Pakistan contacts Saudi Arabia, Yemen for OBL family's repatriation

Pakistan has reached out to Saudi Arabia and Yemen to arrange for the repatriation of Osama bin Laden's three wives and their children, according to Pakistani intelligence and security officials. The developments came after the inquiry commission set up by the Pakistan Government for probing the Osama bin Laden debacle gave formal clearance for the slain al Qaeda leaders family members to return to their native countries, after two rounds of exhaustive interviews. It is not clear when the talks began, but the Pakistani security officials said on the condition of anonymity that Pakistan has made a decision to send bin Ladens wives back to their home countries, the CNN reports. "We have now completed our investigations and pieced together all that we wanted to know from these family members," CBS News quoted a senior Pakistani intelligence official, as saying on the condition of anonymity. "I believe the Americans have done their interrogation, so I dont think there is further need for U.S. access to these people. Pakistan gave access to U.S. officials some time back," he said, without specifying exactly when US officials met with Bin Ladens family. According to the report, the official said that a decision in principle has been made to send these people back to their homes, adding that only "procedural matters" remained to be resolved for the repatriation of the women and children. One of the wives is from Yemen; the other two are from Saudi Arabia. On Friday, a senior Western diplomat in Islamabad pointed towards the possibility that the entire family - including the Yemeni wife - would be sent first to Saudi Arabia, CBS News reported. "Once in Saudi Arabia, the controls on the media are such that you wont have any of these people calling up a big network for an interview," the Western diplomat was quoted as saying. However, he warned that once the family leaves Pakistan, it is impossible to guarantee that their accounts will not eventually find their way onto the Internet. "You cant stop bloggers, even in a country like Saudi Arabia, and you shouldnt be surprised if accounts of the Bin Laden raid, attributed directly to these people, appear on the web," he said.

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