Paranoid bin Laden longed for a reunion with one wife
Letters reveal fears and obsessions
Osama bin Laden was desperate to see his third wife, missed her terribly and was obsessed with whether a tiny tracking device was secretly implanted in her so the world could find the 9/11 mastermind, according to new documents released Tuesday.
Personal letters from bin Laden to his family were among more than 100 documents seized in May 2011 when bin Laden was killed during the U.S. military raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The documents were released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The terrorist leader is believed to have had 20 children by five wives. Three of his wives were with him when he was killed. Two joined him during the last year or so before his death.
Among the documents released Tuesday are what appear to be letters to one of those two women, Khairiah Sabar, a former teacher of deaf children in Saudi Arabia who had been under house arrest in Iran. The letters from her husband were written after she was released by the Iranians and before she reunited with him.
Bin Laden warned Khairiah, who was eight years older than her husband, that spies could plant a tracking device in the tooth filling she received from a dentist in Iran. “We ... horribly fear the filling you were given,” he wrote.
He also cautioned that during any medical procedure she might be injected with a surveillance device. “They can insert a small chip in it (a syringe) to implant under the skin,” he wrote.
He stressed these concerns repeatedly. “In terms of caution, I ask you to report to me in detail anything you find suspicious from any doctor in Iran, like if the syringe is the usual volume and its head has a slightly larger diameter than normal,” bin Laden wrote. “They can, as I told you before, put a small SIM card to plant it under the skin.”
The letters to his wife, which appear to have been written a year or two before his death in 2011, say how much he missed her and wanted to see her. “Please trust me that I am working very hard to live with you,” bin Laden wrote.