Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was living in hiding near a U.S. Military base in Afghanistan prior to his death in 2013, according to an analysis from a research group detailed by the Wall Street Journal. The report's findings stand in contrast with the conclusions held by Central Intelligence Agency and intel experts, who have long contended that Mullah Omar went to Pakistan after the September 11 attacks. Omar lived his last years in seclusion save for his bodyguard, and received occasional messages from the Taliban’s “decision-making body” in Pakistan, the Zomia Center report claims. “The report shows that the U.S. got one of the biggest claims about the war wrong, and it also shows how little we understand the Taliban movement,” said Bette Dam, a Dutch journalist who authored the report. David Petraeus, who directed the CIA and led U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, disputed Zomia’s findings. “We had access, as needed, to anywhere inside Afghanistan, and I would be very surprised if Mullah Omar would have taken the risk that we could come calling some evening,” Petraeus told the Wall Street Journal. The Zomia Center is a New York-based research organization that’s affiliated with New America, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
