Analysis: Is bin Laden truly dead? (Claude Salhani)

  WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2006 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden is dead. At least according to Saudi intelligence sources cited by a French newspaper, which in turn claims to have obtained a document leaked to them by French counter-intelligence services.

  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.

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

  The report of bin Laden's death was however not confirmed by official sources in either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.

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