Being (Arafat) There

The great Chauncey Gardner of the terrorism world is deader than a doornail, and Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities is piling on the widow.

Although it is important to know that their is a gold digger who is even uglier than THIS...

UPDATE: HOLY KEITH OLBERMANN, BATMAN!

The Arab News is following al-Keith in pumping the internet with rumors of Arafat's poisoning at the hands of---who else? Diebold. Or Halliburton. Something. Let's go to the tape:

The refusal of the French authorities to reveal the cause of Arafat’s death has set the Middle Eastern rumor mills working overtime. The proverbial “Arab street” is asking whether Arafat might have been the victim of a complex international plot to remove him from the scene as a prelude to an “imposed solution” of the Palestinian problem.

As might have been expected Israel has been accused of having killed Arafat by poisoning. Statements by former Israeli officials about previous plans to liquidate the Palestinian leaders have fanned the fires of such rumors.

French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said yesterday there was no reason to suspect poisoning. “Medically, scientifically, technologically, everything was done in medical terms and by way of treatment, and nothing leads us to suppose there was poisoning,” said Douste-Blazy.

His comments came after the Palestinian representative in France Leila Shahid said earlier yesterday she thought it was possible that Arafat could have been poisoned.

“It is quite possible that he was poisoned because they (the Israelis) have poisoned others,” Shahid said on the private French radio station Europe One. “I cannot tell you that, medically, we have any proof.

“The doctors did not deny it. There is no proof of particular toxins but there are toxins that one does not find in the bodies of sick people.” She pointed out that “still today, there has been no diagnosis. The doctors have only confirmed what they saw, the symptoms. Medical tests cannot reveal everything.”

But she said there was “absolutely no question” of asking for another medical communiqué. “The file has been handed over to his family and we respect French law” on patient confidentiality, she said, but added “I won’t tell you what we will ask his wife.”

Arafat’s family, including his widow and nephew, has deepened the mystery with a series of enigmatic and contradictory statements. They have admitted that they asked the French authorities not to reveal the cause of death. But at the same time they insist there was nothing to hide.

Personally, I blame Dick Cheney.