What is especially interesting is that for the same reasons that made Abbottabad the ideal hiding spot for bin Laden to hide, it made it just as easy for the CIA to slip in without too much notice. It also sounds like the (expensive) drones may help collect data, but they also scare people off into hiding because everyone knows that they're there. Maybe bin Laden is the exception, but you have to wonder if they cause similar issues elsewhere.
The CIA maintained a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Operations forces this week, U.S. officials said.
The secret CIA facility was used as a base of operations for one of the most delicate human intelligence gathering missions in recent CIA history, one that relied on Pakistani informants and other sources to help assemble a “pattern of life” portrait of the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where bin Laden was found, the officials said.
