Bin Laden may be in city, not cave: ex-spy chief
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By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden could hide more easily in a city than a remote tribal region, a former Pakistani intelligence chief said on Tuesday, challenging the notion that the al Qaeda leader is probably holed up in a mountain cave.
Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), said news of outsiders' presence travels fast in the tribal areas and it would be hard to keep it secret for years.
"In the countryside or in tribal areas ... it's difficult to hide yourself because there people live ... and operate in a manner in which finding out about unusual presence is very important," Durrani told Reuters in an interview in London.
He said it was true that tribal customs placed great value on showing hospitality and not betraying a guest. "In the tribal code, anyone who seeks your protection has to be defended, if necessary with your life."
However, he added: "I am not sure over a period of four, five or six years that it would be possible even for the tribesmen to keep his presence under wraps."
Such information would have traveled or been divulged, given the incentives, Durrani said in a reference to the $25 million U.S. bounty on bin Laden's head.
"My conclusion therefore is it's extremely unlikely that he is around that place."
ON THE RUN Continued...
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