] The global economy is in very very very very bad shape.
] Last year when WEF met here in New York all I heard was,
] "Yeah, it's bad, but recovery is right around the corner".
] This year "recovery" was a word never uttered. Fear 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.
]
] - If the U.S. unilaterally goes to war, and it is
] anything short of a quick surgical strike (lasting less
] than 30 days), the economists were all predicting extreme
] economic gloom: falling dollar value, rising spot market
] oil prices, the Fed pushing interest rates down towards zero
] with resulting increase in national debt, severe trouble in
] all countries whose currency is guaranteed agains the dollar
] (which is just about everybody except the EU), a near
] cessation of all development and humanitarian programs for
] poor countries. Very few economists or ministers of finance
] predicted the world getting out of that economic funk for
] minimally five-10 years, once the downward spiral ensues.

Newsday Reporter's 'Spilled' Email

] Saddam Hussein indicated on Monday that he does not intend
] to follow U.N. orders to destroy his Al-Samoud 2
] missiles, and challenged President Bush to an
] internationally televised debate via satellite linkup.
]
] In a three-hour interview with CBS anchor Dan Rather, the
] Iraqi leader said he envisioned a live debate with Bush
] along the lines of those in a U.S. presidential campaign,
] according to the network.
]
] Rather reported on the interview during the evening
] newscast. CBS said it planned to broadcast excerpts on
] Tuesday and the entire interview on Wednesday.

This interview might be interesting...

Newsday.com - In Interview, Saddam Challenges Bush to Debate

Great political cartoon about the anti-war movement of today.

A Reluctant Warrior (Reason Magazine)

] Powell said the Iraqi authorities had conducted
] experiments on people, with one source reporting that
] 1,600 convicted prisoners had been transferred to special
] units where such experiments were carried out. Autopsies
] were later conducted to check the results, he said.

BBC | Powell UN briefing: Key points

] A poster depicting missiles hitting the U.S. Capitol
] building hangs on a wall of a shoe factory in Sinuiju,
] North Korea, in this Sept. 25, 2002 file photo. The
] isolated regime's bellicose rhetoric reached a new
] pitch in the past week, when North Korea escalated
] its nuclear standoff with Washington, warning of a
] 'Third World War,' 'a sea of fire' and a 'holy war'
] against the United States.

Wow, file this one right up there with the British Tube System's "Secure beneath the watchful eyes" poster under forgien propaganda items I wish I could get a copy of!

AP Photo - North Korea bombing US Capitol

] "North Korea's startling revival of its nuclear program,
] coupled with the unrelenting threat of international
] terrorism, presents compelling reasons for President Bush
] to step back from his fixation on attacking Iraq and to
] reassess his administration's priorities."

Iraq Belongs on the Back Burner

Created by the NSA's ad agency, Trahan, Burden & Charles, Baltimore, the new print campaign uses dramatic patriotic art of miliary personnel at work emblazoned with slogans such as "INFORMATION SECURITY BEGINS WITH YOU."

LOOSE LIPS CAN SINK SHIPS -- AGAIN

We are therefore in an extraordinarily difficult crisis. The three players each have strategic interests that simply don't mesh. If Washington convinces New Delhi to wait, it will have to convince Islamabad to stay in India's crosshairs and India to put up with intolerable attacks. If India proceeds, it essentially would save al-Qaida by shattering Pakistan. In the event of complete mismanagement, a nuclear exchange costing millions of lives is a genuine possibility.

WorldNetDaily: India, Pakistan at boiling point

Maybe it is a way to tame a fearsome subject by Hollywoodizing it, or maybe it is a way to drive home the dreadful stakes in the arid-sounding business of nonproliferation, but in several weeks of talking to specialists here and in Russia about the threats an amateur evildoer might pose to the homeland, I found an unnerving abundance of such morbid creativity.

This is a long article, and there is little you can do, but it you are curious...

Nuclear Nightmares

In reality the documents portray Mr Arafat's military impotence. The papers the Israeli intelligence service have so far produced – assuming that most of them are genuine – paint a vivid, pathetic picture of his loss of power within the Palestinian community over the past 12 months, the suborning of his lieutenants and the gradual recruitment of his men by Hamas and Islamic Jihad opponents.

I wish this guy offered sources. I find his conclusions a little unclear and I'd like to read the source material and come to my own conclusions.

Israel's evidence questioned