Information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in no way whatsoever confirmed," French President Jacques Chirac said Saturday

The French regional daily L'Est Republicain published on Saturday quoted from what it said was a copy of a confidential document from France's foreign intelligence agency DGSE. The document said the Saudi secret services were convinced bin Laden had died in late August.

Osama bin Laden, seen in 1998, was last heard from on June 29.
Associated Press

The DGSE transmitted the document, dated Sept. 21, to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper said.

Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" by the leak and has asked Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a Frenchwas  foreign intelligence service came to be published in the French press.

"This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said when asked about the document. "I have no comment."

In Washington, CIA duty officer Paul Gimigliano said he could not confirm the DGSE report.

No similar internet reports

The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said it was not aware of any similar reports on the internet.

"We've seen nothing from any al-Qaeda messaging or other indicators that would point to the death of Osama bin Laden," IntelCenter director Ben N. Venzke told the Associated Press.

Al-Qaeda would likely release information of his death fairly quickly if it were true, said Venzke, whose organization also provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the American government.

"They would want to release that to sort of control the way that it unfolds. If they wait too long, they could lose the initiative on it," he said.

The last time the IntelCenter says it could be sure bin Laden was alive was June 29, when al-Qaeda released an audiotape in which he eulogized the death of al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq earlier that month.

The DGSE, or Direction Generale des Services Exterieurs, indicated that its information came from a single source.

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

There have been periodic reports of bin Laden's illness or death in recent years, but none has been proven accurate.

According to this report, Saudi security services were pursuing further details, notably the place of his burial.

"The chief of al-Qaeda was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in Pakistan on Aug. 23, 2006," the document says. His geographic isolation meant that medical assistance was impossible, the French report said, adding that his lower limbs were thought to be paralyzed.

The report said Saudi security services had their first information on bin Laden's alleged death on Sept. 4.

Report could be fabricated: Pakistani official

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. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the topic and spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Embassy officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan also said they could not confirm the French report.

In a radio debate last Sunday, Gen. Henri Bentegeat, the French army chief of staff, said bin Laden's fate remained a mystery.

"Today, bin Laden is certainly not in Afghanistan," Bentegeat said. "No one is completely certain that he is even alive."