President Obama announced this some hours ago.

Lets see what happens now on.

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Carpe Diem

The Globe will be a bit safer to ride now......but may be a little rocky at first !

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....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au

It will probably lead to a lot of reprisals.. White tourists in "trouble spots" should probably be a lot more wary.

Or maybe nothing will change at all. Someone will soon fill his boots...

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Agreed!

I expect that the news will feature a few response attack over the coming weeks. I hope to be wrong, but...

I honestly think that these fundamentalist factions have been managing without OBL for some time and this, whilst symbolic for the US, will not change much on the ground....

Dark times... best go for a ride then....

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Agreed, although suspect Ted means wary rather than weary.
There again, the tourists may simply be a bit tired as well.

LoL... I should really speck my chelling !!

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

You expect to see something happen, a change perhaps, what change? Have a look around. The change started to happen long ago, the change in the world has been occuring for some time and continues to occur it started well before Bin Laden was even identified as the 'mastermind' of 9/11.

It is naive to think that one mans death will change the world, it's not in death that changes are made but in life in the life of the many that are still alive and affected by that death and many others of no lesser value. The families of 9/11 families that voted in Bush and supported the war sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. The changes in how locals of the countries now view westerners through the troops that have served there, the errosion of civil liberties in the west, the crack-down on airport security, the introduction of biometric passports, increased fees for tourist visas, increase security and background checks for buisness visas, the list goes on and on.

Are these not all changes? They affect us as travellers, do they not?

Yet we (USA, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Australia to name a few) still vote in right wing parties that play on our collective fear of terrorism exaccerabted by media who do nothing but conjure stories full of hype. Where is the real journalism I ask?

A terrorist is one who instills fear on others, origin terror, to terrorise others in pursuit of an often political or ethnic goal or agenda.

If you fear them then they have succeeded. If you change your vote or travel plans because of one then they have already won.

Bin Laden won the battle but only time will tell whether terrorism will win the war.

...Rant over.

In my humble opinion, I believe that education is the key to change. Be the change that you want to see in the world.

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

I was rudely awoken this morning to mortar alarms and the 'Phalanx' gun blasting into the sky at some crap time this am. Upon finding out 'Ole Osama' has been sent to the big flaming pit down below we realised why we will be diving into bunkers for a few mental days before it'll calm down.
My body armour and helmet are never far away and I have 2 days and a wake up before I get the hell out of here. I just hope the rockets and mortars don't hit the airport runway as the repair delay will piss me off no end!!

BTW.... I'm a security contractor in Iraq and just cos you don't see it on the news anymore doesn't mean it ain't 'appening!

I've just got all my new kit for the Tenere delivered to home and was the winning bidder for a 1985 XL600LMF Paris Dakar! I'm salivating over to take apart this summer.

So Osamas followers can go and FK themselves, I've got a fresh pack of smokes in the bunker and can wait it out for 72hrs, NO PROBS!!

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Geoffshing

'Security is a product of one's own imagination, it does not exist in nature as a rule, life is either a daring adventure or nothing.'

Navy Seals

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What ever, lets go...

Guess there will be some change....

I suspect that this was a revenge and political killing rather than a tactical one. Understandable possibly but surely an observe and monitor scenario would make more sense as now where and who is the designated successor and what sort of a command and control system does he have? Hi Geoff, looks like you're stuck in the Gulf for a while yet, hope you have better luck with your new bike. Ride safe.

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Mike
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Mike is riding the twisty road in the sky

Well, he managed to slip away almost 10 years ago in Tora Bora, so I guess they didn´t want to take that risk a second time. And remember they had no idea, what he might have up his sleeve this time - and also knew that he´d never ever be taken alive to court by the Americans. Few options left really.

Think the Pakistanis now need to answer some tough questions about his hiding place.

+1.

AQ is an ideology that gets franchised out and doesn't seem to have any particular command structure. The beeb was saying tonight that probably the first OBL knew about the atrocities in Madrid and London was on the TV/radio after the event.

Definitely worth being vigilant at home and abroad.

Chris

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Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

this is not the beginning and this is not the end. this is just the part of the show, that's it!!

what did change after saddam was hanged? nothing yea? and dozens of people are still dying everyday in this region. what has changed in egypt, or in tunisa? will the things be different after they catch or kill gaddafi? will the citizens of these countries live in a peaceful and democratic country?

democracy does not mean civilization. there is still no human rights in afganistan despite of large coalition force army.

after soviet russia has collapsed, world needed a second pole and a cyber enemy, reshape and re-share the energy sources like petrol, gas and some mines. this is why this show is on air!!

so my friends, obl boots will be filled by someone and seals will be trained to hunt him again.. this would be like never ending story, unless they find some other enemy and need to reshape the energy sources.

as a traveller, there will be a treat for western tourist especially in north africa and in middle east. getting visas for a eastern people will be very hard, securities will be tightened, etc. that's it

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ozhan u.
website under construction

I'm forced to watch Fox news and it depresses me how opinionated this 'news' broadcasters is. Blatant stirring.

You can't fight these ideas with guns. Those ideas are created as a reaction. Not an action. The west should look at their foreign policy to find the answer to this problem. Marginalise people and send them into poverty and treat them with disrespect and this is what happens. All through history all over the world. A lot of issues started before both world wars. Somehow the US took those problems to themselves when they started throwing their weight around.

The hugely complex Northern Ireland conflict wasn't solved through violence in the end. Time to start learning from the past. Not shrug it off as history. That's how WW2 started. They learnt their lesson after that one though. But it seems not any more.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com