Everything we saw — the extremely elaborate operational security, the brothers\u2019 background and their behavior, and the location and the design of the compound itself was perfectly consistent with what our experts expected bin Laden\u2019s hideout to look like. Keep in mind that two of bin Laden\u2019s gatekeepers, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libbi, were arrested in the settled areas of Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Our analysts looked at this from every angle, considering carefully who other than bin Laden could be at the compound. We conducted red team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did.<\/p>\n
So the final conclusion, from an intelligence standpoint, was twofold. We had high confidence that a high-value target was being harbored by the brothers on the compound, and we assessed that there was a strong probability that that person was Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n