updates with French ministry statement Deutsche Presse Agentur

Published: Saturday September 23, 2006 Paris- The French defence ministry on Saturday indirectly confirmed the existence of a document drawn up by France's DGSE intelligence service on the supposed death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. In a press statement released in Paris, the ministry declared that it could not confirm a report in the regional daily L'Est Republicain that Saudi intelligence services had determined that bin Laden died of typhoid in August.



However, it also said that it was launching an investigation into the leak of the document on which the story was based, thereby authenticating the information in the report.



L'Est Republicain said it based its information on a DGSE document classified "defence secret," and reproduced what it claimed were verbatimby an involuntary petition in bankruptcy on November 2, an adjudication on November 19, and the election of Roy B. McKnight, Jr., as trustee on December 31, 1954.


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On the preceding July 28, the bankrupt had purchased a Ford automobile from one of the defendants, the S. & J. Motor Company, and the automobile was duly titled in its name.  To secure a balance of $2520.00 on the purchase price, a chattel mortgage to the Motor Company was prepared.  The mortgagor, however, was not shown as the Valve Company, but as James E. Medlin.  He was in fact the president of the company, but he was not so described anywhere in the instrument, and the Company's name nowhere appeared therein.  The chattel mortgage was later