A Dutch defence specialist was indirectly told by US special forces that Osama bin Laden was being kept under surveillance north of Islamabad in Pakistan during a visit to the region in mid-February, Trouw reports on Friday.

Rob van Wijk says in a column in the paper Bin Laden’s house ‘came up’ in conversation during the visit, but declined to say any more because he had been sworn to secrecy.
‘At the end of the regular morning briefing by Special Operations Force, by chance Osama bin Laden’s house came up,’ he writes. ‘It was apparently north of Islamabad. The briefing also showed confusion over the identity of a courier.’
‘So Bin Laden was alive. It was clear where he lived. An eye was being kept on him. So why was no action taken?’
In the column, Van Wijk goes on to speculate that the US waited so long before raiding the compound in order to maximise their intelligence advantage.