I suspect that OBL and other senior AQ leaders may have moved away from the region, and now could be somewhere like Yemen. There is no strategic reason for them to stay in the Pakistan border region where they know they are being hunted from satellite surveillance. Yemen offers a warm, usually cloudless climate and a lack of government curiosity, two things that people on the run and wary of strangers most value. Parts of Yemen are so unpopulated that the approach within thirty miles of any sort of organized US-sponsored presence would be quickly detected by low-grade surveillance. It would also be relatively easy for Bin Laden to come and go from such a location, in deep disguise, with one or two trusted aides, and make fairly extensive journeys throughout the world. Anyone with the chutzpah to knock down the twin towers would probably thrive on the excitement of such activity. In the byzantine atmosphere of Pakistan, he risks exposure in a multitude of ways, but in much simpler Yemen, he only has to bribe one or two people and he’s set.
Thank you for your feedback and sharing your thoughts, Mr. O’Donnell.