France, US, unable to confirm report bin Laden dead
Pastor Dale Morgan
France, US, unable to confirm report bin Laden dead*
23 Sep 2006 19:03:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Anna Willard and David Morgan
PARIS/WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - France and the United States said
on Saturday they could not confirm a report that Osama bin Laden had
died and France launched a probe into how a secret document containing
the claim was leaked.
French regional daily L'Est Republicain, published in Nancy, quoted a
document from France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the
Saudi secret services were convinced the al Qaeda leader had died of
typhoid in Pakistan in late August.
Time magazine separately posted an article on its website citing an
unidentified Saudi source, who claimed bin Laden was stricken with a
water-borne disease and may already be dead.
President Jacques Chirac told reporters bin Laden's death "has not been
confirmed in any way whatsoever, and so I have no comment to make."
"I was a bit surprised to see that a confidential note from the DGSE had
been published," he said after a summit with leaders of Germany and Russia.
The Saudi Interior Ministry was not available for comment.
Officials in the United States, which has made capturing bin Laden a
priority in its war on terrorism, were unable to confirm the account.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in New York: "No
comment, no knowledge," when asked about the French article. A U.S.
intelligence source separately said Washington had no evidence this
report was any more credible than earlier rumors of bin Laden's demise.
"We've heard these things before and have no reason to think this is any
different," said the U.S. intelligence official, who asked not to be named.
"There's just nothing we can point to to say this report has any more
credence than other reports we've seen in the past," the official said.
LEAK PROBE
In Paris, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie ordered an investigation
into the leak of the classified DGSE document.
L'Est Republicain printed what it said was a copy of the report, dated
Sept. 21, and said it had been passed to Chirac and Prime Minister
Dominique de Villepin the same day.
"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now
convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," it read.
"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al
Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on Aug. 23, 2006, to a very
serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal
organs."
The report, which was stamped "defence confidential" and with the
initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia first heard the
information on Sept. 4 and was waiting for more details before making an
official announcement.
Time magazine said its source claimed Saudi officials have received a
number if reports in recent weeks that bin Laden had been struck by a
water-borne illness and was likely dead, but had no solid proof.
"He is very ill. He got a water-related sickness and it could be
terminal. There are a lot of serious facts about things that have
actually happened. There is a lot to it. But we don't have any concrete
information to say that he is dead," Time quoted the source as saying.
There was scepticism about whether Riyadh was well-placed to be the
first to pick up on such a development.
"If anyone was in the picture, I doubt it would be Saudi intelligence,"
a Western diplomat in Riyadh said.
"Even if Saudi Arabia had information, they'd pass it on to the United
States, not France. It doesn't ring true."
A senior Pakistani government official said Islamabad had received no
information from any foreign government that would corroborate the story.
The Saudi-born bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until its Taliban
government was overthrown by U.S.-backed forces after al Qaeda's Sept.
11 attacks on the United States.
Since then, U.S. and Pakistani officials have regularly said they
believe bin Laden is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Bin Laden is rumoured to have been suffering from kidney ailments and
receiving dialysis treatment.
His last videotaped message was released in late 2004, but several
low-quality audio tapes have been released this year.
Senior U.S. intelligence figures have cautioned against assuming that
bin Laden's death or capture would automatically have a substantial
impact in the war on terrorism.
They note that the death in June of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, has failed to lead to any let-up in the violence there.
(Additional reporting by Jon Boyle, Islamabad bureau, Mark Trevelyan in
London, Paul Eckert in New York, Alister Bull in Washington, Andrew
Hammond in Riyadh)