Stakeout in Pakistan: ‘People had their suspicions’

>> thanks. now we want to return to the scene of this raid in pakistan . it's north of islamabad. nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk is there tonight. new information about the u.s. surveillance of this compound before special forces finally moved in. stephanie , good evening.

>> reporter: good evening, brian . we keep on hearing surprise that bin laden was capable of hiding in plain sight. but was he really in plain sight? the compound was identified last august. once it was identified, it was put under 24-hour surveillance. in that time up until the actual raid itself bin laden was never actually seen. they acted on intelligence that fell short of that physical proof. that in effect bin laden had put himself in a kind of prison of his own making. so it's not entirely that surprising that when we talked to people in this community they said they were surprised that he was down the street. also keep in mind there was a $25 million bounty on his head. that is a lot of money and a lot of incentive. and there's no indication that anyone that lives in this community actually provided any help in capturing him or identifying him. finally, another thing that we keep hearing is something the white house continues to say, is that this town is a suburb of islamabad. we took the trip today. it takes more than three hours. it's almost 100 miles. it definitely is not a suburb. it is a kind of retreat for a lot of people that live in that city. but bin laden was not really on the doorstep of the capital of pakistan . brian ?

>> stephanie , i was going to say that one thing that's frustrated me about the coverage, having been to the region, is people say it was a walled compound as if it is unusual for houses there. and so often the way of marking property is either a simple stone wall or built-up walls. but many houses of the better houses are surrounded by walls. while these were particularly high and barbed wired.

>> reporter: yeah, they were higher than most of the walls. but we're standing next to a few houses right now that are surrounded by walls right now. that kind of privacy is not unique, as you say, in this part of the world. i think certainly the barbed wire , the fact that they burned their garbage instead of putting it out on the street, people here had their suspicions but no one ever really -- at least the people we've spoken to here -- jumped to the conclusion that it must be osama bin laden . brian ?

>> all right. stephanie gosk, who again, has made her way to that compound in pakistan . stephanie , thanks for your reporting from there. we'll look for more of it.