>From www.haaretzdaily.com and also via drudge.comWednesday, October 31, 2001 Cheshvan 14, 5762 Israel Time:�05:32�(GMT+2) Last update�-�12:48 31/10/2001 French report: bin Laden met CIA agent this summer By DPA Paris - Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, had a meeting with an official of the CIA just two months earlier, the newspaper Le Figaro claimed on Wednesday. The meeting allegedly took place between July 4 and 14, while bin Laden was being treated for a serious kidney ailment at the American Hospital in Dubai, the paper said, citing as its source an "unnamed professional associate of the hospital's administration." During his stay at the hospital, bin Laden was visited by several family members, officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and by the local representative of the CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.) The intelligence official was seen taking the hospital elevator to the floor on which bin Laden's room was located, Le Figaro claimed. "What Le Figaro has published is wrong. Osama bin Laden was never treated in the hospital or outside the hospital by our doctors. The report is completely baseless", Bernard Koval, manager of the American Hospital in Dubai, told DPA. Le Figaro reported that the CIA agent - who was not named - had boasted several days later to several friends that he had visited the Saudi millionaire. According to what Le Figaro termed "official" sources, the agent was called back to CIA headquarters in the United States on July 15, the day after bin Laden left Dubai for the city of Quetta, in Pakistan. At the time of the meeting, bin Laden was already wanted in the United States for his alleged responsibility for the terrorist attacks, in August 1998, on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 200 people and for the October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole, in which 19 U.S. Navy sailors died. Le Figaro wrote that the CIA's ties with bin Laden date back to 1979 when the Saudi millionaire began enlisting volunteers to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan. The meeting in Dubai, claimed the newspaper, was therefore "the logical consequence of certain American policies." Describing bin Laden's illness, Le Figaro cites a March 2000 story in Asia Week which reported that bin Laden suffered from an acute kidney infection that was spreading to his liver and required specialized treatment. In Dubai, he was reportedly treated by Dr. Terry Callahan, a specialist in kidney ailments and male infertility. Contacted by Le Figaro, Callahan had refused to comment on the report, the Paris newspaper said. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> <FONT COLOR="#000099">Epil Stop & Spray Painless Hair Removal. Spray on and wife off! Just $24.95 at Youcansave.com </FONT><A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/gC2sGD/6jNDAA/ySSFAA/xYTolB/TM";><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Please let us stay on topic and be civil. To unsubscribe please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs -Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org OM Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
