Osama had another house near Haripur, reveals wife

NEW YORK: Slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden lived in a small village near Abbottabad highway for more than two years before moving into a larger compound in the garrison city of Pakistan in 2005, says wife Yemeni dreaded terrorist who is now in custody.

The woman told investigators that Laden was living with his family for nearly two and a half years in the village of Chak Shah Mohammad, a little over a mile south of the city of Haripur, Abbottabad on the main road from New York Times (NYT) reported citing two unnamed Pakistani officials.

One of the officials pointed out that this meant that Laden had left the terrain of the tribal villages relatively urban settings in the course of 2003.

The presence of the military academy at Abbottabad in Pakistan several observers to suggest that it was impossible for officials of the army or intelligence not to know that Laden was hiding nearby.

"If he was there since 2005 is too long for local police and intelligence not to know," Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani official now teaching at Columbia University, New York Times said.

The newspaper pointed out that the Obama administration stopped short of formally accusing Pakistan of some form of complicity in the concealment Laden for over a decade.

The Times reported that the Obama administration has asked for the names of some senior intelligence officers in Pakistan to determine whether they had contact with bin Laden or his agents.

"At best, it was willful blindness on the part of the ISI," said Art Keller, a former CIA official. "Wilful blindness is a survival mechanism in Pakistan."

In particular, U.S. officials sought information on what is known as the Directorate of the ISI, who worked closely with the militants since the time of the fight against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

"It's hard to believe that (the Pakistani army chief Ashfaq Parvez) Kayani and (ISI Director General Ahmad Shuja) Pasha actually knew that bin Laden was there," a senior government official said.

The official, however, said "there are degrees of knowledge, and I would not be surprised if we see someone close to Pasha knew."