Posted on 08/02/2008 5:41:35 AM PDT by kenmcg
Al-Qaeda No.2 al-Zawahiri may be dead: report
Islamabad, Aug 2 (PTI) Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second most powerful leader after Osama Bin Laden, might be critically wounded and possibly dead, according to a media report. The CBS News reported that it had obtained from sources in Pakistan a copy of an intercepted letter which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. The al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The letter, reportedly written by Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, refers to al-Zawahiri by name and states that he is in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected". CBS News said the Taliban logo and Mehsud's seal on the letter had been "confirmed by experts as legitimate".
The letter is dated July 29, a day after a US missile strike killed al-Qaeda weapons expert Abu Khabab al-Masri and five other Arabs in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region.
A counter-intelligence expert and other American officials told the channel that the US is looking into reports that al-Zawahiri is dead.
However, Pakistani military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told TV news channels there was "no evidence or reliable information" about al-Zawahari's death.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, told CNN that his country was "unable to confirm or deny" the report. "We are looking into the reports and will comment only after we have solid evidence either way," he said.
A USD 25 million reward has been offered for the 57-year-old al-Zawahiri. He narrowly escaped death in an attack in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in 2001 that left his wife and children dead.
Al-Qaeda reported on Islamist websites this week that a US air strike killed Abu Abdallah al-Shami, a leader who escaped from a US prison in Afghanistan in 2005. PTI
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But, this wasn’t supposed to happen until October...you know, so President Bush could get re-elected. /Moonbattery Off! ;)
Please, please, please let this be true.
> ... al-Qaeda’s second most powerful leader after
> Osama Bin Laden ...
Except that there is no #1.
Binny has been dead for years.
The periodic dribble of audio and video tapes are hoaxes,
but the CIA and the Domestic Enemy Press seem to want to
keep him undead for some reason.
-— and you know this for fact?
The best hopeful outcome from the report is that he is in “severe pain” and his “injuries are infected” and he will be able to fully enjoy a slow and painful death.
That's my theory too.
> -— and you know this for fact?
What? That OBL is kaput, or the tapes hoaxes?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1893413/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1895938/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1893991/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1895534/posts
The preponderance of the evidence suggests ...
Here’s hoping.
It may happen in October yet!
Fox news and CNN both report US Higher ups are denying it’s true... just damn!
If OBL is recognized as dead the left has the excuse to rank up the WAR IS OVER! BING THE BOYS HOME FROM AFGHANISTAN! machine. It will be louder and more insistent than anything yet about Iraq. The Left insists that this is properly a Law Enforcement problem and once we get the ArchCriminal it will all be over.
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