Osama's safehouse, not a cave

NY Daily News:

Osama Bin Laden isn't hiding in caves. He's almost certainly living in a cozy compound in Pakistan guarded by a few loyal fanatics, a dozen terror experts and intel officials told the Daily News.

The group of veteran Bin Laden hunters say the cave-dwelling myth is one of many tall tales about the Al Qaeda kingpin, including reports that the renegade Saudi is dying of kidney disease.

Six years after the 9/11 attacks, many Americans don't understand why he's so hard to find and kill. Frustrated agents say he skulks across some of the most hostile terrain in the world and that Pakistan refuses to let U.S. troops chase him there.

...

In the jagged peaks of the Afghan-Pakistani border, a good Bin Laden hideout typically would be a simple adobe house surrounded by a high mud-brick wall - perfect for defending a monster.

"He's probably not living in a cave," said Robert Grenier, the ex-CIA Pakistan station chief who helped topple the Taliban after 9/11 and chased Bin Laden afterward.

"He's probably living in a fairly comfortable, though Spartan, compound somewhere in northern Pakistan," Grenier said.

All of those interviewed by The News - including several top intelligence officials with the highest security clearances - agreed.

...

"He's probably not moving a lot - if ever," Grenier said.

"If and when he moves," a senior U.S. intelligence official told The News, "it's with a handful of people to keep the footprint small and not attract attention."

...

He does not look healthy. His ability to exercise command and control is greatly limited. He can't use any wireless communication devices without being discovered, nor can his close associates. This probably accounts for all the trips to Pakistan by the various plotters in recent years. It appears that we are getting some human intelligence on these trips and it helped to uncover the German plot along with signal intelligence.

We need to find a way to infiltrate the groups going to Pakistan to get closer to him so that he can be captured or killed.

A Pakistan paper says bin Laden is in Chitral, but it is quoting US media.