Did you know Arafat was gay and died of Aids?

[Barnabas]

I didnt, very surprising.

I wonder if they still will consider him a hero in the muslim world

[-Jrabbit]

Link?

[Solly]

He did look it

[SlowwHand]

I have to 2nd Jrabbit on this one.
I assumed it was a rodent related disease. Lord knows he looked like a rat, and acted like one.

[Barnabas]

I read it in a newspaper in spanish, but if you google arafat gay aids you find plenty of articles.

New article

"

Arafat Died of AIDS, Fellow Terrorist Says
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
July 13, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Former Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat died of AIDS, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command Ahmed Jibril said.

In an interview on Hizballah's Al-Manar television last week, Jibril said that P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] had told him that Arafat died of AIDS, according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"When Abu Mazen came to Damascus with his team, I asked them: 'What happened to the investigation into the death of Abu Amar [Arafat's nom de guerre]? The Israelis killed him. He was my colleague ever since 1965 and used to sleep at my home. He and I followed the same path,'" Jibril said.

"They were silent, and then one of them said to me: 'To be honest, the French gave us the medical report, that stated that the cause of Abu Ammar's death was AIDS.' I am not saying this, they did."

The 75-year-old Arafat died in a French hospital in 2004 after being penned up in his Ramallah office compound for two years, under virtual house arrest by the Israeli army as the Palestinian terrorist uprising raged against Israel.

At the time of Arafat's death, his wife Suha, 41, who had been living in Paris for years, was the only one who had access to his medical records and she refused to tell anyone the cause of death.

His illness was described as "a serious inflammation of the stomach and intestines" that had led to a deterioration in his blood composition and platelets.

Speculation over Arafat's ailment has ranged from AIDS to syphilis to poisoning by Israel.

Over the years, there has been recurring speculation that Arafat was homosexual. The secret service of Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania claimed at one point to have caught Arafat's sexual escapades with a male bodyguard on tape, after it bugged a guest suite in which he was staying.

But Arafat's private physician said tests showed the PLO leader did not have AIDS.

Eventually, Palestinian leaders were given access to Arafat's medical records, but they never made the cause of death public."



2004 article

"Editor's Update 11/11/04: As James Taranto wryly notes in Opinion Journal, citing this original Israel Insider report, "Yasser Arafat is in stable condition after dying in a Paris hospital. A hospital spokesman 'said there would be no details about the cause of death because of French privacy laws,' reports the Associated Press." Now why do you think there would be a need to invoke privacy laws in reporting a man's death? And why, suddenly, is it no longer a "mysterious illness" but an illness that must be concealed?

The article as originally reported on November 6, 2004:

Former White House speechwriter David Frum has joined the growing chorus of pundits, medical experts, and intelligence operatives who claim Yasser Arafat is likely suffering from AIDS.

Frum, a key figure in Republican politics and the man who coined the terms "axis of evil," writes in National Review Online that Arafat's undisclosed illness is well-known, but has been kept under wraps by the mainstream media.

"Speaking of media bias, here's a question you won't hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS?" asks Frum, who also writes for the National Post.

"We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight -- possibly as much as one-third of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like?"

Earlier, John Loftus told John Batchelor on ABC radio on October 26 that Arafat is dying from AIDS. Loftus said the CIA has known this about Arafat for quite awhile and that as a result the US has encouraged Sharon not to take Arafat out because the US has known Arafat was about done. It was deemed better to have Arafat discredited as a homosexual.

Although homosexuality is rife in the Arab world, it is at least officially considered a sin and a crime, and regarded--especially in fundamentalist circles--as a mark of great shame and depravity.

Intelligence on "the tiger" romping with bodyguards
Frum pointed to KGB evidence linking Arafat to homosexual activities, citing a 1987 book by Lt.-Gen. Ion Pacepa, the deputy chief of Romania's intelligence service under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

In his memoirs "Red Horizons," Pacepa relates a conversation in 1978 with Constantin Munteaunu, a general assigned to teach Arafat and the PLO techniques to deceive the West into granting the organization recognition.

"I just called the microphone monitoring center to ask about the 'Fedayee,'" Arafat's code name, explained Munteaunu. "After the meeting with the Comrade, he went directly to the guest house and had dinner. At this very moment, the 'Fedayee' is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He's playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena."

Munteaunu continued: "I've never before seen so much cleverness, blood and filth all together in one man." Munteaunu, wrote Pacepa, spent months pulling together secret reports from Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian intelligence agencies as well as Romanian files.

"I used to think I knew just about everything there was to know about Rahman al-Qudwa," Arafat's real name, "about the construction engineer who made a fortune in Kuwait, about the passionate collector of racing cars, about Abu Amman," Arafat's nom de guerre, "and about my friend Yasser, with all his hysterics," explained Munteaunu, handing Pacepa his final report on the PLO leader. "But I've got to admit that I didn't really know anything about him."

Pacepa wrote: "The report was indeed an incredible account of fanaticism, of devotion to his cause, of tangled oriental political maneuvers, of lies, of embezzled PLO funds deposited in Swiss banks, and of homosexual relationships, beginning with his teacher when he was a teen-ager and ending with his current bodyguards. After reading the report, I felt a compulsion to take a shower whenever I had been kissed by Arafat, or even just shaken his hand."

"If true, Arafat would have a great deal to conceal from his people and his murderously anti-homosexual supporters in the Islamic world," writes Frum, suggesting that Arafat was airlifted to France for medical treatment because he "could trust the French to protect his intimate secret."

The medical evidence adds up
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath Monday said that all types of cancer had been ruled out, and the latest news is that French doctors have ruled out poisoning.

Medical observers note that a low blood platelet count is a sign of a weakened immune system, and indeed last week there were reports of a complete collapse of Arafat's immune system. Other than the ruled-out cancer, the low count could be attributed to bleeding ulcers, colitis, liver disease, lupus, or HIV. It is believed that ulcers and colitis have already been ruled out.

Arafat has lost a considerable amount of body weight. Hopital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, southwest of Paris, is known to have some of France's best HIV/AIDS doctors. Other medical experts note that Arafat's activities in recent weeks and months suggest the dementia that accompanies late-stage AIDS.

Medical authorities not connected directly to his case are suggesting that he may have HIV/AIDS. One doctor reported to an Israel Insider source that his suspicions have been growing for more than a year.

"I began to see tell tale signs of kaposis sarcoma. His Parkinsonian tremor was more than just a Parkinsonian tremor and he was also showing signs of weakness. The rumor about homosexuality/bisexuality has been around for decades. So I put two and two together when they started talking about his health over a year ago. The talk of a mysterious illness in this day and age should be a tip-off. He has some of the best physicians in the world attending to him. He can be diagnosed clinically, without perfoming any tests. All the doctors surrounding him know what he has. All this cloak and dagger about tests is a ruse. They understand the implications of divulging that he has HIV. If I were Suha I would be getting a little concerned."

If Arafat has AIDS, that would also explain Suha's reticence to allow the release of significant information about Arafat's condition, and the almost ludicrously tight-lipped reports of the French hospital spokesman, and the refusal of anyone connected with Arafat to hold a press conference in recent days. "

[Heresson]

Nasser is said to have been gay too.
But it's an easy way to offend someone.

[Barnabas]

According to the article in spanish

Ahmad Jibril leader of (I am translating btw) popular front for palestinian liberation asked Abass about the reason of Arafat´s death, and if it could have been jews poisoning him? And Abass answered, to be hones, the french medical results were very clear, he died of Aids, so we must keep silence.

They mention that everybody knew he was gay in his circle, and his enemies too, altough they could never catch him in fraganti

[SlowwHand]

That's more evidence than you posted initially.
It requires consideration now.

[thesilentone]

Originally posted by Barnabas

Although homosexuality is rife in the Arab world , it is at least officially considered a sin and a crime, and regarded--especially in fundamentalist circles--as a mark of great shame and depravity.

?? If it's rife in the arab world, does that mean it's a pandemic in western society?

Just sounds like a typical smear campaign to me. Not saying there's no chance it can't be true but it's always good to maintain a fair degree of cynicism. He had enemies in israel, within the muslim community and the rest of the world who would all like to "shame" his honour in such a way.

[Heresson]

what is rife?

[SlowwHand]

Common. Everyday happening.

[Winston]

Did you know Arafat was gay and died of Aids?

In all modesty, I repeatedly said so at the time. Not that he was gay, but that he died from complications of AIDS.

If one paid any attention, it was heavily rumoured leading up to and following his death. I found it very curious that virtually nobody in the media - or in the course of debating the issue here - seemed very interested in dwelling on the immense shroud of secrecy that surrounded, and surrounds, the particulars of such a public figure's passing.

I always figured he contracted it from intravenous drug use however. Either way, I hope the guy manages to keep warm where he is now.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by thesilentone

Just sounds like a typical smear campaign to me. Not saying there's no chance it can't be true but it's always good to maintain a fair degree of cynicism. He had enemies in israel, within the muslim community and the rest of the world who would all like to "shame" his honour in such a way.

He did more shame to his memory than any of his enemies could hope to add.

[Blaupanzer]

I suspect he was bisexual, not gay. Everybody dies of something, although some don't die soon enough considering what they do while alive.

[Arrian]

Of course he died of AIDS. Mossad gave it to him

-Arrian