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| India-Pakistan |
| THREE Bin Laden wives in custody, being interrogated by ISI |
| 2011-05-07 |
| o U.S. can't interview survivors - although 'we may share information', says Pakistan o Intelligence service says those held giving 'valuable information' o Wife claims she and Al Qaeda leader stayed in the same room for five years Three wives of assassinated Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden are being interrogated by Pakistan's intelligence service. The women were taken into custody following the American raid on the compound in the town of Abbottabad in which the terror head was shot by U.S. special forces. One of the three, said to be Yemini Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah - also apparently known as Amal al-Sadah - has told her questioners the couple had been staying in the hideout for the last five years without leaving the room of his mansion. She was shot in the leg in the raid, and is thought to be recovering in a hospital in Rawalpindi. A security official said she did not witness her husband being killed, adding: 'We are still getting information from them.' Asad Munir, a former commander in the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, told ABC News the wives are facing non-violent interviews: 'We give them a questionnaire, with 20 questions. We change the order of questions every three or four days. For telling lies you have to have very good memory.' There's a way to find out. No one will tell you the first day the correct answer.' A senior intelligence official told The Times 17 people, including four women, were being held, and they have gleaned 'valuable information' from them. A Pakistani official said CIA officers had not been given access to the women in custody, although the senior official told The Times that 'we may share with the U.S. information received from them'. The paper reported that those being questioned would be repatriated. However, in what could be seen as a move to deflect criticism, Bin Laden was being portrayed as isolated and weak. A senior Pakistani intelligence official said that he was 'cash strapped' in his final days and Al Qaeda had split into two factions, with the larger one controlled by the group's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. The terror chief had apparently lived without any guards at the Abbottabad compound or loyalists nearby to take up arms. Yesterday, two Pakistani officials said the women and children had said Bin Laden and his associates had not offered 'significant resistance' when the American commandos entered the compound, in part because 'stun bombs' that disorientated them. One said Pakistani authorities found an AK-47 and a pistol belonging to those in the house, with evidence one bullet had been fired from the rifle. His account is roughly consistent with the most recent one from U.S. officials, who now say one of the five people killed in the raid was armed and fired any shots, a departure from the intense and prolonged firefight described earlier by the White House and others in the administration. |
| Posted by: |
| #2 As per CNN + FOX AM > it appears that the US is trying to verify just how long Osama was de facto residing at Abbottabad, + in Pakistan in general, PERHAPS UP TO SEVEN YEARS I.E. WHEN THE COMPOUND WAS FIRST BUILT??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-05-08 00:00 |
| #1 What about the twitter guy live blogging a 20 min firefight? |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-05-07 18:12 |