When a serial killer is caught, reporters always interview his clueless neighbors who say things like "I had no idea. He seemed so normal. He was quiet ad kept to himself but he was a nice guy, and he liked cats."

And so it was with Osama bin Laden. His neighbors in the quiet suburban neighborhood in Abbottabad, Pakistan didn't know bin Laden lived in the biggest compound on the street, but they'd met the men who lived there and said they were model neighbors who were polite and never caused trouble.

When the neighborhood children lost a ball over the compound wall, the men didn't return it. But they paid 50 rupees for a new ball. And when the kids threw balls into the compound to make more money, the men paid them, 50 rupees a ball.

And I bet they liked cats.


(New York Times)