- A galactic mystery hovers over the World Economic Forum
meeting in Davos, Switzerland: How many of the 2,280 global leaders, including
31 heads of state, gathered in this Alpine resort conduct business with
extraterrestrials?
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- This is no whimsy for Davosians.
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- It's on the agenda of the annual powwow of the influential
and affluent who will ask forum participants such as Vice President Dick
Cheney, Coca-Cola Chairman Douglas Daft and De La Rue Chief Executive Ian
Much if the aliens have landed and are collaborating with them to concoct
government policy, brew soda pop and mint Iraq's new bank notes.
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- "The extraterrestrials have yet to make contact
with me," said Much, who will help moderate tonight's dinner seminar
(closed except to forum participants) on The Conspiracy Behind Conspiracy
Theories: Have Extraterrestrials Made Contact With Government Leaders?
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- The British moneymaker is confident - at least for now
- that De La Rue remains the largest nongovernment printer of bank notes
in the Milky Way.
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- "If the aliens are here," Much reckoned, "I'd
absolutely expect them to call me to have their currency printed."
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- Despite the twilight zone topic arching many an eyebrow
along the snow-covered strip of fashionable hotel bars, forum officials
maintain their five-day program on Partnering for Security and Prosperity
requires an unambiguous examination of extraterrestrial presence on Earth.
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- "The panelists are the best in their domain; they
all have expertise in specific fields," explained Philippe Bourguignon,
the forum's co-chief executive officer and a former CEO of Club Mediterranee.
"The themes and sessions at Davos reflect the global agenda."
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- And the public's pulse. A 1996 Gallup Poll found that
71 percent of Americans believe the government knows more about UFOs than
it has disclosed. A Roper poll found that some 80 percent of those questioned
think Wall Street and Washington are hiding knowledge of extraterrestrial
contact. And the Internet search engine Google turns up as many Web pages
dedicated to UFOs as it does for investment banking.
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- "It is possible that UFOs really do contain aliens,
and the government is hushing it up," Cambridge University physicist
Stephen Hawking told British television viewers in a 1998 interview.
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- President Bush's recent call to put a man on Mars before
2030 has swelled investor interest in exotic technologies, last week boosting
the Bloomberg Aerospace Index 1.9 percent, its biggest gain since October.
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- Earth's leaders prospecting extraterrestrial commerce
as part of the forum's agenda has set off anticipation not seen among UFO
analysts since Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released on DVD.
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