"It's been eight years and it's time for the public maybe to take a look," said Dr. Thomas Gillespie, UCLA Dept. of Geography.
In taking a look, UCLA geography professor Dr. Gillespie and a team of his brightest students released a new study using technology and basic logic principles of geography to track endangered species.
"This is like any other science project, like if I was looking for an endangered iguana in Fiji," said Dr. Gillespie. "Take a look, I mean really, at what is available. I am just using /*Google Earth*/."
Dr. Gillespie says during the terror attacks, Bin Laden was reported to be hiding in a remote area, the rugged /*Tora Bora*/ in Afghanistan. Using principles to track wildlife that Dr. Gillespie says are less likely to survive the farther they move away from their familiar surroundings.
Dr. Gillespie doesn't believe Bin Laden has moved far from his last reported location. He says doing that would increase his chances of being caught or killed. Dr. Gillespie believes if Bin Laden is indeed alive, he probably moved a few miles away into the city of Parachinar, Pakistan -- not large, but big enough in which to hide.
"This is his last known point, and then what we did is digitized all the cities, and this one just stood out," said Dr. Gillespie.
Dr. Gillespie and his team even targeted structures Bin Laden could be hiding in.
"But you can see like perspective, structure, isolation, privacy, trees and then it has electricity," said Dr. Gillespie. "These are our three hypothesized locations. I'm sure the military right now is like going through and saying, 'OK, this guy's wrong here,' and it's like OK, great, so you've disproved it. Then we know he's not in these structures and they have to convince me he's not in this city, and then they have to convince me he's not in the region."
There is a $25-million reward for information leading to the capture of Bin Laden.
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