State Department prepares Y2K evacuation teams

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State Department prepares Y2K evacuation teams

Updated 3:40 PM ET December 20, 1999B

y Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department said Monday it was boosting security at U.S. diplomatic installations at home and abroad, and setting up evacuation teams to deal with any terrorism or other emergencies at the start of the year 2000.

"Global terrorism concerns have required all of our overseas posts to maintain a high state of alert and readiness," said David Carpenter, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security.

"This posture will continue and be further heightened during the rollover period," he told a briefing on State Department preparations for the Year 2000 technology challenge known as Y2K.

The United States has been buttoning up security along its borders since the arrest Tuesday of a 32-year-old Algerian man accused of trying to cross over from Canada with the ingredients for a powerful bomb.

Carpenter said Y2K-related "emergency response teams" made up of diplomatic security agents, security engineers and technicians would go on standby status in Washington and at regional hubs overseas to support any necessary "embassy security evacuation and technical security problems."

An interagency foreign emergency support team "is similarly on standby to respond as necessary to overseas emergencies," Carpenter said.

In addition to concerns about possible guerrilla strikes, "the potential for violence by radical millennium cults and civil disorders resulting from Y2K disruptions to critical infrastructures also exist," he said.

"Both our posts overseas and the department are prepared to respond to these potential security emergencies," he said.

The State Department warned on Dec. 11 that it had "credible information" that guerrillas were planning attacks on U.S. citizens overseas, notably at New Year's gatherings.

U.S. overseas missions will be staffed by "appropriate essential personnel," Carpenter said. He added that "emergency action committees" had assessed potential local threats and updated emergency plans.

All posts will have emergency communication capabilities, generators, and emergency fuel supplies to cope with any infrastructure breakdowns caused by Y2K.

In addition, the State Department is working closely with host government security services and U.S. military regional commands, Carpenter said.

In the United States, the State Department has developed contingency plans to make sure that its 105 domestic facilities, including training facilities and satellite offices, are "adequately protected" and can perform essential business functions during the date change.

"Additional guards will be posted at all facilities until it's determined that no life, safety, access or security concerns were created by the Y2K event," he said.

Carpenter said extensive preparations had also been made to ensure that the department was prepared for possible "cyber incidents" tied to the Y2K rollover -- a reference to fears that confusion surrounding the glitch could pave the way for computer attacks.

The department has made "significant enhancements in the areas of computer security training and awareness, password controls, firewalls and other forms of risk mitigation," Carpenter said.

The Y2K bug could prevent some computers from distinguishing 2000 from 1900 or another year because of old shortcuts that recorded the year with only two digits in key date "fields." Unless fixed, this could disrupt the whole gamut of automated systems, including communications, electricity and the ability to manage health care.

Thomas Pickering, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the United States may have to make tough choices on how it responds to any Y2K-related emergencies, possibly as a lender of last resort.

"Unfortunately, we don't have a special appropriation to deal with this question, so there are financial limitations in what we can do," he said.

"We would expect and hope that others would be able to fill in wherever they could, and we would hold our resources in reserve," Pickering added.

"Don't forget, too, that this is a question that could affect both the United States domestically as well as internationally, and we have to prepare for both sets of responsibilities on the part of the United States," he said.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 20, 1999

Answers

Thanks Ray.

Not surprising.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.


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