Though it was cut off from phone lines and was built like a fortress, this was no cave. The Guardian:
Senior US administration officials, briefing journalists in a late-night teleconference, said that after 9/11 the CIA chased various leads about bin Laden's inner circle, in particular his couriers. One of these couriers came in for special attention, mentioned by detainees by his nom de guerre and said to be one of the few couriers bin Laden trusted.Amazingly enough, this person live-tweeted the entire event from Abbottabad, Pakistan without knowing the details. He's going from an IT consultant taking a break in the mountains to one of the most discussed people online in the last 24 hours. I'm sure we will be seeing more of him soon.
But officials said they were initially unable to identify him but finally did four years ago. They did not disclose his name to reporters on Sunday night.
Two years ago, the CIA found the rough location where the courier and his brother lived in Pakistan, and on August last year they narrowed it down to a compound, in an affluent area about 35 miles north of Islamabad.
They realised immediately this was no normal residence. The walls were 12- to 18ft high, topped with barbed wire. Access to the compound was severely restricted. The main part of the residence was three storeys high but had few windows. It was valued at about $1m but had no phone or internet connection. It was a custom-built terrorist hideaway.
