Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden, the broker of so many major terrorist atrocities, including 9/11 . . . is dead.

He was holed up in a very comfortable residence in Abbottabad a garrison town 61km from Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

Questions will now be asked as to how he was allowed to live freely in such a public area without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities. From news briefs, particularly Aljazeera, it is suggested by commentators that he could not have existed like this without some credible support system from within Pakistan.

No doubt the full story will unfold in the coming days / weeks and in the meantime most countries will be on full alert in case of reprisals from his fanatical followers in Al Qaeda. It is well reported that Bin Laden has not been "hands on" in Al Qaeda for at least the last decade so the question is . . how much difference will this make to global Al Qaeda? We all wait with baited breath.