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To: John Hunt who wrote (29272)	3/2/1999 6:21:00 AM
From: John Hunt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116791

The 'Nightmare Scenario' << However, according to a number of Russian scientists currently working in the United States, the financially starved Russian military and its dilapidated computer systems are even more prone to Y2K failure than those in the United States. The BASIC report quotes Sergei Fradkov, a former Soviet satellite control technician now working for a Wall Street software developer, who says, "Russia is extremely vulnerable to the Year 2000 problem.... If the date shifts to 0 for a brief moment...that fools the system into thinking there is a high probability of an attack in progress." Russia's nuclear command and control system is linked in what, until recently, was a top-secret program called Perimeter. Although exact details are still not known, Perimeter is reminiscent of the "Doomsday Device" in the sixties black-comedy film Dr. Strangelove, which triggered an automatic massive Soviet retaliation. The US government did not even know of the existence of Perimeter until it was first reported in the New York Times on October 8, 1993. At the time, former Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates said such a system was "unlikely." However, Jane's Intelligence Review, the world's most authoritative weapons journal, has since confirmed the existence of Perimeter and revealed more details. According to Jane's, if Moscow were to be attacked, or even if there was "interruption of command links to key Soviet leadership," Perimeter would automatically trigger a low-frequency radio signal that would launch a communications missile that would, in turn, transmit to all launch complexes the codes that would launch thousands of Russia's nuclear weapons. The present status of Perimeter is unclear. >> thenation.com Yipes! ... Alarmist, probably ... but we don't have Peter Sellers (Captain Mandrake in the Dr Strangelove movie) around to save us this time.