ABSTRACT

The drone war in the FATA attracted a great deal of media attention for its novelty and lethality. While Pakistanis focused their attention and outrage on Predator/Reaper strikes on the Pakistan-Afghan border, the CIA was secretly flying another, stealthy drone deep inside Pakistan over a city called Abbottabad. A growing number of intelligence analysts and national security officials were convinced that Osama Bin Laden was hiding there in a complex with few apparent links to the outside world. 1