Bin Laden, Iran, Al Qaeda discussed on Fresh Air

Fresh Air
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So bin laden was hiding from people on his own compound. These two guys that were working there are sometimes described as bodyguards. They were really much more than that. Right yeah i mean you know. Bin laden didn't treat them particularly well. One of the interesting things that comes out of these documents is how how angry. They were about You know basically. They were being paid one hundred dollars a month. In in currency bin laden always always been something of a miser and they were taking these an almost risks looking after the two worlds most wanted man and his family members and they were very concerned they were concerned that they would be found. They were telling bin laden. He couldn't bring additional family members into the compound. His third wife who'd been living under house arrest in iran showed up and bodyguards. Said they wouldn't go and pick her up and bring her into the compound in the end. She appeared I'd the compound against Sort of the the better judgement of the bodyguards and bin laden was at one point. She wrote a formal letter. Two bodyguards on january fifteenth. Two thousand eleven few months before he was killed. Saying you know. I understand that. Our disagreements become so profound that even though you live on the same compound. I'm writing you this letter to kind of acknowledge what we've agreed which is You know let me find new protectors and of course bin laden would also have to leave the this. This compound that he so catholic planned with it's eighteen foot walls places to go somewhere else because the the compound itself was registered in a in one of the bodyguards name so his relations with with the two people who are really keeping al qaeda On him afloat Really beginning to fray in the last several months of his life. You would think someone who you relied so so many ways on to keep you safe. You might pay a little better and treat a little better. I mean the compound was registered in their names right ed. They burned their own trash there right. They grew a lot of their own food. Anybody ever leave. What did the kids go to school. The kids were home schooled. Do you know one of the kind of interesting things about the book is the extent to which bin laden's two older wives pillay such an important role in his life because two of them have phd's Which i think might be surprising to some to some listeners who may sort of assume that bin laden was not going to marry kind of highly educated women One had a phd in child psychology and other one to gain koranic grammar and so they were the two older wives. Were homeschooling kids. And they've been doing this for years even before but before nine. Eleven bin laden like afghantistan bin laden was sending his kids to school before nine eleven And these wives were also playing an important part in kind of helping bin laden. Think through complicated. Strategic problems related to kind of the future direction of kaieda. There was no internet access. There is that right. I mean could watch television. Listen to the radio. They could watch Aljazeera on satellite. Tv and bin laden washed a lot of out zero. Because of course he was kind of a news junkie..

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