Pakistan wants “quid pro quo” on Osama bin Laden’s widows, currently in its custody, with the US and it has been conveyed to Washington that if the American investigators want access to the al Qaeda chief’s family, it would have to allow Pakistani officials to examine the computers and other material seized by US special forces from Osama’s compound.
US authorities have been asking Pakistan for access to bin Laden’s widows as the special forces could not take them along after they killed bin Laden and took possession of his body, because of lack of space in their helicopters. Officials in Washington believe that access to bin Laden’s widows could help them glean information about the al Qaeda chief’s trail that ended in Abbottabad and also plans for future terrorist strikes.
A foreign news wire service reported on Tuesday morning, quoting an unnamed US official in Washington, that Pakistan had expressed willingness to grant the Americans investigators access to bin Laden’s family, including his wives, for interrogation. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua, however, said Pakistan had yet to receive a formal request in this regard. A security official told Pakistan Today that any decision about granting access to Americans to question bin Laden’s family had not been made yet.
“In fact, the Americans have been asked as a quid pro quo to allow Pakistani investigators to look into the computers, storage devices, disks and other such things that were seized by the US.” He said that there was no reaction so far from the US in response to the Pakistani demand. Cable News Network (CNN) reported on Tuesday that according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the US would be given access to bin Laden’s wives.
However, the channel also quoted a senior Pakistani intelligence source as saying that the US could only question bin Laden’s wives after obtaining permission from their countries of origin. It said that the interior minister did not give a timeline for when US officials may speak with the wives.
Another security official here told Pakistan Today that he would not comment on the interior minister’s statement, but allowing US officials to interrogate bin Laden’s wives was a very important matter and any decision on it would not be taken in haste.