Promoted by Steven D.
October may be coming a week early this year?
It’s being reported over at our sister site European Tribune that rumors are flying that Bin Laden has died in Pakistan of typhoid.
There is a link there to a French press report, for those that can read French.
CNN is reporting it as a story of the leak of a secret, unconfirmed French intelligence report:
PARIS, France (CNN) — French President Jacques Chirac said on Saturday he would investigate the leak of confidential French defense ministry documents containing a report that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead, and said that report has been in no way 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.
“Secondly, speaking of the source of the information itself, this information is in no way confirmed.”
U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday they could not confirm the report suggesting that bin Laden might be dead.
Oh those French! Just like them to go ruin the October surprise! </snark>
Here’s CBS’s take. Nothing yet on BBC.
This tidbit was interesting:
Dead like Johnny Carson is dead. He BEEN dead.
If he’s dead, he’s a martyr and a hero. The best “surprise” for Bush would have been his capture. Second best (for Bush’s domestic political purposes) would have been if US forces had killed him. At least that way Bush could argue that he had fulfilled his promise to bring Bin Laden back “dead or alive.” Osaam dying from disease without us even knowing where he was, or ever taking direct action against him only points out Bush’s ineptitude.
IMO
And until I see Osama’s body or we get an announcement from Zawahiri confirming that he is dead, I am a skeptic about this story.
Maybe Rove’s October surprise maybe the airing of bin Laden’s new, new, newest video that reports of “my death are highly suspect…..first I had kidney failure and was on dialysis in mountainous caves. Remember! Hey I got to watch the Lebanese 09/22 – hundreds of thousands came to celebrate Hizbollah. “
kinda curious the death of bin Laden would be stamped “secret” and not be shouted from roof-tops worldwide.
I second that.
I’m sure Karl Rove will find a way to buy his body and riddle it with bullets before it’s trotted out to the media to make it look like US forces tracked him down and killed him.
This is a similar take that thereisnospoon has this AM over at the Orange place. Might want to check out his diary “They Let Him Get Away With It-Updated”.
Thanks for the post KP!
Bin Laden is going to be a martyr and hero for millions of people regardless of how he dies, Bush’s bumbling boorish response to 9/11 made it inevitable. Other than that I agree with you, I don’t see how this is a good thing for Republicans. Of course, I still don’t understand how Bin Laden taunting us a few days before the 2004 elections was a positive for Bush, but the media continually assures me it was. Either the media is insane, or the voters are. Neither prospect is comforting.
I fully expect to hear TV pundits for at least a few weeks unanimously telling me this is the boon Republicans needed to hold Congress, bereft of any attempt to logically explain what the hell they’re talking about.
On the other hand, what would happen if the administration embraced reports of Bin Laden’s death, and Republicans campaigned on their toughness in getting him (even though they didn’t, you know they will take credit), only to have Bin Laden show up on video a few days before the election again? Talk about monumental backlash.
If this isn’t a setup, I would think Republicans will be careful for the same reason Kerry really couldn’t play up the inability to capture Bin Laden: you can’t be sure reality won’t overtake your narrative right before the election (in that case, you couldn’t be sure Bush wasn’t holding Bin Laden already as an October surprise). If this wasn’t planned, they really shouldn’t make to much of a big deal of this unconfirmed “win” in the war.
If it is a setup, we aren’t going to hear anything else from Republicans for the next 6 weeks. All Bin Laden all the time, after intentionally avoiding the subject the last few years. There’s a great campaign commercial narrative for Democratic challengers there somewhere.
Or the vote was rigged.
Well, being a demon, I guess Bush can take credit for bringing down a plague on our enemy.
He doesn’t need to be a demon; he can just call on the boys at Ft. Detrick.
The spin machine will be spinning out of control right about now.
IF and that is a big if OBL is dead and dead of typhoid and this info just happened to leak out then maybe they knew he was dead weeks ago, were keeping him on ice and ready to plaster pics all over the MSM in Oct. so they could say they captured and killed him. Am I crazy or what?
You may be crazy, aren’t we all, but your theory sounds like the most possible plan if this administration had captured Bin Laden’s body. I can’t think of any reason that Bush (or Al Qaeda for that matter) would want it known that Bin Laden died of typhoid. It is in the best interest of both sides for Bin Laden to die in a firefight. Which makes me think this leak couldn’t have been part of a plan, even if future falsehoods might have been.
wait, wait, wait. What I am saying is “they” didn’t have any part of the leak. Someone else leaked it to foil “their” plans. I dunno. Sounds plausible to me.
Someone else leaked it to foil “their” plans.
I think we’re on the same wavelength:
Yeah, you were clear, I understood. My response didn’t use pronouns particularly well.
I do agree with you that OBL dying of typhoid fever would not be deemed a great victory for the Bush administration and a good reason for keeping this quite.
That said I have to add that my general view on this issue is that I have my doubts whether OBL is really dead, and until more conclusive evidence are brought forth I will remain sceptical to the accuracy of this leak.
If it isn’t something like that, why would they want to keep it top secret?
Maybe he died of typhus while in custody waiting for October (from Wikipedia):
We tend to forget about things like typhus since we’re all inoculated against it as children.
I believe typhus is the world war I trenches disease and is spread by insect vectors? I do not believe we are routinely vaccinated against typhus. Now Typhoid fever, I think, is from a bacteria usually associated with bad water or maybe food, and we are not vaccinated against that either. At least I think!
I find it most interesting that he would have died of typhus. With all of our cluster bombs and special forces, UBL would have found a positively HGWellian way to go…
“After all that men could do had failed, the Martians were destroyed and humanity was saved by the littlest things, which God, in His wisdom, had put upon this Earth. “
I know I’m not the only one here their mid-20s… The first thing I thought of when I heard of this was that old game Oregon Trail. Be careful fording that river!
Preident Chirac, and US, Pakistani & Afghan officials have all said this report is not confirmed.