Galaxy 4 Meltdown: A Small Foretaste of
The Millennium Bug; Where’s Al?

(Washington, D.C.): Tuesday’s failure of the Galaxy 4 communications satellite — with its
devastating effect on millions of American customers of paging services and other users of
electronic data streams for news and information — has provided an early, and relatively
trivial,
introduction to the calamity likely to arise as the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer crisis
occurs.
The difference is that the disruption in services will not be limited to telecommunications and will
be both far more serious and far more protracted than this episode. The question the William J.
Casey Institute has asked before recurs: In light of this looming catastrophe, what is the
Clinton
Administration doing to prepare the Nation and where, in particular, is its computer point-man,
Vice President Al Gore?

Technological Dependence

The effect that one satellite had on, by some estimates, 40 million pagers in the
United States and
untold millions of consumers of radio and television broadcasts came as a great shock to the
majority of those affected who had no idea that these industries depended critically upon satellite
communications, to say nothing of a single spacecraft. Many Americans have reacted angrily to
the disruption of services upon which they rely for their livelihoods and/or for information
important to their quality of life.

One can only imagine the fury that will be unleashed when these same Americans —
and
virtually all of their countrymen — find virtually every facet of their lives affected by
multiple computer failures. From the phone systems (heavily relied upon by many
victims of
the Galaxy 4 meltdown), to the power grid, to the banking and financial systems, to basic
government services (such as air and ground traffic control, welfare and social security payments,
law enforcement and national security), as things stand now, there will be scarcely an
aspect of
U.S. society that escapes damage, perhaps catastrophic damage, from the coming Y2K
crisis.

Incredibly, the Clinton Administration has yet to address forthrightly with the American
people
this looming disaster. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that President Clinton and Vice
President Gore have not deigned to address the Y2K in public, perhaps for political reasons. href=”#N_1_”>⁽¹⁾
As a result of this failure, the Administration is condemning many thousands of U.S.
enterprises and the Nation as a whole to a greater trauma than might be the case if urgent
damage-limitation efforts were now mounted by both the public and private sectors.

The Bottom Line

In the wake of the Galaxy 4 failure, the Casey Institute urges the legislative branch of
government
to heed the message conveyed to it last Friday by Steve Forbes who wrote
Members of
Congress: “With the Clinton-Gore Administration AWOL, Congress must urgently fill
this
leadership vacuum. Increase defense funding to speed up compliance. Create Y2K
compliance
penalties and incentives for key federal agencies. Require the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (which itself received a ‘D-minus’ grade for Y2K compliance) to develop contingency
plans for major disruptions in vital services. Move fast. Time is short.“ href=”#N_2_”>⁽²⁾

– 30 –

1. One possible explanation for the Administration’s lack of public
warnings about the Y2K crisis
is the Democratic Party’s evident strategy for the mid-term elections of running on peace and
prosperity. Lest fears that both might be jeopardized by official alarms concerning the Year 2000
problem, the Clinton team may be hoping to postpone until after 3 November dissemination of the
sort of information about the Millennium bug that will frighten the public.

2. For more on the Forbes memo — and a Clinton appointee’s
dismissive response, coupled with
his effort to share the blame for the coming Y2K fiasco with the Republican-led Congress,
see
the Casey Institute Perspective entitled Forbes Urges Congress
to Fill ‘Leadership Vacuum’ on
Year 2000 ‘Bug’; Y2K ‘Czar’ Tries to Shift Blame for Coming Crisis ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=98-C_85″>No. 98-C 85, 16 May
1998).