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.

[Paleo Conservative]

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.

Why should I believe a French expert?

[cardinal4]

I have always thought he was dead, but Im not taking the word of ANY French "expert".

[cornelis]

To help their flagging economy

[Sam's Army]

"reached her conclusion after studying television and internet messages circulated by Bin Laden's supporters."

Chirac and Schroeder???

[Calpernia]

>>>>a French expert on the Arab world believes

Enough said.

[gaspar]

Her original report that appeared in Le Figaro was much more detailed. She has no confidence in the authenticity of the tapes that circulated in 2002-2003 (a Swiss lab and most FR people agreed). As many have argued, it doesn't take much more than a cheap camcorder to prove he is alive.

[Paleo Conservative]

She has no confidence in the authenticity

I am confident that those tape are fake. It's probably bin Lauden's voice from earlier unreleased tapes, but spliced together.

[billorites]

"someone has placed a bag in the same colours just behind him to disguise the fact that he has lost his arm," she said

And, unexplicably, his right nut.

[Jewels1091]

Does anyone HAVE that picture she is talking about, we all remember that picture, and thought something was wrong with his arm, but I guess I didn't look that close.....

[rhombus]

...a historian and Arabist

A member of Arabist's Local 201

[demlosers]

[realpatriot]

Good catch!

[gramho12]

Ditto every word you said... An an extra pox on the French.

[Free ThinkerNY]

Osama and Saddam...Together Forever

[ThanhPhero]

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

[AngrySpud]

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

[kstewskis]

Nice try France. Ain't buying it. From you, anyway.

[Reaganesque]

Heck, if true, there are going to be a whole bunch of deeply depressed liberals. One more success for America, one more success for George W. Bush. Oh the horror!! Heh, heh, heh!!

[Young Rhino]

When we discover Bin Laden and Hussein living as a married couple in Belgium carrying French passports, we shouldn't be surprised.