Obviously, even if these are legit news reports - there's always the chance that he's not really dead etc etc.

But I've litterally just been told about it now and wondered if you guys in America had heard more?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256956

Edit: The more I'm reading in to it, the more I'm thinking that the original reports I heard a long time ago (but with no reliable sources) were probably true. If I remember correctly it was a few years back I heard the first reports of Osama's death but nothing ever really came of it.

I guess it does heavily depend on if there is something going on behind the scenes, but what better time to bring up something like this than when the presidents validity is in Question?

To be honest, I couldn't give a monkey if Obama was or wasn't born on American turf - if he's a good president and is doing good for the country then that should be all that matters. I know it isn't that simple when dealing with your home ground (i.e. if I was American I'd be more inclined to stand against Obama if I found he wasn't also American) but that's the beauty of the 3rd person perspective I guess.

Still, I'll keep reading - and treat all the above with a pinch of salt if you read my ramblings, I don't wanna step on toes here

I don't think Bin Laden's death is all that meaningful tbh. I mean what will it really change? Contrary to what many people seem to believe 'Al Quaeda' isn't a monolithic vast network performing terrorist actions. By now the actual group is probably disbanded and/or splintered into a non-entity. It's just other smaller cells of malcontents and radicals acting mostly on their own that use the name as some sort of catch-all term. It makes a much bigger impression than saying that your <insert unknown name here> local group has bombed something or is going to.

While I can imagine that the US and UK are happy they finally got him, it seems that it's really quite far past the point by now. So eh...

As for the Obama 'was he or wasn't he born in the US' discussion, it's massively retarded. For one there's no way he'd actually be able to hide such a thing if he wasn't in today's mediatized world. It's just party partisan BS fearmongering among the ignorant masses.

And in general, who gives a fuck where he was born. I think the law is pretty lame. Are you a better American (or less 'dangerous' American) if you happened to be born on US soil as opposed to someone whose parents moved to the states when he or she was young? Of course not. It's just some leftover antiquated law from the time that no one could be sure that the persons running for presidents weren't sleeper agents or whatever (and again, that seems like an antiquated concept. Like they can't be born in the US). If someone were to run for president and had 'sympathies' that are incompatible with the presidency, they're not gonna be able to hide that in this day and age.

I'd be for some restrictions - like a minimum of years of being in the States (30?), an clean criminal record and not having served in either public office or the army in a different country. But the whole 'born on US soil' thing is too arbitrary.

I'm quite happy Obama is dead. It's not going to have any real effect on terrorism or anything, I'm sure, but it's nice the guy finally got what was coming to him. It's even more amusing that he got headshot by a SEAL team on a covert CIA operation. Now that's something that's going to find its way into a game in the near future, I guarantee it.

Of course, the details are still a bit murky, so perhaps it wasn't a SEAL team on a CIA op. Regardless, I'm happy the bastard is dead. I'm also amused they dumped his body at sea. I'm guessing the point there was to avoiding giving him a tombstone somewhere that could be used as a symbol.

Regarding the Obama citizenship thing, the whole thing is just stupid. It's not unusual though. When I got my Army security clearance, I got all kinds of idiots thinking I was German because I was born in Germany. Idiots. I had to explain that whole thing way too many times.

Looks legit. Seems his ass finally got capped. Hooray.

As for impact on terrorism or the war in A-Stan, i'm pretty sure none of us know enough to say whether there will be a change or not. Who's to say he wasn't coordinating efforts?

Anyway, i'm interested in the mission and apparently 2 blackhawks stuffed with SEALs did the job. Compound raided from the roof, a bit of a ding-dong ensued, and ended with Bin Laden shot twice in the head. Pakistani military was not informed of this mission at any point, but apparently everyone got back home alive and well.

I don't believe Pakistan knew nothing... they had to fly those helicopters through one of the most militarised parts of Pakistan. Also, the Pakistani military had cordoned the site of before even the local police arrived. I'm quite sure though only a few people knew this was going to happen, as the Pakistani military and secret service is full of Al Quaeda sympathisers.
Anyway, Osama has been irrelevant for years, first in his own organisation, since this year also in the Arab world, with a rather peaceful (and quite secular) Arab spring instead of his suicide bombs.

Lol @ Obama/dead comment!

Have any of you seen the 'photo' of Osama they have floating about? Is that supposed to be the legit press released photo? I mean, it took people minutes to find the original unshopped version apparently, but I've yet to see the photo on an actual news story.

No, the pic of Osama dead is fake. It was faked years ago and dredged back up again. Supposedly the US government peeps are mulling over releasing pics of Osama's corpse, but I hope they don't. It's crass and uncultured. Now... letting it 'leak' accidentally is a whole different story.

lolz @ my Osama/Obama slip. oops.

I've been pondering about this all. It's such a clusterfuck, tbh. Obviously Bin laden had it coming. But killing an unarmed man, then dumping him into the sea seems quite...crude. I can understand that the US didn't want to take him alive (I don't think that was ever the plan), but I still maintain that we have an obligation as the west to set examples, and I'm not talking about this type of 'example'. Not to mention the legality of flying in two choppers in a strange country, blasting a dude and stealing his corpse. I saw the US Justice minister say that it was a legal action because 'it's legal to target the enemy commander on the battlefield'. Yeah but...it's not an army. Or a commander. Or a battlefield. Unless they see everything anywhere as a battlefield as long as there are 'bad guys' on it, clearly.

I'm not saying it's not a good thing that he's gone (altho I think his importance had diminished greatly), or that I don't understand the revenge feelings, but seeing scenes of people dancing in the streets celebrating a man's execution - cause that's what it is, tbh - like they won the super bowl kinda sits wrong with me.

Ugh, I hate humanity. All of it.

y'know, I'm not exactly pleased with all the Osama is dead jubilation, but at the same time, he was an enemy combatant. This guy personally chose to take part in action against innocent civilians around the world.

Compare that to the Palestinians celebrating and dancing in the street when an Israeli family is brutally executed in their home along with their 3 children.

Ox is too humane.

Yet he plays blood thirsty crazies in games. Perhaps he's just pretending to be humane. Perhaps, in reality, he's crazier than these guys, and his own, twisted little way, by trying to justify leaving them alone, he's trying to justify himself being left alone.

Well, guess what Ox! I'm onto you! A SEAL team is en route as we speak. Muhahahahahaha!

I agree with the hype being too much. You should never be 'happy' someone is dead; it's not a nice thing and makes you not as bad as them, but still quite... well... nasty. We're meant to be the good guys! Obviously though you should make such large news available to the world, but whether proof should be released or not... I guess it depends on what proof and as pretty much the only proof people would accept is a photo/video of his corpse I don't really know.

As to whether it's going to stop the terrorism... I doubt it. Yes, he was at the head of the organisation but he didn't co-ordinate everything by himself. You can't run Microsoft with only Bill Gates, and a terrorist group is the same. He'll have had numerous deputies/generals/whatever who will know pretty much everything (if not more) about tactics, targets etc. He was basically just the figurehead and the final port of call to say go ahead with operation bomb america.

Basically, I'm with Ox on this

Whilst I agree in principle with Ox/Pev, I believe there is such cause to be happy about someone's death if their death causes good to occur. In this case, the "good" is a feeling of justice to all those who have lost family both on home soil and to those families in places like Afghanistan too. We're all to quick to think of ourselves in these situations, when anyone who stands in the way of "terrorism" is a target, including on their home turf.

Now maybe it shouldn't have been a bloody great party, but as a nation I believe America had the right to celebrate as one way or another, they have all paid for the war in both blood and money - at least something they can hold on to, an iconic representation of this war, [namely, the death of the person marked as the spearhead] has been achieved.

Rightfully so, there are also people who stand against war - and for all the right reasons. But the argument for me, is that without war there is a good chance that they might not have had the freedom to make their choice against war in the first place. I'm not ignorant enough to say that for certain, and I'm definitely not ignorant enough to say that the war in Af'stan is the same kind of thing, it's definitely moved on from any kind of defensive situation. But most sports fans say, the best defence is a strong offence.

Who knows, in the long run. I'm not a soldier, nor any kind of operations expert - but I think the term necersary evil is ideal for this situation. If they really did kill Osama recently (as in not a long time ago like I suspect) it gives the pro-war team a victory, and brings the anti-war team one step closer (or the feeling of) the war ending soon.