So, I started a thread yesterday, in which I aksed Ashton & Leska for the reference to a CIA document which they remembered as estimating worldwide casualties of y2k as high as 3 B-B-BILLION. So far it has not surfaced.

After posting the question, I went to the CIA website (scary place) and searched around in the public documents using a simple 'Y2K' in the search engine, and came up with seven hits ( uh, maybe I shouldn't use 'hits' in the same sentence as 'CIA'). These were all the same speeches and testimony (Gershwin, Gordon, etc) which have appeared and been discussed here. I didn't reread them at that time, for I had read them all previously, and didn't recall any assessment quite so direct and dire as 3 billion dead.

This morning, after checking the responses on the other thread, I went back to the CIA site, and the strangest thing happened: Access FORBIDEN to most of those same documents! Access FORBIDEN to the complete archive for 1998!

What the Hell is that all about? Is it just me? Somebody else better check this out, and report back here.

Luckily, I printed out all of the documents for future reference and reading pleasure. I guess I'll go see if there's a smoking gun in there somewhere.

I'll keep you posted.

Godspeed,

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), September 23, 1999

Answers

Yeah! Weird place.

Went there once (tacky web-site organization) and they uploaded a plug-in that mudged-up "something" in my computer. I actually called their Virginia office to complain.

Harumph!

Then, of course, my phone kept doing "strang" things. Those folks enjoy their spooky status. (Shakes head and reminds them THEY have families and children too!)

Okay? Takes all kinds, I suppose.

At any rate...

For a decent alternate government source try Info dot Gov.

Search...

http://www.info.gov/ cgi-bin/search_gov

(Or if that kicks you back to the main page, select "Search" again).

Enter a string of keywords and try variation on that theme.

Set button at All of the words entered

Toggle and get documents to 50

And set from database: to All Federal Government

Then figure the hits out. (i.e. EXPLORE)

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 23, 1999.

Maybe I got there before you did yesterday (around 4:00 est) but I got in there and poked around for a long time. Read all the speeches back to 97 couldnt find the refernce to 3 billion and then got out of there, my little girl wanted to go see Barbie on da 'puter.

We have 4 lines in our home office and 2 fax lines have been "acting up" all morning. Strange---

-- I love the CIA (they @great.yeahright), September 23, 1999.

Yeah, Cory says they'll 'BO your hard drive', whatever that means (stink up the joint?).

Still lookin'

Godspeed,

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), September 23, 1999.

I was able to acees the March 9 CIA speech at http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/gershwin_testimony_0305 99.html

and the February 24 speech at http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/ddci_testimony_022499.h tml

I do wonder why the CIA has not posted any new speeches on Y2K in the last 6 months (as far as I know).

If access was forbidden I wonder if someone was altering the speeches in some way. Anyway if someone out there finds any CIA information on Y2K you may want to copy it for us.

-- Rick (rick7@postmark.net), September 23, 1999.

Pinkrock, we're still looking. It was on threads on this Forum. We've never poked around the CIA web sites. We added 64 RAM, now up to 96, so finally are able to load archive categories. Last night got up thru middle of October in "uncategorized." Up to there in that category, can't find it. Still looking.

Very hard for us now because we can't connect longer than 3 minutes: we're working for a really sweet elderly couple, both 85, and the Dr clutches his cordless phone to his breast wherever he goes. He uses the phone a lot. Can't blame him; they're housebound. The job originally was only supposed to last 2 weeks but they really need help and they love our cooking. So we're here another week (= 4 weeks). He keeps clicking on the phone just to see if we're daring to connect. AAaaaarrrggghhhhh! So it's hit 'n miss and we can't access a lot of threads. We can hit one per connect, then answer page, disconnect, type, connect, hit Submit, disconnect, etc. Shatters the ole concentration. Late at night we can rummage thru, but last night he stayed up watching TV, and we're exhausted. His wife needs help all throughout the night, 2-person transfer. We're zombies. Plus PhilG has wwhacked the Refresh to stale, only about every 15 minutes? Haven't been able to time it. :-(

We remember the CIA-info threads because they were being discussed when we first found this Forum early last Fall, and it made a big impression. We thought it was ridiculous at the time, something weird the CIA had typed up to increase their funding. But the more we researched Y2K the more we felt that assessment may have been based on solid reasoning.

We stay away from .mil .gov sites, except for that Hurricane tracking one. If we want to check something out, we send the URL to Diane ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 23, 1999.

Can't recall exactly, but it wasn't a speech. It was an internal memo, or something like that, not public. Wasn't what Gayla found, but *that* was also discussed on same threads. Thanks Gayla!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 23, 1999.

The big question is, is the "CIA for Kids" site still up. We need our kids to be well informed, after all, FEMA says they will start instructing us on y2k this month, and Ventura has enlisted the Girl Scouts for y2k duty.

-- a (a@a.a), September 23, 1999.

IN THE LAST DAY,S-THEY WILL 'SNITCH YOU OFF'BELIEVING THEY DID THE RIGHT -THING.

-- I WANNA GO UP. (dogs@zianet.com), September 23, 1999.

For once we agree AL. I think most of this forum would like you to "go up" too. The sooner the better!!!

-- (TomWaits@zensearch.net), September 23, 1999.

I tried the CIA web site last night and got the same seven hits (Gershwin, et al.). I skimmed through each one but didn't find anything useful. I tried again just a few minutes ago (8.09pm CST) and could only open hit number 1. After trying all the others, I went back to #1 and it wouldn't open either. I didn't get any message--the documents just wouldn't open--finger turns to hourglass then back to finger)....

-- Sam Mcgee (weissacre@gwtc.net), September 23, 1999.

If you're going to be snooping around dot mils and dot govs like the CIA, I'd get myself a firewall. Then make sure you have the ability to log all accesses.

What is a Firewall? A firewall is the name given to a device that physically separates your internal office network from Internet. The firewall acts as a "security guard" to monitor all information passing through it to ensure that unauthorized users outside of your network are unable to access your private and confidential data while allowing users within your network to have as little or as much access to external data sources as you deem necessary.

http://www.ctitek.com/promo/index.html#fire1

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), September 23, 1999.

Thanks, OR. Good advice.

Well, nobody has found the reference to 3 billion dead. Perhaps it never existed. Or perhaps it has been successfully hidden. No matter.

But, if you read all the CIA assessments that are still available, and consider the consequences, then a die-back of that magnitude is certainly plausible. No pollys there.

Oh, well. Back to the preps.

Gettin' it there, with

Godspeed,

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), September 24, 1999.