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Officials doubt reported death of bin Laden
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 24, 2006
PARIS - French and U.S. officials discounted a report Saturday in a French newspaper indicating that Osama bin Laden had died of typhoid last month in a remote area of Pakistan. The newspaper, L'Est Republicain, quoted a confidential document from the French secret service as saying that "according to a reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead." The newspaper reported that intelligence officials had given the document, dated Sept. 21, to President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the interior and defense ministers. A senior French official acknowledged the existence of the document, but Chirac said at a news conference Saturday that there was no confirmation that the leader of the al-Qaida terror network had died. "This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac told reporters. U.S. intelligence sources also cast serious doubt on the report, saying there was no information to support its claims. Officials in Pakistan and U.S. diplomats there and in Afghanistan said they were not aware of any Saudi intelligence reports indicating that bin Laden may have died, news services reported.
[Last modified September 24, 2006, 01:43:05]
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