http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2176749&fark=2Posted 5/3/11 1:55 p.m.
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) - When a woman involved in a polio vaccine drive turned up at Osama bin Laden's hideaway, she remarked to the men behind the high walls about the expensive SUVs parked inside. The men took the vaccine, apparently to administer to the 23 children at the compound, and told her to go away. The terror chief and his family kept well hidden behind thick walls in this northwestern hill town they shared with thousands of Pakistani soldiers, but glimpses of their life are emerging - along with deep skepticism that authorities didn't know they were there.
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Construction of the three-story house began around seven years ago. Aside from its size, it doesn't stand out from the others in the neighborhood, where conservative residents guard their privacy fiercely. The walls are mold-stained, there are trees in the garden and the windows are hidden. Those who lived nearby said the residents rarely strayed from the house, and most of the neighbors were not aware foreigners were living there. Khurshid Bibi, in her 70s, said one man living in the compound had given her a lift to the market in the rain. She said her grandchildren played with the kids in the house and the people in the compound gave them rabbits as a gift.
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"People were skeptical in this neighborhood about this place and these guys. They used to gossip, say they were smugglers or drug dealers. People would complain that even with such a big house they didn't invite the poor or distribute charity," said Mashood Khan, a 45-year-old farmer. Some residents recalled seeing two men the most often, who would occasionally attend a neighborhood gathering, such as a funeral. Both men were tall, fair skinned and bearded and described themselves as cousins from elsewhere in northwestern Pakistan.
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Reporters were allowed to walls of the compound for the first time, but the doors were sealed shut and police were in no mood to open them. Local residents showed off small parts of what appeared to be a U.S. helicopter that Washington said malfunctioned and was disabled by the American strike team as they retreated. A small servant's room outside the perimeter showed signs of violent entry and had been briskly searched, clothes and bedding tossed to the ground. Its wall clock was on the floor, the time stuck at 2:20, when the U.S. team would have been on the ground in the early hours of Monday.
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