U.S. Senators Urge Expanded Y2K Missile Watch

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Key senators called Wednesday for the inclusion of China, India and Pakistan in a U.S.-planned "early warning" center aimed at avoiding Year 2000-related missile miscues.

So far, only Russia -- with 2,500 nuclear-tipped missiles on hair-trigger alert -- has been invited by the Clinton administration to join in a shared Y2K Center for Strategic Stability being set up in Colorado.

Robert Bennett, the Utah Republican who heads a special Senate panel on the 2000 technology problem, and Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd, the vice chair, said they were optimistic that Russia finally was ready to accept the U.S. invitation.

"I think it's not a bad idea to even talk about inviting China...and even including an India and a Pakistan," now that Russia seems set to sign an agreement on participating within a week, Dodd told a luncheon at the National Press Club.

Dodd and Bennett, who also spoke at the club, later told Reuters they planned to press the administration to expand the center to include these three.

The Pentagon has said it would seat Russian and U.S. officers side-by-side at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs for a week or so on either side of the new year to head off fear of attack if the Y2K glitch blinds Russia's normal warning networks.

The Pentagon, which has earmarked $3.6 billion over six years to fix its Y2K problems, says it is confident its own "mission critical" systems will not be troubled by Y2K, glitches that could cause ill-prepared computers to crash or malfunction.

DIRECT LINKS TO RUSSIAN COMMANDERS

Inviting China, Pakistan and India "would demonstrate that the United States is not trying to take advantage of the vulnerabilities of other countries," Bennett said. As currently planned, the center would have redundant direct links to Russian commanders in Moscow.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment.

Last year, Pakistan and India added a nuclear arms danger to their long rivalry. China-U.S. ties are strained by tension over Taiwan, alleged Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear weapons secrets and clashes over human rights among other things.

Russian and U.S. defense officials resumed contacts on the shared Colorado post and other Y2K issues in Moscow last month. Russia had frozen the dialogue in March after U.S.-led NATO began bombing in Serbia, a Russian ally.

The two sides have reached "general consensus" on Russian participation, with a view to have Defense Secretary William Cohen and his Russian counterpart, Igor Sergeyev, sign a formal agreement at a scheduled meeting in Moscow Monday, U.S. defense officials said.

Dodd told the luncheon that the United States, with the exception of its health care industry, was in "good shape" to cope with Y2K. But he said he was worried about possible disruptions in China, Japan, Italy and, above all, Russia.

"The commercial implications of a computer problem of the magnitude of Y2K, which could easily strike at the heart of an already vulnerable economy, ought to be of concern to everyone," he said.

In particular, he cited dangers associated with 16 "Chernobyl-type" nuclear reactors within the borders of the old Soviet Union.

"No one is expecting any sort of catastrophic nuclear meltdown because of Y2K," he said. But "the computers controlling daily operations may well experience problems that impact safety operations."

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), September 08, 1999

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), September 08, 1999.