Osama bin Laden lived in plain sight for almost a decade and was once even pulled over for speeding but not caught thanks to the incompetence of Pakistan’s secuirity services, an official report into his killing said Monday.
The report, leaked to Qatar-based Al Jazeera, which circulated it late Monday, offers fascinating details about life on the run for the world’s most wanted man, who, it says, wore a cowboy hat to avoid being spotted from above.
Written by a judge-led commission that the Pakistani government set up shortly after US special forces killed Bin Laden in 2011, the 336-page report is based on interviews with 201 sources, including members of his family and officials.
In one testimony showing how close Bin Laden came to being captured, Maryam, wife of one of his most trusted aides, recounted how his car was stopped by the police in Pakistan’s Swat region.
“Once when they were all ... on a visit to the bazar, they were stopped for speeding by a policeman,” the report says. “Buther (Maryam’s husband) quickly settled the matter with the policeman and they drove on.”
To avoid aerial detection, Bin Laden wore a cowboy hat when moving about his compound in Abbottabad, his wives told investigators.
The inquiry’s findings, that have not yet been officially published, include evidence of incompetence at almost every level of Pakistan’s security apparatus.
“But above all, the tragedy refers to the comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of OBL (Osama bin Laden) on its territory for almost a decade or to discern the direction of US policy towards Pakistan that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan.”