PAKISTAN’S REPORT

Bin Laden’s Life in Abbottabad Revealed

Wore cowboy hat around the house.

Osama bin Laden kept his identity so secret when living in his Abbottabad compound, according to a Pakistan government report obtained by Al Jazeera, that the families of bin Laden’s assistants didn’t realize who they were living with until years later, when one of them saw his picture on television. The report details some of the extreme measures bin Laden took to stay hidden, including installing multiple utility meters so utilities wouldn’t notice unusual activity, waiting for an earthquake to build an additional floor under the guise of repairs, and wearing a cowboy hat whenever he moved about the house. Still, the report finds that bin Laden was able to hide either because he was extremely lucky or because “there was a complete collapse of local governance.”