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Thomas Pickering, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Kevin F. Herbert, Managing Director, Office of Overseas Citizens Services, and John O'Keefe, Office of the Under Secretary for Management Press Briefing, Release of Revised Consular Information Sheets with Country Specific Y2K Information September 14, 1999, Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of State |
MR. REEKER: Welcome back to the State Department. We are very pleased today to have Under Secretary Thomas Pickering to introduce our briefing on the release of consular information sheets on the Y2K situation. These information sheets are just updates that will include a paragraph on Y2K status in each of the countries. Under Secretary Pickering will make some remarks and then introduce Kevin Herbert, our Managing Director of Overseas Citizen's Services from the Bureau of Consular Affairs and also our special representative for Y2K from the Bureau of Management, John O'Keefe, and then we'll be happy to take your questions.
So let me turn it over to the Under Secretary.
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: Thanks very much. I'm delighted to see the interest represented by the strength of the press corps today; it reminds me on both sides that we're rounding up all the usual suspects for an important issue for us.
Y2K is clearly a complex problem with an international impact. As reflected in this event here today, our highest priority with respect to Y2K and the Department is to insure the safety of Americans who live abroad and are traveling abroad. We are very much concerned also, of course, with the impacts on our national security and our foreign policy in the broadest sense. Today I want to talk specifically to you about serving our citizens abroad.
At the State Department, we are doing this by focusing our Y2K efforts on three main areas. First, we're working closely with other countries to encourage their efforts to prepare for Y2K and to insure that Americans living and traveling overseas have the best possible information about the Y2K situation in other countries. This information will help Americans make their own decisions. Secondly, we are striving to make sure that mission-critical systems at our facilities all over the world are Y2K compliant because our own facilities have to be functioning for us to carry out our mission of providing services to American citizens. And third, we're coordinating closely with our posts overseas to insure that they can continue safe operation despite any potential disruptions in host country infrastructure.
Last week, Department of State officials announced our successful 9/9/99 test -- which many of you know about -- in preparation for the millennium rollover of our post-reporting process and of our analytical and communications systems in regard to that test. Today we are continuing to share information on our Y2K efforts by releasing revised consular information sheets that include a Y2K section for each country.
Many of you may ask me, are we now contemplating closing posts or drawing down posts and my answer to that is that we are watching this very carefully; no present decisions are made. If decisions are made in that regard we will, of course, let you and the American public know. Kevin Herbert, Managing Director of our Overseas Citizens' Services in the Bureau of Consular Affairs will next describe the purpose of our consular information sheets and the process by which information on Y2K issues abroad will be updated as the new millennium draws near. He will, in turn, introduce John O'Keefe and together they will answer your questions. Thank you very much.
MR. HERBERT: Thank you. Today, the Department of State is issuing revised consular information sheets, or CISs as we call them, to include country-specific information where available for 196 countries and territories in the world. In general terms, our consular information sheets provide information such as the location of the US embassy or consulate in a given country, immigration practices, medical facilities, currency regulations, the crime and security situation and other information that could potentially impact upon American citizens' travel plans regarding that country. Updates of consular information sheets are routinely issued for each country in the world and generally without much fanfare. This time around, however, we have already witnessed a great deal of interest in this iteration and that is evidenced by your presence here today.
Now we are doing a country-specific analysis of potential difficulties US citizens might encounter abroad as a result of the so-called Y2K millennium bug. I think you see up here a sample consular information sheet. This is what one looks like. We are now adding, as of today, a Y2K specific section to each one of these.
The nature of the Y2K bug is well known and my personal area of expertise is not computer systems so I will not go into any of the technical aspects of this problem. If you do have any questions in that regard on how the Department is preparing, I will be glad to share the podium with John O'Keefe, my colleague, who is overseeing the Department's Y2K program at the end of my prepared remarks.
Suffice to say that, as a consequence of the Y2K bug, some computer-based systems around the world may be unable to process information correctly on or about January 1st and that may cause some serious system malfunctions. In countries that are not sufficiently prepared, the Y2K problem could negatively impact financial services, utilities such as electricity and water, medical services, telecommunications, energy, transportation and other vital sectors.
I think it is well known that Department of State has no greater responsibility than to ensure to the best of our ability the safety and security of US citizens traveling around or residing abroad. We take this responsibility very seriously. I would like to take a moment here, if I may, to explain briefly exactly what our consular information program is and how it works, and then how to describe to you how we're using this program in connection with both our Y2K assessments and our overall Y2K preparedness.
The Department of State has had a formalized consular information program since the late 1970s. Its current incarnation -- the travel warnings, public announcements, and consular information sheets that now constitute our consular information program -- date from around the mid 1990s. Since its existence it has been our most efficient and best recognized way to appraise Americans of potential difficulties they may face overseas.
In addition to the consular information sheets which I have described, our consular information program includes travel warnings and public announcements. There are three parts of our consular information program: consular information sheets, travel warnings, public announcements. What we are doing today is adding a section on Y2K to our consular information sheets. This is information that could be important to Americans in making their decisions about their possible travel to a particular country.
As I said before CISs, consular information sheets, are routinely issued for every country in the world and provide basic information about that country. Travel warnings are issued when the Department believes that a recommendation is warranted suggesting that US citizens defer travel to a specific country entirely. We are not issuing any travel warnings at this time. We are updating our consular information sheets.
Public announcements, the third part of our consular information program, are issued when the Department needs to disseminate information about transnational themes, short-term conditions or conditions affecting more than one country.
In the context of the Y2K issue, we began using the Consular Information Program in January 1999 in an effort to educate the traveling public about Y2K and what it could mean for them in their overseas travels. That was our first release in our Consular Information Program, January 1999 -- a general statement about Y2K. In July, we followed up with a second public announcement, this time dealing with personal preparedness and appraising the public of measures that we have taken here at the Department of State and that we are taking abroad to prepare our embassies and consulates to deal with the Y2K issue. I believe there are copies of these public announcements in the packet that you'll be given today.
About the same time as the first of these two public announcements were released in January, we asked our missions abroad to engage their host country counterparts and other local experts in determining Y2K readiness in countries' key sectors and to report on their findings. This was the beginning of the assessment process that led us here today.
In June, the information that we'd received from our embassies and consulates was condensed into what we call a notional Y2K consular information sheet paragraph for each country, citing the country's overall preparedness for Y2K and its risk for potential disruptions. Factors that we took into account in these first drafts -- if you will -- included each country's reliance on computerized systems, awareness in the country and its government about Y2K in general, and the degree to which efforts had been initiated and resources dedicated to address any potential problems.
Our missions abroad then shared our findings on those notional paragraphs with the host governments. We explained to the governments that the purpose of our assessing their Y2K remediation efforts was to appraise the US public of potential dangers to their safety and public. We took these governments' feedback; reviewed the situation in each country once again to see if any substantial changes had taken place; and then composed the final country-specific Y2K assessments that are being released today. These have also been a second time presented to the host country governments before their release today.
Getting to this point has been a lengthy process and has required a lot of effort on a lot of the part of a lot of people. We believe, however, that the American public is being well served by the work that has been put into these individual country assessments and by the entire way in which we have gone about this process. We have taken the time to collect and evaluate the available information and now to publicize our conclusions in a familiar and well regarded format from which the American traveling public will benefit and on the basis of which they will be able to make more informed decisions.
Our consular information sheets are on our web site. We get about 300,000 hits a day on our web site. In addition to the standard products and our tools for the consular information program, we have been raising Y2K awareness through an outreach program which has included speakers, interviews and publications. Our embassies and consulates abroad and the regional passport agencies here in Washington, D.C., have supplemented these efforts with town meetings and newsletters, various forms of outreach.
In publicizing the information that we are releasing today about potential Y2K risks and global preparedness, it is not our intention to impede travel or hinder tourism in any way, nor have these analysis been geared to reflect any political considerations or the nature of the relationship between the United States and any country. Our consular information sheets already contain information about crime and other conditions in a country without regard to our relationship to that country.
As I said, the one and only purpose in our undertaking this lengthy and labor-intensive exercise has been to protect the safety and security of our US citizens abroad and to alert them to possible disruptions so that they may be better prepared to make informed personal decisions about their travel plans.
Of course, the Department of State cannot predict with absolute certainty the exact location, duration or severity of Y2K disruptions. I therefore urge everyone in this room and all US citizens to look to these consular information sheets for answers to understand that they are intended to be just one more tool in their decision-making process. Americans residing or traveling abroad around the 1st of the year should use their best judgment in planning for potential Y2K-related disruptions. We will continue to update information as available on Y2K issues aboard on the Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet home page at travel.state.gov. We will not reissue consular information sheets again. The updated information will be on our web site. That concludes my prepared remarks.
John O'Keefe, would you like to join me and help me answer questions.
QUESTION: Does this release, these changes in the consular information sheets, have you made any other changes across the board or are these the only changes that you made?
MR. HERBERT: You will find some of these have some slight changes -- things that we were going to update anyway. But on the occasion of reissuing all these, we put in some other things that needed changing. But we update consular information sheets routinely throughout the year as new information comes in so you will find a few additional items in these, yes.
QUESTION: Excuse me, what countries have the most worrisome reports?
MR. HERBERT: We haven't done an analytical analysis of who is high or who is low. I think if you'll read these, you'll see each one describes a situation in that country. There is no rating. Just as we haven't determined which one has the more serious crime problem or the next one, we haven't done that either with the Y2K.
QUESTION: Ambassador Pickering said that no decision had been made on whether we would close any of our facilities worldwide. Why would we do that in response to this at all?
MR. O'KEEFE: I think Undersecretary Pickering said that we had made no decisions on drawdowns. We don't intend to close any missions over the millennium rollover. The reason why we would consider a reduction in the number of staff would be an assessment that there would be potentially a prolonged infrastructure breakdown: it could be power; it could be telecommunications; it could be transportation. As Undersecretary Pickering said, there hasn't been any decision on that at this point.
QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit about what the legal basis for this whole exercise is, number one? Number two, just a procedural question, it would have probably been helpful to us to ask you about the consular information sheets if we had had a copy of the consular information sheets before your briefing. Are you all not wanting to talk about specific countries and specific problems?
MR. HERBERT: Well, we don't feel like we should do an analysis and comparison between country and country. They are all on the web site. As of this afternoon when you leave here, they should all be there. They were there before but without the Y2K paragraph. It is not our intention to list the 10 best, the 10 worst, the 10 most dangerous, any of that. We do these and we have always done these a country-by-country, a picture of that country, and we want to continue in that vein. So rather than have people asking about specific countries -- and I know, compare this one to that one, we didn't want to do that. You'll read these and make your own conclusions, I think.
QUESTION: What about the legal basis for this exercise? I mean, where in the law does it say that you all have to go through this and why are you all doing it? Are you up for any liability claims, for example?
MR. HERBERT: I can't speak to the legal issue, honestly, but we have been doing the consular information program since the ‘70s, in this form since the ‘90s. It is the State Department's obligation to protect the welfare and well being of Americans abroad. This is an effort to continue in that vein.
QUESTION: Does the Y2K paragraph include information that countries have provided to you or is this a combination of assessments that the State Department has done aside from that information?
MR. HERBERT: This is State Department language. Now, in the process of consulting with governments, they may have given us some advice that this sector has effectively been remediated or something like that. They did not write these or determine what was in them. But there was certainly consultation and I'm sure you'll find some of their views have found their way in here, if it was substantiated.
QUESTION: You talked about providing safety and security for traveling Americans. The Pope has invited every Catholic in the world to come to Rome next year. In light of Y2K, is it a smart idea for Americans to travel to Rome?
MR. HERBERT: I think if they read the consular information sheet, they will make their own decision. We do not have a travel warning on Italy. If you read that section and you determine that it's okay to go, then you should go.
QUESTION: The Gartener Group, the GIG information services have all said that Italy started very late and is in real trouble, and you're trying to help Americans have the information whether or not they should travel.
MR. HERBERT: Well, what we have in there is what we believe is accurate at this time. I will also say, of course, as I said before, that these things will be revised -- not the consular information sheet. But if we have information between now and January 1st that we believe is credible and reliable, we will certainly make it public. We have an obligation to do so.
QUESTION: So that's a part of my question. You will make that public in terms of revising the consular information sheets. Also when will you decide how much, if any, to draw down the embassy staffs in any particular countries?
MR. O'KEEFE: On the question of drawdowns, those decisions will probably be made starting in October, if there are any to be made. But those decisions will be taken all the way up through the millennium depending on local conditions. So as information comes in, decisions would be taken.
QUESTION: I don't want you to compare and contrast these countries. But is there any way you can give us an idea of the 196 that were looked as to, as a body, as a total, how they're doing? Are 50 percent of them looking good, 60 percent, 70 percent -- without naming names?
MR. O'KEEFE: I would say that without regard to the consular information sheets, if you're looking at patterns that there has been significant improvement and a lot of attention, probably starting at the beginning of the new year. So that I would say in general the trend has been somewhat upward and with improved conditions and more transparency.
QUESTION: Mr. Herbert, you described a little bit of the back and forth with some of the host governments -- notional paragraphs and letting them take a second look after the State Department reconsidered the case. Did anybody end up unhappy with the State Department's final assessment?
MR. HERBERT: I guess you would have to ask them. I honestly don't know if they're unhappy or not. But I haven't heard comments coming back saying that they were not. But even if they were, that's not what dictates what goes into the consular information sheet, of course.
QUESTION: I understand that. But let me take a specific then, because I understand that Italy complained. Can you confirm that and tell us how the State Department responded?
MR. HERBERT: Honestly, I don't have any idea what the give and take was at the embassy on a given place. I'm sorry. I just don't know.
QUESTION: Beyond infrastructure-related Y2K risks, did you look at any sort of human Y2K risks, in Israel, for instance, where a lot of people are trying to converge and there may be some unrest relating to the millennial date rollover? Would that be included in this or in some other part of the travel advisory?
MR. HERBERT: It would be included in this if we had specific and reliable information that we would pass on. We do travel warnings from time to time, public announcements from time to time. When there is specific and credible information, we would certainly do so in this case. I am aware that that's an issue that's under consideration in Israel. I don't know that you'll find it in the consular information sheet. But again, were there ever to be --
QUESTION: If that came up, if you had some information, would that be the kind of thing that would be put into this part of the --
MR. HERBERT: Into a public announcement? Or if it is endemic to a country, such as kidnapping in certain countries, it's in there in certain countries that this is a country that's dangerous for kidnapping. It if were to be a country where there were some other common thread of threat, that would be in there. I don't know that you'll find that in this one in terms of the question -- the specific question. But certainly, if we had specific and credible information that there was a threat to Americans here or there, we would make it public, certainly.
QUESTION: In terms of helping other countries, can you tell us how big is the budget? Or how much you have to help other countries to correct the Y2K problem? Also, in general in Latin America, how do you see the situation -- how the countries are trying to correct the Y2K problem?
MR. O'KEEFE: I don't have the precise budget figures. We did provide $16 million to the World Bank for its Y2K awareness and contingency planning program. There also has been some funds provided to the Department of Energy and to AID. The Department of Energy was working on issues of power generation and power distribution and AID has a number of programs, smaller programs, all around the world.
QUESTION: The question of Latin America, you didn't answer.
MR. O'KEEFE: Could you repeat the Latin America?
QUESTION: In general, how do you see the situation -- the governments of Latin America trying to correct this?
MR. O'KEEFE: The governments of Latin America have been active through their year 2000 national coordinators. In particular, the regional coordinator from Chile has worked very hard with the OAS and other governments in remediation and joint contingency planning.
QUESTION: I understand that you are not issuing travel warnings right now based on this Y2K information. But do you anticipate that some of the information that you are receiving could result in travel warnings later?
MR. HERBERT: It could happen. There is none scheduled, none anticipated. But again, if there is a situation in a country in which the Department of State determines that it is not safe for Americans to be there, and if we make a decision to draw down an embassy, you can be sure there will be a travel warning immediately issued to alert the public to that fact.
QUESTION: None of the Y2K information that you've gathered has warranted a travel advisory?
MR. HERBERT: No, if the information warranted a travel advisory, I would be standing here today telling you about the consular information sheets and the travel warnings that we have issued in connection with them. There are none at this point. But if the situation dictates it, you can be sure there will be one.
QUESTION: Can I repeat the -- or take the next step in the question that was asked about Latin America? Can you talk about the situation geographically in the larger sense, if not country specific -- Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, former Soviet Union, Russia and the New Independent States -- are there specific concerns in any of those groupings?
MR. O'KEEFE: There's anecdotal information in all of those areas. APEC has just finished its leaders conference and it was included in their statement on Y2K, which I thought was a very positive and strong one. In other areas, I know the EC is very much engaged in this activity, as have been a number of the African states. But I think the best source for information on that is the International Year 2000 Cooperation Center, which is a UN-sponsored organization and is attached to the World Bank and is here in Washington. They have a web site and they do have, I believe, reports from 75 countries that they've made available.
QUESTION: Can you tell us overall whether you're upbeat; you're upset about this -- is it encouraging or are you worried in general based on your findings overall?
MR. HERBERT: I don't think my personal feelings really matter on this. The fact that we're not issuing any travel warnings at this time and don't have information that would suggest that any need be issued at this time may be taken by some as being reassuring. But I wouldn't want to go beyond that and say how I feel about or if I'm reassured or not reassured. It's just not appropriate for me to comment.
QUESTION: I understand that today nobody wanted to talk about specific countries. Would it be possible to have an availability from your office for correspondents from those countries -- in my case, Italy -- that could have a little bit more of a backgrounder; a little bit more than what's actually written on the sheets -- something about the state of the consultations, the possible promises that have been made? Would you be willing to talk on a different basis?
MR. REEKER: We can take that up in the press office at another time.
QUESTION: You're making transparencies. I was wondering whether there were cases in which you didn't get as much information as you needed to make these evaluations? And if you did -- if that was the case, was that reflected in these new sheets?
MR. HERBERT: There are some countries where there isn't much information and there are some countries, frankly, out of the 196 where we don't have diplomatic relations and it's difficult then to make an honest assessment. If we don't have an embassy there, obviously we don't do much of an assessment. But there's lots of information out there and I think the dialogue between the countries where we are represented has been thorough and complete. I hope so. I certainly hope so and I feel so. So I think the information is there.
QUESTION: You noted that Britain released similar travel summaries today dealing with Y2K and if I understand correctly, Australia, New Zealand and Canada -- at least -- are releasing them today or in coming days. To what extent have you been working with these countries? Is the timing of the releases coordinated -- it would seem to be -- and are your assessments also coordinated?
MR. HERBERT: We've discussed our consular information -- Y2K paragraphs or our whole assessment of Y2K -- with quite a few countries. The countries you mentioned we have certainly discussed them with. I think most countries wanted to get them out sometime during this month to give people ample time to figure the information -- factor it into their travel plans. We're not dependent on what they say in other country, nor are they dependent on ours. But I think among many countries information has been shared and certainly country by country we've sat down with them in their host countries and discussed them.
QUESTION: One of you mentioned earlier potential problems in financial services overseas. Can you give us an idea what sort of specific help or guidance or information US businesses are going to be able to find in this information that will help them make judgments about where it's safe and practical to keep doing business given the Y2K problem?
MR. O'KEEFE: These consular information sheets are intended for travelers and so when a financial sector is mentioned, it's more in terms of can you get your money from an ATM; will the banks have some problems operating just in terms of handing out currency or doing transactions like that. The issue of businesses and how well they'll function or what they should worry about is something that in fact, I believe, the business community has already taken up within its own organizations and they've done substantial analysis and a great deal of work on it.
QUESTION: Could you just mention the web site one more time -- exactly the address of that web site?
MR. HERBERT: travel.state.gov
QUESTION: No WWW?
MR. HERBERT: HTTP://
QUESTION: I understand that you don't want to rank nations between Y2K totally compliant and Y2K basket case, but in a quick search on various web sites which go country by country, it's hard to tell if there's any variance between the Y2K paragraph from different countries. Is there? Are we missing something or are they just not on the web yet? Because they all have a rather bland paragraph saying that travelers or residents around the end of the year may want to take precautions.
MR. HERBERT: Are you speaking of the host country's web site or various -- or other countries commenting like we are about third parties?
QUESTION: Your -- on your consular site -- when you can search different countries -- when you go to the countries. What time, I guess, is my question.
MR. HERBERT: It should be on there when you leave here; this afternoon it's on our web site.
QUESTION: So it will be quite obvious that there's a difference between countries and not all of them will say --
MR. HERBERT: Previously there was nothing in there about Y2K. This time each one will have a Y2K paragraph.
QUESTION: I'm looking -- I've looked at the Y2K paragraphs that are sort of there -- at least I did about ten minutes ago -- and each was quite similar except for -- it looked like a local web address that travelers in that certain country could access.
MR. HERBERT: I don't think you'll find them all the same; they are similar in language -- many of them -- and many of them are actually about the same stage. But I guess you just have to read them all and see where -- see the difference.
MR. O'KEEFE: We are posting the new ones this afternoon and what you are looking at is the generic paragraph that we've had in there for most of the year. So those are all the same; these will be different.
MR. HERBERT: What we're adding today is a country-specific language which you wouldn't have seen, so that would be the difference. I'm sorry.
QUESTION: You mentioned that you would be updating the Y2K paragraphs as new information comes along. What other information are you expecting and from which countries, or are you expecting information from all countries?
MR. HERBERT: Well, the same process that brought us to today will be going on. Our embassies will be discussing Y2K issues with the host country governments abroad. There are still lots of people out there doing lots of studies, lots of remediation efforts going on. As we get better information we will publish it on our web site. As I say, we will not reissue the consular information sheet again. That will stay but the consular information sheet direct people to the web site for updates of information as we go on.
QUESTION: So no specific subjects are being targeted right now to draw on new information such as health care or anything like that?
MR. O'KEEFE: Well, anything that impacts the safety and security of Americans abroad is our interest, so if we find out in Country X that the healthcare situation looks worse than what we said, you will find that on our web site that as of this date we have determined that the healthcare sector in Country X looks like it may have more serious disruptions than previously thought or something like that, you know, that's what we will do.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) the overall situation was in some way encouraging and that's why there aren't any travel warnings, but would it make any sense to issue the travel warnings now when it's three months ahead? I mean, even when the countries that haven't done much, would you do that today?
MR. HERBERT: We would do a travel warning if we thought the situation in any country was such that it was dangerous or harmful for Americans to go there. That is not our assessment.
QUESTION: That is not -- you have got to wait till the next year for Y2K problem to arise.
MR. HERBERT: But we don't know what the problem will be. If we don't think that there will be a problem that will make it dangerous or unsafe for Americans, we will not issue a travel warning. At this point there is no indication for any country in the world that leads us to issue a travel warning at this time. So we put out the information on the consular information sheet. It's information for people to look at and factor into their decisions. But until such time as we determine that it is dangerous or unsafe for Americans to be there, we will not issue a travel warning.
Now, we do have travel warnings out at any given time for certain countries because of danger of bombings, kidnappings, terrorist things, all kinds of other factors. But we have not yet reached a decision on any country that Y2K-related circumstances merit a travel warning.
QUESTION: Are there countries from which you want to hear more closer to the new year?
MR. HERBERT: Well, this is not a static process. We want to hear from all countries. There are sectors being remediated. There are people doing tests that might reveal problems that we didn't know before. We're interested in every country in the world because Americans go to and live in every country in the world.
QUESTION: Let me put it a different way. Are there countries from what you've heard so far is not particularly reassuring, but you would like to hear more? Is there any kind of provisional status or anything like that?
MR. HERBERT: I think some of the Y2K paragraphs you'll read will suggest that there is a potential risk in this or that sector or there is a low risk. We are interested in all of those to see if that maintains itself at that level or gets worse or gets better. There is no provisional list. I say, we have 196 of these -- each one is independent, deals with the circumstances in a given country. I'm sure anybody can read them all and say, well, these belong in this pile, this and that pile. We don't do that. I don't have that in my head.
QUESTION: Travelers' concerns aside, is the State Department or any other part of the US government looking at the impact of other countries' Y2K preparedness on trade, finance, national security.
MR. O'KEEFE: Yes, we look at those issues across the globe on Y2K. That's one of the reasons, again -- as I mentioned before -- the APEC statement, and also we are working with APEC partners on a contingency planning tool kit which is kind of geared to cross-border dependencies. So an APEC country can take a look and see what its critical imports are, whether they are raw materials or intermediate goods or finished goods that they need to keep functioning.
In other fora at the UNGA, I think there will be discussions about this, as well. So clearly we have not only the responsibility to our citizens but as Undersecretary Pickering said, our own national interests have a play in this. One of the interesting things about year 2000 is it tends to be a win-win situation; that is, the better other countries do, then the better every country does. So it's an easy sell, but it's not an easy problem.
QUESTION: Would either of you care to tick off the two, three, five most important things that you watch on behalf of Americans that Americans should be concerned with as they look to travel somewhere? What are the chief issues involved in the country?
MR. HERBERT: The key sectors that impact Americans who are traveling abroad -- health, certainly is one. Communications, finance, transportation. The things that would impact an American who is on a trip or on a visit or on a tour and if the system that supported those activities failed, what situation would they be in? How would they be able to cope with it? Those are some of the typical ones, obviously.
QUESTION: Is there one of those that is harder to fix that countries are having more of a problem with than any other?
MR. HERBERT: No, I couldn't make an assessment. Some countries, obviously, are stronger in certain sectors than in others.
QUESTION: The British Foreign Office did issue a travel advisory today on Y2K problems for Ukraine and said that they would advise all their citizens not to take nonessential travel there until the situation becomes clearer. What kind of information did you get from Ukraine?
MR. HERBERT: Well, I couldn't tell you the specific information but we didn't reach that same conclusion on Ukraine at this time. But we're aware of the British decision and as we look at countries, we're certainly going to continue to look at the Ukraine.
QUESTION: So I could reasonably assume that if you guys deemed that, say, a country's airports weren't Y2K remediated that you would issue a travel advisory -- a Y2K travel advisory for that country. It seems just with what you're saying with what's coming out with the Ukraine and some other countries that are obviously are going to have some problems, that it's unlikely that we're going to get to the date rollover without any countries having Y2K travel advisories being issued. I mean, is that a fair assessment?
MR. HERBERT: We don't have travel advisories, by the way. We have travel warnings, if that's what you're referring to. We could easily get to that date without any travel warnings. Let's assume that everyone is working feverishly to remediate and things only get better rather than worse. If that were to be the case, the fact that we have no travel warnings now based on Y2K and things improved would suggest that we wouldn't have any later on.
Now, we have 196 countries here that we're dealing with. It is possible that certain sectors' weaknesses will be revealed, certain tests would be performed that would fail in those sectors that would lead us to conclude that this particular country does merit a travel warning. If that's the case, I can assure you, we'll have one out the same day.
QUESTION: What is the Y2K status of the missions themselves? Is there remaining testing to be done?
MR. O'KEEFE: As some of you know, we ran a 9/9/99 test last week. That basically was to look at our communications and our reporting on the rollover period. Each chief of mission -- each ambassador -- has to have a contingency plan for the rollover period. Our intention is that all embassies will function. They will be available for the protection of US citizens carrying out the national interest and be ready to work through the millennium.
QUESTION: You referred interchangeably to report on 196 countries and territories and at other times on 196 countries. Can you clarify? John, separately, the heads of the Senate Y2K Committee, Senators Bennett and Dodd, have urged the administration to expand a joint early warning center being set up in Colorado to include not just the Russians, but also the Chinese, the Pakistanis and the Indians. Have there been any discussions in the administration or with those countries about possible participation?
MR. O'KEEFE: Well, I'll take the second question. That is, as you know, a DOD led effort. As far as I know, the discussions have been with the Russians on the setup of the system. Whether they are discussing with the Chinese or not, I'm not sure. That doesn't mean they haven't. But that is, I think, a question that you will probably want to take over to Assistant Secretary Warner's office who is managing that.
It's 196 consular information sheets covering countries and territories, I think.
MR. HERBERT: Some of them cover two because Monaco and France are on the same sheet..
QUESTION: Given that a lot of Americans needed to have made their travel plans to the more popular millennial celebration locations many months in advance, is it really giving them ample opportunity to release these CIS just something like 15, 16 weeks ahead of time when -- I guess from what you said earlier, they were actually -- the first round or the first draft were completed three months ago and were given to the countries to review twice?
MR. HERBERT: Well, early on there were a lot of dire predictions about Y2K failures. To have announced at that time that most of the world was not prepared would have perhaps scared people, panicked people, caused them to cancel their plans. So we tried to make sure that the information was fairly reliable. We thought this was enough lead time. We didn't want it to go past this month. But I think if you had seen the information that was available several months ago, you would find that it's changed considerably over the period of time. The fact that at this point we do not feel we have to issue any travel warnings suggests that perhaps the process that we went through was beneficial.
QUESTION: You had mentioned that you got your information from your posts and I think from some organizations within the host countries. Your press release says that you also received information from other sources, from other agencies. Can you talk a little bit about how the process -- what sort of information did you get from which agencies and how did that influence the language or the content of your consular information sheets?
MR. O'KEEFE: Basically in gathering the information, we looked at any sources that we could get information from. So that would be things like the Gartener report. There is an interagency working group which is composed of about 15 agencies, Department of Energy, Department of Defense and others, and they also provided their insights. So it's the kind of issue where if you do look at the consular information sheets, it talks about the probabilities of risks. There's not as much predictability in this as one would like.
At one point a few months ago in looking at a particular issue, I thought that you could take a position on a Y2K event and find a source to back up any particular position that you would want to take. So there is a lot of contradictory information out there. The challenge is to get all of this, put it together and then try to make a judgment that US citizens can then rely on as having at least some validity.
QUESTION: Could you comment on how diplomatically difficult this has been to put together these analyses? Clearly when you have an event like this to put out what you say is very important information to the traveling public but yet you, yourselves, don't even want to speak and give us the direct information on each country. This is very sensitive. Can you speak to how difficult it has been?
MR. HERBERT: Last week Under Secretary Cohen had addressed the press who came to the 9/9/99 event and had a question very similar to that. She said that we had a very active dialogue with other countries. I think that probably describes pretty well the diplomatic effort.
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