Ailing bin Laden Mere Months From Death?

Terror mastermind succumbing to kidney disease, CIA claims
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2008 2:11 AM CDT
Ailing bin Laden Mere Months From Death?
Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. According to a CIA report, he is thought to be terminally ill with only months to live.   (AP Photo/Rahimullah Yousafzai, File)

Terror leader Osama bin Laden is dying from kidney disease, according to a CIA analysis of the medications he has been taking, reports Time.The world's most wanted terrorist likely has no more than 12 months to live, and may already be teetering on the brink of death, according to sources familiar with the report.

But that prognosis—coupled with a "well-aimed Hellfire missile"—gets a dead terrorist, quips Time, throwing a flood of cold water on the report. A long-distance health analysis is often unreliable, points out a former top CIA terrorism expert. "It's trying to make a diagnosis from thousands of miles away with only fragments of the medical chart," he said. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X