WIFE CALLS BIN LADEN SLEEPLESS PILL-POPPER ------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 12, 2002 -- CAIRO - Osama bin Laden was taking tranquilizers to sleep and became enraged when one of his wives asked him if he was behind the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in 1998, the wife has revealed.
In remarks published in the Saudi magazine Al-Majalla, bin Laden's wife - one of four - also disclosed that he moved his family to a safe house in a remote corner of Afghanistan just before Sept. 11.
The wife was identified only by the initials A.S. and was shown in a blurry photograph of her identity card.
Among her disclosures:
* The last time she saw bin Laden was at their home in Kandahar days before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"He came home and gave me a telephone and asked me to speak to my mother and tell her that we are going to another place and I will be out of touch for a long time," she said.
One of the terror kingpin's sons and some guards took her family to a house belonging to a tribal chief near the Pakistan border.
* In the months before Sept. 11, bin Laden would come home late and lie on his bed for hours without speaking. He got angry if his wife spoke to him.
"Most days, he used to take tranquilizers and medicine to help him sleep," she said.
* When she asked about the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 231 people, "he got mad at me and ordered me not to discuss such issues with him."
* Bin Laden had been harassed by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar "because they probably did not want [him] to stay with them anymore" in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden feared the Taliban would betray him, and "America would pay money for someone to get rid of him."
* After the United States began bombing al Qaeda positions on Oct. 7, her family moved to a mountainous area and "lived in a cave for two months."
Later, bin Laden's sons and tribesmen turned the family over to the Pakistani government.
* She believes bin Laden is still alive, but has no proof.
And she has no regrets about marrying him "because this is God's will and I don't consider him to be a terrorist."