=====With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...

Friday, March 17, 2006 6:40 a.m. EST

Curt Weldon: Bin Laden Is Dead

Rep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing
that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as
a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin
Laden has died.

Weldon made the stunning claim during an interview Wednesday with the
Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported: "Weldon is making explosive new
allegations. He says a high-level source has told him that terrorist
leader Osama bin Laden has died in Iran, where he has been in hiding."

Weldon cited as his source an Iranian exile code-named Ali, telling the
paper: "Ali's told me that Osama bin Laden is dead. He died in Iran."

Weldon said he last spoke to Ali three weeks ago. The Iranian exile was
a prominent source for his 2005 book, "Countdown to Terror." The book
also contained the first mention of the Able Danger data mining
operation.

The Pennsylvania Republican has long alleged that bin Laden has been
using Iran for sanctuary.

In June last year, Weldon said in a TV interview: "I'm confident that I
know for sure that [bin Laden] has been in and out of Iran ... Two years
ago, he was in the southern town of Ladis, 10 kilometers inside the
Pakistan border. I also know that earlier this year, he had a meeting
with al-Zarqawi in Tehran ...

"If you look at the recent comments coming out of both the CIA and some
of our military generals in theater, they're now acknowledging the same
thing that I've been saying - that in fact, he's been in and out of
Iran.

"[But] no one can prove it exactly until we capture him."