A French report is claiming that Osama bin Laden died on August 23. The likely cause, according to the report, was typhoid. Skepticism abounds in the US intelligence community, and skepticism is highly appropriate, given the fact that Osama bin Laden has been "dead" several times since 9/11.
A reporter over at Fox news just noted that if the report about bin Laden's death accurate then we probably would have seen a couple of things happen: An uptick of activity on various Islamic web sites and a power struggle within Al Qaeda to replace bin Laden. Neither of these appear to have happened.
Until conclusive proof comes on to the scene, it is best to treat this as either an Al Qaeda decoy to distract the search for bin Laden, or another in a long series of bin Laden death hoaxes.
