6 December 2004Harley Sorensen
We the people pay our Justice Department lawyers big bucks to represent us. We ought to get our money back.
Last week, addressing the U.S. Supreme Court, one of our federal lawyers argued that marijuana grown in your own yard and used in your own house -- as a medication -- is interstate commerce.
I kid you not. Somehow, in that man's strange mind, marijuana grown and used in California has an effect on the good people of Georgia, Maine and North Dakota.
How could that be?
He explained. There is a market for marijuana, he said. If a suffering Californian cannot grow his medical marijuana in California, and he really needs the stuff, he'll have to buy it in another state. That will increase the demand in the other state and drive up the price, therefore affecting interstate commerce.
Voila! I've said it before and I'll say it again: the lunatics are running the asylum. What I can't figure out is how lawyers can make arguments like that in public with a straight face.
But enough of 16th century thinking. Let's move up to the 21st and ask the question that dare not speak its name: What killed Yasser Arafat? More to the point, who killed Arafat?
The leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization died in Paris on Nov. 11 and was buried without an autopsy. The cause of his death has never been revealed, and, judging from press reports, is unknown.
He was 75. It is not unusual for 75-year-old men to suddenly take ill and die, but it's highly unusual for them to die of unexplained causes.
A year ago, in my Sept. 22, 2003, column, I predicted Arafat's coming demise. Some of what I wrote then:
"The world at large seems to be overlooking the important words that came out of [Israeli] Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet. On that day, the cabinet voted to 'remove' Yasser Arafat. . . .
"Considering Arafat's present circumstances, the word 'remove' has sinister implications. For months he has been confined to the bombed-out ruins of his headquarters in Ramallah.
"Sharon has no intention of letting Arafat go into exile outside of Israel, where he would be free to tour the world to line up financial support.
"So 'remove' appears to mean 'remove from Earth.' It appears now that Sharon's forces are merely waiting for the proper time and place for an 'accident' to occur.
"Perhaps Arafat will soon come down with a fatal case of 'accidental' food poisoning."
On the day Sharon's Cabinet voted to "remove" Arafat, a spokesman for Sharon was asked by CNN "if the Cabinet would forcibly remove Arafat from Ramallah."
"It doesn't mean that," the spokesman, Ra'anan Gissan, said. "The Cabinet has today resolved to remove this obstacle."
He added: "The time, method -- the ways by which this will take place -- will be decided separately, and the security services will continue to monitor the situation and make the recommendation about the proper action as they have done in the past."
The issue, Gissin told CNN, is "how best to remove this obstacle without causing further damage" to peace with the Palestinians.
Gissan told CNN that Israel hoped to avoid turning Arafat into a martyr. "We're just turning him into a much more worried terrorist," he said.
But CNN, like the press in general, seems to have lost interest in the cause of Arafat's death. The Scott Peterson trial has a higher news priority, as does the dalliance of a school teacher with a 14-year-old pupil.
How can the unexplained death of a prominent world leader -- after an implied threat by his political enemies -- compete with such important news choices?
Arafat's doctor, Dr. Ashaf al-Kurdi, has suggested that Arafat was poisoned.
Dr. al-Kurdi, Arafat's personal physician for the past 25 years, spoke to the Associated Press about Arafat's low count of blood platelets.
"One of the causes of platelet deficiency is poison, al-Kurdi told the AP. Although his opinion on poison was "not definitive," he told the AP, "I believe the highest reason for Arafat's mysterious death is poisoning. Therefore, there should be an autopsy performed."
Al-Kurdi, who examined Arafat after he became ill, said on Nov. 12 that the Arab and French doctors who examined Arafat "excluded the other reasons which caused Arafat's platelet deficiency, like viral or bacterial infection, kblood and other forms of cancer, and lowered immunity."
`Al-Kurdi complained, according to MSNBC, about "the failure to perform an autopsy in compliance with Islamic rules, especially when suspicious death occurs."
"It looks," he said, "as if somebody is trying to hide the truth."
I can understand why the Israeli press might want to sweep the issue under the carpet, but the American press? You'd think my fellow presslings would be hounding the authorities day and night until the truth -- whatever it is -- came out.
Would the Mossad, Israel's secret service, kill Arafat? Quite possibly. Uri Avnery, the Israeli war hero and peace activist, wrote on Nov. 13 that "the Israeli army routinely assassinates potential candidates" for public office in Palestine.
Avnery, who met with Arafat a few weeks before he fell ill, mentioned paranthetically that "he looked quite healthy" when Avnery saw him.
Avnery wrote about the problems facing Palestinian political candidates: "How will candidates -- if they remain alive -- canvass their voters?" he asked. "How will they distribute material, hold meetings and debate policies, with tanks in the background and helicopter gunships hovering overhead ?"
So Arafat is dead of unknown causes, the press is not interested, and Israeli military forces are making it difficult for Palestinians to campaign politically and vote (within 60 days) for a new leader, as required by the Palestinian constitution.
One man has a theory on Arafat's death. David Frum is best known as the George W. Bush speech writer who brought us the "axis of evil" quote. Writing in National Review in late October, Frum asks: "Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS?"
Frum is a contemptible little worm. If there's more rotten wood to be eaten, Frum's the termite to eat it. Unfortunately, as right-wing propagandists so often are, he's well placed, so he has imitators.
A local talk show host recently brought up the question of Arafat's sexuality (was he gay?), but then quickly poured water on the fire he was starting, claiming he didn't want to add fuel to an unsubstantiated rumor.
Yeah, sure.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this column. Do you suppose, is it possible, that the members of the American media smoke medical marijuana and are therefore so laid back that they don't want to know what, or who, killed Arafat?
I think we could find at least one Justice Department lawyer who would make that argument.
Harley Sorensen is a longtime journalist. His column appears Mondays on the San Francisco Chronicle's website. You can e-mail him at [email protected].
