- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092300293.html

France Looks Into Bin Laden Death Report
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 23, 2006; 11:22 AM


PARIS, Sept. 23 -- French secret service officials have informed the French government that Saudi Arabia is trying to confirm intelligence reports that Osama bin Laden, the masterminded of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, recently died of typhoid in a remote area of Pakistan, according to a report Saturday in a regional French newspaper.

The newspaper L'Est Republicain quoted a confidential report by the French secret service as saying that, "According to a reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead."

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Chirac has come out and said no. A case of bad intelligence, perhaps?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14963302/

ARIS - 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.”

Pakistani officials and Arab journalists are skeptical too :


Islamabad - A French report that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had died in August was met with scepticism in Pakistan on Saturday.

In Islamabad, the private Geo television channel quoted unnamed officials as saying no such information was shared with the government of Pakistan.

They were referring to a document drawn up by the French DGSE intelligence service and made public on Saturday alleges that bin Laden had died of typhoid. The document had cited a 'usually reliable source' as saying that Saudi intelligence services had acquired information that the al-Qaeda leader had died.

Arab journalists based in Islamabad expressed their doubts about the report, holding the view that if bin Laden had died, then al- Qaeda itself would have announced it, as it did when he was wounded in skirmishes in Afghanistan in 2001.

Source: - http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1204212.php/Pakistani_officials_say_no_information_about_bin_Laden_death

False alarm or at least too early to tell. Going back to bed!

- http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060923-091303-2145r

Analysis: Is bin Laden truly dead?
By CLAUDE SALHANI
UPI International Editor

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden is dead. At least according to Saudi intelligence sources cited by a French newspaper, which in turn claims to have obtained a document leaked to them by French counter-intelligence services.

The news of the death of al-Qaida's chief was reported in the Saturday edition of l'Est Republicain, a respected regional daily. The French paper cites a memo they claim was obtained from the French counter-espionage agency, the Direction Générale des Services Extérieurs, or the DGSE.

Bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist is believed to have died last August as a result of typhoid fever while he was in a remote part of Pakistan, according to the French newspaper.

The report of bin Laden's death was however not confirmed by official sources in either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.

But a Saudi intelligence source told United Press International: "We are not saying he is dead, but there is a lot of truth in the report." The Saudi source, who spoke on condition that his name not be revealed, confirmed the existence of a Saudi intelligence report relating to the health of bin Laden. And according to that Saudi Arabian intelligence document, it states, "bin Laden was very ill these past few weeks."

The Saudi source told UPI the French intelligence report must have concluded that Saudi authorities believes bin Laden to be dead.

"There is no way we can prove that bin Laden is dead until we can see the body," the Saudi intelligence source told UPI. But, he stressed, "A good portion of what is in the report is true."

For the moment, the source went on to say, "We do not confirm bin Laden's death. "We don't know."

Making the report all the more credible was the choice by those in French counter-intelligence of where to leak the Saudi report, the regional L'Est Republicain, rather than one of the larger Paris-based dailies.

"There is a history with that paper," the Saudi source told UPI. The newspaper is known to have had intelligence reports leaked to it in the past. "They are very reliable," said the Saudi official.

The information purporting the death of the world's most sought after terrorist is based on what the newspaper calls "a usually reliable source," stating that Saudi intelligence sources "are convinced" of bin Laden's death.

The French intelligence report goes on to say, still according to the French daily, that bin Laden died in Pakistan on August 23 after suffering "from a severe bout of typhoid fever," and a bacterial infection provoked a paralysis of his lower body.

The Saudi intelligence report states that bin Laden's geographic isolation "rendered all medical assistance impossible. Indeed, U.S. intelligence sources have long believed bin Laden was hiding in remote parts of Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan, areas where sophisticated medical help would be difficult to obtain.

The news of bin Laden's death reached the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Sept. 4. If confirmed, that, in part, might explain the complete absence of Osama bin Laden from making any appearances on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC.

Instead, a videotape by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was released to television news networks.

The French daily reports that the internal and confidential memo from the DGSE reporting the death of "the enemy number one" of the United States and of the West, was handed over to the Presidency of the French republic on Sept. 21.

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Although it is good news, I will maintain my skepticism until someone finds an evidence to support bin Laden’s death.


Rumors swirl over bin Laden's fate, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/23/france.binladen/index.html

Chirac: Bin Laden Intel Not Confirmed, AP News
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FRANCE_BIN_LADEN_REPORT?SITE=TXMCA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


U.S. cannot confirm bin Laden death report, Reuters
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-09-23T151058Z_01_L23801953_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-BINLADEN-FRANCE.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C1-TopStories-newsOne-2