There were some notable guests on hand though, many of them corporate chief executives — the presumed creators of jobs.
America continues to have a vital interest in the region's oil and remains the chief armourer and presumed protector of Saudi Arabia and its GCC neighbours.
This has helped police round up many of JI's leaders including, in June, the group's presumed military chief, Abu Dujana, who went on trial this week.
But the Chief of Staff is presumed to have a special competence and a purity of motive, since the Army is non-political.
His envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is also the Arab League's mediator, would, it is presumed, be the chief negotiator.
Douglas Jackson, East Haven's fire chief told reporters that officials presumed there was going to be "a very bad outcome" to searches for the three missing people.
This despite the fact that their bassist and chief songwriter, Charlie Pace, is missing, presumed dead, after Oceanic Flight 815 crashed somewhere in the Pacific.
And 14 firefighters from the three units at 782 Eighth Avenue, at West 48th Street, informally known as the Broadway Firehouse and charged with protecting the theater district, were missing and presumed dead, Fire Chief George Maier said.
He thought for a moment before he replied, and although he didn't answer my question directly, he said, "It was presumed that, as Chief Executive, she knew we had crossed the threshold, and that was one of the reasons that our government was sent scuttling by the Americans".
These changes first appeared in the southern Gulf coast region of what is now Mexico; and the sculptures, rendered in a style now called Olmec, are presumed to depict chiefs or rulers.
