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Arafat's personal doctor calls for autopsy
‘Israel poisoned Arafat’
Yasser Arafat has died
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NOV 12: Evangelical leaders apparently buy the argument that Bush owes his re-election victory to them, and according to this Los Angeles Times piece today, they are demanding results.

Jerry Falwell has spoken to Karl Rove three times since the election, and Arlen Specter even called Falwell to assure him he won't block Bush's court nominees. Falwell is now working to shoot down the rising stars of Republicans like John McCain and Rudy Giuliani -- they are too moderate for Falwell's GOP. Evangelicals think Andy Card is too moderate, too, the Times' Peter Wallsten reports; perhaps Card is who Bob Jones III was referring to when he told Bush in a letter to "shed" himself of "weaklings who do not share his biblical values."

How much power will evangelicals really have in shaping Bush's second-term agenda and the judicial nominee process? Unclear, but they're sure talking tough. From the Times piece:

"Business as usual isn't going to cut it, where the GOP rides to victory by espousing traditional family values and then turns around and rewards the liberals in its ranks," said Robert Knight, who heads an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, a Christian conservative advocacy group. Knight also said: "The president has to stop endorsing homosexuality indirectly by supporting civil unions and called the Specter issue "a very big test" to see if the GOP leadership understood "the depth of what occurred on Nov. 2."

"If they decide to elevate Specter anyway, they will alienate millions of people who counted on them to begin pushing back liberalism instead of aiding and abetting it," he said.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, warned that "if Republican leaders in Congress allowed Specter to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, their political futures could be at risk." (salon.com)

NOV 12:

Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi, who regularly examined the Palestinian leader, urged that a post mortem be performed.

"One of the causes of platelet deficiency is poison," said Dr al-Kurdi, who examined a gravely ill Arafat in his besieged compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah two weeks ago.

Arafat was flown to Paris for treatment after tests indicated he had a low count of blood platelets, components that help clotting.

Although "not definitive, I believe the highest reason for Arafat's mysterious death is poisoning", al-Kurdi said.

"Therefore, there should be an autopsy performed," added al-Kurdi, who had been Arafat's personal physician for the past two decades.

Al-Jazeera television quoted Kurdi saying only hours before Arafat was due to be buried. "I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy ... so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death" of their leader.

He said his suspicions were aroused by the absence of any information about Arafat's health since he was admitted to hospital in Paris on October 29 and that Arafat was conscious when he left his Ramallah compound.

There has been widespread speculation that Arafat could have been poisoned by Israel.

Neither French doctors nor Palestinian leaders have said what caused Arafat's death after days in a coma at a Paris hospital.

According to Kurdi, Palestinian leaders took too long to contact him even though Arafat's health was in rapid decline.

Kurdi, who did not travel to Paris with his patient.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom dismissed allegations that Israel killed Arafat as "scandalous and false".

Top Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal — who presides over the faction’s entrenched power base in the Gaza Strip from Syria — led the way in calling for revenge.

 “I accuse Israel of having poisoned the blood of Abu Ammar (Arafat),” he told Arab satellite television Al-Jazeera.

“By killing Arafat today, Israel has killed the peace process. It has killed he who created with it this process,” added Meshaal, himself the target of an assassination bid by Israeli agents in 1997.

Similarly, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades urged militants to avenge Arafat’s “assassination.”

“Zionist Israel and the government of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon are responsible for the assassination of our leader by putting him under siege,” the group said. (Ananova/AFP/Turkish Press/Agencies)
 

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