Mardan is a textile region....not a small village. I've always said they are hiding in plain sight..
indeed, Bodansky has always maintained that OBL is living as part of a regular family in that region. no big security apparatus around him, because that would be too easy to spot. he's just living as "uncle Ben" in some common family household, and occasionally a single courier comes to visit.
Batchelor talking about this - says he talked with Bodansky, who says they have been monitoring this guy for a while - but they moved on him now because they fear a major operations is planned for Europe - and they wanted to nab him to really put the screws to him to find out what is going on.