Extensive surveillance of Osama bin Laden’s hideout from a nearby CIA safe house in Abbottabad led to his killing on May 2. The US officials, quoted by the Washington Post, said the safe house was the base for intelligence gathering that began after bin Laden’s compound was discovered last August, and which was so exhaustive the CIA asked Congress to reallocate tens of millions of dollars to fund it.
“The CIA’s job was to find and fix,” the Post quoted one US official as saying, using Special Forces terminology for locating a target. “The intelligence work was as complete as it was going to be, and it was the military’s turn to finish the target.” The CIA had spent several months monitoring bin Laden’s hideout, watching and photographing residents and visitors from a rented house nearby, according to US.
Observing from behind mirrored glass, CIA officers used cameras with telephoto lenses and infrared imaging equipment to study the compound, and they used sensitive eavesdropping equipment to try to pick up voices from inside the house and to intercept cellphone calls. A satellite used radar to search for possible escape tunnels. The US administration has refused to be drawn on details on the raid, but, in a further sign of fractious relations between the allies, senior Pakistani security officials told Reuters that US accounts had been misleading.