White House Not Sure About Bin Laden's Fate

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 19, 2002

White House Not Sure About Bin Laden's Fate

The United States doesn't know whether to believe Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's speculation that Osama bin Laden has died of kidney failure, a White House spokesman said Friday.

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The United States doesn't know whether to believe Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's speculation that Osama bin Laden has died of kidney failure, a White House spokesman said Friday.

"We just don't know. I don't think the president would view that as an unwelcome event, but the fact of the matter is, we do not know," said Ari Fleischer.

"Whatever the cause that would lead to that event, it's a justifiable cause," Fleischer added.

In an interview with CNN Friday, Musharraf said he believed that bin Laden had probably become a victim of kidney failure.

"I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason that he is a patient, a kidney patient. We know that he donated two dialysis machines to Afghanistan. One was specifically for his personal use,

" the Pakistani president told CNN.

Bin Laden was listed by U.S. officials as the "prime suspect" of the September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. that killed nearly 3,000 people.

General Tommy Franks, commander of troops in Afghanistan, told a press conference at headquarters for Afghan operations in Fort McDill that he had received "no intelligence to that effect. He could be alive or dead, in Afghanistan or not," he said.

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