CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen Publishes 'The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden'
CIA Confirms bin Laden Hideout by Observing Laundry Hung Outside House
Residents watch as a three-story house in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan, where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden hid and met his end, is being demolished. Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Testimony has emerged that the hideout of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who had been in hiding for 10 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, was discovered because of laundry hung outside the house by his family.
According to Russian state broadcaster RT and the New York Post on the 1st (local time), Peter Bergen, a former CNN producer and national security analyst, wrote this in his book published on the 27th of last month, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.
After the September 11 attacks, bin Laden, who was in hiding, instructed Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed Abd al-Hamid, who was in charge of his security, to purchase land in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and hire an architect to build a house where he could live with his three wives, children, and grandchildren.
The CIA, which was pursuing bin Laden, received intelligence in 2010 from a Pakistani informant that "a man named 'Ibrahim,' who guarded bin Laden, was spotted in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan," and began monitoring his movements.
In August of that year, the CIA even captured footage of a car driven by Ibrahim entering a building surrounded by barbed wire and standing 5 meters high. This building had no telephone or internet connections and was surrounded by high walls.
CIA agents observed who lived inside the building and obtained testimony from neighbors that "the people living inside never threw out trash but burned it inside." They also confirmed that there was a small livestock area inside the building where vegetables, apples, and grapes were grown, and chickens and cows were raised.
The CIA reportedly became almost certain that this was bin Laden’s hideout after seeing laundry hung outside the house. Daily, women’s clothes, traditional Pakistani men’s attire called shalwar kameez, children’s clothes, and diapers were hung out, and based on this, they estimated the number of family members living there. The calculation suggested one adult male, several adult females, and at least nine children, which closely matched bin Laden’s family composition.
Based on this intelligence, the CIA reported to then-President Barack Obama in December 2010. Ultimately, President Obama ordered a special forces operation to kill bin Laden, who died at the age of 54 on May 1, 2011.
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