Posted on 10/31/2001 11:25:41 AM PST by Daveforjustice
PARIS - A CIA agent allegedly met with suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in July, while the Saudi underwent treatment for kidney problems at an American hospital in Dubai, France's Le Figaro newspaper reported Wednesday.
Bin Laden reportedly checked into the American Hospital Dubai, a 100-bed acute-care general hospital, July 4 and stayed until July 14. He arrived from Quetta, Pakistan, accompanied by his personal doctor and a close aide - possibly Ayman el Zawahiri, a leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, now bin Laden's right-hand man, the newspaper said.
Le Figaro cited a "professional partner" linked to the hospital's management as its source.
Besides a stream of local dignitaries and family members, bin Laden's visitors included a local CIA agent, the newspaper reported. The agent was widely recognized locally, Le Figaro said, and later told several friends of the meeting.
The alleged American spy was called back to the CIA's McLean, Va., headquarters July 15 - a day after bin Laden checked out, Le Figaro reported, citing "authorized sources."
Why bin Laden would have met with a CIA officer - or vice versa - is unclear. Even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the Saudi millionaire figured among America's top terrorist suspects, blamed for several earlier plots against U.S. targets, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
But the French newspaper asserted CIA-bin Laden links stretched back years, and appeared to suggest bin Laden gave the agency information regarding future terrorist strikes.
"The Dubai meeting is therefore a logical follow to a "certain American policy," the newspaper said.
In particular, the newspaper noted that just two weeks after bin Laden checked out of the Dubai hospital, United Arab Emirates security agents arrested the alleged mastermind of a plot to blow up the American Embassy in Paris. The suspect, a French Algerian named Djamel Beghal, earlier confessed to receiving his orders from bin Laden, according to French news media citing his written confession.
An American diplomat in Paris refused to comment on the Figaro article, or on reported allegations of an emergency meeting in Paris in August between high-level French and American intelligence officials.
"We're just not commenting on any of that stuff," he said. "We can't talk about meetings that may or may not have happened."
Le Figaro said bin Laden had serious kidney problems and reportedly had a dialysis machine imported to Afghanistan last year. Citing a March 2000 report by Asia Week, the newspaper said bin Laden's illness stemmed from "a renal infection that has spread to the liver, and needs specialized treatment."
The head of the Dubai hospital's urology department, Terry Callaway, reportedly refused to answer questions about bin Laden's alleged stay. Radio France reported Wednesday the American hospital has denied bin Laden was treated there.
"He was never a patient here for any days," Chief Executive Office Bernard Koval told AFP.
"Osama bin Laden has never been here. He's never been a patient and he's never been treated here. This is too small a hospital for someone to be snuck through the backdoor," he said
You know, when someone, especially someone so new, posts an older article with a slanted or duplicitous headline, it's pretty easy to think that they have an agenda, or maybe even be one of them disruptor folks. That said, welcome to FreeRepublic.
January 2000, Dr al-Zawahiri arranged for an Iraqi doctor to examine bin Laden in Afghanistan. The Iraqi doctor prescribed a treatment involving dialyses, a series of shots and intravenous medicine-delivery, as well as an assortment of rear medications. A thorough search of Afghanistan led to the discovery of a Soviet dialysis machine and related equipment in the basement of a now-destroyed Kabul hospital originally built for the late President Najib and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) elite.
Dr Zawahiri relied on his long-time connections with the Chechen Mafiya, which go back to early 1990s and cemented in his late 1996/early 1997 clandestine visit to Chechnya and Dagestan, to have them find and quickly deliver the spare parts for the Soviet dialysis machine and other medical equipment the Iraqi doctor required.
To avoid detection, the Chechen Mafiya smuggled the equipment from Russia and Central Asian states to Iran, ostensibly to a Tehran institution affiliated with the Iranian HizbAllah. Zawahiri then sent a three-man delegation to Tehran to deliver the dialysis equipment and some essential medicines along with a local specialist physician who volunteered to join the team treating bin Laden. The Iraqi doctor returned to Afghanistan in early February. Bin Laden was then moved to his forward headquarters near Sarobi, Laghman province (between Kabul and Jalalabad), where the medical equipment was installed. The medical team led by the Iraqi doctor and Dr Zawahiri got to work, and within a month or so got bin Laden back on his feet to the point that he could attend brief meetings with guests at the Jalalabad area as of late February. Meanwhile, the intensive medical treatment continued in March as well. In late March 2000, bin Laden was healthy enough to make a rare public appearance. He attended a high-level meeting with the Taliban leadership convened in Laghman province in order to discuss US President Bill Clinton's forthcoming visit to Pakistan. According to witnesses, bin Laden appeared quite frail; his face looked weak and his beard bigger than usual. But he was well-informed, active and lucid throughout the lengthy meeting. A team of medics and more than 100 armed guards, mostly Arabs, surrounded bin Laden all the time.
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