Osama Dead?

[Guest]

Rumors swirl over bin Laden's fate

PARIS, France (CNN) -- 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 al Qaeda leader 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.

French President Jacques Chirac said on Saturday he would investigate the leak of the confidential documents, adding that the information in the documents has not been 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 after meetings on trade with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France.

"Secondly, speaking of the source of the information itself, this information is in no way confirmed."

CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said he was told bin Laden's immediate family had had no reports that the al Qaeda leader was dead.

Bergen said Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden's brother-in-law and best friend when they were students at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told him he had heard nothing to confirm the report.

Batarfi remains in touch with bin Laden's immediate family in Jeddah, and said he spoke to some of them about the report but they said they have heard nothing to confirm it, said Bergen who noted that rumors of bin Laden's death circulate every few months.

Bergen, who once interviewed bin Laden, said he was skeptical of the suggestion that bin Laden might be dead, saying it was not something the Islamist Web sites would keep quiet about.

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.

"The official stressed that they certainly have not developed any intelligence worthy of putting it on the president's desk," King said.

Journalist: Burial site hunted

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.

The report in L'Est Republicain said the Saudi secret service first got the reports of bin Laden's death on September 4.

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.

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.

[IzzyEng4 427]

I highly doubt it until we can actually find it. Besides I beleive we should have done to him what his county's justice system does, "an eye for an eye."

[Guest]

Highly unlikely.

[Bababoosky 24]

won't believe it till i see pictures of the corpse

[Guest SQUADco119]

Dying is the easy way that man should suffer badly forever.

[AFS1970 504]

So we have several options here....

1 - The French are trying to hide Osama, by telling us he is dead.

2 - The French knew he was dead and concealed this info from us.

Either was I say blame the French.

Now as for the serious stuff, I too won't believe Osama is dead until I see something a little more credible. Plus if he died in hiding, Al Qaeda would have got all the mileage they could out of him being martyred because our hunting of him prevented his proper medical treatment. Since they did not play the opportunist card, I have to be skeptical on this one.

Of course if he is actually dead, that will just ruin the Liberal assertion that Bush was going to suddenly capture him just before an election.

[Remember585 815]

So we have several options here....

1 - The French are trying to hide Osama, by telling us he is dead.

2 - The French knew he was dead and concealed this info from us.

Either was I say blame the French.

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I agree with p**** (Squad119) - if he just drops dead it is unjust. I think we should visit him while he is sick and suffering, strap him down and make him listen to the God awful sound of someone running thier fingernails down a chalkboard until he succumbs to his ailment.

Ahhh....the sweet sensation of torture.....B-E-A Utiful!

[vodoly 535]

a tape of him "alive will show up soon BTW i am sick of his sorry toweled a**

[Firefighter57 0]

All i have to say is....dude, the article is french...come on

[X615 0]

i'm all for blaming the french but if we do they're just going to surrender again and then what do we do with them? if or when bin laden becomes room temperature i'd like to run him through a wood chipper and feed the bits & pieces of his mangled bloody carcas to sty full of pigs. nothing more fitting for him than to sit in the belly of a swine.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I don't care how he dies. adios motherfu(ker. You piece of chi(ken$hit, if you were so brave you strap explosives to your a** or you'd been one of the pilots.

Hope you've had or are having a real nice life in a cave while we hunt down all your operatives and "leadership" one by fu(king one.

"It's god's job to forgive Bin Laden, its our job to arrange the meeting." United States Marine Corps.

[Guest WolfEMT]

Considering that Saddam was dead like 3 times before we captured him (alive and well, I might add), I think that it is highly unlikely that this one is dead.

[BIGRED1 71]

He is not dead. should be, but isn't. he has something wrong with his kindneys doesn't he? i mean he is most likely living somewhere other then the middle east. he is a crafty MF i am sure he is not chillin anywhere near where we have soldiers. I hope that they do find his a$$ and lock him up and just forget him. no trial no martyre-hood, just make him disapear.