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http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=290068

Here's the Dakar thread from ADV. Today's posts start about page 9. As of about 8 A.M. our time the ASO closed scrutineering and called an emergency riders meeting. There they stated the the terrorist threat in Mauritania was too great a risk to ignore and canceled the rally for '08.

Horrible news that makes me sick for all the privateers that have spent a year of their lives and tens of thousands of dollars preparing for the rally only to have it canceled less than 24 hours before the start.

Ian

Holy crap! Can it be so?!
http://www.agi.it/engsport/news/2008010 ... 4-art.html
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show ... 0019.shtml

security threats made by Al Qaeda

Man this is major. I mean major major. Talk about effecting people World Wide!!! WOW. Thats just amazing. All because of threats made by terrorist groups. I do believe now that Al Qaeda is just against EVERYONE Period. Times have changed for sure!!


Hayden

Yeah, I've been having fits all day. I understand the decision was hard, but it seems like it was made without alot of input. None of the ASO approached any of the race teams, as far I can tell. If anything, financially speaking, they should have at least run the first few days to the Moroccan border to get a little bit of a return on the millions of sponsor dollars and advertising that will be lost.

Ian

I didnt think there was such thing as terrorist, I thought the media said President Bush made it all up to go to war.

Motoracer13 wrote:I didnt think there was such thing as terrorist, I thought the media said President Bush made it all up to go to war.

Let's not go there.

News reports about the French killed in December. Taken from Yahoo News.

By AHMED MOHAMED, Associated Press Writer
Mon Dec 24, 1:07 PM ET

Four members of a French family were killed by gunmen during a robbery in eastern Mauritania Monday, police said. The four were robbed at gunpoint and then sprayed with automatic weapons fire, said Mohamed Ould Lemine, the police chief of Aleg, the town 150 miles east of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. The father of the family survived the attack, but was seriously injured and is being treated at a nearby hospital, said Lemine. Two children were among the dead. According to Lemine, the family had stopped on the side of the highway to have a picnic when the gunmen approached them. The gunmen demanded money and then opened fire with automatic weapons. The robbers then sped off in an old Mercedes-Benz. The identities of the tourists have not been released. "The family had come from France for a vacation in Mauritania. The government of Mauritania has presented its condolences to France," said Babah Ould Sidi Abdalla, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had spoken by phone to his counterpart in the northwest African nation but did not have any details about the circumstances of the incident. "An investigation has been started to find out exactly what happened," Sarkozy told reporters during a visit to a Paris hospital. "Right now as I speak to you, it is too early to say exactly the reasons behind this aggression," he said. "In the current circumstances, all I can do is confirm this new tragedy and transmit my condolences to the families," Sarkozy said.

------
And a follow up:
By AHMED MOHAMED, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 26, 11:25 PM ET

Mauritania's interior minister blamed a terrorist sleeper cell Wednesday for the Christmas Eve killing of four French family members visiting the African country. Mauritania, on the edges of the Sahara desert, has been relatively free of terrorism by comparison with neighbors such as Algeria, where earlier this month a suicide bomber killed 37 people. "The cowardly act of violence toward the French tourists was an act of terrorism," said Mauritania's Minister of the Interior Yall Zakaria Alassane in an address to lawmakers on Wednesday. "There are sleeper cells in Mauritania and one of them committed this act," he said. The manhunt for the three suspects that gunned down the four French tourists on Monday has been expanded to neighboring Senegal. Helicopters patrolled the border.

Sidi Mouloud Ould Brahim, governor of the region where the attack occurred, said the three suspects crossed the border into Senegal late Tuesday. Senegalese officials could not confirm whether the suspects were in their territory. Initially police had said the gunmen were attempting to rob the French family as they picnicked on the side of a road near Aleg, a small town 150 miles east of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. But a day later, Mauritanian prosecutors called the slaying an act of terror and said the suspects are believed to be members of a regional al-Qaida-linked network.

A statement issued by the public prosecutor's office in Mauritania's capital on Tuesday said the attack was carried out by three men who it said were known members of the Algeria-based terror network al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa. At least two of the suspects had been accused by prosecutors this year of being members of the al-Qaida-linked terror group and of having undergone military training with it in Algeria. The sole survivor of the attack, the family's father, was seriously injured and flown overnight Monday to the main hospital in Senegal's capital, Dakar, the hospital said.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Wednesday identified him as Francois Tollet and said he had been sent back to France. "I assure you that French authorities are determined to shed light on this tragedy," Fillon told reporters.
___
Associated Press Writer Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Sadibou Marone in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

Religion, politics, American pride...these are topics that can definitely incite people to riot. I'm with you all. As "site administrator", I don't have any "problem" with anything said in this thread so far, and I'm not into censoring. On the other hand, I do claim veto power to delete any thread I want.

Let's just keep it clean and above the belt. I'm not above reproach myself. As some of you will remember, early on, I was a major part of a thread that went bad---so I'm as guilty as anyone. As a Christian myself, I've had times in my life when I wanted to debate my beliefs against an opposing belief. My heart and will want to do one thing, but I have to use my head to remind myself -- scholars much wiser than I have debated these same things for centuries. These same things will probably be causing strife a century from now. I am probably not going to solve this in the next 10 minutes by arguing with this guy or by crafting a smart forum post.

Now, back to the topic of the Dakar being cancelled. This is huge for sure. In trying to see the possible good in every situation, perhaps this will at least serve to open the eyes of more people groups to the terrorist problem. This time, they've pissed off dozens of countries and just about every religion and race on the planet--not just America and Americans.

PS: Who wants to RIDE?! I made the mistake yesterday of reminiscing over photos of my Colorado ride in July 2007. I think my eyes got a little misty.

One bad apple can ruin the whole harvest. Its dissapointing to see the dakar canceled especially as these types of raid rallys are gaining popularity in the US. I was anxious to see if Mitsubishi has gonna hang on to their domination or see how the American Hummer team would do. The people that commited the attacks seem like theives rather than terrorist just from the first report although they did use a machine gun.

The other good thing that might come of it is a N. American "Dakar" Or at least an American "Dakar" (maybe Brasil) Brasil's a lot closer and easier to get to than Dakar. Heck, we could all ride down to Brasil.

Ian

YEAH !!! We should totally have an American "Dakar" That would be sweet, I'd also like to see World Rally Car have a stop over in the US.

iyeager wrote:The other good thing that might come of it is a N. American "Dakar" Or at least an American "Dakar" (maybe Brasil) Brasil's a lot closer and easier to get to than Dakar. Heck, we could all ride down to Brasil.

Ian

Robby Gordon in a swamp buggy! Tha would be cool.

the fact remains the same. there is a: religion, group of people, sect, whatever you want to call them- that has to be done away with. i mean gone, permantly.

There is a "group of people" that need to be done away with on this planet. They are called murderers, rapists, liars and thieves.
Without them, the world would truly be a wonderful place to live.

How about the "Kansas Dakar" again??? Troy, that would be a good way to get your back side use to the Husky seat!

It would be cool if some riders just decided to ride it anyway. You could make a movie about that.

JaySoy wrote:It would be cool if some riders just decided to ride it anyway. You could make a movie about that.

Cool. Except the part where a terrorist severs your head from your body, video-tapes it and then posts it on his website. Probably not the movie you had in mind. I'm not following this news story, but I'm definitely not hearing anything about it. I'm sure in other countries it is making bigger headlines.

Some riders did, actually.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthre ... 68&page=43

Not the actual route, I'm sure, but Dakar-rats none-the-less.

Next year save your pennies boys and girls. Dakar 2009, South America.

Ian

Anyone seen the advertisement on speed for a race that looked like Dakar? I think it was like Two Rodes to T...something? I think it airs 1/25. I will have to search for it later...........a train is calling.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/rally/34730/

It's about Baja. It follows the Millin (big money) FJ entry and the FJ that was entered by a bunch of guys from Ohio (I think?) who entered the race for the first time, with no sponsership and no professional help. It's actually pretty interesting.

Ian