Observers and scientists spent a second day mocking media coverage – including headlines and copy printed in some of the world’s top outlets – suggesting that there is even a possibility that Swiss scientists had detected evidence of polonium-210 poisoning by studying the remains of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
This week the University Centre of Legal Medicine in Switzerland released a 108-page report that Dan Kaszeta – a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) veteran analyst – viewed with skepticism:
Finally finished reading the 108 page Arafat forensics report. Many caveats and much room for doubt. Watch this space. #Polonium
— Dan Kaszeta (@DanKaszeta) November 7, 2013
Re: Arafat and #Polonium: Polonium 210 exists in nature. Polonium traces need not have come from a nuclear reactor. #UrbanLegend
— Dan Kaszeta (@DanKaszeta) November 8, 2013
For their part media outlets instead interpreted the report as concluding that Arafat was “probably poisoned with polonium.”
There are in any case zero plausible scenarios under which Arafat could have been poisoned in 2004 with a sufficient amount of polonium to be detectable when scientists studied his body last year, a mathematical fact that Navy War College professor Tom Nichols wryly gestured at today with the quip that “science is hard.” It’s also worth noting that tests conducted by Russian scientists on samples from Arafat’s body had earlier revealed no abnormal traces of radioactive polonium:
“He could not have been poisoned with polonium. The research conducted by Russian experts found no traces of this substance,” the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Vladimir Uiba, who heads the Federal Medico-Biological Agency (FMBA), as saying.
Uiba said experts from the FMBA had conducted a detailed study of Arafat’s remains.
Al Jazeera, which has been a driving force behind the investigation, brushed off the Russian findings by suggesting that the Russian foreign minister interfered with the investigation for reasons unknown. The Al Jazeera article reminded readers that the station’s documentary “Killing Arafat” will soon be available for viewing.
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