Of late, what has been discussed in news circles is the many scenarios in which terrorist attacks would possibly take place.

That such a concern be addressed seriously should certainly come as no surprise. After all, who in the world foresaw the tragedy of Sept 11, 2001?

What that day has done is alter all our lives dramatically and in the place of the normalcy that we once knew before; we have fear. Real, sometimes; imagined on other occasions but crippling fear nonetheless.

Such is the level of fear present in the world today that what it does, is just what it did during the Cold War: it conditions our behaviour. As stifling as that condition is, we paint all kinds of scenarios - from the sane to the baffling to the incredulous - because the fear as we know it, makes us all lead separate lives now.

While most doomsday scenarios have pointed to dirty bombs, attacks on maritime shipping, suicide attacks on trains or on ships berthing in ports or even the planting of remote explosive devices in crowded places, none have said anything about economic terrorism.

If anybody cared to remember what al-Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden said in a televised broadcast on al-Jazeera TV shortly before the US presidential elections; his avowed wish is to bankrupt the United States and bleed her dry and white.

To think of it, there are two ways he can do that to the US and its allies.

First, is to copy what Iraq and Iran did to each other during their 1980s Persian Gulf War. Fight a very brutal war of attrition and wear an opponent down so badly that it takes years to recover. If that is any guess, it undoubtedly will have a disastrous strain on a nation's finances and also see to Osama's wish. What is worse, it is proven!

To see, not be seen

But to do that, Osama would require huge manpower and other technical resources; which the al-Qaeda experiencing the setbacks it did from the Americans' launching operation 'Enduring Freedom'; can scarcely afford.

Even so, terrorists just don't do business that way at all. In fact, they have never. It is an insult to them as their motto is always to see and not to be seen.

Because that has always been their way, it is absolutely unlikely that they will meet in a field and inaugurate the opening of hostilities after a handshake. Such a thing is just too civilised. They enjoy the stealth, cunning and deception that other terrorists do not the least of, which is the Irish Republican Army, now singing perhaps its last hurrah.

So what modern-day terrorists would do is attempt at ingenious methods of economic warfare which while yielding the results they seek, also enjoys the three mentioned qualities of stealth, cunning and deception.

They would think of counterfeiting currencies of a country and deposit huge volumes of that in banks across their target nation.

With Internet banking and faceless depositors these days, that could well be a distinct possibility.

What is more with the preferential treatment that banks usually assign to customers depositing huge deposits, terrorists could well infiltrate a bank to manipulate operations, using a front man.

When such an operation is carried out, it affects a nation's liquidity. A nation, as we know can only produce a certain amount of goods and services, which it then matches, by a corresponding amount of liquidity (meaning money) circulating within it. This carefully controlled position is known as a state of equilibrium and defines the relationship between money supply and the good and services produced.

Anything in excess, either of money supply or goods and services is called inflation and deflation respectively. (In the latter, it refers to a fall in prices of goods and services, which usually results if there is a glut).

With inflation (mainly caused by fiscal irresponsibility or having too much money around for too few goods) money value in real terms, declines. This decline then manifests itself across the economic board in properties, capital markets, the retail industry and everywhere else, holding up the life of the country including the livelihoods of its people.

It causes such panic and confusion (depending on how much of those currencies are deposited) that in no time the central bank will be forced to adjust interest rates because of the dislocation caused to this natural turn of events.

Hope the protector

And, if interest rates do not hold steady everything grinds to a halt, until and when a natural parity minus all illicitly circulating monies - is established yet again. This normally takes a real long time; enough time for a nation to lose out competitively in foreign trade because inflation causes the monetary value of a currency to depreciate massively.

Without mentioning the collapse in confidence that can result, a worse case scenario is when a government is forced to issue and

print new currencies to differentiate it from the old; as had once been the staple in Latin American states.

If and when that happens the ultimate in economic ruin takes place; all by a simple knack of printing fake currencies!

The only thing protecting us at this moment is hope; hope that Osama and other terrorist groups know nothing of what we know; that we continually be ahead of them in this deadly game.

We have to remember something else about Osama. A month before the Sept 11 attacks, he warned the United States of his plans to launch a devastating attack. That attack materialised in New York and Washington.

And now, that he has outlined one more plan, that danger as clear and present as it can get.

So therefore, there is one more fear to live it, which is just as frightening as all the mentioned ones.

JAYA PRAKASH lectures in journalism at Singapore's Calton Education Centre.