I heard a tantalizing sound bite on the radio news at noon Eastern Time. I think they said the guy was CIA Deputy Director John Gordon (??) who testified before Congress this morning. He said some startling stuff about infrastructure breakdowns around the world and how worried the CIA and military are about the whole y2k thing.

Anybody have a link or a transcript or something on this??

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), February 24, 1999

Answers

Here's a Yahoo news story about it. <:)=

CIA

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 24, 1999.

Here is the Reuters link:

http://www.moneynet.com/home/MONEYNET/pages/NavFrame.asp?PAGE=/content/MONEYNET/MktSnapshot/MktSnapshot.asp

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), February 24, 1999.

Link

<:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 24, 1999.

Ray, this is a market link. Care to try again? <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 24, 1999.

All the info I heard from the CIA today was presented to the House last month in Gershwin's testimony.

-- Codejockey (codejockey@geek.com), February 24, 1999.

Thanks for the link, Sysman -- you mah main man!

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), February 24, 1999.

Sysman,

Went back to Reuters and searched, came up with the same story as Yahoo. Also, if you scroll down the MoneyNet link they have news stories that you can click on. When you bring up one of the stories and then grab the URL you wind up with the URL for the MoneyNet link.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), February 24, 1999.

I have a copy of the testimony. What do you want to know?

-- Declan McCullagh (declan@y2kculture.com), February 24, 1999.

At @ 3:20/p Pacific Time, here's the MSNBC Cover Page:

MSNBC Cover Page

And on the cover page is a CIA article:

CIA Expects Serious Problems Abroad: Intelligence Agency Foresees Power Outages, Trade Disruption

[ For educational purposes only ]

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 The Year 2000 computer problem could cause serious disruptions abroad, including breakdowns in nuclear reactors and strategic missile systems, midwinter power outages and disruptions in world trade and oil shipments, a CIA official warned Wednesday.

Deputy director of the CIA, AIR FORCE GEN. JOHN GORDON, emphasized at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that gaps in information make it hard to assess the scope of the damage in foreign countries, although it is evident that most countries are far behind the United States in preparing for the crisis.

Gordon said Russia has exhibited a low level of awareness for the Y2K problems that could occur if computers misread the year 2000 as 1900, causing them to shut down or produce erroneous information.

Midwinter power outages, he said, could have major humanitarian consequences in countries such as Russia and Ukraine.
....
But he said there could be serious local problems with missiles if temperature or humidity monitors malfunction, and that problems in early-warning systems could lead to incorrect information.

The developing world faces the greatest threats of disruptions, Gordon said. China will probably experience failures in key sectors such as telecommunications, electric power and banking.

The United States is regarded as the world leader in fixing the Y2K problem, but the draft of a report being prepared by two senators who have been studying the issue, Sens. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the consequences within the country should not be underestimated.

During this year, they said in a letter to other senators, We will be confronted with one of the most serious and potentially devastating events this nation has ever encountered.

Their report also pointed to foreign countries as very vulnerable, as well as many private U.S. industries such as health care, food processing and shipping ...

This problem will affect us all individually and collectively in very profound ways, from the availability of electrical power to the quality of our health care, they said.
....
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xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 24, 1999.

Sys, you are INDEED, as handy as pockets on a shirt. Declan, is the testimony posted anywhere? For all the rest, if you'd like to know more about what's really out there (long-range capabilities of foreign ICBM's etc.) here's a link I found a long time ago. It's a CNN link on the "bomb." Lots of internal links.

CNN Link to the Cold War Experience: the bomb

I hope I linked this right. Almost an incurable newbie. If I didn't, here's the URL

http://europe.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/

I--for one-am concerned more about China than Russia. They have long range missiles that can travel over 6000 miles, sort of like the old Titan II sites I visited before they pulled a lot of them out.

At least we're TALKING to Russia about this.

My 2 cents worth. Hope the link doesn't give you nightmares. Likewise for my attempt to make one. :)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), February 24, 1999.

. . .make a link that is. Dang! Why can't I get the hang of this!?! (A question to myself. I'm sure you all have your OWN opinions!)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), February 24, 1999.

FM -- no worries! Find a successful link here. In your browser, [VIEW SOURCE]. In the document that opens, locate the text string that identifies the link. Observe the HTML formatting at the beginning of the link (starts with +a href=, where + is a left angle bracket); the quotes around the URL itself; and its closure with a right angle bracket; and the closure format at the end of the link identifier.

Substitute the URL of your choice, and identify it as you prefer. Copy it back to your post.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 24, 1999.

Testimony is not always put online. I don't believe this is, but I haven't looked.

I mention the CIA's view in my wired.com article that will be up on the site tomorrow. I may include it in a y2kculture.com piece too.

-- Declan McCullagh (declan@y2kculture.com), February 24, 1999.

Declan & Rick,

I've "looked" for that CIA testimony. It's not online yet. Fired off a few e-mails to the Senate webmaster and Senator Bennett (even thought it wasn't his committee).

Any chance you could "e" me a copy, Declan?

Thanks Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 25, 1999.