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Bin Laden died in US air raid: French expert
Chandigarh Tribune
Islamabad, May 12 2003
A French expert claims Osama bin Laden, alleged terrorist mastermind wanted by the USA for the 9/11 bombings, died after being maimed in an American air raid on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in December, 2001, a Pakistani newspaper says.
Ghislaine Alleaume, a historian and an expert on Arab affairs at the French National Research Centre (CNRC), reached the conclusion after studying television and Internet messages circulated by Bin Laden’s supporters, the Daily Times reported from Paris.
She bases her theory mostly on a video report of the Al Qaida leader’s broadcast by Al Jazeera television on December 27, 2001.
According to Alleaume, the Saudi exile looked weary and sick but she believes he had had his left arm amputated.
“He is wearing a military camouflage jacket and you can see that someone has placed a bag in the same colours just behind him to disguise the fact that he has lost his arm,” she said.
She believes he died of his injuries soon afterwards. “Given the sanitary conditions, it would not have been easy to survive an amputation,” she said.
Alleaume has studied other messages circulated by Bin Laden supporters and she believes they contain clues that he is dead.
Since the end of 2001, the texts have often been signed Osama Bin Mohammed Bin Laden, rather than just Osama Bin Laden, she said.
“Adding Mohammed, his father’s name, gives him an apocalyptic dimension. The Koran says the Mahdi, the final messenger, will be recognisable, among other things, by the fact that he carries the name of the Prophet.”
Last month an Arabic language audio recording said to be of Bin Laden was circulated in which he urged Muslims to launch suicide attacks against countries that supported the war on Iraq.
Chandigarh Tribune
Islamabad, May 12 2003
A French expert claims Osama bin Laden, alleged terrorist mastermind wanted by the USA for the 9/11 bombings, died after being maimed in an American air raid on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in December, 2001, a Pakistani newspaper says.
Ghislaine Alleaume, a historian and an expert on Arab affairs at the French National Research Centre (CNRC), reached the conclusion after studying television and Internet messages circulated by Bin Laden’s supporters, the Daily Times reported from Paris.
She bases her theory mostly on a video report of the Al Qaida leader’s broadcast by Al Jazeera television on December 27, 2001.
According to Alleaume, the Saudi exile looked weary and sick but she believes he had had his left arm amputated.
“He is wearing a military camouflage jacket and you can see that someone has placed a bag in the same colours just behind him to disguise the fact that he has lost his arm,” she said.
She believes he died of his injuries soon afterwards. “Given the sanitary conditions, it would not have been easy to survive an amputation,” she said.
Alleaume has studied other messages circulated by Bin Laden supporters and she believes they contain clues that he is dead.
Since the end of 2001, the texts have often been signed Osama Bin Mohammed Bin Laden, rather than just Osama Bin Laden, she said.
“Adding Mohammed, his father’s name, gives him an apocalyptic dimension. The Koran says the Mahdi, the final messenger, will be recognisable, among other things, by the fact that he carries the name of the Prophet.”
Last month an Arabic language audio recording said to be of Bin Laden was circulated in which he urged Muslims to launch suicide attacks against countries that supported the war on Iraq.
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