From: "Dr. Richard X. Frager" Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.paranet.ufo,alt.politics.org.cia,alt.politics.org.nsa,alt.conspiracy,alt.news-media,alt.current-events.usa,alt.nuke.the.usa Subject: CIA Almost Destroyed the World/It Wasn't A Movie Date: 20 Sep 1996 15:30:51 GMT Organization: Systems Analysis Synthesis Inc. [SASI] Lines: 27 Message-ID: <51udbb$ogh@cobweb.aracnet.com> CIA Almost Destroyed the World/It Wasn't A Movie In a new book, appropriately titled "From the Shadows" ((Simon and Shuster, $30)), Robert Gates, a former top White House national security adviser and a director of one night during the Cold War when the nuclear nightmare see in special effects movies almost happened. In a 3 a.m. phone call, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security assistant to the President, was told of a U.S. National Military Command Center report that the Soviet Union had just launched missiles carrying 220 nuclear warheads at targets in the United States. According to Gates, Brzezinski knew that President Carter had a "window" of three to seven minutes in which to decide whether to launch a retaliatory U.S. missile strike. Brezezinski held off waking the President for a minute or two to await a confirming report. One minute before he was going to alert the President to push the nuclear button, Gates says Brzezinski got another call saying that the original report was inaccurate--that the Soviets had actually launched 2,200 warheads in an all-out attack. Then, just as Brzezinski was about to call the President to suggest vaporizing the U.S.S.R., he got a third call that someone had put a training drill in the computer at the North American Air Defense Command. Sorry--false alarm. From the September 1, 1996 edition of "The Washington Spectator"