Osama Bin Laden: Dead

[Petrushka]

Unbelievable. I think that even if the US had produced a body, the loonies would have come out of the woodwork saying it wasn't really him.

Surely it would have been in America's best interests to have provided incontrovertible proof that the individual killed was indeed Bin Laden? One recalls how 'sightings' of Hitler continued for many years after 1945. The swift disposal of the body at sea will keep the conspiracy theorists going for decades.

[burning dog]

Unbelievable. I think that even if the US had produced a body, the loonies would have come out of the woodwork saying it wasn't really him.

I was quoting from another post Mr Pee.

[ahinton]

Surely it would have been in America's best interests to have provided incontrovertible proof that the individual killed was indeed Bin Laden? One recalls how 'sightings' of Hitler continued for many years after 1945. The swift disposal of the body at sea will keep the conspiracy theorists going for decades.

Yes, I believe that it would although, that said, it would have been in its - and, I think, almost everyone else's - best interests had ObL instead been arrested and then put on trial.

[Mahlerei]

I imagine some photographic evidence will surface in time. The sight of drunken louts singing at Ground Zero in the early hours was rather unedifying, hough. Now we must be ready for the backlash.

[burning dog]

Surely it would have been in America's best interests to have provided incontrovertible proof that the individual killed was indeed Bin Laden? One recalls how 'sightings' of Hitler continued for many years after 1945. The swift disposal of the body at sea will keep the conspiracy theorists going for decades.

DO you think a body would stop them? I don't doubt the USA have taken DNA samples from the body, or "manufactured" them, whichever you prefer.

[Petrushka]

DO you think a body would stop them?

Who? The conspiracy mob? You're no doubt right. In any event there is enough here to keep the industry going on overdrive for generations to come. No, the only 'incontrovertible proof' would have been, as ahinton points out, Bin Laden captured alive. With this in mind, I wonder what orders the US special forces were under. As it is, dead men don't talk.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Unbelievable. I think that even if the US had produced a body, the loonies would have come out of the woodwork saying it wasn't really him.

I seem to recall that they claimed to have killed Bin Laden way back in 2001 or 2002. The hasty disposal of the body at sea suggests to me that the whole thing is made up. I don't mind being mocked as a conspiracy theorists. The Americans may believe that we are all gullible or stupid, but some of us are more guarded.

And while on the subject of "official" news, I'm still not convinced about the so-called electrocution of a horse at Newmarket, caused by "an underground cable". Don't they realise that (a) being buried underground, it would be earthed, and (b) all the humans (and other horses) were unaffected by it. A vet I know said the horse showed the symptoms of poisoning.

[amateur51]

Unbelievable. I think that even if the US had produced a body, the loonies would have come out of the woodwork saying it wasn't really him.

You live in woodwork, Mr Pee?

Well of course you believe everything you see on the News - you pay Mr Murdoch so much for it!

[Mandryka]

Apparently, the Fox News onscreen tickertape recently reported the death of someone called 'Obama Bin Laden'. Freudian slip?

[burning dog]

If the US were to stage the death 2006 would have been the time, shortly after the White House appointing Senator MCain as "Bin Laden Czar"

[scottycelt]

Apparently Saudi Arabia was asked to take the body and understandably refused, so it's government can either confirm or deny that, and have any supporters of Bin Laden yet denied he has been killed? Plenty of time, yet, of course!

Whatever the US says or does will always be wrong according to UK liberals and left-wingers, but I do agree that Obama milking the event to the full, and apparently taking the personal credit for killing OBL, was unseemly to say the least.

Are there American elections due ..?

[EdgeleyRob]

Fair play to the Americans, still take their bins out on bank holiday

[Petrushka]

I seem to recall that they claimed to have killed Bin Laden way back in 2001 or 2002. The hasty disposal of the body at sea suggests to me that the whole thing is made up. I don't mind being mocked as a conspiracy theorists. The Americans may believe that we are all gullible or stupid, but some of us are more guarded.

And while on the subject of "official" news, I'm still not convinced about the so-called electrocution of a horse at Newmarket, caused by "an underground cable". Don't they realise that (a) being buried underground, it would be earthed, and (b) all the humans (and other horses) were unaffected by it. A vet I know said the horse showed the symptoms of poisoning.

Off-topic, I know, but the racehorse deaths (plural, there were two) occurred at Newbury, not Newmarket. Humans would not have been affected for the simple reason that they have two legs and not four and the horse has so much more body mass between. The underground cable was disturbed during work carried out in the paddock prior to the affected meeting and had apparently been there for some 30 years, I think it was said, at the time of the construction of the new stand. In addition, the horses handlers reported slight shocks as they led them round the paddock and two other horses received lesser shocks but survived. The suggestion of poisoning is risible and has never been seriously mooted as far as I know. The affected horses had post-mortem examinations and were found to have had heart failure due to electrocution a finding accepted by all the connections involved as well as Newbury Racecourse.

[Ian Thumwood]

Killing Bin Laden will do nothing. A work colleague of mine made a very interesting comment several years ago to me that I always felt was really profound. He said that historians in the future will view the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 as the defining event in the 20th Century as this marked a major sea-change in the way a signficant proportion of the world perceived things. Like it or not, Radical Islam is here to stay, it cannot be defeated and the influence of this religion will surely grow. I believe that Islam is now making in roads in South America where this was once considered impossible due to the influence of the Catholic church. Islamic belief and environmental issues will be the priniciple motors governing global politics in the 21st Century. In my opinion, some people will need to adjust their current method of thinking accordingly to reflect the world which has emerged since the collapse of Communism. It will be interesting to see haow capitalism / globalism manages to fit into the equation. I would suggest that the uncontrolled expansion of heavy industry and damage to the planet poses a far greater threat to us that Al Quaeda could ever muster.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Off-topic, I know, but the racehorse deaths (plural, there were two) occurred at Newbury, not Newmarket. Humans would not have been affected for the simple reason that they have two legs and not four and the horse has so much more body mass between. The underground cable was disturbed during work carried out in the paddock prior to the affected meeting and had appartently been there for some 30 years, I think it was said, at the time of the construction of the new stand. In addition, the horses handlers reported slight shocks as they led them tound the paddock. The suggestion of poisoning is risible and has never been mooted as far as I know. The affected horses had post-mortem examinations and were found to have had heart failure due to electrocution a finding accepted by all the connections involved as well as Newbury Racecourse.

Yes, Newbury, of course.