Wednesday October 31, 12:03 PM

Bin Laden underwent treatment in July at Dubai American Hospital

Osama bin Laden underwent treatment in July at the American Hospital in Dubai where he met a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official, French daily Le Figaro and Radio France International reported.

Quoting "a witness, a professional partner of the administrative management of the hospital," they said the man suspected by the United States of being behind the September 11 terrorist attacks had arrived in Dubai on July 4 by air from Quetta, Pakistan.

He was immediately taken to the hospital for kidney treatment. He left the establishment on July 14, Le Figaro said.

During his stay, the daily said, the local CIA representative was seen going into bin Laden's room and "a few days later, the CIA man boasted to some friends of having visited the Saudi-born millionaire."

Quoting "an authoritative source," Le Figaro and the radio station said the CIA representative had been recalled to Washington on July 15.

Bin Laden has been sought by the United States for terrorism since the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. But his CIA links go back before that to the fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

Le Figaro said bin Laden was accompanied in Dubai by his personal physician and close collaborator, who could be the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahari, as well as bodyguards and an Algerian nurse.

He was admitted to the urology department of Doctor Terry Callaway, who specializes in kidney stones and male infertility. Telephoned several times, the doctor declined to answer questions.

Several sources had reported that bin Laden had a serious kidney infection. He had a mobile dialysis machine sent to his Kandahar hideout in Afghanistan in the first half of 2000, according to "authoritative sources" quoted by Le Figaro and RFI.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Answers

November 1, 2001

Radio reports new CIA-Bin Laden details

By Elizabeth Bryant UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

PARIS, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Radio France International offered additional details Thursday of allegations that terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden met with a CIA officer in the United Arab Emirates in July.

The CIA has dismissed as "total absurdity" a report carried Wednesday by Radio France and by France's Le Figaro newspaper, alleging that a CIA agent met with bin Laden at a Dubai clinic, where the suspected terrorist was reportedly treated for kidney problems.

The clinic, said to be the American Hospital in Dubai, also denied bin Laden had been a patient. The American Embassy in Paris has not commented on the report.

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune suggested the erroneous information may have been leaked by opponents in France to the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.

"Disinformation may have been planted ... to suggest a continuing covert linkage between the CIA and bin Laden," a French intelligence source told the Herald Tribune.

Nonetheless, Radio France International, for one, said it stood by its report. In a follow-up Thursday, the French radio station identified the alleged CIA agent as Larry Mitchell, "a connoisseur of the Arab world and specialist of the (Arab) peninsula."

Mitchell's business card identified him as a "consular agent," the radio said. In fact, RFI alleged, he was a CIA agent and a prominent fixture in Dubai's expatriate community. According to both the radio and Le Figaro, Mitchell was recalled to the CIA's headquarters in McLean, Va., on July 15.

The radio also gave the precise date of Mitchell's supposed encounter with bin Laden -- July 12, two days before the Saudi dissident reportedly checked out of the hospital.

Neither the Figaro, nor Radio France offered independent confirmation of the report. The radio station also cited no source for its latest allegations. Earlier, the Figaro said its story was leaked by a partner of the hospital's management.

In an interview published Thursday in Le Figaro, Arab specialist Antoine Sfeir said he was not surprised on the alleged CIA-bin Laden ties.

"Bin Laden maintained contacts with bin Laden until 1998," Sfeir said. "Those contacts didn't end after bin Laden moved to Afghanistan. Until the last minute, CIA agents hoped bin Laden would return to U.S. command, as was the case before 1998."

Sfeir also maintained the information about the CIA-bin Laden connection had been in circulation for the past 15 days.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001