While all heads are turned and awaiting more horror in the form of biological, chemical, or nuclear attacks;did Osama Bin Laden have something else in mind for the world?

With his manipulation of the stock market only days prior to the September 11th attacks, was Bin Laden looking at the bigger picture? Was it his intent to completely bankrupt the U.S. and other western countries? Was it the aftermath he was interested in?

The U.S. new homeland security plan begins at a cost of 38 billion dollars. The war in Afghanistan costs americans a whopping one billion dollars per month (to date a total of 30 billion). The cost of going into Iraq could easily double. There's the added cost of going into Iran, North Korea, Somalia, and Sudan, to mention just a few countries on the list which need immediate attention.

The damage to, and bailing out of airlines along with other spending in the presence of tax cuts, increased military spending (on an unprecedented scale) indicate less money coming in and more going out.

US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan have told the US Congress that no one can tell how deeply the economy has been affected by the terrorist attacks.

Mr Greenspan warned that the shock of September 11th "by markedly raising the degree of uncertainty about the future, has the potential to result in a pronounced disengagement from future commitments."

Although Greenspan did say that he thought the economy would survive and was doing better than expected, could he be covering the real truth?

Did Greenspan weigh the options and not exactly spell out the reality? At this critical time when his words could spell disaster, did he make a choice to "jade the truth"?

When Bin Laden said "The end of america is immenent",
did he know what he was talking about? Is the U.S. and maybe the entire world close to being, or already in, check-mate?

By A. Longson