… around access to Yasir Arafat’s medical records. The Jerusalem Post has a good rundown of the family tug-of-war between Arafat’s nephew and Palestinian UN envoy Nasser al-Kidwa and the recently-deceased terror master’s “charming widow.” Debka, however, has a much juicier report:
Arafat’s widow absconds to Tunis with his medical files ahead of his nephew al-Kidwa’s arrival in Paris to collect them.
French defense ministry says al Kidwa is entitled to access medical information on Arafat‚Äôs never-publicly-diagnosed illness. But Suha’s lawyers say only children and widow
She took the files and ran after Palestinian TV broadcast Friday sermon threatening her life. She used Arafat’s plane, flouting Palestinian Authority’s demands for its return.
PA hoped to publish record and lay to rest rumors of foul play, including Israeli poison. DEBKAfile’s Paris sources convinced widow will hold onto medical files as collateral for agreed PA payments and as leverage to help radicals Kadoumi, Mussa Arafat and Force 17 commander foil Abbas’s bid for succession.
All those people chasing around after one dead man’s medical records. Where are Blake Edwards and Preston Sturges when we need them? Of course, the MacGuffin in these kinds of stories is often a disappointment. But in this case it may be interesting.
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11 Comments
1. David [.net]:But MacGuffins work even when they are intrinsically disappointing. This is helping to suck out the noble drama so many want to see in Arafat’s death. The farcical deathwatch, with all the conflicting and embarrassing stories, did much to diminish the stature of the event. The final announcement was anticlimactic. Still fun though.
Now, if it turns out to be a Kiss Me Deadly-burn-the-place-down kind of MacGuffin, so much the better.
Nov 20, 2004 - 10:40 am 2. dr. sanity:I have seen several sites saying that Arafat died of liver disease, but this does not seem likely in light of the so-called “difficulty” French doctors had in diagnosing him. Liver disease–especially end-stage–does have some of the symptoms exhibited by Arafat at the end, but it is notoriously EASY to diagnose with a simple lab test. No, one has to ask: why the melodrama? What could a 70+ yr old man die of that would make his widow behave as if she had to hide something? If he had liver disease, it would have to be from something embarassing (like alcoholism–also forbidden in Islam). But it is even more likely that AIDS would fit the puzzle (AND it could cause liver problems too). Suha appears to be trying to protect the “Arafat Legacy”, but she needn’t go to the trouble.
Nov 20, 2004 - 10:59 am 3. Terrye:Would any of us be surprised if the widow ended up dead?
It would fit the whole Godfather kind of thing they have going here.
And I think Arafat could well have had Aids.
Has anyone noticed the film clip with Arafat sitting there in his jumpsuit and this big man is sitting next to him holding his hand? Arafat raises the man’s hand to kiss it and the man pulls his hand away from Arafat and instead kisses Arafat’s hand. But he obviously did not want Arafat’s mouth anywhere near him.
Can’t say as I blame him.
Nov 20, 2004 - 11:35 am 4. PeterUK:Why the fuss he was 75,male life expectancy is a surprising 70.95 on the West Bank.http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blc3westbankp.htm
Arafat was in credit.
Mind you his widow now has prospects if she smartens up and remodels herself as Mrs Arathin she might be in with a chance,wouldn’t do to have a nasty medical condition.
Nov 20, 2004 - 11:37 am 5. Mark Poling:ummm, didn’t the doctors who treated him know what was wrong with him? Someone credible will spill the beans sometime.
But this is precious. The longer they keep the records secret, the dirtier everyone will assume they are.
Nov 20, 2004 - 11:46 am 6. Kyda Sylvester:Oh, especially Preston Sturges. If AIDS is confirmed, it would have the potential for a cataclysmic Kiss Me Deadly type MacGuffin.
Nov 20, 2004 - 2:25 pm 7. scaramouoche:I see a much darker sensibility at work here, say Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder.
Nov 20, 2004 - 2:42 pm 8. Rhod:I read or heard or was told, many years ago, that Arafat had a collection of catamites. This is also not entirely unknown in the parts of the world where Arafat circulated.
If you ask me, the existence of Suha is the real puzzle; not that Arafat might have exposed himself to disease by promiscuity in other ways.
Lots of other ways seem possible with a creature like Arafat.
Nov 20, 2004 - 4:52 pm 9. Rhod:I was musing also on David’s allusion to a “Kiss Me Deadly” kind of MacGuffin. This movie scared the hell out of me as a kid. The final scenes of the radioactivated beach house (and woman) were appalling, and haunted me for years.
In the context of the WOT and the possibilities of this type of device, what were Arafat’s ideas about using one? One can only think that the proximity of the Palestinian refugee camps were the deterrent, not any moral scruple or tactical disadvantages.
Nov 20, 2004 - 5:00 pm 10. richard mcenroe:PeterUK ó The reason male life expectancy in the Pali territory is 70.95 is that one 230-year-old guy screwing up the curve…
Nov 20, 2004 - 7:07 pm 11. John Anderson:Oy.
I read medical bloggers, and a lot of them seem to think it might have been a form of cirrhosis of the liver not associated with drinking, nor displaying similar symptoms: not an easy diagnosis, at least until the very end, and with a lot of damage to other organs to confuse the issue.
I also understand that French privacy law does not allow disclosure, or even much discussion, of medical information by doctors.
The widow left with “the” medical records? This from a modern fully-equipped facility? What, no computers – or even Xeroxes? If the nephew wants them and French law says he can have them, a copy should be available.
Nov 21, 2004 - 5:02 pm