Y2K War Games & Martial Law articles

[Carol Moore <CarolMoore@kreative.net>]

Below are two recent articles to remind libertarians,et al that the feds
are
already planning "war games" in June for potential problems in year 2000

as well as discussing martial law.  (All planned by the same President,
Attorney General, ATF/FBI, and military who gave us Waco,
Iraq sanctions, and the Sudan and Iraq bombings.)   Carol in D.C.
http://www.kreative.net/carolmoore/community-y2k.html

(PS.  Demand Clinton the rapist (see http://www.newsmax.com)
resign.  202-456-1111  or President@whitehouse.gov)

(A good source for daily mainstream press articles on Y2K is:
http://www.year2000.com/articles/articles)
-----------
12-24-98
Government plans war games to battle Millennium Bug
  By Lisa Hoffman / Scripps Howard News Service
 WASHINGTON -- The federal government is
   gearing up for top-level war games designed to
   grapple with possible calamities the "millennium bug"
   might wreak in the United States and abroad.
 The "tabletop exercise," as it's being called, will
   mark the first time since the end of the Cold War that
   Cabinet secretaries have assembled to plot responses
   to what could be a nationwide crisis.
 Clinton administration officials say they expect any
   disruptions that might result from computer confusion
   when 2000 dawns will be minor. But they want to
   make sure the government is prepared should that
   forecast be wrong.
 Planning for the war games, tentatively scheduled
   for June, is in its early stages, so officials can't say
   which Cabinet secretaries will take part, how long the
   exercises will last or what mock disaster scenarios the
   leaders will be wrestling with.
 According to administration officials, those almost
   certain to participate are Defense Secretary William
   Cohen, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna
   Shalala, Attorney General Janet Reno, Energy
   Secretary Bill Richardson, Transportation Secretary
   Rodney Slater and Jamie Lee Witt, the director of the
   Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is
   taking a lead role in preparing for any year 2000, or Y2K, glitches.
 Governments, from the city and county level up, are racing to make sure
their
   tens of thousands of vital systems will not fall prey to a
programming problem
   that might cause computers to misinterpret the turn of the century on
Jan. 1,
   2000, and shut down or otherwise fail.
 Given the proliferation of computer chips in everything from traffic
signals to
   medical devices to air traffic control towers, significant
disruptions in vital
   services are at least theoretically possible.
 The administration wants to be able to respond rapidly if those occur.
One
   major focus of the war games is expected to be on how to coordinate a

   response.
 At least one other high-level war game is slated at the Pentagon, where
the
   top brass along with Cohen will gather to brainstorm sometime between
March
   and the national exercise in June, according to Pentagon officials.
 Their focus won't be so much on handling defense computer foul-ups --
for
   which a massive preparatory fix now is underway -- as on how the
armed forces
   might be able to help communities in which they are based cope with a
crisis,
   particularly those overseas.
 If, for instance, the electrical power fails in Ramstein, Germany,
troops at the
   U.S. Air Force Base there could provide generators to help restore
the power,
   officials said.
 (Lisa Hoffman covers military affairs for Scripps Howard News Service.
   E-mail hoffmanl(at)shns.com.)
----------------
Found at:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19981221_xex_un_plans_glo.shtml

MONDAY    DECEMBER 211998

PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO
U.N. plans for global chaos
Bennett says no plans in U.S. for martial law

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series
on the Y2K millennium bug based on an exclusive
interview with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-UT, and the
chairman of the Senate committee investigating the
technology problem.
By David M. Bresnahan
� 1998, WorldNetDaily.com

SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- As preparations for
widespread global panic and disorder over the Y2K crisis
begin at the United Nations, the U.S. senator considered
the most knowledgeable about the millennium bug,
assures the United States does not have plans in place for
martial law.

Representatives from 130 nations met in a closed-door
meeting Friday to discuss the Y2K crisis and the
predicted problems that will occur around the world. The
use of SWAT teams and martial law are being planned,
according to a source present for the meeting at the U.N.

Many underdeveloped nations expressed concern
because they have had no ability to prepare for the Y2K
problems, and many other smaller nations are far behind
where they should be, the source told WorldNetDaily.

The discussions at the meeting turned to how to handle
public panic and unrest that is expected to result on
January 1, 2000, if the Y2K computer bug shuts down
power, communications, and transportation.

The meeting was only the first of many more to come.
Eventually, a formal request may be made to the U.N.
for coordinated military action, according to the source.
Representatives in the meetings openly expressed their
fears of unrest, and voiced a need for martial law, and
the use of military and police SWAT teams.

Meanwhile, Bennett, chairman of the Senate Special
Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, has
been actively sounding the alarm about domestic
problems that may result because of the computer glitch.
But he says martial law is a minimal threat in the U.S.

"I'm not one of those who think that Bill Clinton will
automatically, or in some diabolical way, try to manipulate
this problem (Y2K) to impose improper force on
anybody," he stated. "I just don't see any indications of
that. Until I see some suggestion that that really is
happening I won't believe that it's under consideration."

Bennett did acknowledge that Canada is formulating
plans to initiate martial law because of Y2K.

"The Canadian armed forces are organized very
differently than American armed forces," explained
Bennett. "We don't have the provision to turn out the
military from the Pentagon in a presidential declaration of
martial law like the Canadians do."

Although Bennett has been personally speaking out about
the reality of the problems that could result from the Y2K
bug, he has begun to tone down his predictions. He
blames some of the fear being generated about the
problem on businesses selling survival and preparedness
supplies.

"There's no question but that some of the hysteria is being
whipped up by people who have products to sell," Bennett
told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview. "At the
same time, there are people who have legitimate products
to sell that could have an impact on the Y2K problem,
who have every right to talk about the problem in their
legitimate marketing efforts."

"Sometimes the lines between those two get blurred, but I
don't want to be party to helping sell any particular
product or service. That's not the appropriate thing for a
United States senator or a United States Senate
committee to do."

Bennett was critical of most government agencies and
private businesses for not working on the problem sooner.
He said the Social Security Administration is to be
commended for getting an early start, but most others
failed to work on the problem soon enough to solve it in
time.

The total cost to fix the Y2K bug is expected to exceed
$600 billion, with legal expenses in excess of $1 trillion,
according to Bennett. Those numbers do not include
estimates of lost business revenues, and corresponding
loss of tax revenues. Potential damages and repairs are
also not part of the estimates.

Of all government agencies, Bennett said his greatest
concerns are with the Defense Department. He said the
Pentagon began work on the problem too late.

Bennett listed the priorities of his committee as power,
telecommunications and transportation. He explained that
it will do little good for businesses to fix the Y2K problem
within their company if they don't have power,
communications, or transportation.

"If there is no electricity, it doesn't matter whether your
computer is Y2K compliant or not," said Bennett. "Your
laptop batteries won't last long enough to solve all your
problems."

When Bennett first began spreading the alarm about
Y2K, he stated that there was a 40 percent chance the
nation's power grid would not function because of Y2K.

"Now I think that 40 percent has shrunk down to single
digits -- 5 percent, 3 percent -- pick your number, it
doesn't really matter, it's a relatively small chance that the
power grid will fail," said Bennett confidently.

"I still think we will have brownouts," he added. "I don't
know how long they will last. I don't know where they
will hit, and I don't know how severe they will be. The
very nature of the problem indicates that we cannot get
through this with complete, absolute, 100 percent
assurance, although there are people in power companies
that are now telling me that's what we can depend on.

"My own sense of the thing says, no, there's got to be
some brownouts. There will be some interruptions, but
the power grid will not fail. Don't go out and dig up your
backyard and bury propane tanks, or go out and buy your
very own generator, because I think we will have
power."

"I think the telecommunications system will work,"
predicted Bennett. "There will be individual exchanges or
switching companies, or what have you, that will have
problems. We won't know until we can test the whole
system end to end. But there are enough heartening
indications that things are going to be alright that leads me
to believe that the telecommunications system will work."

The nation's power grid is also dependent on a
telecommunications system which enables all the various
computers to communicate and keep the grid functioning.
The telecommunications systems depend on the power
grid to provide the necessary electricity.

"If we have a breakdown in the transportation system, it
could eventually shut down the economy by itself," said
Bennett. "For example, if the trains don't work because
the switching systems don't work, you can't get coal from
coal mines on the trains to the power-generating plants,
which means eventually you don't get any power and the
power grid goes down and then the dominoes can fall in
various directions."

The most vulnerable transportation system which may be
interrupted is maritime shipping, according to Bennett.

"Getting oil out of foreign countries onto ships through
customs with all the paper work that is involved with all
large transoceanic shipments. And, of course, all of the
paper work is controlled by computers," explained
Bennett.

Ships are computer-operated and must dock in ports that
are also computer mechanized. Customs procedures are
also dependent on computers to deal with the enormous
amount of cargo coming into the country every day.

"A breakdown (could occur) in that kind of transportation
chain which depends not only on Y2K compliance in this
country, but in many countries including the countries that
license the ships, and the countries where the oil is
produced," Bennett said. "I think the chances of a
breakdown somewhere in that chain are probably higher
than the single digits, and that could create some
interesting and challenging economic difficulties."

Bennett also took time to give advice to those who wish
to determine how they may be impacted personally by the
Y2K problem. Many people are planning to take their
money out of banks prior to the start of the year 2000.
Bennett is not personally concerned about access to his
bank account.

"You have every right to contact your institution, whether
it's a bank or a credit union, and ask, 'Are you going to be
Y2K compliant?' If you don't have the answer that you
deserve, then take your money out," said Bennett.

He said there will be individual banking institutions where
checks will not clear and ATMs will fail. Some banks and
ATMs will work, and others may not.

"You have the responsibility to take care of your Year
2000 problem, just as your bank has the responsibility to
take care of theirs, or just as Bill Clinton has the
responsibility to take care of America's," he explained.

Despite his own sometimes-dire warnings, Bennett says
no one should have fear.

"I think fear is too strong a word, but I think all of us
should have some concern," he explained. "Concern
enough to inform ourselves. You need to find out as
much as you possibly can about what's really going to
happen to you, and then make intelligent contingency
plans."

He advises talking to city, county, and state officials to
determine if local government is prepared to continue to
provide services in the year 2000. Bennett also advises
that everyone should contact businesses they depend on
for goods and services, and evaluate to what extent they
will be impacted by Y2K.

The task is complicated by the need to evaluate the entire
chain of supplies. It is not enough ask your local grocery
store if it is Y2K compliant. It must also be determined if
the chain of supplies to the grocery store will be able to
continue to deliver goods.

"The contingency plan may be very minor, it may be
non-existent," said Bennett. "You may say, 'In my job,
with my employer, in my city, everything is going to be
fine, I don't need to worry about anything.'

"Or you may say, 'Where I live there is a 20 percent, 30
percent chance that the trucks might not be able to get to
the supermarket where I buy food. I probably ought to
have a little extra food. In my city the water purification
plant is proving to be far more troublesome than it would
be someplace else, and in my city I better have a supply
of fresh water that can take me through while they're
trying to get this taken care of.'

"That's not fear," explained Bennett, "that's intelligent
planning based on sound information. Everyone of us has
to take the responsibility for gathering his or her own
information and then making personal decisions.