In this morning's edition, Mr. Sammari quotes a section of a "defense confidential" document prepared by the foreign intelligence directorate (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure [DGSE]) for and transmitted on September 19 to Mr. Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, and Ms. Alliot-Marie.

According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi [intelligence] services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead. The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the Al-Qa'ida chief might have fallen victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, to a very serious case of typhoid involving a partial paralysis of his lower limbs. His geographical isolation, due to the permanent exile, would have made any medical assistance impossible. On September 4, 2006, the Saudi security services collected the first information about his death. They [The Saudis] would wait to announce the news officially in order to obtain more details and in particular the exact place of his burial.

The French and German governments have eroded press freedom significantly since the September 11 attacks in an effort to stop the flood of intelligence leaks.

Mr. De Villepin is personally going after authors and journalists, including those who wrote about the Clearstream affairs, accusing them of libel. Clearstream, an international clearance and settlement bank, has allegedly laundered money for politicians and international crime syndicates.

In Germany, journalist Bruno Schirra's office and house were ransacked by the Interior Ministry after he cited a German intelligence dossier on Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi in the March 2005 edition of Cicero. Mr. Schirra reported several months later, citing unspecified intelligence sources, that top Al-Qa'ida leaders were hiding out in Iran.