Officials Doubt Bin Laden Death Report

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: ELAINE GANLEY
Date: 23 September 2006

PARIS_A leaked French intelligence document raises the possibility Osama bin
Laden died of typhoid, but President Jacques Chirac said Saturday the report
was "in no way whatsoever confirmed" and officials from Kabul to Washington
expressed skepticism about its accuracy.

There have been numerous reports over the years that bin Laden had been
killed or that he was dangerously ill, but the al-Qaida leader has
periodically released audiotapes appealing to followers and commenting on
current news events.

The regional French newspaper l'Est Republicain printed what it described as
a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing
an uncorroborated report from a "usually reliable source" who said Saudi
secret services were convinced that bin Laden had died.

The document, dated Thursday, was sent to Chirac and other top French
officials, the newspaper said.

"This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said when asked
about the document. "I have no comment."

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry offered no details. "I've heard the
reports, but I have no information at all. I have no idea," spokesman
Mansour al-Turki told The Associated Press.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had "no comment and no
knowledge" about the report, while presidential spokesman Blair Jones said
the White House could not confirm the report's accuracy. But two U.S.
intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the issue, said U.S. agencies had no information to suggest
bin Laden was dead or dying.

A senior official in Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry said he was very
skeptical of the document, noting past false reports of the death of bin
Laden. He declined to let his name be used because he was not authorized to
discuss the issue publicly.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tasnim Aslam, called the information
"speculative," saying his government had no information on bin Laden.

Many people suspect bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are hiding in the
Pakistani mountains along the border with Afghanistan.

Among previous reports, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said during the
U.S.-led offensive that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late 2001
that he was "reasonably sure" bin Laden had been killed by U.S. bombing
raids on the Tora Bora caves.

Bin Laden also was rumored to have kidney problems, but a physician detained
by Pakistan on suspicion he was treating top Taliban and al-Qaida militants
told AP in December 2002 that the al-Qaida leader was in excellent health
when the physician saw him a year earlier.

The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications,
said it was not aware of reports on the Internet speculating about bin Laden
and a life-threatening illness.

"We've seen nothing from any al-Qaida messaging or other indicators that
would point to the death of Osama bin Laden," IntelCenter director Ben N.
Venzke told AP.

Al-Qaida would likely release information of bin Laden's death fairly
quickly if it were true, said Venzke, whose organization also provides
counterterrorism intelligence services for the U.S. government.

"They would want to release that to sort of control the way that it unfolds.
If they wait too long, they could lose the initiative on it," he said.

IntelCenter said the last time it could be sure bin Laden was alive was June
29, when al-Qaida released an audiotaped eulogy for al-Qaida in Iraq leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U.S. air strike in Iraq earlier
that month.

Chirac spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France, where the leaders were
meeting.

Putin suggested leaks can be ways to manipulate. "When there are leaks ...
one can say that (they) were done especially," he said.

Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and had asked Defense
Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to investigate how the document was published.

The document from DGSE, or Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure,
indicated the information came from a single source.

"The chief of al-Qaida was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in
Pakistan on August 23, 2006," the document said. His geographic isolation
meant medical assistance was impossible, the French report said, adding that
his lower limbs were allegedly paralyzed.

According to the document, Saudi security services were pursuing further
details, notably the place of bin Laden's burial.

When asked about the report during an appearance in Montreal, Afghan
President Hamid Karzai said that if proven true, it would be "good news" for
the entire world.
 
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