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.