Osama Bin Laden, one of the masterminds behind the September 11 attacks in 2011 that killed thousands of Americans, was killed in an operation led by the United States under Barack Obama’s presidency. The leader of the Islamist Al-Qaeda was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, when a small US force transported by helicopters raided the compound. 

In 2010, the CIA got a break when a Pakistani informant in the crowded city of Peshawar spotted a man believed to be Ibrahim, Osama’s longtime bodyguard. It was a white Jeep the led the CIA to the property,18-foot-high with barbed-wire-topped walls. Where Osama was hiding with his three wives, eight children, and four grandchildren, including two and three-year-olds. 

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Meanwhile, the property had many unusual features that caught CIA analysts’ attention. The house had no telephone lines or Internet service despite the fact that it was surely built by wealthy people. The main house had few windows and the top floor balcony was surrounded on all sides by a high wall. 

While the neighbors put their trash out for regular garbage pickups, the compound used to burn all their refuse, and the agency observed all these patterns to found who was living there. However, the final clue was the clothesline on the compound, which flapped each day with women’s garments, like shalwar kameez which are worn by Pakistan men, children’s outfits and diapers, far more than 11 members of the Bodyguards’ families could ever wear. 

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According to the agents’ laundry calculations, the invisible inhabitants had to include an adult man, several adult women, and at least nine children, a perfect fit for the polygamous patriarch they were seeking. Osama Bin Laden was betrayed by his family’s laundry, after more than 9 years of hiding.

On 14 December 20210, the CIA presented the evidence to then-President Barack Obama. However, agents never managed to capture a clearly identifiable image of Osama to prove they had finally uncovered his hiding place. 

Later, Obama ordered the Navy to begin planning the operation that would ultimately snuff out the terror master at the age of 54, a decision that might never have been made if bin Laden had thought to give his wives a clothes dryer.