I wonder what the other half thinks...
Tired...
I wonder what the other half thinks...
You missread the quote. Half of everyone think wont ever be killed or captured. Not should he be killed or captured.
(put your glasses back on nerd)
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"A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll showed that almost half of the American public think it's likely that the United States will arrest or kill bin Laden, a number that has moved little over the last three years."Originally Posted by PhilosophyGenius
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You're right... I said "should", and not "will"... I was getting ahead of myself... I had a reason for that question.
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Those quotes are from 2002. Bin Laden realesed a video of himself and al-Zawahiri walking along the Afgan/Pakistani border in 2003 with both of them looking much much older than they did in a 2001 video tape. Which means he was still alive up until that point. But according the new story that he recently died, who knows. They (al-Qaeda) would have said by now if he really did die.
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Report: Bin Laden Already Dead
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html
Wednesday, December 26, 2001
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
About 30 close associates of bin Laden in Al Qaeda, including his most trusted and personal bodyguards, his family members and some "Taliban friends," attended the funeral rites. A volley of bullets was also fired to pay final tribute to the "great leader."
The Taliban source who claims to have seen bin Laden's face before burial said "he looked pale ... but calm, relaxed and confident."
Asked whether bin Laden had any feelings of remorse before death, the source vehemently said "no." Instead, he said, bin Laden was proud that he succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic designs and conspiracies of "pagans" against Islam. Bin Laden, he said, held the view that the sacrifice of a few hundred people in Afghanistan was nothing, as those who laid their lives in creating an atmosphere of resistance will be adequately rewarded by Almighty Allah.
When asked where bin Laden was buried, the source said, "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished."
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French paper says bin Laden died in Pakistan
http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...C3-worldNews-2
Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:55am ET
PARIS (Reuters) - A French regional newspaper quoted a French secret service report on Saturday as saying that Saudi Arabia is convinced that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.
L'Est Republicain printed what it said was a copy of the report dated September 21 and said it was shown to President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and France's interior and defense ministers on the same day.
"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," the document said.
"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda was a victim while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, of a very serious case of typhoid which led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs."
The report, which was stamped with a "confidential defense" label and the initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia first heard the information on September 4 and that it was waiting for more details before making an official announcement.
Officials contacted by Reuters in Chirac's and Villepin's offices had no immediate comment.
A senior official in Pakistan's interior ministry said: "We have no information about Osama's death."
Saudi-born Bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until the Taliban government there was overthrown by U.S.-backed forces in late 2001. Since then, U.S. and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe he is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The last videotaped message released by bin Laden was in late 2004, but there have been several low quality audio tapes released this year.
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Chirac says no evidence bin Laden has died
French newspaper published details of alleged intelligence memo
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14963302/
9/23/2006
PARIS - President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is “in no way whatsoever confirmed.”
Chirac said he was “a bit surprised” at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press.
The regional newspaper l’Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the al-Qaida terror network had died.
The DGSE transmitted the document, dated Sept. 21 or Thursday, to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper said.
“This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed,” Chirac said Saturday when asked about the document. “I have no comment.”
In Washington, CIA duty officer Paul Gimigliano said he could not confirm the DGSE report.
The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said it was not aware of any similar reports on the Internet.
“We’ve seen nothing from any al-Qaida messaging or other indicators that would point to the death of Osama bin Laden,” IntelCenter director Ben N. Venzke told The Associated Press.
Last date known is June 29
Al-Qaida would likely release information of his death fairly quickly if it were true, said Venzke, whose organization also provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the American government.
“They would want to release that to sort of control the way that it unfolds. If they wait too long, they could lose the initiative on it,” he said.
The last time the IntelCenter says it could be sure bin Laden was alive was June 29, when al-Qaida released an audiotape in which the terror leader eulogized the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq earlier that month.
Chirac spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France, where the leaders were holding a summit.
Putin suggested that leaks can be ways to manipulate. “When there are leaks ... one can say that (they) were done especially.”
Earlier the French defense ministry said it was opening an investigation into the leak.
“The information diffused this morning by the l’Est Republicain newspaper concerning the possible death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
The DGSE, or Direction Generale des Services Exterieurs, indicated that its information came from a single source.
“According to a reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead,” said the intelligence report.
There have been periodic reports of bin Laden’s illness or death in recent years but none has been proven accurate.
According to this report, Saudi security services were pursuing further details, notably the place of his burial.
“The chief of al-Qaida was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in Pakistan on August 23, 2006,” the document says. His geographic isolation meant that medical assistance was impossible, the French report said, adding that his lower limbs were allegedly paralyzed.
The report further said Saudi security services had their first information on bin Laden’s alleged death on Sept. 4.
In Pakistan, a senior official of that country’s top spy agency, the ISI or Directorate of Inter-Service Intelligence, said he had no information to confirm bin Laden’s whereabouts or that he might be dead. The official said he believed the report could be fabricated. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the topic and spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Embassy officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan also said they could not confirm the French report.
Gen. Henri Bentegeat, the French army chief of staff, said in a radio debate last Sunday that bin Laden’s fate remained a mystery.
“Today, bin Laden is certainly not in Afghanistan,” Bentegeat said. “No one is completely certain that he is even alive.”
Rumors swirl over bin Laden's fate
POSTED: 2:17 p.m. EDT, September 23, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe...den/index.html
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. (Watch CNN's Nic Robertson reveal the latest intelligence on bin Laden's health -- 1:54)
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.
CNN Producers Katie Turner in London and Pam Benson in Washington D.C. contributed to this report
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