Wednesday October 31, 3:47 PM
American Hospital in Dubai refuses comment on bin Laden treatment report
The American Hospital in Dubai would make no immediate comment on reports Osama bin Laden underwent treatment there in July for a kidney complaint.
"The board are in a meeting at the moment and the subject is under discussion," Nihal Abu Shoosha of the hospital's international patient relations department told AFP.
The meeting was being chaired by Chief Executive Officer Bernard Koval.
Emirati officials made no immediate comment on the reports.
In Paris, Le Figaro newspaper and Radio France International said that the chief suspect for the September 11 terror attacks in the United States also met a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official in his hospital bedroom.
Quoting "a witness, a professional partner of the administrative management of the hospital," they said bin Laden arrived in the Gulf emirate on July 4 by air from Quetta, Pakistan.
He was immediately taken to the hospital for kidney treatment. He left the establishment on July 14, Le Figaro said.
During his stay, the daily said, the local CIA representative was seen going into bin Laden's room and "a few days later, the CIA man boasted to some friends of having visited the Saudi-born millionaire."
Quoting "an authoritative source," Le Figaro and the radio station said the CIA representative had been recalled to Washington on July 15.
Le Figaro said bin Laden was accompanied in Dubai by his personal physician and close collaborator, who could be the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahari, as well as bodyguards and an Algerian nurse.
He was admitted to the urology department of Doctor Terry Callaway, who specializes in kidney stones and male infertility.
Callaway was not taking calls on Wednesday.
"He's not available and he's not taking any calls before this afternoon," an employee in his department told AFP.
Callaway was trained in Canada, according to the hospital website.
"He has extensive experience of Middle Eastern urological problems, having spent eight years at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
"His special Interest is in the management of Renal Calculus Disease and Management of Urological Problems in Children."
Bin Laden has been sought by the United States for terrorism since the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. But his CIA links go back before that to the fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
The American Hospital in Dubai is a one hundred bed, acute care, general medical-surgical hospital, according to the website.
"Our mission is to provide high quality, cost effective, American standard healthcare which will meet the needs and expectations of Dubai and the surrounding Gulf states through comprehensive primary, secondary, and selected tertiary care services on an inpatient, outpatient, and referral basis," says the site www.ahdubai.com
CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July
French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital
Anthony Sampson
Thursday November 1, 2001
The GuardianTwo months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.
Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.
The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.
Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter: "You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".
The American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient there.
Washington last night also denied the story.
Private planes owned by rich princes in the Gulf fly frequently between Quetta and the Emirates, often on luxurious "hunting trips" in territories sympathetic to Bin Laden. Other sources confirm that these hunting trips have provided opportunities for Saudi contacts with the Taliban and terrorists, since they first began in 1994.
Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years.
According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Whether the allegations about the Dubai meeting are confirmed or not, the wider leaks from the French secret service throw a worrying light on the rivalries and lack of coordination between intelligence agencies, both within the US and between western allies.
A familiar complaint of French intelligence is that collaboration with the Americans has been essentially one-way, with them happy to receive information while giving little in return.