Why did you people not grant them access to Osama ! Una wait make him die ! Hi wifeys dem na terrorists ?
PAKISTANI Interior Minister Rehis country would grant the United States (U.S.) investigators access to Osama bin Laden’s wives,
Also, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has denied that his administration struck an agreement with the U.S. years ago to let American special forces kill or capture Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan.
Meanwhile, news outlets in Pakistan have made public the name of an American they identified as the CIA station chief, but a senior Pakistani intelligence official said on Monday the person named was not the station chief.
Referring to a name cited in the Pakistani newspaper, The Nation, the intelligence official said: “If we were going to release the name, we would release the right one.” The official said he did not know where the name came from.
A U.S. official said there is “no current plan to bring home the current chief of station” in Pakistan.
The remarks came amid reports suggesting Pakistani officials may have leaked the name of a CIA official in the country.
However, on Monday, a senior Pakistani intelligence source had said the United States could only question bin Laden’s wives if their “country of origin has been asked for permission.”
But Malik, in an interview yesterday with CNN, refused to give a timeline of when U.S. officials might speak with the wives and did not say where the access would take place.
Pakistani officials have said bin Laden’s family members will be repatriated to their home countries after initial interrogations. One of bin Laden’s wives is from Yemen, the official said, while a well-placed U.S. official who would not speak on the record said the other two are from Saudi Arabia.
All three were taken into Pakistani custody after the May 2 raid by U.S. commandos that killed bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist movement.
The 29-year-old Yemeni wife, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, was wounded during the raid. The U.S. official identified the other two women as Khairiah Sabar, also known as “Umm Hamza,” and Siham Sabar, or “Umm Khalid.”
While U.S. officials have raised questions about how bin Laden could have hidden for years in a compound in a city with heavy Pakistani military presence, Malik denied any suggestions that the world’s most wanted terrorist may have had a support network in the Pakistani government, military or intelligence services.
Militants against whom Pakistan has been battling would have been the ones providing support, Malik said.
Meanwhile, Musharraf’s denial follows a report in a British newspaper that Washington and Islamabad reached a secret deal nearly a decade ago allowing the U.S. to conduct operations against bin Laden and two other top al-Qaeda leaders on Pakistani soil.
“Pervez Musharraf has seen a media report, and let me make it clear that no such agreement had been signed during his tenure,” said Musharraf’s spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry. “Also, there was no verbal understanding.”
U.S. Navy Seals conducted a unilateral operation May 2 inside Pakistan that killed bin Laden, the world’s most wanted terrorist. The pre-dawn raid was viewed by many Pakistanis as a national humiliation delivered by a deeply unpopular America.
In a report published last Thursday, The Guardian newspaper, quoting U.S. officials and retired Pakistani officials, said Musharraf and former President George W. Bush struck the agreement after bin Laden escaped U.S. forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001. If such a raid were conducted, the agreement was that Pakistani officials would publicly denounce the U.S. unilateral action.
“The Guardian report is baseless,” Chaudhry said.
In an Associated Press interview in January 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks, who headed the U.S. Central Command at the time, disclosed a deal with Pakistan allowing U.S. troops in Afghanistan to cross the border in pursuit of fugitive extremist leaders, including bin Laden. Pakistan denied such a deal existed.
“If there is any such agreement, the Pakistan government should place it in the parliament, and if there was any agreement, the American government should make it public,” Chaudhry told the AP from Dubai, where the country’s former military ruler is staying.
He added that during his tenure, Musharraf “always rejected the U.S. request about launc
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