Typhoid Fever Kills Osama bin Laden?
By Jim Brogan
Sep 23, 2006

Typhoid Fever kills Osama bin Laden? Typhoid Fever may have killed bin Laden or has made him gravely ill, according to Saudi intelligence sources cited by a French newspaper quoting French intelligence sources. The newspaper says a document was leaked to them by French intelligence.

Time magazine is reporting that Saudi sources have told them that Bin Laden contracted a waterborne illness and is gravely ill and could have already died.

The news of the unconfirmed death of al-Qaeda’s No.1 was reported in the Saturday edition of l’Est Republicain. The world’s most wanted terrorist, according to the French newspaper, is believed to have died last August 23.

A Saudi intelligence source told United Press International: “We are not saying he is dead, but there is a lot of truth in the report.” The Saudi source, who spoke on condition that his name not be revealed, confirmed that according to Saudi Arabian intelligence “bin Laden was very ill these past few weeks.”

The Saudi intelligence source also told UPI “There is no way we can prove that bin Laden is dead until we can see the body.” But, he added, “A good portion of what is in the report is true.”

In Pakistan, a senior official of that country’s top spy agency, the ISI or Directorate of Inter-Service Intelligence, said he had no information to confirm bin Laden’s whereabouts or that he might be dead. The official said he believed the report could be fabricated, according to AP reports.

Reuters also reports that Pakistan has received no information from any foreign government that would corroborate the report.

“No government has shared any such information with us so far, which is the normal thing to do under such circumstances,” the official, who has close knowledge of intelligence matters, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The information is reportedly based on what the newspaper calls “a usually reliable source,” stating that Saudi intelligence sources “are convinced” of bin Laden’s death.