Rumors swirl over bin Laden's fate
PARIS, France (CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has a water-borne illness, a Saudi intelligence source told CNN on Saturday, a report that conflicts with an article in a French newspaper saying that the man who has been hunted by the United States for the past five years is dead.
The Saudi intelligence source told CNN's Nic Robertson that there have been credible reports for the past several weeks that bin Laden is ill, but there has been no word of his death.
The questions came in response to the publication of a report in the French regional newspaper L'Est Republicain on Saturday.
The article cited a confidential French foreign intelligence document dated September 21 in which a source said the Saudis had received confirmation that bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan on August 23.
Speaking in Compiegne, France, following meetings on trade with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Jacques Chirac said he would investigate the leak of the confidential documents, and said that the information in them 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, and White House spokesman Blair Jones added: "We have no confirmation of that report."
A senior administration official told CNN's John King that nobody he spoke to had any independent information on the report, and that CNN would be well advised to treat it with skepticism at this point.
"The official stressed that they certainly have not developed any intelligence worthy of putting it on the president's desk," King said.
Laid Sammari, the journalist who wrote the article, told CNN in a telephone interview he was confident of the authenticity of the confidential document cited in his report.
He said the only thing the Saudis were trying to confirm was the burial place of the al Qaeda leader, before making an official announcement.
Pakistani officials also said Saturday 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 terror group was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.
CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said he is skeptical of the suggestion that bin Laden might be dead, saying it was not something the Islamist Web sites would keep quiet about.
He also noted that rumors of the al Qaeda leader's demise circulate every few months.
The report in L'Est Republicain said the Saudi secret service first got the reports of bin Laden's death on September 4.
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.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe...den/index.html
