"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" -Oscar Wilde |
"The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." -- Proverbs 11:25 |
A French regional newspaper quoted a French secret service report on Saturday as saying that Saudi Arabia is convinced that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.
L’Est Republicain printed what it said was a copy of the report dated Sept. 21 and said it was shown to President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and France’s interior and defense 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-Qaida was a victim while he was in Pakistan on Aug. 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 defense” label and the initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia first heard the information on Sept. 4 and that it was waiting for more details before making an official announcement.
Officials contacted by Reuters in Chirac’s and Villepin’s offices had no immediate comment.
A senior official in Pakistan’s interior ministry said: “We have no information about Osama’s death.”
According to two conservative websites, White House political strategist Karl Rove has been promising GOP insiders that there will be an "October surprise" before the midterm elections.
"In the past week, Karl Rove has been promising Republican insiders an 'October surprise' to help win the November congressional elections," reports Ronald Kessler for Newsmax.
"President Bush's political strategist is also saying that the final two weeks before the elections will see a blitz of advertising, and the Republican National Committee is deploying an army of volunteers to key locations to help the grass-roots effort and monitor the election," the article continues. "The RNC is offering to fly in volunteers and cover their expenses."
A few weeks ago, another conservative publication, The American Spectator, reported that White House staffers had "been talking up the possibilities of an 'October Surprise' or two leading into the mid-term elections."