Osama bin Laden: dead or alive?
Two reports that cannot pass without notice.
CNN:
That does not necessarily mean that bin Laden was too ill (or dead, or isolated) to be in a new video. But, it is consistent with one of those three possibilities.
CNN:
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French President Jacques Chirac said on Saturday he would investigate the leak of confidential French defense ministry documents containing a report that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead, and stressed the report had been in no way confirmed.TIME Magazine:
"I was rather surprised to see that a confidential note from the DGSE (General Directorate for External Security) was published and I have asked the minister of Defense to start an investigation immediately and to reach whatever conclusions are necessary," Chirac said.
"Secondly, speaking of the source of the information itself, this information is in no way confirmed."
Fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, believed to be on the run in rugged terrain in the Afghan-Pakistani border region since the September 11 attacks five years ago, has become seriously ill and may have already died, a Saudi source tells TIME, echoing earlier reports in the French media.The last as-Sahab (al Qaeda's video production unit) release concerning the terrorist contained archival footage of bin Laden from before the 9/11 strike, AP.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, says that Saudi officials have received multiple credible reports over the last several weeks that Bin Laden has been suffering from a water-borne illness. The source believes that there is a "high probability" that Bin Laden has already died from the disease, but stressed that Saudi officials have thus far received no concrete evidence of Bin Laden's death.
"This is not a rumor," says the source. "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."
That does not necessarily mean that bin Laden was too ill (or dead, or isolated) to be in a new video. But, it is consistent with one of those three possibilities.
posted by Bravo 2-1 at 11:41 AM
2 Comments:
Very interesting! I like all the reading you do! Your blog is great.
The reports this morning are all that this is bunkum. From the Pakistanis and from the Saudis.
It is certainly possible that Bin Laden is dead (and what a convenient solution for Musharraf and Bush right during their meeting,) but everybody talking near on record says it's completely unverified.
Mike
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