Senator Feinstein must live in a very friendly and nosy neighbourhood
“I don’t understand how somebody could buy the land for $48,000, get the building permits, get a contractor, build for a period of time what is essentially the largest home compound in the area, where somebody lives for five years, and nobody asks who’s there or finds out who’s there,” she said.
I racked up many years in Canberra, and believe me so long as OBL & family snuck in to a house in a darkened car he could have lived undetected there too. In fact, he could probably have wandered around in pseudo disguise without much bother since most Canberrans go out of their way to avoid eye contact or saying hello. Yes, I’m a bit bitter and twisted from my experience there, being from the much friendlier state of Qld, but in all seriousness if no one saw him go in why would they think to ask it, which was pretty much probably the whole reason he was there.
Obviously a lot of questions have to be asked as to how and why he got there, but really.
Records going missing is pretty dodgy though, if true.
Dianne Feinstein seems to lack the cultural competence to understand that everyone isn’t nosy like Californians. I say that being a Californian, growing up hearing her and Nancy Pelosi’s name uttered on my parent’s lips. Let me make it clear, it was not as supporters just as political junkies. Tangent..Anyway my point being, Feinstein’s showing of ignorance seems as such an American way to think, and you can’t apply American gestures toward non-Americans and say it doesn’t make sense. What doesn’t make sense is someone so educated being so dumb. I have never been to Pakistan but, I could see how someone could take advantage of an ambiguous culture and know that it is beyond some American’s grasp to understand. Matter of fact, I think UBL bet his life on it, and it worked or he wouldn’t have been as complacent as he was. Both sides played the same game and under-estimated their opponent.
Oh, by the way I love reading your blog and it is refreshing to hear your point of view.
There is much already in the public domain, some say far too much, but from a ‘man-hunting’ or pursuing a fugitive it is remarkable that OBL did stay out of harm’s way for so long and eventually had “hidden in plain sight”. Some of these points are covered elsewhere: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=13211