Where was Osama hiding?

If you read the NYT's account of events, it describes the location in Abbottabad as "large, secluded and secured."   In a separate piece that described the work that went into confirming Osama's location, it gets more specific, saying that it was "a mansion on the outskirts of the town’s center, set on an imposing hilltop and ringed by 12-foot-high concrete walls topped with barbed wire."

Could this be it?  While there are no continuous concrete walls, you can clearly see walls around certain areas, and the location is strategically ideal, providing a near-clear view 360 degrees for several miles, as well as what appears to be many structures positioned along the perimeter of the hill top edges...like you would do in a fortified base.

And by the way, by a sea burial, the US ensured Bin Laden would not be turned into a popular martyr, whose body could be visited or linked to a piece of land.


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Interestingly, Voice of America has an image purported to be of the compound in Pakistan, where Bin Laden was hiding. As being noted around the news, the area is the same as Pakistan's own elite military academy, which is causing all sorts of questions and embarrassment for Pakistan.

As expected, Pakistanis are apologetic, suggesting that Bin Laden had retired.  (So what, right?  If Hitler retired a month before V-Day, he'd still be captured, tried and executed.)

LA Times is carrying a different photograph of the complex:

Added: Video of a fire purported to be at Osama's hiding place, though it bears no resemblance to the description that journalists were provided by government officials.


Update: Well, looks like the descriptions might be wrong, and Bin Laden was living at ground level, very close to the Pakistan military campuses (about 0.5 miles / 890m away!)


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Nope, those weren't it either.  Details were finally released, and while close, the location was in the middle of agricultural fields.  Though it says the map image has a copyright for 2011, the image was taken in 2005.

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CNET's Stephen Shankland's got GeoEye satellite photos marked up to show the difference: