Why It Matters That Osama Bin Laden Was Once Pulled Over for Speeding

For The Atlantic:

A report claims Pakistan’s security agency overlooked clear evidence that the terrorist was hiding in plain sight.

The American raid that killed Osama bin Laden was a huge embarrassment for Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. They had failed to report that bin Laden — the world’s most wanted man — was living one kilometer away from the country’s top military academy. And there was astonishment among Pakistanis that a complex foreign operation could take place so deep inside Pakistani territory without a single shot being fired in defense.

A landmark inquiry by the Pakistani government into the May 2, 2011 raid that was leaked by Al Jazeera English is unusually critical of the country’s military and intelligence agencies, and while it stops short of conclusively painting the agency as complicit in bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, it does not rule it out, either.

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