So how would Clinton prepare the world for Y2K?

Anyone ever heard of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection? It has been around since an Executive Order in July 1996.

This Order began, "Certain national infrastructures are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defense or economic security of the United States. These critical infrastructures include telecommunications, electrical power systems, gas and oil storage and transportation, banking and finance, transportation, water supply systems, emergency services (including medical, police, fire, and rescue), and continuity of government. Threats to these critical infrastructures fall into two categories: physical threats to tangible property (physical threats), and threats of electronic, radio frequency, or computer-based attacks on the information or communications components that control critical infrastructures (cyber threats). Because many of these critical infrastructures are owned and operated by the private sector, it is essential that the government and private sector work together to develop a strategy for protecting them and assuring their continued operation."

E.O. 13010 goes on to establish a Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, including both government and private sector representatives, that will establish its objectives within 30 days, will identify and consult with relevant parties concerned with "critical infrastructure assurance issues", and will:

 assess the scope and nature of the vulnerabilities of, and threats to, critical infrastructures;  determine what legal and policy issues are raised by efforts to protect critical infrastructures and assess how these issues should be addressed;  recommend a comprehensive national policy and implementation strategy for protecting critical infrastructures from physical and cyber threats and assuring their continued operation;  propose any statutory or regulatory changes necessary to effect its recommendations; and  produce reports and recommendations to the Steering Committee as they become available; it shall not limit itself to producing one final report.

The Commission is to be assisted by an Advisory Committee and will report to the President through a Principals Committee. A Steering Committee will approve the Commission's objectives and approve its reports. The Order charters the Commission for twelve months and is to be presided over and funded by the Defense Department.

Why did this Commission come to be? The Justice Department had been pressing for a "Cyberspace Defense policy task force" that would recommend policy within 12 months and establish a cyberspace defense "entity. E.O. 13010, however, appears to cast its net wider, in that it addresses water and energy supply and distribution systems, transportation, emergency services, and continuity of government as well as telecommunications, banking, and finance. Why would it do that? This Commission was created in July of 1996. Take a look at Senator Moynihan's website. It was in February 1996 that the Senator learned of the problem and he was the first to speak of it to Clinton. You think this letter was actually the first time it came up? He sent the letter late in July 1996. A striking coincidence...

Four amendments followed this Executive Order, which expanded not only the number of people who would work on it, but also more than doubled the life of the Commission, long after its report was submitted in October 1997.

If you open the report, youll find on page 27 one paragraph devoted to Year 2000. But understand that implicit to the whole report is the federal governments overall assessment of protecting critical infrastructures which summarily addresses Y2K. Gary North talked of these plans in one of his forums. You might go and see what he had to say.

If you recall, the president has been talking up terrorism lately. Suddenly, its a big deal. And we have Kingsville and other things

I want to make a suggestion. Just a thought. Could Clinton be using terrorism as a setup to a wag-the-dog scenario for martial law prior to Y2K? Im sure Im not the first to think of it, but after watching our bombing of aspirin factories in Sudan and our timing with Iraq, it seems Clinton has a habit of keeping things in his back pocket until just the right time to spring them. And its not that we shouldnt have bombed Iraq (Im not debating that), or that we shouldnt prepare against terrorism (we should), but its obvious that he uses tensions for his own purposes at the time of most benefit to him. So I predict the administration will continue to blow sunshine about Y2K, and instead talk up the threat of terrorism. Heres why that makes sense for him:

Talking about Y2K unpreparedness points the finger at Bill and his VP, Barney Fife. It makes us mad at him and the government and cements our cynicism against what our nation has become.

Talking about terrorist activity points the finger somewhere else (Anywhere else, please God, anywhere else! says Bill) and makes us mad at them and patriotic and willing to do what it takes to beat those bastards.

I want to refer back to something in my previous article, something George Soros said:

Advertising, marketing, even packaging, aim at shaping peoples preferences rather than, as laissez-faire theory holds, merely responding to them.

Clinton is advertising, marketing, even packaging, our fears and responses to them before they occur. Hes whipping the fires before he brings the brigade.

-- Sniff Jones (jones@research.com), February 19, 1999

Answers

Doggone... the sites for the bad links are as follows:

"President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection" http://www.pccip.gov

"its report" http://www.pccip.gov/report.pdf

"these plans" http://ww w.garynorth.com/y2k/results_.cfm/Martial_Law

Sorry, gang (sheepishly)

-- Sniff Jones (jones@research.com), February 19, 1999.

Your comments are the first to link it this way, and the first to show a reason for the timeline of the letter from the Senator and the establish of the "study group" and the "Executive order."

The deep primal fear exhibited by the federal government - now shown even by sabotage here and by a fear of telling even their employees to prepare even for the mildest of troubles - is evidence enough that means this type of analysis cannot be discounted.

Will this be his legacy - the end of the democracy as we know it?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (Cook.r@csaatl.com), February 19, 1999.

Bob -

only if the rest of us allow that to occur.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 19, 1999.

Do the required reading. Memorize as much as you want to, and download and print the seditious material I linked to, about 40 posts ago.

Chuck

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 20, 1999.