Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:54 pm
France looks into bin Laden death report
Paris -- President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information
contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that
Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in
no way whatsoever confirmed."
Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and has asked Defense
Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French
foreign intelligence service was published in the French press.
The regional newspaper l'Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it
described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE
intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret
services that the leader of the al-Qaida terror network had died.
In Washington, CIA duty officer Paul Gimigliano said he could not
confirm the DGSE report.
The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism
communications, said it was not aware of any similar reports
on the Internet.
The last time the IntelCenter says it could be sure bin Laden was alive
was June 29, when al-Qaida released an audiotape in which the terror
leader eulogized the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-
Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq earlier that month.
There have been periodic reports of bin Laden's illness or death in
recent years but none has been proven accurate.
According to this report, Saudi security services were pursuing
further details, notably the place of his burial.
"The chief of al-Qaida was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in
Pakistan on August 23, 2006," the document says. His geographic
isolation meant that medical assistance was impossible, the French
report said, adding that his lower limbs were allegedly paralyzed.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/o6tfd