Has anyone been so long rumored to be dying under more opaque circumstances?
But Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie denied the report, saying: "I have just spoken to the officials in Paris and they say the situation is still as it was. He is still in the intensive care unit."
Which does not answer the question at hand.
Just heard on KRLA.... "Yasser Arafat has died, leaving a power vaccuum in the PLO..."
Getting his reward as we speak...I wonder if we will ever discover the *true* cause of death.
(Thanks to Vodkapundit)
UPDATE: From AP:
An ailing Yasser Arafat congratulated Bush and expressed hope that a second term would help give a new spark to the Middle East peace process, an aide to the Palestinian leader said.
Um, wasn't Arafat on a respirator yesterday?
(Thanks to Classical Values)
UPDATE: As Roger L. Simon and commenters teal marie and Noble Eagle have pointed out, there's a very good reason that Yassir Arafat hasn't yet been declared dead. As usual, it's all about the money:
Israeli and Palestinian officials said Arafat died on Thursday in a military hospital in Paris. They said Arafat was deemed clinically dead, but is still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his wife, Suha [SNIP]
The problem is that Arafat is still the only Palestinian official who can pay the bills. And it is unclear who, if anyone, has access to the estimated $2-3 billion in his personal Swiss bank accounts, according to a report in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. Even his wife is said to be unaware of how to access the funds.
Keep that air going into that corpse, Suha. The phrase 'poetic justice' comes to mind.
