OBL Lived In Compound For Up To 6 Years

So Pakistan is our friend, huh?

OBL was discovered in a fortified compound located in Abbottabad where he had lived for as long as six years. According to description OBL’s home stood out from all of the smaller buildings.  National Journal has more on the description:

“The physical security measures of the compound are extraordinary,” a senior administration official said. “It has 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire…. Internal walls sectioned off different portions of the compound to provide extra privacy…. The residents of the compound burn their trash, unlike their neighbors, who put the trash out for collection.”

Bin Laden and his family were living on the top two floors of the three-story structure, the most prominent building on the property. The compound had neither Internet nor telephone access which was unusual, to say the least, since the property was estimated by American officials to be worth approximately $1 million…

Intelligence analysts studied the compound, which was built in 2005, carefully. While convinced that a high-value target was staying there, they assessed whether it could be someone other than bin Laden, perhaps his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

“We conducted red-team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work,” the senior administration official said. ”No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did.”

As I mentioned before this information discarded the previous belief that OBL was hiding out in the lawless mountain region of Pakistan.  Instead of being found in a cave OBL was discovered in a fairly well-to-do home.  The most interesting thing about this situation is that OBL had been living there for years – less than 40 miles from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan!  And do you believe it when Pakistani government officials act in complete shock about where OBL was found?  Ya, me either!  From Reuters:

There is no evidence Pakistani officials knew Osama bin Laden was living at a compound deep inside the country, but the United States is not ruling out the possibility, President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser said on Tuesday.

The death of the al Qaeda leader in Monday’s U.S. raid on his compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison town 38 miles from the capital Islamabad, has led some U.S. lawmakers to demand a review of U.S. aid to nuclear-armed Pakistan.

“They (Pakistani officials) are expressing as great a surprise as we had when we first learned about this compound, so there is no indication at this point that the people we have talked to were aware of this, but we need to dig deeper into this,” White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said in an interview with National Public Radio.

There are two possible answers to the question about whether or not the Pakistan government knew the whereabouts of OBL (or at least a high-profile target).  They were either protecting him in exchange for money or some other kind of compensation or they are so incompetent that they really had no idea that he (or some other high-profile target) was living in a building that stood out as a protective fortress among rural Pakistanis an hour away from their capital.  I am not sure exactly which answer is worse in this case.  Pakistan does possess nuclear weapons which the United States wants to ensure stays in the control of a predictable government (as opposed to terrorists).  However what strategic value does Pakistan really serve if they cannot or will not identify our mutual enemies?

Ultimately not much will be done about this issue.  I am sure there will be investigations about what Pakistan knew and when, but what position does the U.S. have over Pakistan to force compliance with our war on terror.  They do need our indirect support to keep the Taliban out, but their fragile government is already taking heat for supporting the U.S. too much.  If we halt funding to Pakistan will that push them to be more U.S. friendly or cause them to seek a peace-alliance with the advancing Taliban?  It’s a tough diplomatic situation with multiple outcomes regardless what decisions are made.

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