The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Qaddumi sure Arafat was poisoned

Why is this idiot saying this:

BEIRUT (AFP) - Faruq Qaddumi, who succeeded Yasser Arafat as head of the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement, reaffirmed his belief that the Palestinian leader had been poisoned.


"He died due to poison. All the treatments and medical examinations have ruled out all the illnesses that you could think of, like leukaemia or the loss of immunity," he said in the Lebanese capital.


"Why had all the blood platelets continued to disintegrate? There is no other reason," he told reporters at a news conference with Lebanese foreign minister Mahmoud Hammoud.


Especially when we know what disease he had and that it reduces platelet counts. By the way, if there are any medical doctors out there who understand this stuff, it'd be nice to have an plain English translation of what "Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation" is why it's "controversial."