Really good article on email that got away from a person.
Accidental Privacy Spills: Musings on Privacy, Democracy, and the Internet
The email itself is very interesting as its a breathless account of a person who attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
While the topic of privacy, and expectations of privacy in communications and especially email is interesting, I found the text of the email far more interesting.
The following assertions were made.
"They all said that at its peak Al Qaeda
had 70,000 members. Only 10% of them were trained in terrorism -- the
rest were military recruits. Of that 7000, they say all but about 200
are dead or in jail."
If this is true, sounds like good news to me. Unfortunately, it goes on to say of course, they really don't know how many more splinter of "franchise" groups exist, or exist as a result of the crackdowns.
"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."
I don't like the sounds of this. This kind of stinking economic conditions, combined with any terror attack or widening of wars could prove very difficult to dig out of economically speaking. I would much rather hear the "recovery around the corner bit." Of course, if oil prices cheapen and stabilize, I think the economy will get some legs. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen in the short term unless the Iraq war is very short or isn't pursued. Oil is the lubricant of our economy.
I also don't really like the idea of a ruling class meeting at some relatively closed meeting to decide the fates of the rest of us. While I am not some conspiracy nut, these type of feelings give you the idea that is what is happening.
I also wonder whether this whole email was purposely leaked for publicity or as a stunt of some sort. It seems a smart person, wouldn't send something like that around expecting that no one else would ever see it. Come on, it's just too juicy.
Speaking of wanting to know the real story. I still can't help but think about the former CFO of VERITAS, Ken Lonchar. The reason he is no longer at VERITAS, has to do to with resume falsification. The story we have all heard tells of the board recieving an anonymous email. Who sent the email and why is what I want to know. Was it someone hired for the purpose, was it settling some old score, was it an ex, was it some ,extended office politics. I certainly have no idea.
I would also like to know if it was a relief to Ken to not have this lie hanging over him like some sword of Damocles.
If anyone knows the real story, email me. I promise not to post it to the web. (ha, ha, ha).
