The following URL will bring you to the usia search page: http://pdq2.usia.gov/ Enter Y2K and you will get 100 reports, transcripts etc.... Abrams transcript is number 1 on the list.

One part of her report that stood out to me was the reference to the way Y2K information was being fed to the media (and thus public) via the cooperating umbrella organization formed between government and industry. It reads:

>We're now in a process of conducting assessments with -- each >working group is doing that with their umbrella organization >partners. And they're assessing readiness within their sectors. And >most of them are doing this by preparing surveys and gathering data, >putting that data into information which they then -- the umbrella >organization, as opposed to the government, release to the public.

It's interesting how the government is specifcally "NOT" giving us information but working with corporate and utility heads; coming up with what they want us to hear..then having the private sector release the information. Could it be that they think the public would NOT believe the governments statements? Gee, I wonder why. So now we know that all statements from large organizations and utilities are government filtered. Interesting.

-- Meg Davis (Meg9999@aol.com), December 31, 1998

Answers

Great hunting job, Meg.

I was about to spend hours today on that USIA site studying the thing from top to bottom! There's Y2K gold in there!! My information prospecting "nose" is still twitching.

Thanks, Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 31, 1998.

Glad you found it, Meg. How many media reporters will?

Interesting is the word for it.

And at the very end, the .../washfile/ tag on the original URL is explained: "Washington File".

I wonder how much confidence really exists in the ststements of private industry on this topic. Every firm has so much at stake with respect to potential litigation.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 31, 1998.

This topic spans at least two forums (this one and TimeBomb 2000) in several threads. I've started a dedicated Forum:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=The%20Transcript

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), December 31, 1998.