Dakar Canceled???

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080104/ap_on_re_af/car_dakar_rally

Anybody know more? Dave, You hear anything direct from the team?

Tim

Several sources confirm it being cancelled...

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rally gods would turn in their graves if they ever knew Lada's were now part of EU rallying!!!

http://www.dakar.com/indexus.html

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

Yes, Mike and Dale are already on the way back and Dennis and Nico are securing the vehicles and will come back in a couple days. Looks like the threat was very real but a lot of people are pissed the ASO didn't at least arrange an abbreviated version from Lisbon to Morocco and back a few times or something.


DEBKAfile Exclusive: Five al Qaeda suspects detained in Mauritania admit Dakar Rally targeted, as hundreds of disgruntled teams head home

January 4, 2008, 7:32 PM (GMT+02:00)


Dakar Rally called off by al Qaeda terror

Hundreds of crews gathered in Lisbon heard at the last minute Friday that the organizers, the Amaury Sport Organization, had called off the challenging 9,000-mile Dakar Rally for the first time over terror threats. Five suspects were detained by Mauritanian intelligence over the murders of a French family of four on Dec. 24 and three soldiers. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that the suspects told interrogators in Nouakchott that Al Qaeda’s next target in the series was to be the Dakar Rally.

The jihadist group, they said, had deployed terrorist teams in a wide net across the Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal, poised to kill rally participants and take hostages. Eight of the rally’s stages transit Mauritania.

More than 600 cars, trucks, motor-cycles and their crews were set to start the 30th annual Dakar Rally, known as the Everest of off-road racing, Saturday, Jan. 5 and ending at Dakar on Jan. 20 after driving through harsh Saharan terrain. More than 80 percent of the field had invested a year’s hard work and private funds in preparing for the event.

In 2004, several stages of the Dakar Rally were called off because of terror threats in Mali - but never has al Qaeda succeeded in forcing the cancellation of an entire major sporting event. According to our counter-terror sources, al Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, who directs the movement’s Maghreb branch, is responsible for this “success.” It has aroused fears in international sporting circles that al Qaeda, having flexed its muscles in Africa, will now try and force the cancellation of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by intimidation.

It is also a grave setback for AFRICOM which the US established to combat terror Since the tough anti-terrorist Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president, Al Qaeda appears to have set its sights on French targets. Monday, Dec. 31, a French aid worker was shot dead in Burundi and another injured. Five people have been detained in connection with the shooting.

Algeria is being used as the base and jumping of center of al Qaeda in the Maghreb, as well as its victim. Abdelaiz Bouteflika’s intelligence services were unable to thwart recent suicide attacks in the country.

Ahhhhh more fun from the 'Religion of Peace.'

When events are cancelled they 'win.'

Ugh

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JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

JohnLane Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ahhhhh more fun from the 'Religion of Peace.'
>
> When events are cancelled they 'win.'
>
> Ugh
>
>
>
> JohnLane
>
> Overkill is consistently more fun


John, they did not win. If the rally had gone on as planned and competitors had been captured and killed then would we have won? No, they would have. It's a Catch-22. As it was their plans were foiled. There were direct threats against American and French competitors. (How much do you want to bet that if the threats had only been against Americans the rally would have gone on...) Sure, Al Qaeda will claim victory (they always do that) because they got the rally cancelled but they would have got a way bigger story if they had just kept their mouths shut and executed (pardon the pun) their plan. As it is they totally screwed up and never got their chance.

Dave I'm not suggesting that the right thing to do is other then what happened.
I'd just like to see those troublemakers go back to making peace within their religion soes that the rest of us can have our fun without fear of being shot cuz we are the Infidel.

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JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

JohnLane Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dave I'm not suggesting that the right thing to do
> is other then what happened.
> I'd just like to see those troublemakers go back
> to making peace within their religion soes that
> the rest of us can have our fun without fear of
> being shot cuz we are the Infidel.
>
> JohnLane
>
> Overkill is consistently more fun


That would be nice, huh?

In the meantime my favorite bumper sticker: "KILL ALL EXTREMISTS!!!"

Doivi Clarkinen Wrote:
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having flexed its
> muscles in Africa, will now try and force the
> cancellation of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by
> intimidation.
>


Damn, are they dumb enough to try that...really, can you imagine what China will do if they try to screw with the games? It's one thing to wreck the Dakar in the middle of the desert in unstable countries with semi-sympathetic governments. Try that in a communist police state with virtually unlimited finances that has been desperately planning and fighting to hold the games for all these years.

Doivi Clarkinen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the meantime my favorite bumper sticker: "KILL
> ALL EXTREMISTS!!!"

Say Dave, where'd you ever see a sticker like that?
8)

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I see 2 new classes at Dakar:

Armored Vehicle Class - Tracked
Armored Vehicle Class - Wheeled

Stinkin' idjits!!!
Mark B.

Well this may just be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the terrerist types. The Chinese will not likely insist on the UN doing the dirty work; They will just make a bunch of dead unpleasant people. I'm OK with that so long as they don't see me as being unpleasant and in need of killing.

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JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

JohnLane Wrote:
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I'm OK with that so long as
> they don't see me as being unpleasant and in need
> of killing.
>
>

John, you are being unpleasant today. You need killing.

J/K