Bin Laden Died From Wounds Suffered In Tora Bora Air Raid, Says Arab Expert

Independent (UK) ^ | 5-10-2003 | John Lichfield

[blam]

Bin Laden died from wounds suffered in Tora Bora air raid, says Arab expert

By John Lichfield in Paris
10 May 2003

Osama bin Laden died after being maimed in an American air raid on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in December 2001, a French expert on the Arab world believes.

Ghislaine Alleaume, a historian and Arabist at the French national research centre, the CNRS, reached her conclusion after studying television and internet messages circulated by Bin Laden's supporters. She bases her theory mostly on a video of the al- Qa'ida leader broadcast by al-Jazeera television on 27 December 2001. Bin Laden looks weary and sick but Mme Alleaume also believes he has had his left arm amputated. "He is wearing a military camouflage jacket and you can see that someone has placed a bag in the same colours just behind him to disguise the fact that he has lost his arm," she said. She believes he died of his injuries soon afterwards. "Given the sanitary conditions, it would not have been easy to survive an amputation," she said.

Mme Alleaume has studied other messages circulated by Bin Laden supporters and she believes they contain clues that he is dead. Since the end of 2001, the texts have often been signed Osama bin Mohammed bin Laden, rather than just Osama bin Laden, she said. "Adding Mohammed, his father's name, gives him an apocalyptic dimension. The Koran says the Mahdi, the final messenger, will be recognisable, among other things, by the fact that he carries the name of the Prophet."

Last month an Arabic language audio-recording said to be of Bin Laden was circulated in which he urged Muslims to launch suicide attacks against countries that supported the war on Iraq. The tape was obtained from an Algerian national who said he had crossed the border from Afghanistan, where the tape was apparently recorded.

[visualops]

Wasn't this a still from that video?

I remember it seeming like he was leaning and about to fall over.

[secret garden]

Just as expected. Dead. Too bad he wasn't an American hiker. They know how to amputate their own limbs.

[ellery]

Here's a link to another article about this -- more detailed but a pretty bad google translation :-) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/908608/posts

And here's the picture:

[Calpernia]

I AGREE! Matter of fact, JUST because a Frenchie says he is dead...makes me think OBL is hiding in France. I, personally, thought he was dead until THIS article came out.

My idea of counter terrorism :P

[ex-Texan]

Rumors from France are to ignored automatically. Nothing new here. Time to move on. Frankly, I believe OBL escaped from Tora Bora disguised as a very tall woman. Later he was gang raped by eight Tali-bunnies and left for dead in the mountains.

[Ole Okie]

Just because a Frenchie says he is dead doesn't mean that he is not dead.

But you can tell a Frog ain't dead by the white flag he's waving.

[MediaMole]

If true, bin Laden died a slow, lingering, and hopefully painful death, as one organ after another shut down.

For some reason this thought leaves me with a warm, fuzzy, happy feeling inside.

[lilylangtree]

"Ghislaine Alleaume, a historian and Arabist at the French national research centre"

French and an Arabist???? There's an old saying re rumors that goes: "Believe nothing what you hear and half of what you see." Until undeniable proof surfaces, don't believe it.

[zarf]

French expert? Must mean he's alive and living on a sheep farm outside of Helena MT.

[liberalnot]

sucha shame!

i'm really upset. (/s)

[Joe Bonforte]

Just because a Frenchie says he is dead doesn't mean that he is not dead.

True, but if a Frenchman said a horse had four legs, I'd count 'em to make sure.

[woofie]

The last time I saw him he looked pretty dead

[Leo Carpathian]

The safest way of stopping the search for the most wanted, is to proclaim him dead. Just like Hitler did.

[wattsup]

French Expert = oxymoron

[kevao]

DEBKA: French Granted OBL European Passport in Damascus on May 7

[Jewels1091]

I have heard that gangrene is a bad way to go.....

[Higgymonster]

Had a French person determined that Bin Laden had surrendered, that would be believable. Who has more experience at surrender than the French?

[lainde]

And, an American has totally disproven the amputation theory...Emphasis on a God-fearing American!