So . . . these latest clips of bin Laden watching teevee and trying to make a video tape . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . that's the inside of an opulent Pakistani villa? Really?

[CJCRANE]

1. He obviously scrimped on the interior design.

Probably better than living in a cave.

[Warpy]

4. He was an ascetic, to a point

There were 36 people crammed into that place, but it was palatial by local standards. Six kids in a room is pretty standard in a culture that says women are only incubators.

I doubt any of those 23 children there ever got to watch cartoons on that crappy little TV. It was used by the patriarch for his business, checking up on whether or not the world had forgotten him.

His three widows and all those kids are likely to start blossoming now that they've been let out of his prison.

[CJCRANE]

7. Good observations, plus there's the time factor...

if you're a man on the run, living in a cave or a hut, it probably isn't wise to quibble over the decor in your "While-U-Wait" fortress construction.

[mmonk]

8. All that money and no interior designer. He should be shot.

;-)

[CJCRANE]

9. LOL!

What would the neighbors say?!

[dipsydoodle]

2. All the bollocks about it being worth a million

was just puff.

[trud]

3. probably not

It's a pretty massive place, even though he kept it like a pig sty. Who knows what $1 mil buys there.

I'd like to know who was running the garden there, though. Raised beds and everything.

[bluestate10]

6. If one looks closely at photos, the house had expensive security features. nt

[bluestate10]

5. The place seemed to have had security additions that likely ran up the price.

The compound was not a typical Pakistani home. bin Laden and his family obviously were not good house keepers. The lack of windows seems purposeful, fewer Windows means less chance of being seen. The condition of the compound is no different from what one would see with any other expensive place that is allowed to degrade.