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Politics : Clinton -- doomed & wagging, Japan collapses, Y2K bug, etc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: WTCausby who wrote (44)	9/1/1998 9:01:00 PM
From: SOROS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1151

usnews.com WASHINGTON WHISPERS The animosity of conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife toward Bill Clinton is well known, but Scaife's apprehensions go beyond ideological differences. Sources familiar with the Pittsburgh publisher's thinking say he believes that Clinton may scheme to remain in office beyond the end of his second term in 2001 by creating a crisis. One Scaife theory is that the White House either deliberately or inadvertently will allow key federal computer systems to collapse with year 2000 problems, prompting a presidential order that government emergency management officials enforce martial law. Once Clinton does leave, Scaife has told friends he's interested in Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft as president, and he also would welcome Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

To: WTCausby who wrote (44)	9/1/1998 9:21:00 PM
From: SOROS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1151

CAIRO, Egypt (EP) -- Coptic Christians in Egypt continue to be persecuted by Moslem extremists. The International Coptic Federation reports that kidnapping of Christian girls by Moslem extremists continues, and Egyptian authorities are doing little to stop it. In July a girl named Amal Zakareya Botros was kidnapped while walking with her fiance on one of Assiut's streets. "A car suddenly stopped beside them and grabbed her and took off," her uncle said. The girl has not been seen since. The local police chief has told religious leaders and family members that there is no hope the girl will be found, and has advised them to "forget about her." The kidnapping of Coptic girls has become a weekly routine in Egypt recently. The Egyptian government and police make no effort to bring the girls back or to catch the kidnappers, who are believed to be Moslem fundamentalists. It is believed that more than 300 Coptic girls have been kidnapped. In another incident of religious persecution, a new Coptic Christian church in a poor district of Cairo was forcibly closed by Egyptian authorities July 15, just three weeks after it opened. In a "spectacular show of force," police and soldiers sealed off the new Church of St. Bishoi, posting an armed guard and sealing doors and windows with wax. Government authorities say the church was built illegally using a building permit for a kindergarten; a prominent Coptic leader in Egypt stated that the church could never have been built legally, since the whole government procedure takes "far too much time," making it possible for extremist Muslim groups to cause difficulties and even block building procedures. Egypt's government approval process for a new Christian church can take up to 10 years. More recently, three Coptic Christians were shot to death on their farm Aug. 12, according to Egyptian police and witnesses. Islamic extremists are believed to be responsible. Two other relatives managed to escape the gunmen. Security officials blamed the murders on Islamic militants who have waged a violent campaign since 1992 to overthrow Egypt's secular government. About 1,200 people have been killed.

To: WTCausby who wrote (44)	9/2/1998 8:30:00 PM
From: SOROS	Respond to of 1151

Reuters, Wired News 08/12/98 WASHINGTON -- Many countries appear to be ill-prepared for the disruption to basic services that the Year 2000 computer glitch may cause, the Central Intelligence Agency said Tuesday. "We're concerned about the potential disruption of power grids, telecommunications, and banking services" among other possible fallout, especially in countries already torn by political tensions, said Sherry Burns, who is heading the agency's study of the problem. She said CIA systems engineers and intelligence analysts were focusing beyond the technical problem of reprogramming computers to recognize dates beyond 1 January 2000. Instead, the spy agency has begun collecting and analyzing information on preparations for the "social, political, and economic tumult" that could flow from interruptions of essential services in some fragile societies. According to the CIA assessment, the threat of turmoil is greatest among those unaware of the key role that bits and bytes play in providing essential services and bringing goods to markets, even in less-developed countries. "As you start getting out into the population, I think most people are again assuming that things are going to operate the way they always have," Burns said. "That is not going to be the case." Many governments are "unprepared for what could potentially be some fairly tough circumstances," she added. In an initial effort to gauge preparations, the CIA received a wide range of feedback during the past year, not all of it very encouraging, Burns said. One overseas contact said his country would be safe because it used a "different calendar." Others acknowledged the issue was not on their radar scope. Someone from a Middle Eastern country told the CIA not to worry about any bug. "When we see it, we'll spray for it," Burns quoted that source as saying. She said Canada, Britain, and Australia were about six months behind the United States in preparing their systems for the switch, and that this was the group in the best shape. The rest of Western Europe, led by the Scandinavians, came next, six to nine months behind the United States. Europe's job is compounded by the need to reprogram millions of computers for next January's introduction of the euro, the new unified currency already adopted by 11 nations. The CIA feels that Europe will probably be unable to complete both reprogramming jobs in an effective and timely manner, Burns said. Japan, China, Hong Kong, and most other Pacific Rim countries were "maybe nine months to a year behind in terms of where the work should be," Burns said. She put Russia in the same category. Latin America was "way behind the power curve." As part of the agency's increased interest in the Y2K program, some CIA employees have been briefed on preparing themselves individually for potential fallout. They were being advised to pay their bills early in December 1999 to avoid possible processing problems, keep cash on hand in case automatic teller machines failed, and lay in extra blankets in case of a blackout on a cold New Year's Eve.

To: WTCausby who wrote (44)	9/3/1998 12:22:00 AM
From: SOROS	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1151

Russian situation critical!! Beware. International Christian Embassy Jerusalem - 09/02/98 Western experts quoted in US media have voiced concern that the Russian economic crisis could result in the illegal sale by unpaid, desperate military employees of nuclear weapons technology to terror groups or terror-supporting states. Joseph Cirincione, director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the SAN FRANSISCO EXAMINER (Aug 30) that Russia "has 22,000 nuclear weapons. And 10,000 to 15,000 of them are in storage and, so, are guarded not by elite forces but by regular troops" whose trustworthiness is less certain. "You've got to be a little concerned ... about how vulnerable those weapons might be to sale or theft. And those concerns are certainly increased by the economic situation." Arms-control activists have urged President Bill Clinton to make a dramatic gesture during his visit to Russia, like offering to begin talks leading to the lowering of both sides' nuclear arsenals to 1,000 strategic nuclear weapons. Cirincione urged the administration and Congress to increase substantially the annual US expenditure on an existing programme that tries to ensure that Russian scientists and military personnel don't sell bombs, fissionable materials or know-how to outsiders. The research director at the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington, Steven Dolley, said he was "less worried about [loose nukes] until the [Russian] situation became decidedly worse over the last few weeks, with concern about national collapse".