Report: Osama bin Laden -- doting grandpa, paranoid terrorist

Osama
bin Laden typically wore a cowboy hat
while tending his garden.
Its broad brim obscured his features
from the view of pesky eyes or satellite
cameras that might blow his cover
while he was hiding out in Pakistan,
according to a report first published
widely in Pakistani media.
The 337-page leaked report details the
domestic life of one of the world's
most wanted men in his final days of
life.
It also bashes Pakistani authorities for
failing to keep the al Qaeda leader out
of the country, and for failing to
prevent the U.S. raid by Navy SEALs
that killed him in May 2011.
The report bears the names of a
former top diplomat, a supreme
court justice and former officers of
the military and police.
A senior government
official who was closely
associated with the
commission that
produced the report
confirmed its authenticity
to CNN. Citing a news
piece by Al Jazeera, the
first to report the story,
the official said the
documents being
discussed in the news are
part of a report that was
submitted to the prime
minister's office.
The famous terrorist's life
was speckled with quirky
measures designed to
keep him under the radar,
the report said.
Al Qaeda's No. 1 spent
lots of time doting on his
some dozen children and
grandchildren in the six
years he spent in his
walled compound in the
city of Abbottabad, said
terror expert Peter
Bergen, commenting on
the report.
They could not pass time watching TV
or surfing online, because bin Laden
had no Internet connection and no
satellite television hook-up. He also
didn't have a phone line, all measures
to avoid detection.
For the same reason, the children
were not allowed to play with other
kids in the neighborhood. They spent
the bulk of their lives within the
compound's walls.
When bin Laden was not personally
giving them religious instruction, he
took them out into the yard.
He would award them prizes if they
grew particularly good vegetables in
the garden.
Bin Laden fled to Pakistan a month
after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks on the United States, moving
from the south to the north and then
hopping from town to town before
landing in Abbottabad in 2005.
While he was on the run, one of his
wives gave birth four times and had to
be taken to local hospitals, but it was
obvious that she was not from the
region. She spoke Arabic instead of
Urdu, Pakistan's official language.
Bin Laden's family feared this might
raise suspicions. So, they told doctors
she was deaf and mute.
While on the run in the restive tribal
region of the Swat Valley, bin Laden
shaved off his recognizable beard,
according to the report. Men helping
him told others not to ask any
questions about the tall stranger, who
spoke Arabic.
While in Swat, police once
pulled bin Laden's driver
over, but he quickly
settled the matter before
the officer had a chance
to get a closer look at the
clean-shaven man riding
with him.
After arriving in
Abbottabad, a woman
living in the same building
with bin Laden recognized
him from his image
shown on cable TV. Her
husband, who was
helping bin Laden, went
into a panic, the report
said.
He told her to mind her
own business and
forbade her and all other
women in the house from
watching TV anymore.
Opinion: Who really killed
bin Laden?
The assassination raid
The measures kept bin
Laden from being
recognized for years in a
city also home to one of
Pakistan's largest military
complexes.
The CIA eventually suspected he was
there and recruited a Pakistani doctor
to run a vaccination program in
Abbottabad in an attempt to find bin
Laden by locating his children through
their DNA.
Eventually the United States did find
the al Qaeda leader and assassinated
him during a special forces raid on his
compound. He was later buried at
sea, the U.S. military said.
Although the SEALs were within
Pakistan's borders for three hours, its
military did not detect them.
"The radar systems were not looking
for that kind of intrusion from the
Afghan side of the border," terror
expert Peter Bergen said. He feels
sure that will change now.
The report also dedicated 22 pages to
fighting terrorism and keeping people
like bin Laden from taking refuge in
the country again.
The report's authors blast Pakistani
authorities at every level of
government, intelligence and the
military for not stopping the U.S.
mission, calling it "a story of
complacency, ignorance, negligence,
incompetence, irresponsibility, and
possibly worse at various levels inside
and outside the government."
Pakistan's government considers the
assassination operation a violation of
its sovereignty, basically an act of war.

Appendicitis sidelines Sir Elton John

Sir Elton John faces surgery
soon for appendicitis that has
derailed his European tour, a
spokesman for the singer said
Tuesday.
John, 66, was diagnosed with
"appendix abscess surrounding
retrocaecal appendicitis" after falling ill
during the tour, publicist Gary Farrow
said in a written statement.
The surgery will be performed in the
United Kingdom in "the coming
weeks" after he undergoes an
intensive course of antibiotics and
"doctors can be confident they have
sufficiently reduced toxins within the
inflamed appendicitis site," Farrow
said.
The remaining shows in his tour have
been canceled, including Friday's
headline show at London's Hyde Park,
he said. The concert will still happen
with Ray Davies, Elvis Costello,
Gabrielle Aplin and Nick Lowe
performing.
"Elton is incredibly
disappointed to postpone
these tour dates," he said.
"To know that he made
such super-human efforts
and continued to perform
to thousands through his
illness only confirms his
dedication to his
European fans. He is eager to be back
on top form and return to play the
remaining shows starting in early
September 2013."
Touring will resume only after "he has
fully recovered from both the planned
surgery and any damage caused by
the appendix abscess," the statement
said.

Director of MJ's comeback show takes stand

Kenny Ortega,
the director of Michael Jackson's
aborted comeback show, began his
testimony Monday about what AEG
Live executives did and said in
Jackson's final days.
His first hours on the stand Monday
afternoon were spent discussing
Jackson's creativity, saying his voice,
songs and dancing were "like no one
else in his generation." He will return
Tuesday to resume his testimony.
Lawyers for Jackson's mother and
children argue in the wrongful death
trial against AEG Live that those
executives ignored warning signs
about his health and mental condition
that, if heeded, could have saved his
life.
The lawsuit contends the promoters
hired, retained or supervised Dr.
Conrad Murray, the physician
convicted of involuntary manslaughter
in Jackson's propofol overdose death.
AEG Live lawyers argue
that Jackson -- not their
executives -- chose and
controlled the doctor,
who was giving him
nightly infusions of the
surgical anesthetic in a
desperate search for
sleep in his last two
months.
Ortega, who knew
Jackson well and worked
with him closely preparing
his "This Is It" shows,
sounded a warning to
AEG Live CEO Randy
Phillips in an e-mail on
June 20, 2009 -- five days
before Jackson's death --
that Ortega did not think
the entertainer would be
ready for the shows.
He described seeing
"strong signs of paranoia,
anxiety and obsessive-like
behavior" with Jackson. "I
think the very best thing
we can do is get a top
psychiatrist to evaluate
him ASAP."
Expert: MJ was 'drug dependent,'
not addicted
AEG says Jackson was secretive about
his drug use, which the company
contends was an addiction, so there
was no way of knowing what
treatments Murray was giving Jackson
in his bedroom.
But a drug addiction expert testified
last week that there was "not a lot of
evidence to support" the belief that
Michael Jackson was addicted to
drugs.
If he was an addict, Jackson "would
be taking drugs that were not
prescribed by a medical professional,
taking larger amounts than prescribed
and have drug-seeking behavior," Dr.
Sidney Schnoll testified.
There was no evidence Jackson ever
took drugs that were not given to him
by a doctor or that he took more than
prescribed, Schnoll said.
The bottles of sedatives found in his
home after his death had more pills
remaining in them than he would
have expected if Jackson was an
addict, Schnoll said. This "indicated
these were not being taken on a
regular basis," he said.
Evidence shows Jackson sought drugs
from a number of doctors, but that
was not inappropriate because he
needed them "to treat a legitimate
medical problem," including back
pain, scalp pain and dermatologic
issues, Schnoll testified.
While not addicted, Jackson was
dependent on drugs, he said.
The painkillers that forced Jackson to
end his 1993 "Dangerous" tour early
so he could enter a rehab program
were taken to relieve the pain from
scalp surgery needed to repair burns
suffered when filming a Pepsi
commercial, Schnoll said.
The burns left scars on damaged
nerves in his scalp, which becomes
"excitable tissue" that "can be firing
just like the nerve," he said. The result
"can be every painful, like a burning
kind of pain -- persistent, sharp,
shooting kind of pain," he said. "It's
very uncomfortable and one of the
most difficult to treat."
Pain relief is a legitimate use of opioid
drugs and a person can function
normally if they are taken under a
doctor's care, he said.
President John Kennedy was opioid
dependent to relieve "very severe back
pain" while in the White House, he
said.
"He did alright as president?" Jackson
lawyer Michael Koskoff asked.
"It depends on your political
affiliation," Schnoll answered.
The Demerol injections Jackson got
during frequent visits to a Beverly Hills
dermatologist between April and his
death in late June 2009 were given for
legitimate medical reasons, Schnoll
testified.
If he were addicted to Demerol --
which is a powerful opioid -- he
would not have gone 43 days
between injections, which medical
records show, he said.
Jackson also went roughly 13 years --
from 1993 until 2008 -- without the
drug, he said. The doctor conceded
under cross-examination by an AEG
Live lawyer, however, that a gap in
available medical records may be
misleading.
Jackson's use of sedatives was an
effort to treat his chronic insomnia,
Schnoll said.
If the underlying sleep problem could
be resolved, the chances of ending
Jackson's use of the drugs would
have been good, he said.
There was no indication that Jackson
was addicted to propofol before
Murray began giving him nightly
infusions of the surgical anesthetic for
60 days leading up to his death, he
said.
Ortega, in his e-mail to AEG Live CEO
Phillips on June 20, wrote that "I
honestly don't think he is ready for
this based on his continued physical
weakening and deepening emotional
state."
He said Jackson was having trouble
"grasping the work" at rehearsals.
Production manager John "Bugzee"
Hougdahl wrote in an e-mail to
Phillips hours earlier that Ortega had
sent Jackson home from a rehearsal
that night because of his strange
behavior.
"I have watched him deteriorate in
front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks.
He was able to do multiple 360 spins
back in April. He'd fall on his ass if he
tried now," Hougdahl wrote. "He was
a basket case and Kenny was
concerned he would embarrass
himself on stage, or worse yet -- get
hurt. The company is rehearsing right
now, but the DOUBT is pervasive."
Phillips replied to Ortega: "Please stay
steady. Enough alarms have sounded.
It is time to put out the fire, not burn
the building down."
By "burn the building down," he
meant pulling the plug on the tour
that was set to begin in three weeks,
Phillips testified last month. "In a
highly charged situation like this, I just
wanted to keep things calm until we
could have the meeting."
Phillips met with Murray, Jackson and
Ortega at Jackson's home later that
day. While Jackson lawyers argue that
meeting was intended to pressure
Murray to make sure Jackson was
ready for rehearsals, AEG lawyers
contend Murray assured producers
nothing was wrong.
Phillips testified that he remembered
little about the conversation at the
meeting and Murray has invoked his
constitutional protection against self-
incrimination to avoid testifying in the
trial. This makes Ortega's testimony
crucial for both sides.
Hand over evidence or face jail
A related drama could unfold Monday
in another courtroom as a judge in
Ohio decides if he'll carry out a threat
to throw the widow and daughter of a
former Jackson manager in jail for
refusing to hand over a laptop
computer subpoenaed by Jackson
lawyers.
Frank DiLeo, who served as Jackson's
manager decades earlier, reappeared
in his life in his last months. He died in
2011. Jackson lawyers want to search
his laptop for evidence to support
their contention that DiLeo was
beholden to the concert promoter
and not to Jackson.
His daughter, Belinda DiLeo, refused a
judge's order last week to disclose
where the computer was, prompting
the contempt of court order. The
judge gave the DiLeo's until Monday
to hand it over or face jail. A hearing
will be held Wednesday to determine
of the women complied with the
order.
Jackson changed managers twice in
the last three months of his life. In
late March 2009, he hired Leonard
Rowe -- one of his father's friends -- to
replace Tohme Tohme, the manager
who initially negotiated the deal with
AEG for his "This Is It" tour.
Jackson lawyers argue that AEG Live
forced Jackson to take DiLeo, who had
worked for him off and on for
decades, as his manager in May 2009
because they did not want to work
with Rowe.
A cache of 5,000 e-mails has already
been recovered and a lawyer in Ohio
is reviewing them to redact non-
relevant and personal information
before handing them over to Jackson
lawyers.