Dubai, September 26
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well, a source in Afghanistan’s militant Taliban movement told Al-Arabiya news channel today, denying recent reports of his death or illness. “The (Taliban) movement has checked the reports (of Bin Laden’s death). The story is false. Bin Laden is alive,” an unnamed official in the movement told the channel’s office in Islamabad. The Dubai-based station said that the source, who phoned it’s Pakistan office, denied previous reports claiming that the US’ most-wanted man was ill. A French intelligence memo, first published Saturday in a French newspaper, claimed that Saudi intelligence concluded that Bin Laden succumbed to typhoid fever sometime between August 23 and September 4 while in hiding in Pakistan. French President Jacques Chirac as well as US, Pakistani and Afghan officials distanced themselves from the report, saying that it could not be confirmed. 

Saudis believe bin Laden is dead 
Paris, September 23.2006. A French newspaper today published what it said was a report by the country's intelligence services that said Saudi Arabia believes Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan this month.
France's Defence Ministry issued a statement saying the newspaper report "cannot be confirmed" and that Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had ordered an investigation "to determine the source of this leak, which is a crime punishable by law." France's foreign intelligence service, the DGSE, also refused to confirm the report, and no immediate official reaction was forthcoming from Saudi officials.
But European and Pakistani officials tracking bin Laden's whereabouts told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the report could not be seen as reliable.
Often rumoured to be dead in the past -- only to appear later in audio or video recordings -- the leader of the Al-Qaida terror network was believed to have taken refuge on the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Previous reported rumours have said that he suffered from a kidney disorder and was in poor health.
The French regional newspaper l'Est Republicain published what it said was a DGSE report dated September 21. 
"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," the DGSE report quoted by the newspaper said.
It said that "information gathered by the Saudis" indicates that bin Laden "might have succumbed to a very serious case of typhoid fever resulting in partial paralysis of his lower limbs on August 23, 2006.

Islamabad, September 23: Pakistan has received no information from any foreign government that would corroborate a French newspaper report on Saturday that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan, a senior government official said.
"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. 

A senior official in Pakistan's Interior Ministry also said: "We have no information about Osama's death." 

The daily L'est Republicain reported that, according to a French secret service report, Saudi Arabia was convinced that bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.
High-ranking diplomats in the Pakistani capital also doubted the French regional newspaper's report. 

The French government has said it could not confirm the report and would investigate the intelligence leak. 

The al-Qaeda leader fled to Pakistan after US-backed forces drove his Taliban hosts from power in late 2001, following al-Qaeda's Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York, but his pursuers soon lost track of him. 

While US and Pakistani officials have regularly said since that they believe bin Laden has been hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, intelligence officials have also said that the trail went cold some time ago. 

There have been no intelligence "hits" on bin Laden, either through tip-offs or electronic surveillance, for at least two years, Pakistani security officials said earlier this month. 

The last videotaped message released by bin Laden was in late 2004, but several low-quality audio tapes were issued earlier this year. 

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf held a joint news conference with President George Bush in Washington on Friday in which the two leaders said their countries were continuing to cooperate closely in the hunt for bin Laden. The two men also sought to paper over a disagreement prompted by Bush's statement to CNN on Wednesday that he would order troops into Pakistan if he had firm intelligence on bin Laden. 

Musharraf, facing anti-US sentiment at home, had said Pakistan would want to handle such a situation itself. 

A senior Taliban official, whose fighters are allied to the remnants of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, also poured cold water on the French newspaper story. 

"Taliban have no information about the death of Osama. It's only baseless propaganda against mujahideen (Muslim holy warriors)," Mullah Obaidullah told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. 

France orders probe into bin Laden death report leak 

France's Defence Ministry said on Saturday a secret service report saying al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had died could not be confirmed but said it would launch an inquiry into the leak of secret documents. 

The Defence Ministry issued the statement after a French regional newspaper, L'est Republicain, published a report quoting a French secret service report as saying Saudi Arabia is convinced al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month. 

"The information published this morning in the L'est Republicain newspaper relating to the supposed death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed," the Defence Ministry said. 

"The Defence Minister (Michele Alliot-Marie) has asked that an inquiry be carried out to determine the origin of the leak that can be punished by criminal charges." 

The newspaper printed what it said was a copy of the report dated September 21 and said it was shown to President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and France's Interior and Defence Ministers on the same day.

"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," the document said. 

"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al-Qaeda was a victim while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, of a very serious case of typhoid which led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs." 

The report, which was stamped with a "confidential defence" label and the initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia first heard the information on September 4 and that it was waiting for more details before making an official announcement. 

A senior official in Pakistan said no foreign government had shared information with Pakistan that would back up the report of bin Laden's death. 

Saudi-born bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until the Taliban government there was overthrown by US-backed forces in 2001. Since then, US and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe he is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

The last videotaped message released by bin Laden was in late 2004, but there have been several low quality audio tapes released this year.
 

"Given the information we have we are convinced that bin Laden is still alive," August Hanning, president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst agency, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Bin Laden is the United State's main suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. 

"He is still the figurehead of al Qaeda, but doesn't appear to move around very much, and if at all, in a very conspiratorial way," Hanning said. 

Hanning said there were an estimated 5,000 al Qaeda and Taliban supporters still in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Others had returned to their countries of origin.
They are preparing new attacks from their new locations. They will do all they can to strike again. We have to be prepared for that," Hanning told the newspaper, which released the interview ahead of publication on Sunday. 

Hanning said major attacks such as the September 11 suicide assaults had taken place with bin Laden's blessing, but that he had not been involved in operational planning. 

"He didn't prepare the attacks operationally, probably didn't even know all the details of the preparations," said Hanning. 

He added that the September 11 attacks had cost al Qaeda little more than one million dollars. Bin Laden now saw even more reason to attack the United States because he wanted to exact revenge for the U.S.-led campaign that ousted Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, Hanning added. 

His comments follow a statement on Wednesday by a man claiming to be a spokesman for al Qaeda that bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar were alive and well. 

Germany has played a central part in the investigation into the September 11 attacks. Three of the four suspected hijackers, including Mohammed Atta, their alleged ringleader, lived for years in the German port city of Hamburg.