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How
Government Used the Y2K Issue 450 Maple Avenue East * Vienna, Va. 22180 * 703-938-9626 |
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How
Government Used the Y2K Issue 450 Maple Avenue East * Vienna, Va. 22180 * 703-938-9626 |
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of July 15, 1999
WHY DOES ARMY PLAN FOR CIVILIAN INMATE LAW AT U.S. MILITARY INSTALLATIONS?
Here follow excerpts from the remarks delivered by Thomas Moore at the May 8 TCC-sponsored conference on Y2K and the Presidency. Mr. Moore, a Vietnam veteran, was director of International Studies at The Heritage Foundation and served as a member of the staff of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.
For a complete tape of Tom Moore's remarks and those of other speakers at the May 8 conference please send a check for $69.95, payable to TCC Y2K and the Presidency and send it to The Conservative Caucus, 450 Maple Avenue East, Vienna, Virginia 22180. |
INDEPENDENT AMERICANS ARE A THREAT TO WASHINGTON TOTALITARIANS
TOM MOORE: "...let me read you this, just a summary of this Army regulation [which] provides guidance for establishing and managing civilian inmate labor programs on Army installations. ...Now does a question occur to you, why does the Army need to establish prison camps for civilians on military installations? ..."
FREEDOM IS INTERPRETED AS INSURRECTION
"[W]hen you see [FBI Director] Louis Freeh testify before Congress that the greatest danger comes from...people who are stockpiling food, weapons, medicine, people who are anti-government, people who are withdrawing into enclaves...what you see happening is a prima facie case being established to criminalize people like those that are sitting in this very room....if it is the government's policy, and I agree to suppress information, then the very act of talking about this, of trying to alert people or preparing for it, and even of being here, by definition of our criminal regime and its leftist allies, that is an act of insurrection, and a prima facie case therefore exists, for you to be arrested, and perhaps experience what this means first-hand. ..."
CLINTON COULD USE Y2K AS PRETEXT FOR A COMPREHENSIVE ASSAULT ON LIBERTY
"[W]e are going to be facing situations that have only historical parallels, the sort of things that our forefathers faced when confronted by the might of the British Empire in 1776, our co-religionists and spiritual friends, fellows in Bolshevik Russia, or in Germany in 1933. I believe we have to begin to face the implications of what Y2K means for a martial law, a suspension of civil liberties ... imposed largely by the military. ...
"It is not enough to say we are a constitutional republic....you've seen from this long series of Executive Orders what I would call a long train of abuses and usurpations...there's a steady tendency toward aggrandizing and increasing of power in the executive branch.
"[I]f we're going to prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally and spiritually, then I think we have to also start to prepare ourselves physically. ... I and my extended family have a year's supply of food, we have medicine, we have alternative energy sources. ..."
URBAN AREAS WOULD BE INITIAL FOCUS OF FEDERAL POWER
"I think clearly that the martial law exercise that we can foresee is going to be directed primarily at urban areas, because the political base of this regime rests upon the urban populations. So if there is some way you could get into a rural area or a small town, I think that's important. ..."
PREPARE TO SAFEGUARD ENCLAVES OF LIBERTY
"If people like us are prepared, then, we can be the ones responsible for rebuilding something from the wreckage. ... at least perhaps we can preserve enclaves of freedom and self-government here and there. But only if we're prepared. ... [W]hen the ship of state goes down, if you don't have your own lifeboat, you're not going to be able to rescue anybody. ..."
LAWFUL ACTION IS APPROPRIATE
"[I]t is absolutely essential that we behave lawfully, and that means that we have to organize alternative, legitimate structures....
"We have to organize our own communities so that we are acting with will of the community, and with the moral authority of the community, and not as individual rebels, much in the way our forefathers did when confronting the abuses by the English crown and Parliament, where their fundamental liberties were clearly being eroded, and they began to organize, first, committees of correspondence, so there was communication.
"And then committees of safety, and those became vestigial forms of government, so that when we finally were able to declare our independence, and went into armed confrontation with the British Empire, we did it in a way that was lawful, deriving the authority of those acts from the consent of the community."
DON'T GIVE CLINTON A PRETEXT FOR IMPOSING MILITARY RULE
"I think we also have to have a strategy for dealing with the armed forces. On the plus side here, the government's power to impose its order is going to be broken. ...
"[W]e very likely face a precursor event, and it could very well be a bank run sparked by fears of Y2K as people begin to realize that there's only one and a half per cent of cash against demand deposits, a meltdown of the stock market and securities market, which is certainly the most highly inflated stock market in history, caused by a speculative bubble with injections of easy credit, precisely to keep people from panicking.
"That could happen in October. In other words, we could have an event that would give the pretext for the administration to declare martial law, invoke national emergency. That I think is a period of maximum danger. ..."
WILL NATIONAL GUARD RESIST UNCONSTITUTIONAL EDICTS?
"Many people are very upset about the fact that the National Guard itself is preparing for this mission. I am less concerned about that. I think that the National Guard, which is the people's army, after all, even if it is federalized under a national security emergency, will not be too willing a tool for the imposition of some new totalitarian order, and the utter suspension of civil liberties. ...
"[T]he Guard just recently on May 1 conducted a nationwide mobilization, it was actually a communication alert, testing its high frequency capability from the National Guard Readiness Center here, the headquarters, to talk to all of the adjutants general. I talk to these people daily."
NON-LETHAL WEAPONS BEING PURCHASED
"[T]he National Guard is in the market for non-lethal weapons, because they know they're going to be called upon to engage in an internal security mission, they don't want to have to shoot down their fellow Americans, because basically, all they have is on one end of the spectrum a night stick and on the other, their M-16's, their lethal weapons."
THE CONSTITUTION IS A BARRIER TO ENEMIES DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
"So they're looking for some non-lethal option that they can use to restore order without having to kill people. ... We need to have some mechanism in place to reach these people, to remind them of their oath, that they took an oath not to defend a corrupt, criminal regime, but to defend and protect the Constitution, against all enemies, domestic and foreign, to remind them that their job is to protect the local community. And it will need protecting."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of June 15, 1999
AMERICANS SHOULD PREPARE TO THWART Y2K ABUSE BY CLINTON & COMPANY
Don Hodel, who held two cabinet posts (Energy and Interior) during the Reagan Administration, and who served subsequently as chief executive of Focus on the Family and president of the Christian Coalition, warned attendees at the May 8 conference on Y2K and the Presidency (sponsored by The Conservative Caucus):
"We need to be concerned about the antiterrorist legislation. If all it takes is the Attorney General determining that you are an antiterrorist, or a terrorist, or in a terrorist organization, then we're all at risk.
"We might win after five years; the Supreme Court may say no, you were improperly persecuted, but that's a long time to be in the bite of the lion. ..."
"MAD BOMBER" OF THE BALKANS CALLS HIS FOES "TERRORISTS"
"You've already heard today about the executive orders which provide the President with sweeping power. This is a constant threat to all citizens. It takes only a credible excuse to invoke them, and our freedoms are gone. And if you protest the loss of those freedoms, you will by definition become a terrorist, and subject to prosecution. ...
"[T]oday we have a president who is essentially unrestrained by Congress, unrestrained by the press, unrestrained by the people, and certainly, unrestrained by any sense of personal integrity. In no time in history have we had a president so able to act against the interest of the republic, and likely so able to get away with it. ..."
ELECTRIC POWER COULD BE LOST IN Y2K
"I was head...of the National Electric Reliability Council....it's entirely possible that you could have some significant power outages. ...
"Black start capability is the ability to start a power plant when there is no external source of power. Not all power plants have black start capability. Some do, obviously, have to have it for emergency purposes, but if much of the system goes down, it could take longer than we might like for the system to get back in place, and our electric system underlies, essentially, everything else that goes on in the society. ..."
CLINTON MAY TRY TO TURN OFF OUR POLITICAL LIGHTS
"[I]magine with me, it's the State of the Union address, January first, January twentieth, the Year 2000. Let's imagine further that Y2K is really only a modest problem in the United States, because if it's a massive problem, what I'm going to describe becomes a very much easier step for the President to take.
"But imagine that it's only a minor problem. And imagine also, that there are some places in the world that are having problems, some more severe than others. But it's not a catastrophic situation. ..."
WOULD CLINTON TRY TO "POSTPONE" Y2K ELECTIONS?
"The President begins his State of the Union address, he surveys the state of the world, and the pundits are surprised because he actually seems to be highlighting the crisis, rather than downplaying it....
"The President advises that he is therefore invoking some of these special powers which have been described to us this morning. ...
"I can visualize him biting his lip -- he's really sincere then -- lowers his eyes, pauses for effect, looks up in utter sincerity, and then he begins to speak slowly in a quiet voice. ..."
ELECTRONICALLY PRODUCED VOTER LISTS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE
"'I stand before you today at the beginning of the new millennium, and I am forced to ask you for leadership of a magnitude never before required of this great nation and its leaders....I have been informed today that fully one-half of all of the election offices in America have computers that will not operate because they are not Y2K compliant.
"'That means election offices will be unable to produce voters lists in time for the Federal primaries, which begin in just a few weeks, and for the general elections. Elections cannot be held without voters lists. It is impossible to re-register by hand all those who wish to do so. In California alone, there are millions of voters, and there are only 45 days before the March seventh primary.'"
SIX-MONTH DELAY IN BALLOTING WOULD LIKELY BENEFIT ALL FEDERAL INCUMBENTS
"'We cannot, we must not, disenfranchise our fellow citizens by attempting to hold elections when not all would be allowed to vote. Therefore, regrettably, I must ask this Congress to pass legislation postponing the Federal elections, both primaries and the general, for a period of six months, so that all systems can be brought up to speed and made compliant. ...'
"[I]f it happened, and he got away with it, it would be the American equivalent of the burning of the Reichstag, which was the German parliamentary building which Hitler used as the excuse for assuming dictatorial powers and ending representative government in Germany."
WITHOUT ELECTIONS, IT'S MUCH HARDER TO FIGHT BACK
"In the atmosphere that would follow, you and I would be...definable under the antiterrorism legislation, as terrorists, because we assuredly would ask questions and perhaps challenge or criticize the national authority. ...
"How might this Congress react? Imagine. The President will be trying to persuade the Congress, most of whom will be running for reelection, that they should stay in office six months longer, throw their opponents' campaign into total confusion and disarray, just in the interests of the nation. ..."
LET'S GET HARD COPIES NOW OF VOTER LISTS
"As far as the election problem is concerned, the fix is simple. All the Congress has to do is to mandate for purposes of the Federal elections in 2000 ...that elections offices simply would produce a hard copy of the voting lists by mid-December, 1999. That list would then be the basis for manual additions and deletions thereafter. ..."
WOULD ELECTIONS BE PERMITTED TO MATTER UNDER AN AUTHORITARIAN PRESIDENCY?
"A president who is inclined to abuse power today in America has all the tools he needs. And he has none of the historic restraints. ...
"After six months of martial law under William Jefferson Clinton, during which time conservatives would be harassed and silenced or jailed as domestic terrorists, it won't matter if the elections are ever held or not."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of March 15, 1999
U.S. DEFENSES NOT READY FOR Y2KRobert Pear reports (New York Times, 4/1/99, p. A20) that "Senator Robert F. Bennett, the Utah Republican who heads the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, cited these examples of systems that were supposed to be fixed by [March 31], but were not yet ready:
"Computers used to plan missions for the F-117A Stealth fighter and the F-15E fighter.
"Command and control networks for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, a critical part of the United States' air defense system....
"Mr. [John] Koskinen [Clinton's Y2K overseer] said Federal agencies had redefined the problem by shortening the list of computer systems critical to their operations. The number of such systems is now 6,123 down from 7,300 a year ago. In effect, the Government revised its priorities and decided that some computers were not so critical after all.
"By the Administration's account, 12 percent of the 2,038 critical computer systems at the Defense Department have not yet been fixed....
"Mr. Koskinen said the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, the National Security Council and the United States trade representative, was lagging far behind most Federal agencies in fixing its computers, in part because it did not get all the money it sought from Congress last year."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of February 15, 1999
STATE DEPARTMENT WARNS OF Y2K TRAVEL AND HEALTH CARE
According to Reuters (1/29/99, ZD Network News), the "United States warned Americans Friday to take special care when traveling abroad at the end of the year or the start of next year because of possible computer-related problems stemming from the change to 2000. The U.S. State Department said transportation could be disrupted and credit card and ATM machines may malfunction. Americans with special medical requirements should not assume that medical facilities and services will be available overseas, the department added."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of November 30, 1998
REAGAN'S 1988 EXECUTIVE ORDER PAVES THE WAY FOR DANGEROUS FEDERAL POWER GRAB IN Y2K
Executive Order 12656, "Assignment of Emergency Preparedness Responsibilities", which President Reagan signed on November 18, 1988, states in part that:
"Whereas the Congress has directed the development of such national security emergency preparedness plans and has provided funds for the accomplishment thereof: Now, Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1958 (72 Stat. 1799), the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, and the Federal Civil Defense Act, as amended, it is hereby ordered that the responsibilities of the Federal departments and agencies in national security emergencies shall be as follows: ..."
CLINTON WOULD SET POLICY DURING "TECHNOLOGICAL EMERGENCY" --- UNLESS CONGRESS OBJECTS
"A national security emergency is any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States. Policy for national security emergency preparedness shall be established by the President....Plans so developed may be executed only in the event that authority for such execution is authorized by law. ..."
EDUCATION AND LABOR IN SERVICE TO THE STATE
"[T]he Secretary of Education shall: ... Develop plans to support the Secretary of Labor in providing education and training to overcome shortages of critical skills; ..."
FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT?
"[T]he Attorney General of the United States shall: ... Coordinate Federal Government domestic law enforcement activities related to national security emergency preparedness, including Federal law enforcement liaison with, and assistance to, State and local governments; ...
"Coordinate contingency planning for national security emergency law enforcement activities that are beyond the capabilities of State and local agencies; ...
"Develop intergovernmental and interagency law enforcement plans and counter-terrorism programs to interdict and respond to terrorism incidents in the United States that may result in a national security emergency or that occur during such an emergency. ..."
WHAT "IS" A CIVIL DISTURBANCE?
"Develop intergovernmental and interagency law enforcement plans to respond to civil disturbances that may result in a national security emergency or that occur during such an emergency. ..."
WILL LOCAL POLICE WORK FOR THE U.N. AND THE IMF?
"Support the Secretaries of State and the Treasury in plans for the protection of international organizations...."
WILL YOU BE ABLE TO MOVE YOUR ASSETS IN AND OUT OF AMERICA?
"Support the Secretary of the Treasury in developing plans to control the movement of property entering and leaving the United States; ..."
WILL AMERICAN WORKERS BE EMPLOYED BY A FASCIST STATE?
"[T]he Secretary of Labor shall: ... Develop plans and issue guidance to ensure effective use of civilian workforce resources during national security emergencies. Such plans shall include, but not necessarily be limited to:
"(a) Priorities and allocations, recruitment, referral, training, employment stabilization including appeals procedures, use assessment, and determination of critical skill categories; and ..."
WAGE AND PRICE CONTROLS WILL BE IMPOSED
"In consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, develop plans and procedures for wage, salary, and benefit costs stabilization during national security emergencies; ..."
YOUR CHILDREN MAY BE "CONSCRIPTED" --- ALONG WITH YOU
"Support planning by the Secretary of Defense and the private sector for the provision of human resources to critical defense industries during national security emergencies; ...
"Support planning by the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Selective Service for the institution of conscription in national security emergencies...."
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT "SHALL" CONTROL YOUR TRAVEL IN AND OUT OF AMERIKA
"The Secretary of State shall: ... Assist the Attorney General of the United States in the formulation of national security emergency plans for the control of persons entering or leaving the United States. ... Coordinate with State and local highway agencies in the management of all Federal, State, city, local, and other highways, roads, streets, bridges, tunnels, and publicly owned highway maintenance equipment to assure efficient and safe use of road space during national security emergencies; ..."
IMPOSITION OF CURRENCY CONTROLS IS ANTICIPATED
"[T]he Secretary of the Treasury shall: ... Develop plans for encouraging capital inflow and discouraging the flight of capital from the United States.... Develop plans, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General of the United States, to control the movement of property entering or leaving the United States; ... Cooperate with the Attorney General of the United States on law enforcement activities, including the control of people entering and leaving the United States; ... Support the Secretary of Labor in developing plans and procedures for wage, salary, and benefit costs stabilization; ... Support the Secretary of State in plans for the protection of international organizations and foreign diplomatic, consular, and other official personnel and property or other assets in the United States. ..."
SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED BY "THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR"
"Executive Order Nos. 10421 and 11490, as amended, are hereby revoked. This Order shall be effective immediately. Ronald Reagan, The White House, November 18, 1988"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of October 15, 1998
EX-CIA DIRECTOR FORESEES Y2K FOOD, COMMUNICATIONS, AND TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES
R. James Woolsey, formerly director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, made the following comments about the Year 2000 crisis during a panel which I recently chaired in Chicago concerning defense and foreign policy issues:
ALL MANUFACTURING THREATENED BY MISSING COMPONENTS"[T]he problem is the interactive effect. The problem is the single part that comes from a foreign supplier who has a Y2K problem and when it doesn't arrive (since everything these days is ‘just in time’ delivery and ‘just in time’ manufacturing) and the production line goes down."
EMBEDDED CHIPS CONTAIN SURPRISES"Or even worse, the chips that are in the computers in the switches for the rail cars, and so the transportation system shuts down for at least several days or more, and so nobody has any food, because food also these days is ‘just in time’ delivery.
"When, a few months ago, we had one satellite lose attitude control and all the pagers in the country went off for a few days, none of the paging companies had thought about that. If they had been doing a Y2K analysis they probably wouldn't have looked at that satellite."
FUEL SHORTAGES WILL RESULT FROM ELECTRICAL FAILURE"There are a lot of these. Interactive effects are the most troubling ones. In 1966, when the New York blackout occurred (it was just for a little over 24 hours, I think), but, by the time the blackout was over, essentially all of the emergency vehicles in New York were out of fuel – the police cars, the ambulances, and the fire trucks, so that all those systems were shut down. The reason was because the fuel pumps were electric to get things out of the ground. Now you can siphon gas from one vehicle to another, but you can't get it 20-30 feet out of the ground without power."
TCC members who receive the Visions of Victory tape series will receive an audiocassette including all of Director Woolsey's remarks on this and other subjects.
MOBILIZATION OF NATIONAL GUARD URGED FOR Y2KAccording to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (10/7/98), "The Wisconsin National Guard is prepared to be mobilized on Dec. 31, 1999, to deal with potential power failures, water system shutdowns and other problems that could occur as computers click over to the year 2000."
HOME GENERATORS WILL BE NEEDED"And an attorney for a major electric utility said the company is encouraging its customers to look into alternative energy sources, including home generators, in anticipation of power failures as a result of the problem...."
POWER FAILURES ARE LIKELY"Mari Nahn, an attorney with Madison-based Alliant Corp.-Wisconsin Power & Light Co., said power failures are likely, as are failures of municipal water systems. Computer chips embedded in everything from pacemakers to coffee-makers have the potential to fail, and in many cases people don't even know they're there, Nahn said...."
WATER AND SEWAGE FAILURE FEAREDWisconsin State Rep. Sheryl Albers (R-Loganville) "said she will introduce legislation in January to put the Wisconsin National Guard on standby on Dec. 31, 1999, to be ready to address any problems caused by computer shutdowns. Those problems could include small or widespread power failures, the failure of municipal water or sewage systems and even the failure of security systems at prisons, Albers said...."
NATIONAL GUARD PREPARATIONS ARE UNDERWAY IN WISCONSIN"Col. Kerry Denson, deputy adjutant general for the Wisconsin Army National Guard, said the Guard has been planning for several months in preparation for Jan. 1, 2000.
"‘We're expecting Y2K problems. There are so many what-ifs that there certainly will be problems, and we're putting plans together,’ said Denson....
"Rep. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee), a member of the Assembly's committee on the problem, said he believed legislation authorizing the mobilization of the Wisconsin National Guard on December 31, 1999, is needed and will be approved by the Legislature as a precautionary measure.
"‘It's pretty up in the air what will happen at 12:01 a.m., but the possibilities are endless,’ he said. ‘I don't think people realize how big of a problem this has the potential for being. This could be a real disaster, and we should have the National Guard out to deal with any problems.’"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of July 31, 1998
WILL U.S. DEFENSES BE BLINDED AT MIDNIGHT, JANUARY 1, 2OOO?
Fred Kaplan (Boston Globe Online, 6/21/98) reports that sometime "in 1993 – memories are hazy and nothing was written down for the public – the North American Air Defense Command in Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., conducted a test to see what would happen to all their computers – the ones that warn of a nuclear attack – on New Year's Day of the Year 2000....
"What happened was, everything froze – the screens that monitored the early-warning satellites and radars and other communications systems that would detect a flock of missiles or bombers coming our way. ‘It all locked up at the stroke of midnight,’ recalled Robert Martin, a top computer specialist...."
2,803 "MISSION CRITICAL" SYSTEMS AT RISK"The problem is hardly restricted to NORAD. The Defense Department has about 25,000 computer systems – 2,803 of them classified as ‘mission-critical systems,’ meaning that, without them, the military could no longer carry out a major mission.
"These include computers for ‘all kinds’ of weapons, Martin said, ‘the full spectrum,’ from nuclear missiles to a sergeant's battlefield laptop, as well as the various satellites, sensors, radars, and communications networks that link them into a unified fighting machine.
"Asked what computers are not affected by the Year 2000 problem, Martin replied ‘I can't think of many.’...
"According to the Pentagon, only four countries – the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia – are doing anything to prepare their military computers for 2000...."
CLINTON WILL SHARE DATA WITH RUSSIA AND CHINA"[T]he Pentagon is developing a program to share data from US early-warning satellites with other countries, including Russia and China. Otherwise, come 2000, such nations may find themselves in the dark, uncertain whether an attack is coming or not – which, in a crisis, could provoke great anxiety...."
$1.9 BILLION SHIFTED FROM WEAPONS PROGRAMS TO FIX Y2K"Top Pentagon officials did not become fully aware of the problem until October 1995, during an interagency meeting called by the Social Security Administration. The agency had been performing its own simulations, which showed that Year 2000 glitches could cause millions of citizens to stop getting their retirement-checks – perhaps even expunge their names from the records....
"That meeting resulted in a directive, sent to every relevant office in the Defense Department, to address Y2K as a top priority. By the end of next year, $1.9 billion will have been shifted from various weapons programs to prepare for 2000. Of the 2,803 ‘mission-critical’ computer systems, the Pentagon reports that 812 – 29 percent – are fixed, and most of the rest are being renovated. However...the program is four months behind schedule – not a small matter, given that 2000 is 18 months away....
"[M]any of these computers are old and nobody who is still around knows what the code is. ‘That's a big problem,’ Martin said, ‘finding the code.’...First, the commercial computer industry might not be able to supply the large quantity of hardware – the communications hubs, routers, and servers – needed to make the fixes. Then, the fixes themselves need to be tested and de-bugged – which, as anyone who has purchased a software program during its first weeks on the market knows, can take a while.
"Finally, military computers interact with each other and with civilian computers – and these interactions could unfold in unforeseeable ways. ‘There is a web of connectedness,’ Martin noted. If even one connec-tion in this web has a Year 2000 problem, the whole system becomes ‘a house of cards.’..." TIMING IS IMPORTANT
"A preview of possible military disasters was the incident in the 1991 Gulf War, when a Scud missile blew up a barracks in Saudi Arabia, killing 28 National Guard troops inside.
"A post-mortem of the disaster revealed that the Patriot air-defense battery failed to shoot down the Scud because the clock in the Patriot's radar system was not properly synchronized.
"The radar had been designed to be left on for only a short while. Its clock viewed a day as 23 hours and 59 minutes long. However, once this particular Patriot arrived in Saudi Arabia, the radar was left on continuously. So its clock drifted away from the actual time by one minute per day....
"John Pike, a weapons specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, explained: ‘Systems generally require time-synchronization in order to talk to each other. A lot of systems use time-synchronization as a way to establish data links.’ So, if one computer says it is 1900 and another says it is 2000, ‘they can't talk to each other.’"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of June 30, 1998
U.S. SENATOR BOB BENNETT WARNS OF MILITARY ACTION TO DEAL WITH Y2K SOCIAL CHAOSWorld magazine (6/20/98, p. 9) reports that "[i]f America's computers aren't fixed soon, there won't be any big parties on Millennium Eve. Instead, National Guardsmen will be patrolling the streets to hold back social chaos.
"That's the word from Sen. [Robert] Bennett (R-Utah), the Senate's point man on the Year 2000 problem. It won't be doomsday, but things could get freaky. He compared the potential for social breakdown to that of the New York City blackout in 1965 and the riots that followed Martin Luther King's assassination.
"‘I remember driving to work in that area and seeing a GI in full-battle dress at every intersection in downtown D.C.,’ he told a committee...."
GINGRICH SEES POSSIBILITY OF "THE LARGEST WRECK IN HISTORY""Even House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is losing the race against time. He said the bug could cause ‘the largest wreck in history on the first of January, 2000’ and ruin Al Gore's political future. ‘I think it's a big problem, not a small problem,’ he says."
WILL JANUARY 1, 2000 BE BASTILLE DAY FOR AMERICA?
Inside Denver reported on the Internet (6/12/98, from Rocky Mountain News Capitol Bureau) that "The year 2000 bug should be a concern to more than computer programmers and systems administrators.
"It may affect anyone who buys groceries, rides elevators, drives a car or drinks water, two legislators say." Rep. Ron May, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Bill Schroeder, R-Morrison, "worry that little attention has been given to ‘embedded chips’ that are found in many electrical devices, including sewage treatment and power plants, water facilities and medical equipment...."
PRISON GATES MAY SWING WIDE
"‘Correctional facilities? Will the gates open? And will you have the ability to call the police when the gates open? There are chips all over airplanes.’
"Colorado agencies have been alerted not to make their computers ready for the new century but to inventory their equipment. The checklist includes heating, air conditioning, water cooling, generators, circuit breakers, lighting, building security, elevators and fire alarms."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of June 15, 1998
WORLDWIDE Y2K COMPUTER GLITCHES MAY YIELD NUCLEAR MISSILE LAUNCHESReuters reports (CNET, 6/5/98) that in "a stark warning about the Year 2000 computer glitch threat, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre cited a need to calm Russian nuclear forces in particular if the bug caused their computers to crash, as many systems may fail worldwide."
RUSSIAN ROCKET FORCES MAY SEE NON-EXISTENT ATTACK"He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that cash-strapped Russian forces were relying more and more on nuclear weapons ‘as a safeguard for their national security.’
"‘And their early warning system is fragile,’ he said.
"Such systems, heavily reliant on computers to mesh data from satellites, radar, and other sensors, are used by Russia and the United States to monitor impending threats such a missile launches and unidentified aircraft...."
"NASTY SURPRISE" EXPECTED"The Pentagon itself will have spent some $2.9 billion on the most pressing aspects of the problem by mid-1999 but still expects some ‘nasty surprises,’ Hamre said.
"Although the Cold War has been over for years, the United States and Russia each still keep ready to deliver on short notice roughly 2,500 nuclear-tipped weapons on missiles, bombers, and submarines.
"Arms control experts questioned whether Russian commanders, in a pinch, would take at face value word from Washington that no attack was imminent if Moscow feared otherwise."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of April 30, 1998
Y2K CRISIS COULD DEPRIVE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NEARLY ALL REVENUES VIA IRS"‘There's no point in sugarcoating the problem,’ says IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti, referring to difficulties computers have recognizing the year 2000. ‘If we don't fix the century-date problem, we will have a situation scarier than the average disaster movie you might see on a Sunday night. Twenty-one months from now, there could be 90 million taxpayers who won't get their refunds, and 95% of the revenue stream of the United States could be jeopardized.’"
WORLD-WIDE RECESSION MAY COME IN 1999"Mr. Rossotti calls it ‘a very, very serious problem that we are taking very, very seriously.’ The IRS plans to spend nearly $1 billion on it. Edward Yardeni, a New York economist, worries even that might not do the job. ‘Clearly, now is the time to prepare for systems failure at the IRS,’ he says.
"Mr. Yardeni also fears many businesses aren't facing up to the problem. As a result, he sees ‘a 60% chance of a world-wide recession’ that could start as early as the second half of 1999." (Source: Wall Street Journal, 4/22/98, p. 1)
Y2K PROBLEM CAN'T BE SOLVED --- EXTENT OF DISRUPTION IS UNCERTAIN
Edward Yardeni, chief economist and managing director of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, made dire predictions in a recent speech to the Bank for International Settlement's Year 2000 Roundtable in Basel, Switzerland (Wall Street Journal, 5/4/98, p. A22).
"A survey released in March by the Information Technology Association of America indicates that 44% of responding companies have already experienced Y2K-related failures under operating conditions and 67% report failures under test conditions. The entire Y2K problem will not be solved. We must prepare for the possibility of business failures and the collapse of essential U.S. government services, including tax collection, welfare payments, national defense and air traffic control...."
DIVISION OF LABOR AT RISK
"The recession odds are now up to 60% in my estimation, and there is even a possibility of a depression....Information technology has helped create modern versions of the division of labor, like just-in-time manufacturing, outsourcing and globalization. Imagine a world in which these systems are either impaired or completely broken. Suddenly, people will be forced to do without many goods and services that cannot be produced without information technology....The U.S. may experience a $1 trillion drop in nominal GDP and a $1 trillion loss in stock market capitalization...."
THE PROBLEM IS WORLDWIDE, BUT AMERICA MAY BE ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TO NUCLEAR ATTACK
"There is currently no global Y2K battle plan. Each company and government agency is responsible for fixing Y2K on its own....
"U.S. government reports indicate that the Pentagon has a ‘tight schedule for meeting its massive Y2K challenge,’ and the situation in other nuclear countries is no better. The military leaders of the G-8 states, especially the U.S. and Russia, must jointly assess the risk of an accidental nuclear missile launch or a provocative false alarm...."
SUPPLIES OF SAFE WATER AND ELECTRIC POWER MAY BE CUT OFF
"The top priority should be to ensure the world-wide supply of electricity, water and other utilities. Contingency plans for rationing utility use should be prepared."
CIA WARNS OF Y2K's ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES WORLDWIDE
Reuters reports that "Many countries appear ill prepared for the disruption to basic services that the Year 2000 computer glitch may cause, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency office studying the issue says."
POWER GRIDS, BANKS, AND COMMUNICATIONS AT RISK"‘We're concerned about the potential disruption of power grids, telecommunications and banking services’ among other possible fallout, especially in countries already torn by political tensions, Sherry Burns said....
"[T]he spy agency has begun to collect and analyze information on preparations for the ‘social, political and economic tumult‘ that could flow from interruptions of essential services in some fragile societies...."
INTERLOCKS COULD EVEN CRASH CORRECTED SYSTEMS"With the world's computer networks largely linked, the use of data that has been converted to the new millennium standard improperly – or not converted at all – could infect newly reprogrammed systems, Burns said....
"[M]ost people are again assuming that things are going to operate the way they always have,’ she said. ‘That is not going to be the case.’ Many governments are ‘unprepared for what could potentially be some fairly tough circumstances,’ she added...."
COLLECT CASH AND STASH BLANKETS"As part of the agency's increased interest in the Y2K program, some CIA employees have been briefed on preparing themselves individually for potential fallout.
"They were being advised to pay their bills early in December 1999 to avoid possible processing problems, keep cash on hand in case automatic teller machines failed and lay in extra blankets in case of a blackout."
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