Posted on 09/22/2006 10:33:45 PM PDT by confrico
PARIS (AP) - The head of terrorist network al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has died, according to information from the Saudi police, transmitted by the Directorate-General of External Services (DGSE), and reported on the Lorraine daily newspaper L'Est republicain in its Saturday edition.
"According to a commonly reliable source, the Saudi police believes that Osama Bin Laden has died," said a September 21st confidential note from the DGSE classified as "defense." L'Est republicain will publish it in its Saturday edition. The note, specified the daily newspaper, would be re-printed "un-edited."
According to the note to be published by the L'Est republicain, the Saudi police "would try to obtain more details, in particular the location of the burial site, and then announce the news officially." The DGSE specified in the note that no "jihadist Internet site has for the moment been made aware of the death of Osama bin Laden."
According to the note, "the head of al Qaeda may have fallen victim to a strong case of typhoid fever while in Pakistan, on August 23, 2006," and may have died within a matter of days.
The French news organization transmitted this note to the President of France, to the Defense and Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Interior Department on September 21, according to the regional daily newspaper, which added that a prior note transmitted on September 19th to the leaders of France explained why the Saudi police "sought to confirm the death of Osama bin Laden."
LOL. It's sh*t, what done him in.
Octoberfest is in September also.
Witness the Power of Prayer....how many millions of people around the world have prayed that OBL would "Eat $hit and die"
Her saying Usama was not important because of the current Clinton stuff....that Bubba gave up the most important terrorist. That's what she knew was coming.
Good points. Clinton has been on TV a lot, too. Adamantly talking about his attempts to get UBL.
adios, troll.
Exactly. It's not a glorious way to go. Doesn't sound too great in a biography, either.
Your tagline could scare the children....
I was thinking the EXACT same thing ..Imagine if it was OBL's funeral that we DIDN"T bomb ? What a missed opportunity for sure .
Maybe some of his close henchmen got the Typhoid bug, too.
Fox has repeatedly said this morning that they can not confirm the story. They said the Saudis' could not confirm the story either.
How long till Katie Couric wears black?
Good point.
Actually if he's dead nothing much will change with the WOT. Symbolically it would be great to see a few Marines kick him to death on camera but in reality Im sure others are running the terror show at this point. Lets hope any death he has is painfull as all hell.
PARIS — American and French officials cast serious doubts Saturday on a French newspaper's report that Usama bin Laden was believed to have died in Pakistan last month.
The French newspaper l'Est Republicain printed what it described as a confidential document from the French foreign intelligence service DGSE citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that bin Laden died of typhoid last month.
A U.S. official told FOX News that he had seen no evidence to suggest the Al Qaeda leader was dead. "Don't believe it," he said. "I would not give credence to that report."
French President Jacques Chirac and the defense ministry called for an internal investigation of the leak of an intelligence document but said the report of the death remained unverified.
Chirac said the leaked report is "in no way whatsoever confirmed," and that he was "a bit surprised" at the leak. Chirac has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press.
The regional newspaper l'Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the Al Qaeda terror network had died.
The DGSE transmitted the document, dated Sept. 21 or Thursday, to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper said.
"This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said Saturday when asked about the document. "I have no comment."
In Washington, CIA duty officer Paul Gimigliano said he could not confirm the DGSE report.
The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said it was not aware of any similar reports on the Internet.
"We've seen nothing from any Al Qaeda messaging or other indicators that would point to the death of Usama bin Laden," IntelCenter director Ben N. Venzke told The Associated Press.
Al Qaeda would likely release information of his death fairly quickly if it were true, said Venzke, whose organization also provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the American government.
"They would want to release that to sort of control the way that it unfolds. If they wait too long, they could lose the initiative on it," he said.
The last time the IntelCenter says it could be sure bin Laden was alive was June 29, when Al Qaeda released an audiotape in which the terror leader eulogized the death of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq earlier that month.
Chirac spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France, where the leaders were holding a summit.
Putin suggested that leaks can be ways to manipulate. "When there are leaks ... one can say that (they) were done especially."
Earlier the French defense ministry said it was opening an investigation into the leak.
"The information diffused this morning by the l'Est Republicain newspaper concerning the possible death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed," a Defense Ministry statement said.
The DGSE, or Direction Generale des Services Exterieurs, indicated that its information came from a single source.
"According to a reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," said the intelligence report.
There have been periodic reports of bin Laden's illness or death in recent years but none has been proven accurate.
According to this report, Saudi security services were pursuing further details, notably the place of his burial.
"The chief of Al Qaeda was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in Pakistan on August 23, 2006," the document says. His geographic isolation meant that medical assistance was impossible, the French report said, adding that his lower limbs were allegedly paralyzed.
The report further said Saudi security services had their first information on bin Laden's alleged death on Sept. 4.
In Pakistan, a senior official of that country's top spy agency, the ISI or Directorate of Inter-Service Intelligence, said he had no information to confirm bin Laden's whereabouts or that he might be dead. The official said he believed the report could be fabricated. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the topic and spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Embassy officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan also said they could not confirm the French report.
Gen. Henri Bentegeat, the French army chief of staff, said in a radio debate last Sunday that bin Laden's fate remained a mystery.
"Today, bin Laden is certainly not in Afghanistan," Bentegeat said. "No one is completely certain that he is even alive.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215301,00.html
Try to keep clam.
Tell us more about that report. New one on me .
Bin Laden died at Tora Bora.
GWB & his team concealed this fact. They gave OBL the Che Guevara treatment.
Dems are also aware that zeal for the WOT will rapidly diminish as soon as the arch villain has been pronounced dead.
Leftists floated this story.
"Could his have been the funeral that the al-Queada were attending when we passed up the opportunity to bomb them in formation?"
According to MessNBC (so take it for what it's worth), the picture was taken in July.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14823099/
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