bin Laden probably dead, claims expert
A French expert has declared that Osama bin Laden is probably dead.
Leading historian and Arabic expert, Ghislaine Alleaume, told Le Figaro that, based on her analysis, she believes the terrorist leader was wounded in the American bombing raids on the Tora Bora cave network.
The bombing took place shortly after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
Ms Alleaume, a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), pointed out that bin Laden’s last authentic appearance was on Arabic television station al-Jazeera on December 27th, 2001.
She continued: ‘On the video he appears tired and thin. It seems his left arm has been amputated and in order to disguise the missing arm a canvas bag the same colour as his military uniform has been placed behind his back.’
She concluded from the broadcast that he had been injured in the raid and, ‘Considering the sanitary conditions in Afghanistan at the time, it would have been difficult to avoid an amputation.’
Since that broadcast there has been no new photographic or video evidence that the terror mastermind behind the al Qaeda network is still alive. She suggested that the audio messages that had surfaced since had probably been pieced together from previous recordings of him.
Alleume also revealed that from mid-December 2001, bin Laden was represented on Arabic Internet sites as a saint, a messiah or even as the new Che Guevara. This, she said, would suggest that he had died shortly after the video recording was made
