CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July 2001

[sabra]

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html

CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July

French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital

Anthony Sampson
Thursday November 1, 2001
The Guardian

Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.

Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.

The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.

Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter: "You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".

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How much credence does this story have?

[Pockets]

1. Suspicious

The fact that they used July 4th as the date OBL arrived in the hospital is suspicious. Also, the French have not exactly been on the side of the invasion in the first place. But it does raise question, why can't they find OBL, the most infamous man on the planet. A cover-up obviously is involved somewhere, it's obvious.

[Frederik]

2. Remember

French intelligence claimed this before the fallout over Iraq. France participated in the invasion of Afghanistan, before there was talk of invading Iraq (Iraq was allegedly discussed with allies for the first time during the 2002 Bilderberg meeting). There's nothing suspicious about the date either, I think. But of course, one should be cautious about believing anonymous intelligence sources. I somehow find it unlikely that they would make this up, but who knows.

I agree that US intelligence probably knows where Bin Laden hangs out at any given time. They apparently have no problems intercepting his communications with Abu-Mussab al-Zarqawi, so how hard can he be to find?

[Bolo Boffin]

3. It could be true

Yet the only source for this information is "French intelligence", in other words, the French CIA. Normally an association with anonymous intelligence agents is enough to discredit any statement for the conspiracy theory crowd, but for some reason, this particular story is always accepted as the gospel truth. Why is that?