[MAPC-discuss] Bin Laden & the CIA (fwd)

[MAPC-discuss] Bin Laden & the CIA (fwd)

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2001-11-06

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 10:31:42 -0500

www.washtimes.com

Report: bin Laden treated at US hospital

Elizabeth Bryant
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published 10/31/2001

     PARIS, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A CIA agent allegedly met with suspected
terrorist
mastermind Osama bin Laden in July, while the Saudi underwent treatment for
kidney problems at an American hospital in Dubai, France's Le Figaro
newspaper
reported Wednesday.
      Bin Laden reportedly checked into the American Hospital Dubai, a
100-bed,
acute-care general hospital, July 4 and stayed until July 14. He arrived
from
Quetta, Pakistan, accompanied by his personal doctor and a close aide --
possibly Ayman el Zawahiri, a leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, now bin
Laden's
right hand man, the newspaper said
     . Le Figaro cited a "professional partner" linked to the hospital's
management as its source.
      Besides a stream of local dignitaries and family members, bin Laden's
visitors included a local CIA agent, the newspaper reported. The agent was
widely recognized locally, Le Figaro said, and later told several friends of
the meeting.
      The alleged American spy was called back to the CIA's McLean, Va.,
headquarters July 15 -- a day after bin Laden checked out, Le Figaro
reported,
citing "authorized sources."
      Why bin Laden would have met with a CIA officer -- or vice versa -- is
unclear. Even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the Saudi
millionaire figured among America's top terrorist suspects, blamed for
several
earlier plots against U.S. targets, including the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing.
      But the French newspaper asserted CIA-bin Laden links stretched back
years, and appeared to suggest bin Laden gave the agency information
regarding
future terrorist strikes.
      "The Dubai meeting is therefore a logical follow to a "certain
American
policy," the newspaper said.
      In particular, the newspaper noted that just two weeks after bin Laden
checked out of the Dubai hospital, United Arab Emirates security agents
arrested the alleged mastermind of a plot to blow up the American Embassy in
Paris. The suspect, a French-Algerian named Djamel Beghal, earlier confessed
to receiving his orders from bin Laden, according to French news media
citing his written confession.
      An American diplomat in Paris refused to comment on the Figaro
article, or on reported allegations of an emergency meeting in Paris in
August, between high level French and American intelligence officials.
      "We're just not comment any of that stuff," he said. "We can't talk
about
meetings like that may or may not have happen."
      Le Figaro said bin Laden had serious kidney problems, and reportedly
had a dialysis machine imported to Afghanistan last year. Citing a March
2000 report by Asia Week, the newspaper said bin Laden's illness stemmed
from "a renal infection that has spread to the liver, and needs specialized
treatment."
      The head of the Dubai hospital's urology department, Terry Callaway,
reportedly refused to answer questions about bin Laden's alleged stay. Radio
France reported Wednesday the American hospital has denied bin Laden was
treated there.

Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Radio reports new CIA-Bin Laden detailsThe Washington Times
www.washtimes.com

Radio reports new CIA-Bin Laden details
Elizabeth Bryant
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published 11/1/2001

     PARIS, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Radio France International offered additional
details Thursday of allegations that terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden met
with
a CIA officer in the United Arab Emirates in July.
      The CIA has dismissed as "total absurdity" a report carried Wednesday
by
Radio France and by France's Le Figaro newspaper, alleging that a CIA agent
met
with bin Laden at a Dubai clinic, where the suspected terrorist was
reportedly
treated for kidney problems.
      The clinic, said to be the American Hospital in Dubai, also denied bin
Laden had been a patient. The American Embassy in Paris has not commented on
the report.
      The Paris-based International Herald Tribune suggested the erroneous
information may have been leaked by opponents in France to the U.S. military
campaign in Afghanistan.
      "Disinformation may have been planted ... to suggest a continuing
covert
linkage between the CIA and bin Laden," a French intelligence source told
the
Herald Tribune.
      Nonetheless, Radio France International, for one, said it stood by its
report. In a follow-up Thursday, the French radio station identified the
alleged CIA agent as Larry Mitchell, "a connoisseur of the Arab world and
specialist of the (Arab) peninsula."
      Mitchell's business card identified him as a "consular agent," the
radio
said. In fact, RFI alleged, he was a CIA agent and a prominent fixture in
Dubai's expatriate community. According to both the radio and Le Figaro,
Mitchell was recalled to the CIA's headquarters in McLean, Va., on July 15.
      The radio also gave the precise date of Mitchell's supposed encounter
with bin Laden -- July 12, two days before the Saudi dissident reportedly
checked out of the hospital.
      Neither the Figaro, nor Radio France offered independent confirmation
of
the report. The radio station also cited no source for its latest
allegations.
Earlier, the Figaro said its story was leaked by a partner of the hospital's
management.
      In an interview published Thursday in Le Figaro, Arab specialist
Antoine
Sfeir said he was not surprised on the alleged CIA-bin Laden ties.
      "Bin Laden maintained contacts with bin Laden until 1998," Sfeir said.
"Those contacts didn't end after bin Laden moved to Afghanistan. Until the
last
minute, CIA agents hoped bin Laden would return to U.S. command, as was the
case before 1998."
      Sfeir also maintained the information about the CIA-bin Laden
connection
had been in circulation for the past 15 days.

Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.






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Tuesday, November 06, 2001 8:01 AM

[MAPC-discuss] Bin Laden & the CIA (fwd)