French Intel: Bin Laden is dead

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>French Intel: Bin Laden is dead</font size></center>

United Press International (UPI)
September 23, 2006


PARIS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden is dead, according to Saudi intelligence sources, cited by a French newspaper, which claims to have obtained a document leaked to them by French intelligence.

The news of the death of al-Qaida's chief was reported in the Saturday edition of l'Est Republicain, a respected regional daily. The French paper cites a memo they claim was obtained from the French counter-espionage agency, the Direction Générale des Services Extérieurs, or the DGSE.

The world's most wanted terrorist, according to the French newspaper, is believed to have died last August as a result of typhoid fever while in Pakistan.

The report of bin Laden's death was however not confirmed by official sources.

But a Saudi intelligence source told United Press International: "We are not saying he is dead, but there is a lot of truth in the report." The Saudi source, who spoke on condition that his name not be revealed, confirmed that according to Saudi Arabian intelligence "bin Laden was very ill these past few weeks."

The Saudi intelligence source told UPI "There is no way we can prove that bin Laden is dead until we can see the body." But, he added, "A good portion of what is in the report is true."

For the moment, the source went on to say, "We do not confirm (the death). "We don't know."

Making the report all the more credible is the choice by the person or persons in French intelligence of where to leak the report, the regional L'Est Republicain, rather than one of the larger Paris-based dailies.

"There is a history with that paper," said the Saudi source.

The information is based on what the newspaper calls "a usually reliable source," stating that Saudi intelligence sources "are convinced" of bin Laden's death.

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060923-080515-8077r

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>France investigates bin Laden 'death' leak</font size></center>

CNN
POSTED: 9:02 a.m. EDT, September 23, 2006

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 said that report has been in no way confirmed.

"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."

U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday they could not confirm the report suggesting that bin Laden might be dead.

The leaked information was first published in a French regional newspaper Saturday. The article said that a French foreign intelligence document dated September 21 quoted a "usually reliable source" as saying that Saudi Arabian authorities were trying to confirm reports that bin Laden died of an acute case of typhoid in Pakistan August 23.

Pakistani officials say they have no information that confirms bin Laden's death. Friday, U.S. President George Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in a joint news conference that the hunt is still on for the leaders of al Qaeda.

The report in L'Est Republicain said the Saudi secret service first got the reports of bin Laden's death on September 4 and were trying to get more details, in particular about the exact location in which the death apparently took place.

CNN is trying to confirm the reports with Saudi officials in Washington, D.C., and in Saudi Arabia.

An official with the French defense ministry confirmed that an investigation into the leaked documents was already under way.

The last message from bin Laden was an audiotaped post on an Islamic Web site on June 30. The CIA confirmed the voice giving the message was that of the al Qaeda leader.

In the message, bin Laden names Abu Hamza al-Mujaher as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's successor as leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

The last videotaped statement from bin Laden was aired on October 29, 2004 on Al Jazeera.

CNN Producers Katie Turner in London and Pam Benson in Washington D.C. contributed to this report

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/23/france.binladen/index.html

 

[VegasGuy]

Osama bin Laden is dead, according to Saudi intelligence sources, cited by a French newspaper, which claims to have obtained a document leaked to them by French intelligence

I'll wait until CNN or somebody confirms the story.

-VG

 

[Koolinme]

On some speculation shit:
I am waiting on the day when it comes out that much of the intell community knew that binladen was long ago dead... and this cast light on the bush regimes plan to use him for years to come in order to keep the american people scared..

 

[gene cisco]

This muthafucka been claimed dead quite a few times.

He would do more damage to america if he turned himself in to the world court and said try me for 9/11 in an international court.

The sad part is I think if he was brought up on charges and had a fair international court he might just his ass right up out of there.

If he is dead thats what america wants they dont want him alive that would be a major fuck up, unless they try him over here where they can make up evidence.

Hey I hate the cocksucker but dam.

 

[Blkvoz]

Even if he is dead, will that make a difference? I doubt it. Bin Laden does not control anti American sentiment in the entire world today. The ugly American is a product of the 40's and 50's, and that was before we started invading sovereign nations looking for our partners in the drug trade, and WMD’s .

I just saw Clinton on Fox news. He was being interviewed, I forget the reporter's name. But Clinton got more than a little pissed, and put Fox in it's place. I just wish more dems would find some balls, and react in the same manner.

He reminded Fox news that when he bombed Afghanistan, he was accused by the right wing neo-cons of the tail waging the dog, to cover up Monica-gate. These same people now claim he did not do enough. Go figure.

 

[GET YOU HOT]

Many are rabid with jihad on U.S. & intrests, doesn't make a difference, an understatement, wait till the floodgates open
-------------------------------------------------------
By OLIVER HARVEY
Reporter Of The Year
September 09, 2006

WHEN a journalist took his family for lunch recently in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, he was surprised to see two of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards.

Writer Hamid Mir — who has interviewed the al-Qaeda chief three times — pretended not to recognise the duo as he enjoyed the meal.

Their boss is, after all, the world’s most wanted man, with a $25million bounty on his head — and Hamid did not want the pair to feel uneasy about the chance of being arrested.

But they had no such fears.

As Hamid chatted with his wife and children, the two well-built men approached him and said: “Nowadays you are ignoring us.”

The chance meeting is one of the few clues to emerge about the whereabouts of history’s most infamous fugitive.

Despite a billion-dollar manhunt, 9/11 mastermind bin Laden is still at large. So how does a 6ft 5in middle-aged terror chief evade a superpower which is searching for him with the latest technology and crack special forces?

Five years after 2,973 innocents perished in the Twin Towers attack, military officials and terror experts firmly believe bin Laden is alive — and still the figurehead for a global holy war.

The US says four audio tapes released by bin Laden this year appear genuine. And an archive video of him meeting 9/11 plotters as they trained for the attacks, released two days ago, has brought the question back to the fore. Many experts believe he is hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan which border Afghanistan.

I visited this remote region of snow-capped mountains and plunging valleys last month.

It is the perfect bolthole for the world’s most wanted man.

This wild territory — near al-Qaeda’s birthplace in Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province — is ruled by fierce Pashtun tribesmen who run the tribal zones as personal fiefdoms, keeping order with AK-47s.

The Pashtuns have a fierce code of honour which allows them to protect fugitives — and they cannot be bought off. The Pakistani government has no influence among the mountain peaks and US troops are not welcome.

Photo reconnaissance by unmanned spy drones and satellites have not captured any “signatures” showing regular movement by guards or vehicles that might belong to bin Laden.

He is rumoured to communicate only by personal couriers who ride humble motorcycles and buses to pass messages from the tribal areas to al-Qaeda enclaves in cities including Peshawar and Karachi.

US experts suspect his presence is known only to a hardcore of no more than 20 guards who have pledged to die rather than reveal his whereabouts.

The last time bin Laden’s location was known for certain was in December 2001. Holed up in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, he narrowly escaped being bombed by US B52s. But US forces at the time relied too much on Afghan commanders who accepted bribes to let al-Qaeda slip through.

Respected Peshawar opposition politician Abdul Lateef Afridi, 62, told The Sun: “I believe bin Laden is here in Pakistan.

“Pakistan is a bastion of terrorism. It encourages militancy, fundamentalism and allows terrorism to flourish.”

Some locals accuse elements of the Pakistani secret service — the ISI — of aiding al-Qaeda and its allies.

I asked General Hamid Gul, ex-head of the ISI, where he though bin Laden was holed up.

$25m bounty ... but no one will give him up

Gul — who has met bin Laden twice — said: “Search me. He could be in Afghanistan or Iran. Some of his family certainly fled to Iran.”

According to a US military intelligence official, bin Laden is likely to be hiding in an area called Chitral in the far north of Pakistan.

It is bounded by Afghanistan to the west and China to the north.

He cited as evidence the trees found only in Chitral which can be seen in a 2003 video of bin Laden walking in a mountainous region.

Amid the high peaks of Malakand — close to Chitral in north-west Pakistan — I met Maulana Mohammad Alam, a Taliban warlord who fought alongside bin Laden in Afghanistan.

If anyone knows where bin Laden is, it should be this tribal chief.

Smiling, he told me: “Yes, I’ve met bin Laden in the past. People say he’s here but I say he’s in US.”

Despite some criticism of Pakistan’s efforts in the hunt, Mahmud Durrani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, said recently that his nation remains “fully committed” to the war on terrorism.

He added: “I would like to see bin Laden strung up from the tallest pole.”

 

[gene cisco]

Even if he is dead, will that make a difference? I doubt it. Bin Laden does not control anti American sentiment in the entire world today. The ugly American is a product of the 40's and 50's, and that was before we started invading sovereign nations looking for our partners in the drug trade, and WMD’s .

I just saw Clinton on Fox news. He was being interviewed, I forget the reporter's name. But Clinton got more than a little pissed, and put Fox in it's place. I just wish more dems would find some balls, and react in the same manner.

He reminded Fox news that when he bombed Afghanistan, he was accused by the right wing neo-cons of the tail waging the dog, to cover up Monica-gate. These same people now claim he did not do enough. Go figure.

Yeah, but clinton could have been more balsy. He could have stated......

"when I was trying to run this country ya'll were to worried about my dam sexually activity, now they want to say i didnt do anything about terror??? They had no concerns about terror despite my efforts to eliminate binny. Remember the attacks??? I do but they werent talked about cause I WAS doing the right thing and launching surgical attacks. To bad I had to spend the majority of time between 97 99 worried about my sexual activity."

Now i am neither dem or republican but I do remember 98 and all that was talked about was clintons dna and that porker bitch. The republicans have no shame. Then they turn around and are the protectors of freedom???

Back in the 90's they wanted clinton more then binny who they want for those attacks in the 90's not 9/11.

So in hindsight the republicans "let" all this happen by focusing on clintons sexual adventures instead of real issues.

Somewhere sometime the dems must have no shame like the republicans to win. If you play by the rules and a little moral code and your enemy doesnt you will lose.

3 years before 9/11 and binnys infamy we had time for monicagate cause of the same republicans talking apple pie shit, we shouldnt even let them utter binnys name or terrorism, it just shows how short americas memory is, not mine.

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>French foreign minister casts fresh doubt
on leaked report suggesting bin Laden died </font size></center>

The Associated Press
Published: September 24, 2006

PARIS France's foreign minister said Sunday that, to his knowledge, Osama bin Laden is not dead, the latest official to cast doubt on a leaked French intelligence document suggesting the al-Qaida leader has died of typhoid.

"To my knowledge, Osama bin Laden is not dead," Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a television interview on the LCI station. "To my knowledge, we are absolutely not informed either of a health problem or of the death of bin Laden."

Questions about bin Laden's fate resurfaced with the publication Saturday in a French regional newspaper l'Est Republicain of a leaked document from the DGSE secret service. It cited an uncorroborated report from a "usually reliable source" who said Saudi intelligence services were convinced that bin Laden had died of a severe case of typhoid contracted Aug. 23 in Pakistan.

France's Defense Ministry confirmed that the document, reportedly sent to Chirac and ranking officials, was not false. However, French authorities stressed that the raw, unconfirmed information was questionable.

"This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said at a news conference Saturday when asked about the document.

Officials across the globe dismissed the report as speculation.

Douste-Blazy said he had not seen the DGSE document and he said Saudi authorities had denied the information.

Saudi Arabia's Embassy in the United States said it had no evidence to support the reports that bin Laden is dead. "Information that has been reported otherwise is purely speculative and cannot be independently verified," the embassy said in a statement on its Web site.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/24/europe/EU_GEN_France_Bin_Laden.php

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Al Qaeda Members Moving To Middle East</font size>
<font size="4">Amid Speculation About Bin Laden,
New Leaders Shifting Away From Afghanistan</font size></center>

(CBS) This story was written by CBS News
correspondent Sheila MacVicar in London
and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 24, 2006

Al Qaeda has scaled down its leadership structure in Afghanistan and is poised to shift its main decision making to somewhere in the Middle East, possibly Iraq, senior Arab officials have revealed to CBS News, as speculation continues over the fate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Since Saturday morning when news of bin Laden's death due to typhoid was first reported in a French regional newspaper, officials in the U.S., France and Pakistan have denied first hand knowledge of that account.

The latest global speculation on bin Laden's fate mounted where L'Est Republicain, the French newspaper printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE, the French intelligence service, citing an uncorroborated report from a "usually reliable source" saying that Saudi secret services are convinced Osama bin Laden had died.

An Arab diplomat in Pakistan, however, said confirmation of the report was being hindered mainly because there was no evidence yet on bin Laden's body. For months, there have been reports of his worsening health and latest claim of his exposure to typhoid "could be very credible, he is a sick man with health related issues" said the diplomat who asked not to be named.

The diplomat said there were reports recently of al Qaeda ordering its Arab members who remained in the Pakistan-Afghan border region to move to the Middle East, after the group's leaders concluded that their followers in local militant groups around the region were capable of carrying on al Qaeda's work. "This decision was meant to close the al Qaeda Arab chapter in this part of the world. But al Qaeda remains in the shape of local non Arab militants who would carry on its work" he added.

A Saudi security advisor told CBS News that the exodus of Arab al Qaeda members, mostly originating from the Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, began in mid to late July, and continued throughout August. Saudi intelligence has not yet determined why this exodus has taken place, says the advisor.

In the past year, Saudi Arabia has greatly improved its intelligence gathering capacity in the region and on al Qaeda in particular. This is in reaction to al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia, and a growing recognition of the threat Islamist extremists – including al Qaeda members – pose to the security of the Kingdom. CBS News has also learned that as part of the improved intelligence capacity, Saudi Arabia has also been able to better identify, and interrogate those were with al Qaeda groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan as they returned to their home country.

By implication, the decision to move the group out of the region suggests that Osama bin Laden - a Saudi Arabian national, was either going to move "or maybe we are moving to a post bin Laden era which is the subject of today's speculation" added the diplomat.

Another Arab diplomat said he had seen reports just in the past fortnight of Arab fighters moving from the Pak-Afghan region, either using the land route via Iran or one of the central Asian countries, with some trying to pass through Pakistan.

"The destination of these people is back to the Middle East. Iraq we know is right now the biggest battleground for such people and I have heard enough on the subject of Iraq working as a magnet for militant groups to go along with the view that some may be heading to Iraq," said the diplomat who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Pakistani government officials meanwhile said there was no evidence of Osama bin Laden's death. But opinion remains divided on how far such an event would not be reported by al Qaeda.

"It is possible that some in al Qaeda believe that the symbolism of Osama bin Laden inspires many Muslims and therefore his image has to be kept alive for now" said one Pakistani official who asked not to be named.

"But it is also possible that news of his death is put to inspire Muslims to remember this figure and to take his task forward. These are all bits of speculation, no one knows for certain" added the Pakistani official.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/24/terror/main2036353.shtml

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>French Intel: Bin Laden is dead</font size></center>

United Press International (UPI)
September 23, 2006


PARIS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden is dead, according to Saudi intelligence sources, cited by a French newspaper, which claims to have obtained a document leaked to them by French intelligence.

The news of the death of al-Qaida's chief was reported in the Saturday edition of l'Est Republicain, a respected regional daily. The French paper cites a memo they claim was obtained from the French counter-espionage agency, the Direction Générale des Services Extérieurs, or the DGSE.

The world's most wanted terrorist, according to the French newspaper, is believed to have died last August as a result of typhoid fever while in Pakistan.

<font size="3">Looks like the French were clearly wrong
</font size>

I'll wait until CNN or somebody confirms the story.

-VG

<font size="3">As usual, looks like you were clearly right!


</font size>

On some speculation shit:

I am waiting on the day when it comes out that much of the intell community knew that binladen was long ago dead... and this cast light on the bush regimes plan to use him for years to come in order to keep the american people scared..

<font size="3">. . . and this one was waaay off base

</font size>

Yeah, but clinton could have been more balsy. He could have stated......

"when I was trying to run this country ya'll were to worried about my dam sexually activity, now they want to say i didnt do anything about terror??? They had no concerns about terror despite my efforts to eliminate binny. Remember the attacks??? I do but they werent talked about cause I WAS doing the right thing and launching surgical attacks. To bad I had to spend the majority of time between 97 99 worried about my sexual activity."

<font size="3">Now i am neither dem or republican but I do remember 98 and all that was talked about was clintons dna and that porker bitch. The republicans have no shame. Then they turn around and are the protectors of freedom???

Back in the 90's they wanted clinton more then binny who they want for those attacks in the 90's not 9/11.

So in hindsight the republicans "let" all this happen by focusing on clintons sexual adventures instead of real issues.</font size>

<font size="3">But whats the verdict on this one ? ? ?

</font size>