Does Arafat have AIDS?

With still no public diagnosis, some suggesting HIV may be cause

With doctors claiming they have still not diagnosed Yasser Arafat despite a week of hospitalization and extensive testing, some commentators have been suggesting the PLO leader may be suffering from AIDS.

Arafat's condition suddenly deteriorated last night and he was placed in intensive care at the Paris military hospital where he was brought for treatment Friday, Palestinian officials said.

Arafat has been ill for more than two weeks. Doctors say they've performed extensive tests, and still don't know what he has. Initial blood work performed in the West Bank revealed a low blood platelet count - a sign of a weakened immune system. In addition to cancer, which doctors have ruled out, the low count could be attributed to bleeding ulcers, colitis, liver disease, lupus, HIV, or a host of other diseases. Ulcers and colitis have been ruled out, as well, it is believed.

Some have been speculating Arafat might be suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The homosexual site, 365Gay.com, which deals regularly with issues related to HIV/AIDS, ran a piece yesterday reminding readers that, for several years, it has been suggested Arafat is bisexual, and could have contracted the disease.

"If suggestions that Arafat has AIDS are true, it is doubtful it would be made public," wrote 365Gay.com European bureau chief Malcolm Thornberry.

National Review diarist David Frum suggested in his column this week Arafat contracted AIDS from homosexual sex with his bodyguards.

Ion Pacepa, who was deputy chief of Romanian foreign intelligence under the Ceaucescu regime and who defected to the West in 1978, says in his memoirs the Romania government bugged Arafat and had recordings of the Arab leader in orgies with his security detail.

Various Israeli security sources have in the past suggested publicly Arafat might be homosexual. They've claimed Arafat's former personal driver - a Mossad double agent - used to find teenage boys to bring back to the PLO leader. His wife, Suha, mostly lived abroad and rarely saw her husband.

Interestingly, Israel's intelligence community, with some of the best capabilities in the world, doesn't know which disease Arafat is suffering from, sources told WorldNetDaily. In fact, Israel has been presented with no evidence - aside from a formal PA request for the transfer of Arafat - that the Palestinian leader is actually ill, sources say.

"I don't know what [illness] Arafat has," Ariel Sharon's spokesperson Raanan Gissis told WorldNetDaily last week. "Our only involvement was to extend our consideration to the perceived humanitarian problem. This is only for medical treatment, and has nothing to do with our overall consideration of Arafat and the terrorism he directs."