West, Saudi Arabia unable to confirm bin Laden death
Pastor Dale Morgan
West, Saudi Arabia unable to confirm bin Laden death*
24 Sep 2006 17:43:51 GMT
Source: Reuters
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had no
evidence Osama bin Laden was dead, shedding further doubt on a secret
document leaked in France that said Saudi secret services believed he
died last month.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said that as far as he
knew the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader was still alive.
"To my knowledge Osama bin Laden is not dead," he said on LCI
Television. But he added he had not seen a French secret service report,
printed by a newspaper, which said Saudi Arabia was convinced bin Laden
died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.
France, the United States and Britain all said earlier they were unable
to confirm the report in French regional daily L'Est Republicain, which
quoted the DGSE foreign intelligence service.
Time magazine separately posted an article on its Web site quoting an
unidentified Saudi source as saying bin Laden was stricken with a
water-borne disease and may already be dead.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying: "The kingdom
of Saudi Arabia has no evidence to support recent media reports that
Osama bin Laden is dead. Information that has been reported otherwise is
purely speculative and cannot be independently verified."
French 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" and that he was surprised a confidential note had been published.
France has launched an investigation into the leak.
"No comment, no knowledge," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice when asked about the French article by reporters in New York.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked in a BBC interview if he could
shed light on the report, said: "No, I can't. I haven't heard anything
that indicates that might be the case."
A U.S. intelligence source said Washington, which wants to capture bin
Laden, had no evidence the report was any more credible than earlier
rumours of his death.
"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.
TYPHOID
L'Est Republicain, published in Nancy, printed what it said was a copy
of the DGSE report, dated Sept. 21, and said it was 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."
Bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until its Taliban government was
overthrown by U.S.-backed forces in 2001 after al Qaeda's Sept. 11
attacks on the United States.
Since then, U.S. and Pakistani officials have said they believe he is
hiding somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
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.
Time magazine said its source claimed Saudi officials have received a
number of reports in recent weeks that bin Laden had been struck by a
water-borne illness and was likely to be dead but it had no solid proof.
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." (Additional reporting by reporters in Paris, London,
New York, Washington and Riyadh)