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Bin Laden Loved Pepsi

Local shopkeepers say he ordered in bulk.

Osama bin Laden may have hated America, but he loved its soft drinks: Local shopkeepers say that people from Bin Laden's compound regularly bought Pepsi, Coke, and other popular brands in bulk. A shopkeeper in the area was "curious" why they bought their food in bulk, but never asked for fear of coming across as rude. Rashid and Akbar Khan owned the compound and did the daily shopping for bin Laden and his aides and told neighbors that they had fled a tribal feud in Waziristan, a violent region on the Afghan border, in favor of a more peaceful life in Abbottabad. Grocer Anjum Qaisar, who worked 150 meters from the compound, said the Khans "never came by foot, they always drove a Pajero or a little Suzuki van, and they bought enough food for 10 people." A day after the U.S. raid, his former neighbors were apparently shocked to learn that the al Qaeda leader had been hiding so close to them for so long, and so close to the Pakistan Military Academy.