Meeting The World's Leaders - A Letter From Davos

The following is a letter from a reporter whomanaged to get heavy credentials for the Davos conference.It Rosetta Stone software was posted on the Psychohistory bulletin board itappears here on Scoop after being transmitted via SamSmith's indomitable Undernews @http://prorev.com Meeting TheWorld's Leaders This sweet little chaletvillage was during the WEF packed with about 3000 delegatesand press, some 1000 Swiss police, another 400 Swiss soldiers, numerous tanks and armored personnel carriers,gigantic rolls of coiled barbed wire that gracefullycascaded down snow-covered hillsides, missile launchers andassorted other tools of the national security trade. Thesecurity precautions did not, of course, stop there. Everysingle person who planned to enter the conference site hadspecial electronic badges which, upon being swiped across areading pad, produced a computer screen filled colorportrait of the attendee, along with his/her vitalstatistics. These were swiped and scrutinized by soldiersand police every few minutes -- any time one passed througha door, basically. The whole system was connected tohandheld wireless communication devices made by HP, whichwere issued to all VIPs. I got one. Very cool, except whenthey crashed. Which, of course, they did frequently. Thesedevices supplied every imaginable piece of information onecould want about the conference, your fellow delegates,Davos, the world news, etc. And they were emailing devices--- all emails being monitored, of course, by Swiss cops. .. Overall, here is what I learned about the state of ourworld:- I was in a dinner with heads of Saudi and GermanFBI, plus the foreign minister of Afghanistan. They all saidthat at its peak Al Qaeda had 70,000 members. Only 10% ofthem were trained in terrorism -- the rest were militaryrecruits. Of that 7000, they say all but about 200 are deador in jail.- But Al Qaeda, they say, is like a brandwhich has been heavily franchised. And nobody knows howmany unofficial franchises have been spawned since9/11.- The global economy is in very very very very badshape. Last year when WEF met here in New York all I heardwas, "Yeah, it's bad, but recovery is right around thecorner." This year "recovery" was a word never uttered.Fear Rosetta Stone Greek was palpable -- fear of enormous fiscal hysteria. The watchwords were "deflation", "long term stagnation" and"collapse of the dollar." All of this is without war.- Ifthe U.S. unilaterally goes to war, and it is anything shortof a quick surgical strike (lasting less than 30 days), theeconomists were all predicting extreme economic gloom:falling dollar value, rising spot market oil prices, the Fedpushing interest rates down towards zero with resultingincrease in national debt, severe trouble in all countries whose currency is guaranteed against the dollar (which isjust about everybody except the EU), a near cessation ofall development and humanitarian programs for poorcountries. Very few economists or ministers of financepredicted the world getting out of that economic funk forminimally five-10 years, once the downward spiralensues.- Not surprisingly, the business community was inno mood to hear about a war in Iraq. Except for diehardAmerican Republicans, a few Brit Tories and some MiddleEast folks the WEF was in a foul, angry anti-American mood.Last year the WEF was a love fest for America. This yearthe mood was so ugly that it reminded me of what it feltlike to be an American overseas in the Reagan years. Therich -- whether they are French or Chinese or just aboutanybody -- are livid about the Iraq crisis primarilybecause they believe it will sink their financial fortunes.Plenty are also infuriated because they disagreeon policy grounds. I learned a great deal. It goes farbeyond the sorts of questions one hears raised bydemonstrators and in UN debates. For example:- If AlQaeda is down to merely 200 terrorists cadres and a handfulof wannabe franchises, what's all the fuss?- The MiddleEast situation has never been worse. All hope for a settlement between Israel and Palestine seems to haveevaporated. The energy should be focused on placing painfulfinancial pressure on all sides in that fight, forcing themto the negotiating table. Otherwise, the ME may Rosetta Stone Hindi V3 wellexplode. The war in Iraq is at best a distraction from thatcore issue, at worst may aggravate it. Jordan's Queen Raniaspoke of the "desperate search for hope."- SeriousIslamic leaders (e.g. the King of Jordan, the Prime Minsterof Malaysia, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia) believe that theIslamic world must recapture the glory days of 12-13th CIslam.