THREE Bin Laden wives in custody: Terror chief's harem interrogated by Pakistani intelligence

• U.S. can't interview survivors - although 'we may share information', says Pakistan
• Intelligence service says those held giving 'valuable information'
• Wife claims she and Al Qaeda leader stayed in the same room for five years

Claims: The wife of Osama Bin Laden, Amal al-Sadah, says she lived with her husband in the same room for the past five years

 
Three wives of assassinated Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden are being interrogated by Pakistan's intelligence service.
The women were taken into custody following the American raid on the compound in the town of Abbottabad in which the terror head was shot by U.S. special forces.
One of the three, said to be Yemini Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah - also apparently known as Amal al-Sadah - has told her questioners the couple had been staying in the hideout for the last five years without leaving the room of his mansion.
She was shot in the leg in the raid, and is thought to be recovering in a hospital in Rawalpindi.
A security official said she did not witness her husband being killed, adding: 'We are still getting information from them.'
Pakistani authorities are also holding eight or nine children who were found there after the U.S. commandos left, which reportedly includes the 12-year-old who says she saw her father executed and his body dragged to a helicopter. The bodies of at least three dead men were also left behind.
Asad Munir, a former commander in the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, told ABC News the wives are facing non-violent interviews: 'We give them a questionnaire, with 20 questions. We change the order of questions every three or four days. For telling lies you have to have very good memory.

 

'There's a way to find out. No one will tell you the first day the correct answer.'
A senior intelligence official told The Times 17 people, including four women, were being held, and they have gleaned 'valuable information' from them.
The wives' accounts will help show how Bin Laden spent his time and how he managed to avoid capture, living in a large house close to a military academy in a garrison town, a two-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital Islamabad.
Given changing and incomplete accounts from U.S. officials about what happened during the raid, the women's evidence may also be helpful in unveiling details about the operation.

Osama Bin Laden: The Al-Qaeda leader was assassinated in Pakistan

A Pakistani official said CIA officers had not been given access to the women in custody, although the senior official told The Times that 'we may share with the U.S. information received from them'.
The paper reported that those being questioned would be repatriated.
Military and intelligence relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained even before Monday's raid, which has been exacerbated in the aftermath.
The army is angry that it was not told about the unilateral raid on a target within its territory, while there are suspicions in Washington that Bin Laden may have been protected by Pakistani security forces while on the run.
As recriminations flew, Pakistan's military strongman demanded cuts in the number of US personnel on Pakistani soil and said it would slash ties altogether if the U.S. launches another anti-terrorist raid on their soil.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who is seen as more powerful than Pakistan’s civilian leaders, was voicing widespread anger at American claims that the ISI sheltered the terror godfather for a decade.
However, in what could be seen as a move to deflect criticism, Bin Laden was being portrayed as isolated and weak. A senior Pakistani intelligence official said that he was 'cash strapped' in his final days and Al Qaeda had split into two factions, with the larger one controlled by the group's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The terror chief had apparently lived without any guards at the Abbottabad compound or loyalists nearby to take up arms.
Yesterday, two Pakistani officials said the women and children had said Bin Laden and his associates had not offered 'significant resistance' when the American commandos entered the compound, in part because  'stun bombs' that disorientated them.

Surrounded: Members of the anti-terrorism squad are seen surrounding the compound where Osama Bin Laden was killed

One said Pakistani authorities found an AK-47 and a pistol belonging to those in the house, with evidence one bullet had been fired from the rifle.
'That was the level of resistance' they put up, said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
His account is roughly consistent with the most recent one from U.S. officials, who now say one of the five people killed in the raid was armed and fired any shots, a departure from the intense and prolonged firefight described earlier by the White House and others in the administration.
U.S. officials say four men were killed alongside Bin Laden, including one of his sons.

Anger: Protesters demonstrate against the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden on the outskirts of Quet