If he did, why are they telling us about it? Answer: Because
they want us to know. Question: Why would they want us to "know"?
Answer: Because it serves their purposes.
By Alexandra Richard
(Page 2, Le FigaroOctober 31st, 2001)
Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the Federation of the United
Arab
Emirates, North-East of Abi-Dhabi. This city, population 350,000,
was the
backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the
local CIA
agent in July. A partner of the administration of the American
Hospital in
Dubai claims that public enemy number one stayed at this hospital
between
the 4th and 14th of July.
Having taken off from the Quetta airport in Pakistan, bin Laden
was
transferred to the hospital upon his arrival at Dubai airport.
He was
accompanied by his personal physician and faithful lieutenant,
who could be
Ayman al-Zawahari--but on this sources are not entirely certain--,
four
bodyguards, as well as a male Algerian nurse, and admitted to
the American
Hospital, a glass and marble building situated between the Al-Garhoud
and
Al-Maktoum bridges.
Each floor of the hospital has two "VIP" suites and fifteen rooms.
The Saudi
billionnaire was admitted to the well-respected urology department
run by
Teerry Callaway, gallstone and infertility specialist. Dr Callaway
declined to
respond to our questions despite several phone calls.
As early as March, 2000, 'Asia Week,' published in Hong Kong,
expressed
concern for bin Laden's health, describing a serious medical
problem that could
put his life in danger because of "a kidney infection that is
propagating itself to
the liver and requires specialized treatment". According to authorized
sources,
bin Laden had mobile dialysis equipment shipped to his hideout
in Kandahar in
the first part of 2000. According to our sources, bin Laden's
"travels for health
reasons" have taken place before. Between 1996 and 1998, bin
Laden made
several trips to Dubai on business.
On September 27th, 15 days after the World Trade Center attacks,
at the
request of the United States, the Central Bank of the Arab Emirates
announced
an order to freeze assts and investments of 26 people or organisations
suspected
of mainting contact with bin Laden's organization, and in particular
at the Dubai Islamic Bank.
"Relations between the Emirate and Saudi Arabia have always been
very
close," according to sources, "princes of reigning families,
having recognized
the Taliban regime, often travelled to Afghanistan. One of the
princes of a
ruling family regularily went hunting on the land of bin Laden,
whom he had
known and visited for many years."
There are daily flights between Dubai and Quetta by both Pakistan
and
Emirates Airlines. As to private planes from Saudi Arabia or
from the
Emirates, they regulariy fly to Quetta, where their arrival is
rarely registered in
airport logs.
While he was hospitalised, bin Laden received visits from many
members of
his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. During the
hospital stay,
the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking
the main
elevator of the hospital to go to bin Laden's hospital room.
A few days later, the CIA man bragged to a few friends about having
visited
bin Laden. Authorised sources say that on July 15th, the day
after bin Laden
returned to Quetta, the CIA agent was called back to headquarters.
In late July, Emirates customs agents arrested Franco-Algerian
activist Djamel
Beghal at the Dubai airport. In early August, French and American
authorities
were advised of the arrest. Interrogated by local authorities
in Abu Dhabi,
Beghal stated that he was called to Afghanistan in late 2000
by Abou Zoubeida,
a military leader of bin Laden's organization, Al Qaeda. Beghal's
mission:
bomb the US embassy on Gabriel avenue, near the Place de la Concorde,
upon
his return to France.
According to Arab diplomatic sources as well as French intelligence,
very
specific information was transmitted to the CIA with respect
to terrorist attacks
against American interests around the world, including on US
soil. A DST
report dated 7 September enumerates all the intelligence, and
specifies that the
order to attack was to come from Afghanistan.
In August, at the US Embassy in Paris, an emergency meeting was
called
between the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service) and senior
US
intelligence officials. The Americans were extremely worried,
and requested
very specific information from the French about Algerian activists,
without
advising their counterparts about the reasons for their requests.
To the question
"what do you fear in the coming days?", the Americans kept a
difficult-to-fathom silence.
Contacts between the CIA and bin Laden began in 1979 when, as
a
representative of his family's business, bin Laden began recruiting
volunteers
for the Afghan resistance against the Red Army. FBI investigators
examining
the embassy bombing sites in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam discovered
that
evidence led to military explosives from the US Army, and that
these
explosives had been delivered threee years earlier to Afghan
Arabs, the
infamous international volunteer brigades involved side by side
with bin Laden
during the Afghan war against the Red Army.
In the pursuit of its investigations, the FBI discovered "financing
agreements"
that the CIA had been developing with its "arab friends" for
years. The Dubai
meeting is then within the logic of "a certain American policy".
Carol A. Valentine
President, Public Action, Inc.
Copyright, October, 2001. May be reproduced for non-commercial
purposes.