Age enhanced photographSooner or later it would come to this. The hunt for bin Laden has made another publicity splash with the latest edition of the MIT International Review featuring this freely available document for the perusal of armchair jihadis and infidels alike.
http://web.mit.edu/mitir/2009/online/finding-bin-laden.pdf
There's a trendiness to all this nowadays with so many forensic science shows on television and in movies. The last media splash of this kind that I recall was when the unsoved cases of so many missing women in Vancouver started to spark demands for newer and more up-to-date methods. This is where the emerging field of geospatial intelligence has come in and given it's dose of flowery eye candy and the public's fascination will only be fired up even more as the noose tightens.
How real is the possibility of bagging this old goat? I'll wager that it's possible and more due to habits and health than pure science. The intangibles always have a way of becoming a dominating factor and as commented upon here fundamental errors such as what building belongs to who can show up embarrassing flaws in research methodology. In the early Nineties the hunt for Presidente Gonzalo of Peru's Shining Path had stagnated and demoralized the government's campaign against the Maoist insurgency which he had so proudly instigated and even though he was eventually caged the fallout over the spoils of glory after his capture should give us an idea of the competing groups and individuals who are keen to get this quarry cornered and how it just might resemble the scramble for sunken treasures or winning lottery tickets.
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