Osama bin Laden's Wife Reveals More Details From Raid

By Jeralyn, Section War on Terror
Posted on Sat May 07, 2011 at 07:16:00 AM EST
Tags: Osama bin Laden (all tags)

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Every day brings new details as to who was in the compound at Abbottabad and what happened inside. (Yesterday's is here.) Pakistani officials have now disclosed additional details from their debriefing of Osama bin Laden's wife, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, who was shot in the leg:

Prior to moving to the compound in Abbottabad in 2005, Osama and his family lived in a village called Chak Shah Mohammad Khan, in the district of Haripur, for nearly two and a half years.

Chak Shah Mohammad, situated on the highway to Abbottabad, is two kilometres to the southeast of Haripur town. In retrospect that meant, one of the officials observed, Osama had left the country’s tribal region sometime in 2003 to live in a settled area.
...“Imagine, this guy was living in our midst in Haripur and Abbottabad for seven and a half years and we all, both Pakistanis and Americans, had been looking for him in the wrong direction,” one official remarked.

Osama was hale and hearty. He had recovered from his kidney issues years ago after having two surgeries in Kandahar. He relied on homemade remedies that included a lot of watermelon.

[More...]

The son who was killed (presumably Khalid) lived in the house with his wife, who just happens to be the sister of the couriers who were killed.

Also in the house were two other wives of Osama bin Laden, "two of them highly educated Saudis." (If true, I assume this means they were Khalid's mother, Siham Sabar, who is from Medina, Saudi Arabia and has a Ph.D. in Arabic grammar, and Hamza's mother, Khairia Saaba, also a Saudi and a child psychology professor. )

Also in the house were four children of Osama's daughter, who was killed in a drone attack in Warzistan, and an "elder" son of Osama, which could be Khalid, Hamza, or even Saad. Also present were Osama's 22 year old daughter (Iman?) and Osama and Amal Ahmed al-Sadah's chidren, a 5 year old boy and the 12 year old Saffia.

Of course, this could all change by this afternoon, so stay tuned for the next edition of "As Osama Turns."

< Pakistan Officials Say Khalid bin Laden , Not Hamza, Killed in Strike | Saturday Morning Open Thread >

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Osama bin Laden's Wife Reveals More Details From Raid | 17 comments (17 topical)

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If something out of Pakistan (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by Militarytracy on Sat May 07, 2011 at 08:42:39 AM EST

conflicts with something that MY government is telling me, sorry....my default setting in this situation is the information coming out of the United States government.

Umm...MT.... (5.00 / 3) (#21)
by oldpro on Sat May 07, 2011 at 02:44:06 PM EST

No automatic default settings for me. And I know that you know better, Tracy. The long list of lies and vocerups from our government should keep skepticism alive. Always. It's government, not religion -- belief is not appropriate IMHO.


: I meant coverups...sheesh... (5.00 / 1) (#22)
by oldpro on Sat May 07, 2011 at 02:48:07 PM EST

...need new glasses...

: Which cover ups? (none / 0) (#27)
by Militarytracy on Sun May 08, 2011 at 05:18:52 PM EST

Every government has cover ups,particularly the Bush administration but they were always blown if it had something to do with the military. The facts were always out there, just often ignored.
President Obama has done his very best to run a clean mission out of Afghanistan and very legal and clean pursuit of Al Qaeda, even if people are angry because things that put our national security at risk will not be available for their viewing. I'm very used to these rules though. I'm sorry nobody else is. It almost seems to me though that because nothing has really happened that exposed this President as being a war mongering blood thirsty pig of an evil hawk that the only thing that some people think is that he has just been better at hiding the facts.

yes and no (5.00 / 1) (#26)
by denise k on Sat May 07, 2011 at 09:43:04 PM EST

my default setting is to believe the US government, but because of the things oldpro mentions, it is a default position that is frequently overridden by subsequently-revealed facts. parenthetially, the only thing reagan ever said that i agreed with was "trust, but verify". any government may have many reasons to lie or hide facts - some legitimate, some not. i have develpoed a healthy skepticism from observing events over the years.


: This is my defaul because we are (none / 0) (#28)
by Militarytracy on Sun May 08, 2011 at 05:20:32 PM EST

talking Pakistan. And if anyone hasn't understood that you can only believe every third thing that comes out of Pakistan's mouth....they have either not been paying attention or simply don't want to deal with certain realities.

A child psychology professor? (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by Dadler on Sat May 07, 2011 at 09:09:21 AM EST

Now THAT'S laughable. I suppose the degrees they hand out in Saudi universities for psych are about as legitimate as degrees handed out Degrees R' Us.

Truly absurd.

google her (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by Jeralyn on Sat May 07, 2011 at 12:28:12 PM EST

before writing this is laughable. From what I can tell, two of his wives were teachers and did have advanced degrees.


Jeralyn, it is laughable, IMO, because... (none / 0) (#24)
by Dadler on Sat May 07, 2011 at 09:12:43 PM EST

...if you are a legitimate child psychologist, with genuine knowledge of what makes little humans tick and develop, sorry, you're not a religious fundamentalist of ANY stripe. UNLESS you are such a victim that you can't escape. You may have a degree, but you are a not a "psychologist" in any meaningful way as an evolved human.

Religious fundamentalism and children's mental health do NOT go hand in hand. In any way. Anywhere. Unless your are a VERY anomalous fundamentalist. And I'll assume she wasn't. Maybe a wrong assumption, but I'll put some money on it.


: I mean, East Germany called itself... (none / 0) (#25)
by Dadler on Sat May 07, 2011 at 09:16:10 PM EST

...the German Democratic Republic.
Did that make us believe it was?
And I googled her, but could not find out where her PhD is from. Not that I doubt she has one.

TL really needs (none / 0) (#12)
by jtaylorr on Sat May 07, 2011 at 10:27:38 AM EST

to have its collective sarcasm detector checked out.

don't confuse TL (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by Jeralyn on Sat May 07, 2011 at 12:26:31 PM EST

with its commenters.

And message to commenters: don't republish uncredited right-wing propoganda from their blog sites here.


those comments have (none / 0) (#16)
by Jeralyn on Sat May 07, 2011 at 12:30:54 PM EST

been deleted. They were off-topic, uncredited right wing talking points.


: i am sorry (5.00 / 1) (#23)
by loveed on Sat May 07, 2011 at 06:15:36 PM EST

I was responding to the changing facts from the whitehouse.
I did not post a link or get into the detail. I was refering to the photograph.

This story is becoming ... (none / 0) (#17)
by Robot Porter on Sat May 07, 2011 at 12:57:56 PM EST

like a kid's explanation of how the vase was broken:

It keeps changing. And none of it sounds believable.

Does the Obama admins. (none / 0) (#18)
by oculus on Sat May 07, 2011 at 01:08:33 PM EST

klling of OBL settle the question, once and for all, of whether Pres. Obama is indecisive? I just read such a headline.

: put your Obama comments in another (none / 0) (#20)
by Jeralyn on Sat May 07, 2011 at 01:32:11 PM EST

thread. This is about the wife's version of what happened at the compound. It is not about President Obama.