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OSAMA bin Laden's three widows and 11 children were deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia yesterday, closing the final chapter in the global terrorist chief's ill-fated time in Pakistan before the world marks the first anniversary of his death.
In early morning darkness and cloaked behind a large white sheet, the women and children piled into a minivan from the Islamabad villa where they have been held under house arrest for the past 45 days for entering the country illegally.
The feuding wives, eight children and three grandchildren of the Saudi-born bin Laden were flown to Riyadh on a chartered flight early yesterday following months of diplomatic wrangling over their fate.
Bin Laden's youngest wife, Amal Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, who revealed the most detail of the al-Qa'ida chief's life on the run since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and the military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, was expected to fly on to her homeland, Yemen.
A statement issued by the Pakistan Interior Ministry said: "The family was kept safe and sound in a guest house. They have been deported to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia."
It will be a year this Wednesday that US Navy SEALS crossed the Afghan border in Blackhawk helicopters modified for stealth, raided a three-storey residential compound in the military hill station of Abbottabad and killed bin Laden, several bodyguards and at least one adult son. The SEALS took bin Laden's body and it was later dumped at sea, but they left behind his extended family, who have been held by Pakistani authorities ever since.
During months of interrogations, Amal told of tensions between the wives at the Abbottabad compound and suspicions that bin Laden's older Saudi wife, Khairiah, was plotting to betray him.
She told Pakistani police that her husband lived in five houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children, two of whom were born in Pakistani public hospitals.
The Abbottabad house where bin Laden and his extended family are believed to have lived for five years is now gone. It was demolished in February under the watchful eye of an embarrassed security establishment that wants to eliminate reminders of the humiliation of May 2 last year when its US ally revealed the world's most wanted terrorist had been hiding in a suburb barely a kilometre from Pakistan's most prestigious military academy.
The risky raid could well mark the high point of Barack Obama's presidency, but it has not come without cost.
For Pakistan the raid exposed a long-suspected reluctance to crack down on terror havens and terrorists within its borders, and severely dented the prestige of its military in the eyes of its own population for not having detected bin Laden or the unilateral military raid in which he died.
The US-Pakistan relationship, seen as so essential to preventing the export of terrorism from its global base in Pakistan's lawless federally administered tribal areas, has suffered as a result of Pakistan outrage at the breach of sovereignty that night, and has deteriorated further since then.
The inadvertent NATO air-strike last November that killed 24 soldiers at a Pakistan army checkpoint resulted in the US's eviction from the Shamsi airbase from which it conducted its drone campaign, and the closure of NATO's supply route into Afghanistan.
While bin Laden's death dealt a major blow to the al-Qa'ida organisation, some experts argue the network - although weaker - has adapted to the new conditions through a more diffuse global alliance and remains a serious threat.
"What really matters is that (bin Laden) created a presence and influence that continues to have resonance even after his death, and the struggle has been taken up by his acolytes," said Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University professor and director of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies.
"There is considerable evidence that we're talking about a different organisation than before where the periphery (in countries such as Yemen, Nigeria, Iraq and Somalia) is stronger than the centre."
Bin Laden might have been killed, said Professor Hoffman, but it was much too soon to write the obituary of the global terror network he founded.
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In early morning darkness and cloaked behind a large white sheet, the women and children piled into a minivan from the Islamabad villa where they have been held under house arrest for the past 45 days for entering the country illegally.
The feuding wives, eight children and three grandchildren of the Saudi-born bin Laden were flown to Riyadh on a chartered flight early yesterday following months of diplomatic wrangling over their fate.
Bin Laden's youngest wife, Amal Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, who revealed the most detail of the al-Qa'ida chief's life on the run since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and the military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, was expected to fly on to her homeland, Yemen.
A statement issued by the Pakistan Interior Ministry said: "The family was kept safe and sound in a guest house. They have been deported to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia."
It will be a year this Wednesday that US Navy SEALS crossed the Afghan border in Blackhawk helicopters modified for stealth, raided a three-storey residential compound in the military hill station of Abbottabad and killed bin Laden, several bodyguards and at least one adult son. The SEALS took bin Laden's body and it was later dumped at sea, but they left behind his extended family, who have been held by Pakistani authorities ever since.
During months of interrogations, Amal told of tensions between the wives at the Abbottabad compound and suspicions that bin Laden's older Saudi wife, Khairiah, was plotting to betray him.
She told Pakistani police that her husband lived in five houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children, two of whom were born in Pakistani public hospitals.
The Abbottabad house where bin Laden and his extended family are believed to have lived for five years is now gone. It was demolished in February under the watchful eye of an embarrassed security establishment that wants to eliminate reminders of the humiliation of May 2 last year when its US ally revealed the world's most wanted terrorist had been hiding in a suburb barely a kilometre from Pakistan's most prestigious military academy.
The risky raid could well mark the high point of Barack Obama's presidency, but it has not come without cost.
For Pakistan the raid exposed a long-suspected reluctance to crack down on terror havens and terrorists within its borders, and severely dented the prestige of its military in the eyes of its own population for not having detected bin Laden or the unilateral military raid in which he died.
The US-Pakistan relationship, seen as so essential to preventing the export of terrorism from its global base in Pakistan's lawless federally administered tribal areas, has suffered as a result of Pakistan outrage at the breach of sovereignty that night, and has deteriorated further since then.
The inadvertent NATO air-strike last November that killed 24 soldiers at a Pakistan army checkpoint resulted in the US's eviction from the Shamsi airbase from which it conducted its drone campaign, and the closure of NATO's supply route into Afghanistan.
While bin Laden's death dealt a major blow to the al-Qa'ida organisation, some experts argue the network - although weaker - has adapted to the new conditions through a more diffuse global alliance and remains a serious threat.
"What really matters is that (bin Laden) created a presence and influence that continues to have resonance even after his death, and the struggle has been taken up by his acolytes," said Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University professor and director of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies.
"There is considerable evidence that we're talking about a different organisation than before where the periphery (in countries such as Yemen, Nigeria, Iraq and Somalia) is stronger than the centre."
Bin Laden might have been killed, said Professor Hoffman, but it was much too soon to write the obituary of the global terror network he founded.
Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian
