Saudi magazine claims to have interview with bin Laden wife

CAIRO, Egypt -- A woman claiming to be a wife of Osama bin Laden is quoted by a Saudi magazine as saying he took tranquilizers and became enraged when she asked who was behind the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

The woman -- identified in the Al-Majalla interview only as A.S., the initials of bin Laden's fourth and youngest wife, Amal al-Sadah -- also said she believes bin Laden is alive and in Afghanistan, but has no proof. Amal al-Sadah is thought be a 19-year-old Yemeni.

Shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, bin Laden he moved his family to a safe house in a remote corner of Afghanistan, the woman told Al-Majalla.

"I feel inside me that he is still alive and, if he were dead, the whole world would know because the death of Osama cannot be concealed," she was quoted as saying.

She said that after the United States began bombing al-Qaida and the Taliban on Oct. 7, "we moved to a mountainous area with some children and lived in a cave for two months."

The family moved again, she said, and were then taken to Pakistan by one of bin Laden's sons and some tribesmen and handed over to local authorities there.

"He always wished to die there and he once told me if he ever leaves Afghanistan, he will leave to meet God," she was quoted as saying.

Cites health problems

The woman also said bin Laden took tranquilizing drugs and suffered from kidney ailments.

She also said he grew extremely angry when she questioned him on who was responsible for the nearly simultaneous bombing attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998.

U.S. officials blame bin Laden for the attacks, which killed 224 people, and he has been indicted for his suspected role.

Al-Majalla is a sister publication of the respected London-based, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. The media group's owners are believed close to the Saudi ruling family, which has sought to distance the kingdom from bin Laden and weaken any influence he might have among Saudis.

The magazine did not say where or when the interview was conducted but published a picture of the woman's identity card with the photograph and essential details obscured.

Essam Abdallah, senior political editor at Al-Majalla, said the details were blurred in order to protect her privacy.

Some greeted the story with skepticism.

Saad al-Fagih, a Saudi dissident living in London, doubted that anyone close to bin Laden would reveal negative details about him -- an act that would be considered highly disloyal and unlikely within such a traditional Muslim family.

"You would not expect an ordinary wife to say these things about her husband, let alone a wife of bin Laden," he said.

Al-Fagih said such comments might have been made under duress if the wife was in custody or being closely watched by authorities.

"If this interview is authentic, I would say she's either in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia under some sort of house arrest," he said.