US demands access to three widows of Osama bin Laden

The United States wants access to three widows of Osama bin Laden being held by Pakistani authorities, something that could help to answer questions about whether any officials knew the al-Qaida chief was living in the country, a top American official said.

Pakistan authorities were not immediately available yesterday to comment on the demand, which could be a fresh sticking point between the two countries.Relations between the United States and Pakistan were frayed before the unilateral US raid, and appear to have worsened since.

Information from the three women left behind in the house after American commandos killed bin Laden could also reveal the day-to-day life of bin Laden, what he had done since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the workings of al-Qaida. Several children were also taken into custody, some or all of them believed to be bin Laden’s.

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The al-Qaida chief was found in a large house close to a military academy in the army town of Abbottabad where he had been living for up to six years. His location raised suspicions that some Pakistani authorities, possibly elements of the powerful army and intelligence services, could have been colluding with him.

US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told NBC’s Meet the Press that Washington had seen no evidence that the government was colluding with bin Laden. But he said that Pakistani authorities “need to provide us with intelligence, by the way, from the compound that they’ve gathered, including access to Osama bin Laden’s three wives”.

Mr Donilon also said Pakistani authorities had collected other evidence from the house which the US wanted to “work with them on assessing”.

The commandos seized a large and valuable intelligence haul that included videos, telephone numbers and documents, according to US officials.

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The Pakistani government has strongly denied it knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts, but Western governments have long regarded Islamabad with suspicion. Its armed forces have historical – some would say continuing – links with Islamist militants, which they used as proxies in Afghanistan and India.

The American commandos killed bin Laden and up to four other people, including one of his sons, at the compound.

They took the body of bin Laden and buried it at sea.

At least three women, identified by Pakistan and US officials as bin Laden’s wives, and several children were left behind at the compound. Pakistani officials have given little information, some of it conflicting, about the identities of the women and children, their numbers and what they allegedly have been saying.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox is to visit the US to discuss the implications for Britain of the treasure trove of intelligence seized from bin Laden’s compound when the terror chief was killed last week.

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Dr Fox revealed yesterday that he would hold talks at the Pentagon and US Central Command in Florida in two weeks’ time.

The Defence Secretary said the discovery of the haul of material – including computer disks, hard drives and hand-written notes – by US Navy Seals during last Monday’s raid at the compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad showed the al-Qaida terror network was “still alive and well”.

Britain must be “vigilant” to the danger of terror attacks in the coming period as surviving affiliates of al-Qaida in countries like Yemen continue to pose a threat to the free world, he said.

Dr Fox told Sky News’ Murnaghan programme: “I am going to American Central Command – Centcom – in Florida and then on to the Pentagon the week after next, where we will be discussing in detail some of these issues.

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“Clearly what it says is al-Qaida is still alive and well and still poses a threat not only to the UK but to all free countries in the world.

“We do need to maintain our guard and we have to watch countries like the Yemen, which is slowly declining and possibly falling into a failed state, which of course would give a boost to al-Qaida. We have to keep up our guard in a lot of places and it is not an option for us.

“It is not as if we are saying ‘Let’s look for trouble’. Trouble is out there. We either have to deal with it at the point of origin or it is very likely to come and deal with us.”

US officials said material seized in Abbottabad showed bin Laden was still actively involved in directing al-Qaida’s terror plots.

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