It is over a week before rollover. Readers of this forum know that I have been speculating that there may be a post-Christmas "Y2K will be bad ... get ready" announcement. The opinion of this forum is that I am full of it. There will be no such announcement.

I am still trying to figure out what TPTB's plan for public mood management before 1/1/00. If there is no pre-announcement, here is one horrible possibility.

1) There are more and more "terrorism" stories in the press. We get more ambiguous annoucements "beware of terrorists" "beware of large crowds" but "don't do things differently because of these announcements, since that would mean the terrorists win".

2) The main effort will be to discourage people from doing the Times Square deal.

3) The military sets off a bomb in Times Square an hour or 2 before it is mid-night GMT time. This would be 5-6 pm New York Time. This would kill dozens up to 300 people. That would be enough to clear the streets of all crowds in all cities before there is the potential of grid failure ar 7pm Eastern Time.

4) This would set off all the state of emergency, National Guard, military roadbblocks etc. From that point on, all disruption will be primarily blamed on terrorists.

5) Of course, this would mean Clinton would have to cancel his big party in DC. He would take his 1,000 friends to a strategic bunker to party the night away.

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Some comments:

1) If there was a state of emergency before 6pm, a bombing would be unnecessary.

2) Would the US government bomb its own people and lie about it? I think we would do well to review all those "OT" Waco posts. They may have been more on topic than anyone realized.

3) I pick on Times Square since it seems to be a celebration devoid of interaction with local leaders. In other words, it will be a collection of drunks determined to party. There has been much ink and TV time already speculating if it is wise to go to Times Square.

4) Of course, I have nothing to back this all up. I admit this is typical tin-foil thinking. I do not need Y2K-Pro to remind me. I will denounce this myself to save bandwidth.

5) The reason for this post is to find out if anyone knows about anything that would add/subtract from this plot-line.

6) It might be a good idea to avoid Times Square and other similar drunken mass parties.

-- David Holladay (davidh@brailleplanet.org), December 23, 1999

Answers

There's a lady I know who runs a bookstore who has a son that recently graduated from college. She told me that he was leaving this weekend to go to NYC, hang out with some friends and attend Times Square during the rollover.

I couldn't refrain from telling her that he was insane for doing so, and she agreed. She's more concerned about the terrorist threat than rollover glitches. She is concerned regardless, and tried talking him out of it...she's going to sit home New Year's eve, monitoring the TV to watch the outcome.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), December 23, 1999.

**3) The military sets off a bomb in Times Square an hour or 2 before it is mid-night GMT time. This would be 5-6 pm New York Time. This would kill dozens up to 300 people. That would be enough to clear the streets of all crowds in all cities before there is the potential of grid failure are 7pm Eastern Time.** **********************************************************************

I don't know about this senerio. Wouldn't that send a message to the US people that the terrorists have one. They ruined the biggest party of the century. Also, wouldn't this cause mass panic? People,thousands of them,running for their lives. Drawing the attention of the world. All of this just to keep people off of the streets in case the lights go out.

I don't know, I'd be hard pressed to believe this could pan out.

I also believe the terrorists issue is real. Not a way for TPTB to divert attention from Y2K. The US has their hands tied right now and just waiting to see what happens as is the rest of the world.

Just MHO.

-- Familyman (prepare@home.com), December 23, 1999.

There wouldn't need to be an explosion, just plant a bunch of "suspicious packages" and make some phone calls. You wouldn't even need a big Federal conspiracy cutting across all the law enforcement and emergency services, just a small well organised group and some convincing looking/smelling/sounding devices. Make the calls and wait for the genuine responses.

In the UK, we are so used to hearing the phrase "Security services carried out a controlled explosion of a suspicious package in Anyville" that it hardly registers any more. But in the USA, that would (I assume) be big news, especially if it was repeated a few times.

That way the authorities get to be heroes, rushing about blowing things up before the Evil Terrorists get to kill anyone. But the streets get cleared just as effectively.

Sure, a real explosion would be more effective, but how many "controlled explosions" would you need to get the same effect? A dozen? Half a dozen? Try and imagine CNN's Stacey Implants looking all earnest and concerned while reading out "...controlled explosion of a suspected terrorist bomb at a millenium party venue. No reports yet of any casualties..." in six party venues across the country. All JQP would hear would be "explosion... terrorist bomb... party venue... casualties"

I think that would do it.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

Can't you just see them now..the drunken revelers..wearing t-shirts with targets on them..holding signs that say "BinLaden drop here". I would bet good money that there will be at least ten of them..and the camera will focus on them too. Oh..we're so defient..so fierce in our beliefs that we are indestructable. A bomb that takes out 300 people at 6pm would bring a roar from the crowd..."Is that all ya got? Hah, we survived! Let's party!"

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), December 23, 1999.

300 people dead? Isn't that about normal for a New York Saturday night anyway?

Hope not,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.com), December 23, 1999.

Don't think our Gov't would do that but...terrorists could sure sit and watch their own handy work it they set one off at MN. The whole world would see it happen and talk about shock!

-- More Dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), December 23, 1999.

For those that think "the government could NEVER do THAT", have you ever heard of the Reichtstag fire in Germany circa 1933 + or - a year.

Oh yeah, and the Oklahoma City bombing circa 1995 Oh yeah, and the World Trade Center bombing circa 1992

Welcome to a most interesting time in history.

-- Brent James Bushardt (brentj@webt.com), December 23, 1999.

Kritter....

The t-shirts with the targets "Bin Laden drop here". Most excellent! I think you should make and sell them. =0)

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), December 23, 1999.

Only our television and movie script writers would be clever enough to get a bomb into Times Square. However if I were to do it, I would disguise it as a 12 pack or champagne magnum, boom box or battery operated television. I'll bet money they'll have the entire place cordoned off and everyone will have to slip through metal detectors. So even if you're bomb is cleverly disguised it'll still be discovered.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), December 24, 1999.