DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, two companies competing to provide customers with satellite imagery, offer views of the Pakistani compound where Osama bin Laden was killed.
Stephen Shankland
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
The location of Osama bin Laden's compound was an extraordinarily tightly kept secret--until Sunday night, when U.S. forces attacked it and killed him.
Now satellite photos show the compound just northeast of the center of Abbottabad, Pakistan. In this case, a DigitalGlobe image shows the site, a tilted triangle with its left corner chopped off, including the dark shadows from the tall walls surrounding the compound.
2 of 6 DigitalGlobe satellite photo
Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound
This DigitalGlobe image shows the initial compound from 2005 outlined in yellow and newer regions outlined in blue.
3 of 6 GeoEye satellite photos
Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound
GeoEye supplied these two photos of the bin Laden compound. At top is a shot from 2005; at bottom from today.
4 of 6 DigitalGlobe satellite photo
Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound
A DigitalGlobe close-up from 2005 shows the compound in earlier times.
5 of 6 screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound
The once-revolutionary, now-prosaic Google Maps acquired a new dimension after bin Laden's death as a way to view to a historically significant moment on another part of the globe. Bin Laden's compound is marked on the right edge of the image.
6 of 6 GeoEye satellite photos
Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound
The overall area near Abbottobad, Pakistan, is striped with agricultural fields.
