Bin Laden's 'luxury' compound?

[guardian]

Why are all the news reports referring to Bin Laden's compound as this "million dollar" or "luxury" compound? It looks like a 3 story chicken coop. I've seen better quality furniture in a freshman college dorm room. Look at the video:

* cheap platform bed
* cheap shelving with angle brackets on the wall
* cans of food on the open shelves
* cinder block shelf in the closet
* almost no furniture
* bare walls

I guess it is a step up from a cave, but calling this place "luxurious" is like calling a single wide trailer "palatial".

[brooklynite]

1. In all fairness...

I don't think the maid's been in since the Seals left.

[Bake]

10. I just sprayed coffee on my keyboard!

Curses!!

:rofl:

Bake

[Drale]

2. Luxury compared to the rest of Pakistan

Abbottabad was a town started in the 1800's by a British Army Major, James Abbott. Its the "suburbs" and its where the rich people and retired government offices live.

[Renew Deal]

3. Look at the surrounding neighborhood

It's also a bit of propoganda.

[sgsmith]

4. Think of a house which has been "tossed" by the police

They're usually pretty messed up, right?

All of those photos and videos came after the SEAL team tossed the rooms while looking for intelligence items. The place probably looked a lot better before the raid.

[guardian]

5. messy /= spartan

I'm not talking about the blood or tipped over furniture. I'm looking at the furniture itself. I'm looking at the photos of the exterior. It is a shithole.

Maybe they wouldn't be intent on beheading half the world if they could just get an overstuffed chair and indoor plumbing?

[louis-t]

13. Did the SEALs pull out $50,000 worth of Kraftmaid cabinets?

Or the marble floors? Or the gold bathroom fixtures? I think the money spent on the house was put into security, not Martha Stewart. :P

[PeaceNikki]

15. This ^ "the money spent on the house was put into security, not Martha Stewart"

[snooper2]

6. location location location, look at some of the shitholes in CA people pay 3-400,00K for

:)

[Skip_In_Boulder]

7. The pictures I saw of it looked like a dump. n/t

[flamingdem]

8. I wonder who will live there next ... nt

[guardian]

9. I can see it now

A big gaudy tourist trap. Bigs signs out front: "Sleep in the same room where OBL was killed" Adventure tourism at its best.

[flamingdem]

14. extreme terrorist tourism, I can see a market for that! nt

[Igel]

11. "Luxury" is relative.

Visited a lordly manorhouse. Granted, the floors were made out of wood, but it was damned cold in winter. Drafty. And they tended to use a room as the bathroom, sealing it off when it got too rank. The kitchen was outside, essentially--even in winter. The beds sucked (literally, if you count the bedbugs). There weren't good washing facilities, not that you'd want them when the room temperature is 40 F.

I compared the 20k sq ft thing, considered the height of luxury when it was in use, with the 240 sq ft apt I was living in. My apt. was luxurious by comparison.

Then again, at the time all the drawbacks that the manor house had were shared by the common folks' housing--but most of the commoners' housing's problems weren't shared by the lord. So his digs were luxurious. However squalid they were by my standards.

Perspective.

[Johonny]

18. +1

[krawhitham]

12. beats a hole in the ground

[kenny blankenship]

16. Compared to the sort of place I would have told him to hide in, it's luxury

It's no hideout either. For various reasons.

I've seen this "objection" several times now, and I still don't get what moves people to bring it up.

[spanone]

17. comparing what's luxurious in pakistan to what's luxurious in the u.s.?

they speak a different language too

[guardian]

19. I'm criticizing the media

You have an American media talking to an American audience that is calling it a "luxury compound"