[flail]

They have a previously credible source saying Bin Laden died on or around the 23rd of August of natural causes.

Here's the article from French Yahoo News site:

http://aelo.fr/index.html

And a rough Google translation:

http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2F fr%2Enews%2Eyahoo%2Ecom%2F23092006%2F5%2Fousama%2D ben%2Dladen%2Dserait%2Dmort%2Dselon%2Dl%2Dest%2Dre publicain%2Ehtml

It's going around a lot of other websites right now, but it's just a rumor right now. I'd be very interested to see what W does about this.

[Wrao]

Who?

[Fahrenheit]

I guess he means the special kid who runs the USA.

[BarracksSi]

No, no, the "other" Who?

And, no, not the band...

[Fahrenheit]

I guess he means the special kid who runs Al Qaeada?

[drewprops]

Timmy!!!!!

[Banana]

I wouldn't hold my breath.

Stay tuned for confirmation.

[Mugge]

He's become more of an icon than a man, so whether he lives or dies really only matters if George and friends can stick his head on pole and say they pwned him.

He's kinda like the Che Guevara of the terrorists.

Oh, and FUCK him!

[Moogs]

And then again, he may not be dead. Either way, it hardly matters because there's no shortage of fanatics waiting to take his place. This "get the leaders" thing is a joke because every time we kill "The #3.5 man for Al Qaeda in Yemen", the next day there's a picture of the guy who replaced him. Just another way to keep the sheep believing there some manner of progress being made.

It might mean more if there were some type of military units attached to these guys, leaving their soldiers sitting around and scratching their heads, but this isn't that kind of war. Nobody is left scratching their heads, all they do is replace the guy, put him in front of a camera and microphone and send stuff to Al Jizz-eera. The guys that fly the planes and strap on the bombs and whatever else, are still ready and eager to go at a moment's notice.

That will never stop, so hopefully the next administration (Oliphant or Donkey) will get that, and start to move us in some type of forward-thinking direction.

[Fahrenheit]

I also feel that Bin Laden dying will have little effect on the cause of al qaeada. In fact, it will only strengthen their determination against "the infidel" etc. etc.

Really, the Islamic Extremists have moved on from being an al qaeada organisation governed by UBL. I feel its almost like his work is done, and now individual factions are setting up, and, more scarily, individuals are following his word, and going on one man crusades.

UBL alive- may be no bad thing.

[Windswept]

It's no wonder communication between nations can sometimes be fraught with difficulty, considering the quality of this translation:

DGSE specifies that no “Internet site djihadist is for the moment made the echo of died of Ousama Bin Laden”.

Instead of taking out his frustrations on the US, it's too bad Bin Laden couldn't have concentrated his wealth and energy on encouraging some kind of gradual political reform in Saudi Arabia.

But noooo......

You know, aside from the fact that he made destroying America one of his number one goals in life ( ), I always thought he looked like he'd be an interesting person to get to know - under completely different circumstances, of course.

Thinking out of the box for a moment, I wonder what might happen if ten world-leader types had to attend an Outward Bound program together - a program where they have to engage in wilderness-survival challenges as teammates, like rappelling down sheer cliffs, kayaking through rapids, building wilderness shelters and so forth.

Talking about politics, world affairs, international strife, would *not* be on the agenda.

They'd only be able to function, and survive their wilderness challenges, by working together, by relating to each other as human beings instead of as adversaries. I think Bush and Putin became much better acquainted when they spent time together at the ranch in Crawford, for example.

Outward Bound can take any human relationships to a whole other level. One time when I was being driven to work in the shuttle van from the car dealership (my car was being repaired), the driver told me about how all the dealership employees would go on wilderness challenges together to promote teamwork and better understanding.

This amazed me. The car sales staff, the mechanics, the service advisors, the secretaries... all rappelling down cliffs together.

Yep, hard to imagine, I know.

Ah well.

[Naderfan]

Originally Posted by Windswept Thinking out of the box for a moment, I wonder what might happen if ten world-leader types had to attend an Outward Bound program together - a program where they have to engage in wilderness-survival challenges as teammates, like rappelling down sheer cliffs, kayaking through rapids, building wilderness shelters and so forth. Yep, hard to imagine, I know. Ah well.

According to the Onion that did happen! http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28745

Sounds like they had a good time, too

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Naderfan According to the Onion that did happen! http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28745 Sounds like they had a good time, too

Nice find.

Another exercise, in which the legislators sat Republican-Democrat in a circle and had to say one nice thing about the person to their left, proved embarrassing at first, but ultimately strengthened the bonds between the participants.

You know, maybe they actually *do* stuff similar to that during the G-8 meetings.