He wasn't "found", but sold by the Pakistani intelligence that was protecting him at the time: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n10/seymour-m.-hersh/the-kill

He wasn't "found", but sold by the Pakistani intelligence that was protecting him at the time: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n10/seymour-m.-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n10/seymour-m.-hersh/the... Not before the CIA faked a vaccination campaign to get some blood samples for confirmation, thus compromising the concept of vaccinations in the region, of course.