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Arafat died of AIDS-related failures,

"When the subject of Arafat's AIDS condition was raised with a number of Palestinian, French and other sources, the response invariably was that it was an 'open secret', but one now increasingly spoken of in loud whispers..."

and, in the immediate aftermath of his death, the PLO will be dominated by the jihad-oriented faction of Fatah, strongly supported by the Iranian and Syrian governments. These are the reports of sources for Global Information System Stations, in Paris, Cairo, Beirut and Gaza, and related in Friday's Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily.
Here are the details of that report:
• The new Fatah Chairman is Faruq Qaddumi, who has the support of mobilized elements of Palestinean society.
• Qaddumi was in Beirut on November 11, for talks with Syrian and Iranian officials and leaders of HizbAllah and other terrorist and radical groups. He is strongly supported by Legislative Council Speaker and Interim Chairman Rawhi Fatouh.
• Fatah's strongly-active terrorist unit, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, changed its name on Thursday to Arafat Martyrs' Brigade.
• Extensive planning has been underway for some time before Arafat's death was announced to ensure that his funeral would occur on al-Quds (Jerusalem) day, November 12, 2004. This was a holiday created as a "gift" by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran after Arafat became the first Arab official to visit him after the 1979 revolution. Al-Quds Day is the last Friday in the month of Ramadan.
• Several Arab diplomats were told -- while officially Arafat was claimed to be alive -- to be ready and available on al-Quds Day, raising the suspicion that Arafat had been dead for some time before the announcement so that his body could be held for the symbolic day.
• Four separate diplomatic sources, three of them Arab, told GIS/Defense&Foreign Affairs that Arafat died of AIDS-related failures.

Labels: Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, Al-Fatah, Defense and Foreign Affairs Daily, Global Information System, Hezbollah, HIV/AIDS, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yassir Arafat