Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari noted yesterday that his intelligence gathering agencies have reason to believe that Osama bin Laden may be dead. While Zardari’s announcement certainly raised eyebrows, such reports have been issued before and the most recent statements are not backed up by any specific proof. Some Pakistani officials, along with a U.S. counterterrorism official, have said that they believe that Osama bin Laden is still alive and likely in hiding in either Pakistan or Afghanistan.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We continue to believe that bin Laden is alive.” Speaking of the U.S. forces tracking bin Laden, Zardari noted, “They are much more informed. They’ve been actually after him for a longer time. They’ve got more equipment. They’ve got more intelligence, so they tell us they have no trace at the moment.” Even so, Zardari reiterated that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies “obviously feel that he does not exist anymore.”
When asked specifically if bin Laden was dead, Zardari said, “That’s not confirmed. We can’t confirm that. It’s still in between fiction and fact.” Speaking later on Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani noted, “I don’t know what are the comments of the president, but at the same time, I must clarify this, that nobody knows about Osama bin Laden. We don’t know about it, whether he is dead or alive.” IntelCenter, a U.S. contractor that tracks movements and propaganda of extremist groups, added to the dialogue, noting, “Bin Laden’s death will likely be celebrated by the group and its affiliates as him having achieved martyrdom as opposed to the group seeing it as a crushing and demoralizing blow.”
