So terrorists win again -- because we let them. Proposals for ID cards in the UK are another example of terrorism winning (and a cynical gvmt exploiting the situation). My apologies for being political, I know that this is not really the place for this stuff.

I wonder what the 'specific threats' against the rally were, or was it more to do with ASO's insurance company advising that they will pull the plug if they go ahead ... That and the truly awful health and safety culture which is slowly crippling society and individual aspiration.

However, one could say in fairness, the rally route this year did stray towards areas of Mauritania which are less than safe -- but surely this has been the situation on previous years.

We will never see a stable world if every time some mysterious character with an AK47 pops his head up and makes threats, we simply cave in. This is not about having destructive wars on terror, it's about simply getting on with things planned.

The rally should have gone ahead and in the extremely unlikely event that anything had hapenned, the terrorists would probably have been the ones to have trashed their cause in this instance. As it is ASO should be regarded as having egg on their faces and Mauritania cannot now escape being viewed as a dodgy place to go, when in fact it's really not.

Bin Laden (if he is still alive) must be rubbing his hands in glee.

ASO have done the Dakar Rally no favours at all, have badly let down North and West African countries and probably discouraged many potential overlanders from visiting these amazing countries and cultures.

A more proper response would have been to ask the Rally participants themselves to decide if the Dakar was to go ahead or not.

I'm due to ship out there on the 18th with Barbara, riding from Malaga to Bissau, via Mauri, Mali, Senegal and Gambia. We're still planning on going.

Heard from Fil S last night who yesrerday arrived in Bamako on his R1150GS. He tells me that Mauritania is OK. There's masses of extra security on the Road of Hope east of NCT because of the murders and there have been some floods on the road near Ayoun, but he seems to have had a smooth enough trip.

The ironic thing is that the dreadfull murders on Christmas Eve have probably made a visit to Mauritania safer, not more dangerous.

I apologise for being controversial and await the trashing.

Cheers

Craig

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