Family’s Laundry Helped CIA Track Down Osama bin Laden, Says New Book

The Al Qaeda terrorist who helped mastermind the September 11th attacks was brought down in part by something as mundane as laundry, according to a new book by CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.

Bergen appeared on CNN Newsroom on Sunday to speak with guest host Phil Mattingly about his book, describing how the CIA had been tracking a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and had originally observed the families of two bodyguards living there.

“But when they were able to observe the compound more closely,” said Bergen, “they started counting clothes on clotheslines and saw that there seemed to be an entirely other family which consisted of three or four adults and nine children by their count, who were basically keeping a very low profile.”

This was a critical clue, explained Bergen, because bin Laden was an unusual fugitive in that he had brought “three wives, a dozen kids and grandkids along for the ride” with him. “And that was part of the reason he was actually tracked down.”

At the time the Navy SEALs raided the compound and killed bid Laden, he had been in the process of looking for a new hiding place, Bergen added, because his bodyguards had given him notice that they were going to quit.

Apparently he was only paying them $100 a month, “which is not a huge amount of money to look after the world’s most wanted man,” said Bergen, “and they were fed up with the danger that came with the job.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.