Bin Laden was considering fleeing hideout months before U.S. raid

Among the trove of documents and book titles newly declassified and released from the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011 was a letter bin Laden wrote to one of his wives in Iran around December 2010. In the three-page letter he discusses routine domestic issues, like his wife's dental work, and says he was thinking about leaving for another hideout.

"I have been living for years in the company of some of the brothers from the area, and they are getting exhausted — security wise — from me staying with them and what results from that," he wrote. "Sadly, I came to realize that they have reached a level of exhaustion that they are shutting down, and they asked to leave us all." He had been with the hosts for so long, he added, "I think that I have to leave them," though it would take a few months "to arrange another place where you, Hamza, and his wife can join us."

As The New York Times notes, "it is impossible to know how any change in location by bin Laden might have altered the ability of American intelligence agencies to accurately track him to his secret compound." If he had escaped before the May raid, he might still be alive.

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