Is Osama bin Laden really dead?

0 CommentsPrint E-mail China.org.cn, May 3, 2011

 

Editor's notes:

U.S. President Barack Obama said on May 1 that a U.S. operation has killed Osama bin Laden in Islamabad and that the al-Qaida leader's body is in U.S. custody.

Pakistani sources have also confirmed that bin Laden was killed in a compound in Abbottabad outside the capital of Islamabad.

What's your first reaction when hearing the news? Many people may wonder how many times Osama Bin Laden has been killed so far. The following are some reports since 2001 that you can't tell true or false. 

December, 2001  
 

A funeral article in Egyptian paper al-Wafd reported on December 26, 2011:

A prominent official in the Afghan Taliban movement announced on December 25, 2001, the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qaida organization, stating that bin Laden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, stated to The Observer of Pakistan that he had himself attended the funeral of bin Laden and saw his face prior to burial in Tora Bora 10 days ago. >>

January 18, 2002   

A CNN news article on January 18, 2002, reported:

Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease.

"I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a ... kidney patient," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an interview with CNN.

Musharraf said Pakistan knew bin Laden took two dialysis machines into Afghanistan. "One was specifically for his own personal use," he said. >>

July 17, 2002   
 

A CBS news said on July 17, 2002, that a FBI official thinks bin Laden dead:

FBI counterterrorism chief Dale Watson said on July 17, 2002, he believes Osama bin Laden is dead, the first time a senior US law enforcement official has publicly given an opinion on the al Qaida leader's status.

Watson, who rarely makes public appearances, is the top official for counterterrorism and counterintelligence in the FBI. >>

October 8, 2005   
 

A Daily Times report said on October 20, 2005, that US teams searched quake rubble for bin Laden:

An MI6/SAS team has joined US Special Forces in earthquake-devastated Balakot to search for Osama Bin Laden among thousands of victims still buried.

US President George W Bush approved a full-scale surveillance operation along the remote Afghan-Pakistan border where extremists have training camps. The team, flown in from a high-security base in Afghanistan, is equipped with imagery and eavesdropping technology, high-tech weapons systems and MI6 linguists to try to locate the most wanted "terrorist" in the world. >>

January 16, 2006   
 

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that expert said bin Laden could be dead:

Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year.

"It does seem reasonably convincing based on the evidence that I've been provided with that he's certainly either severely incapacitated or dead at this stage," Dr Williams told ABC radio. >>

September 23, 2006   
 

On September 23, 2006, the French newspaper L'Est Républicain reported that bin Laden had died in Pakistan.

On September 23, 2006, the French newspaper L'Est Républicain quoted a report from the French secret service (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, DGSE) stating that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, after contracting a case of typhoid fever that paralyzed his lower limbs. >>

November 2, 2007   

In an interview on November 2, 2007, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Benazir Bhutto claimed that bin Laden had been murdered.

During her answer to a question pertaining to the identities of those who had previously attempted her own assassination, Bhutto named Sheikh as a possible suspect while referring to him as "the man who murdered Osama bin Laden."

Despite the weight of such a statement, neither Bhutto nor Frost attempted to clarify it during the remainder of the interview. >>

April 2009   
 

During an interview with The Telegraph, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari raised the prospect that Osama bin Laden could be dead.

 

Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, similarly suggested that the Saudi terror chief could be dead. Additionally, Pakistan's intelligence agencies also believed bin Laden possibly to be dead. >>

 

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