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said.

On Wednesday, Taissir Dayut Tamimi (search), a top Islamic cleric, was rushing to Arafat's hospital bedside. Shaath called Tamimi "a very close friend" of Arafat and said that "we think having a religious person beside him in these difficult moments is relevant."

He dismissed speculation that Tamimi, head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, could advise on removing Arafat from life support. "No mufti in the world has the right to do that," Shaath said.

Shaath discounted reports that Arafat's organs had failed.

"His brain, his heart and his lungs are still functioning and he is alive," Shaath said after he and other Palestinian officials met with Arafat's doctors, his wife and French President Jacques Chirac.

"He will live or die depending on his body's ability to resist and on the will of God," Shaath said.

Shaath's remarks at a news conference underlined that the Palestinian leadership was now in control of information about Arafat after days of confusing and often conflicting reports about his undisclosed illness. Palestinian officials had been denied access by Arafat's wife, Suha, who used France's strict privacy laws that give authority to the family.

Shaath also tried to dispel concerns about the possibility for chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the event of Arafat's death and said the leadership transition would be smooth.

"What I would say is that on the political level, our government is functioning," he said.

On a visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Bush administration was ready to engage with the emerging Palestinian leadership to make progress toward establishing a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

Shaath was part of a senior Palestinian delegation led by Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Mahmoud Abbas, the No. 2 man behind Arafat in the Palestine Liberation Organization. The group left for Jordan late Tuesday after a 24-hour visit to the French capital.

The Palestinian deputy Parliament speaker, Hassan Khreishe, told The Associated Press that leaders decided Arafat should be buried at his West Bank headquarters, known as the Muqata. Arafat was cooped up in his battered offices by Israel's army for nearly three years, and the site has become a symbol to Palestinians of their resistance to Israeli occupation.

"We formed a committee to handle Arafat's burial in the event of his death, and the burial will be in the Muqata," Khreishe said.

The decision was likely to head off a fight with Israel's government over a grave site for Arafat. Palestinian officials had wanted to bury their leader in Jerusalem, which they claim as the capital of their envisioned state, but Israel refused.

A top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Asaf Shariv, said the government would consider Ramallah as a burial site.

Palestinian officials said Egypt's government offered late Tuesday to hold a memorial service for Arafat in Cairo before a Ramallah burial and they said the proposal was being considered.

A Palestinian official stressed that a Ramallah grave would only be considered temporary, with the ultimate goal remaining burial in Jerusalem. The official said the decision to create a burial shrine at the Muqata was made by Qureia and Abbas, the caretaker leaders during Arafat's illness.

Qureia has assumed some emergency financial and administrative powers and Abbas has presided at meetings of the PLO's executive committee. But neither has much grass-roots support among Palestinians or important militant groups, and it isn't clear whether one of them or someone else might emerge as a replacement for Arafat, who did not groom a successor.

The Palestinian charter calls for the speaker of the parliament to become interim president for a maximum of 60 days after Arafat's death, to allow an election.

Shaath, in the first detailed description of Arafat's treatment, said the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner was receiving breathing assistance from a respirator and getting nutrition intravenously.

"These instruments are there, of course. He's also attached to monitoring equipment," Shaath said. "So he has lots of equipment there but, as I said, nobody has ever thought of shutting them off."

A top Palestinian official, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, said Arafat suffered a brain hemorrhage Monday night, but Shaath said he could not confirm that and said scans showed Arafat's "brain remains sound." Such bleeding often causes brain damage.

Edward Abington, the former U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, said Arafat was near death. "It's only a matter of hours," Abington told AP in a telephone interview from Ramallah.

The French medical team treating Arafat publicly acknowledged for the first time that he was in a coma, saying he had been comatose for a week.

"President Yasser Arafat's health worsened in the night," said Gen. Christian Estripeau, a spokesman for Percy Military Training Hospital. "His coma, which led to his admission to the intensive care unit, became deeper this morning."

Estripeau declined to offer a prognosis but said the deterioration in Arafat's condition marked "a significant stage."

A coma is a profound state of unconsciousness. Patients are unable to move or respond to their environment. There are several levels of coma and patients may, or may not, progress through them. The responsiveness of the brain lessens as the coma deepens and when it becomes more profound, normal body reflexes are lost and patients no longer respond, even to pain.

The chances of recovery depend on the severity of the underlying cause.

Shaath said that a dramatic disagreement with Arafat's wife, who had accused the visiting Palestinians of trying to topple their longtime leader, had been smoothed over and that she embraced delegation members during their two-hour visit to the hospital.

"She is the wife of a great man, our leader, and is the mother of his only daughter," Shaath said. "She will always be respected and protected by the Palestinian people."

CNN NEWS SOURCE

(CNN) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has suffered a brain hemorrhage, according to a top aide.

Al-Tayyeb Abdel Raheem told reporters Tuesday that Palestinian officials in Ramallah are in close contact with colleagues in Paris, France, where Arafat, 75, has been hospitalized since October 29.

"[Palestinian Authority] President Arafat deteriorated since last night. ... He has a blood hemorrhage in the head," said Raheem through a translator. "All efforts are being presented by our friends the French doctors to stop this blood hemorrhage."

In the West Bank, Palestinian sources told CNN that if Arafat dies, he probably will be buried at his compound in Ramallah, the Muqataa, which is also headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. Arafat has been confined there for the past three years.

"Muqataa became the symbol ... [It] was the presidential compound, the president's place of siege for the past three years," Raheem said.

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday morning that Israel has agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to bury Arafat at the Muqataa.

Egypt has offered to hold a funeral service in Cairo for Arafat, allowing Arab and Muslim leaders to gather to mourn the Palestinian leader.

The Egyptian funeral plans were first reported by the Yemeni state-run news agency SABA late Tuesday. They were confirmed by an Egyptian government official in an interview with the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera.

After the service, Arafat's body would be flown on an Egyptian government helicopter to his Ramallah compound, where he would be buried, SABA reported.

The Israeli Cabinet plans to hold a security meeting Wednesday morning to discuss Arafat's funeral arrangements, a senior Israeli political source told CNN.

Earlier Tuesday in Paris, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei was permitted to see Arafat briefly, Palestinian officials said.

Qorei was part of a Palestinian delegation that arrived in Paris on Monday. The delegation was at Percy Military Hospital for two hours, but only Qorei was allowed to see Arafat.

In a phone interview with CNN, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath said Qorei told the delegation that the Palestinian leader is in a coma in critical condition, "but that he is fully alive, and his brain, his heart, his lungs are fully functioning."

Earlier, a hospital spokesman said Arafat's condition grew worse Tuesday, and he slipped into a deeper coma.

Despite an earlier public dispute between Arafat's wife, Suha, and the Palestinian delegation over whether delegation members would visit with the ailing leader, Sha'ath said Suha Arafat embraced all members of the delegation.

"She walked hand in hand with [Qorei] into the president's room, and walked out with him," he said.

The delegation postponed a planned trip over the weekend after Suha Arafat, 41, made an emotional phone call to Al-Jazeera, in which she accused the Palestinian leadership of conspiring against her husband.

But after a meeting early Monday, the leadership decided to go ahead with its trip. In addition to Qorei and Sha'ath, the delegation included former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is now the acting head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Speaker of the Parliament Rawhi Fattuh, who would replace Arafat on an interim basis for 60 days if Arafat dies or is declared to be permanently incapacitated.

The Palestinian delegation also met with top French officials, including President Jacques Chirac, who pledged his support to the Palestinians.

Sha'ath said Tuesday the Palestinian delegation also met with Arafat's doctors, and said that hospital tests have "ruled out totally" conspiracy theories that have suggested that Arafat's illness was brought on by poisoning.

It's not clear what his diagnosis is, Sha'ath said, but doctors have also ruled out cancer.

Sha'ath said there is no talk of removing Arafat from life support.

"We are not really believers in euthanasia. The man is not suffering; he is in a coma ... It's out of the question that anybody is thinking of taking any such decisions," he said.

Sha'ath also told reporters that top Islamic cleric Taissir Dayut Tamimi was on his way to Paris to be with Arafat. The cleric's presence, Palestinian sources in Ramallah said, is required for an Islamic declaration of death -- one that would be issued out of respect for Arafat, but also to prevent any questions being raised about the circumstances of the Palestinian leader's eventual death.

Suha Arafat, who was once Arafat's secretary and married him in 1990, was raised as a Christian and converted to Islam before marrying. She and her husband have a 9-year-old daughter, Zahwa.

Palestinian Leader Arafat Dies at 75

By RAVI NESSMAN

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Yasser Arafat, the guerrilla leader turned Nobel Peace Prize winner who forced his people's plight into the world spotlight, died Thursday at age 75 - still reviled by many as a terrorist.

Arafat died at 3:30 a.m. in a French military hospital. His last days were as murky and dramatic as his life. Arafat was flown to France on Oct. 29 after nearly three years of being penned in his West Bank headquarters by Israeli tanks.

He initially improved but then sharply deteriorated as rumors swirled about his illness. Neither doctors nor Palestinian leaders would say what killed Arafat.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets of the Gaza Strip in a spontaneous show of grief. Dozens of gunmen fired into the air, and marchers waved Palestinian flags.

Mosques blared Quranic verses and children burned tires on the main streets, covering the skies in black smoke. People pasted posters of Arafat on building walls.

Within hours of Arafat's death, Israel sealed the West Bank and Gaza Strip and increased security at Jewish settlements, fearing widespread Palestinian riots in the coming days.

``The Israeli Defense Forces are deploying to allow a dignified funeral ceremony for chairman Arafat,'' an army statement said.

The military said it would restrict access to the funeral ceremony, set for Saturday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and only allow Palestinians with permits to attend. The military would allow processions in towns and refugee camps, officials said.

A memorial service will be held Friday in Cairo, a location that allows Arab leaders to avoid travel to the West Bank, access to which is controlled by Israel.

Palestinian Parliament Speaker Rauhi Fattouh was to be sworn in as Palestinian Authority president until elections are held in 60 days, according to Palestinian law. The Parliament was meeting in emergency session at 11 a.m.

Officials said they wanted to ensure a smooth transition, despite concern both at home and abroad that a behind-the-scenes power struggle to assume the Arafat mantle could result in chaos and violence.

Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was expected remain in charge of day-to-day governing, while Mahmoud Abbas, the former prime minister, would take over running the Palestine Liberation Organization, which also represents Palestinians abroad.

President Bush issued a statement of condolence to the Palestinian people.

``We express our condolences to the Palestinian people. For the Palestinian people, we hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors,'' the president said.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Arafat and assassinated Israeli leader Yitzak Rabin, said:

``The biggest mistake of Arafat was when he turned to terror. His greatest achievements were when he tried to build peace.''

Palestinian flags at Arafat's battered Ramallah compound were lowered to half staff. Television broadcast excerpts from the Quran with a picture of Arafat in the background.

``He closed his eyes and his big heart stopped. He left for God but he is still among this great people,'' said senior Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel Rahim, who broke into tears as he announced Arafat's death.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was saddened by Arafat's passing.

``President Arafat was one of those few leaders who could be instantly recognized by people in any walk of life all around the world. For nearly four decades, he expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people.''

British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent condolences to the Palestinian people.

``President Arafat came to symbolize the Palestinian national movement. ... (and) led his people to an historic acceptance and the need for a two-state solution,'' Blair said.

Top Palestinian officials flew in to check on their leader while Arafat's 41-year-old wife, Suha, publicly accused them of trying to usurp his powers. Ordinary Palestinians prayed for his well being, but expressed deep frustration over his failure to improve their lives.

Arafat's failure to groom a successor complicated his passing, raising the danger of factional conflict among Palestinians.

A visual constant in his checkered keffiyeh headdress, Arafat kept the Palestinians' cause at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But he fell short of creating a Palestinian state, and, along with other secular Arab leaders of his generation, he saw his influence weakened by the rise of radical Islam in recent years.

Revered by his own people, Arafat was reviled by others. He was accused of secretly fomenting attacks on Israelis while proclaiming brotherhood and claiming to have put terrorism aside. Many Israelis felt the paunchy 5-foot, 2-inch Palestinian's real goal remained the destruction of the Jewish state.

Arafat became one of the world's most familiar faces after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1974, when he entered the chamber wearing a holster and carrying a sprig. ``Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun,'' he said. ``Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.''

Two decades later, he shook hand at the White House with Rabin on a peace deal that formally recognized Israel's right to exist while granting the Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The pact led to the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for Arafat, Rabin and Peres.

But the accord quickly unraveled amid mutual suspicions and accusations of treaty violations, and a new round of violence that erupted in the fall of 2000 has killed some 4,000 people, three-quarters of them Palestinian.

The Israeli and U.S. governments said Arafat deserved much of the blame for the derailing of the peace process. Even many of his own people began whispering against Arafat, expressing disgruntlement over corruption, lawlessness and a bad economy in the Palestinian areas.

A resilient survivor of war with Israel, assassination attempts and even a plane crash, Arafat was born Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat Al-Qudwa on Aug. 4, 1929, the fifth of seven children of a Palestinian merchant killed in the 1948 war over Israel's creation. There is disagreement whether he was born in Gaza or in Cairo, Egypt.

Educated as an engineer in Egypt, Arafat served in the Egyptian army and then started a contracting firm in Kuwait. It was there that he founded the Fatah movement, which became the core of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

After the Arabs' humbling defeat by Israel in the six-day war of 1967, the PLO thrust itself on the world's front pages by sending its gunmen out to hijack airplanes, machine gun airports and seize Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

``As long as the world saw Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it was not likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles the situation has changed,'' Arafat explained.

Arafat was a bullshit artist, and when provided the opportunity for a Palestinian country he said no.

Yeah, I saw the 60 Minutes piece tonight. During Clinton's admin Israel damn near offered him everything and he said no.