"It seems that you"re not the only one with a ticket for Seat 11- D on this flight."

"What"s that supposed to mean?"

"Sir, it seems that the flight has been accidentally overbooked, by about 300 people."

"Well, I have a ticket and a boarding pa.s.s . . ."

"So do they, sir."

Delta and American and Northwest and USAir were all experiencing problems at every gate their airlines serviced. So was every other airline that used the National Reservation Service or Saber. Some flights though, were not so busy.

"What kind of load we have tonight, Sally?" asked Captain David Clark. The American red-eye from LAX to Kennedy was often a party flight, with music and entertainment people swapping cities and visiting ex-wives and children on the opposite coast.

"Light," she replied over the galley intercom from the middle of the 400 seat DC-10.

"How light?"

"Crew of eleven. Two pa.s.sengers."

By midnight, the entire air traffic system was in total chaos.

Empty airplanes sat idly in major hubs awaiting pa.s.sengers that never came. Pilots and flight crews waiting for instructions as take-offs from airports all but ceased. Overbooking was so rampant that police were called into dozens of airports to re- store order. Fist fights broke out and despite pleas for calm from the police and the airlines, over 200 were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, a.s.sault and resisting arrest.

Tens of thousands of pa.s.sengers had confirming tickets for flights that didn"t exist or had left hours before.

Arriving pa.s.sengers at the international airports, LAX, Kennedy, San Francisco, Miami were stranded with no flights, no hotels and luggage often destined for parts unknown. Welcome to the United States.

The FAA had no choice but to shut down the entire air transporta- tion system at 2:22 A.M.

Wednesday, January 27 National Security Agency Fort Meade, Maryland

"Did you get the President to sign it?"

"No problem. Public opinion swung our way after yesterday."

"And now?"

"Essentially, every long and short distance phone company works for the Federal Government.."

"Tell me how it works."

"We have lines installed from the 114 Signal Transfer Points in every phone district to a pair of Cray-YMP"s at the Fort. Every single AT&T long distance phone call goes through these switches and is labeled by an IAM with where the call came from and where it"s going. What we"re looking for is the high usage digital lines. Including fax lines. So the phone company is kind enough to send us a list of every call. We get about seven million an hour."

"We can handle that?"

"We have enough to handle ten times that."

"I forget about the international monitors. That"s millions more calls a day we listen to."

"Yessir. The computers go through every call and make a list of digital calls. Then we get a list of all billing records and start crunching. We compare the high usage digital lines with the phone numbers from the bills and look for patterns. We look to see if it"s a private or business line, part of a private PBX, hours and days of usage, then who owns the line. Obviously we eliminate a great many from legitimate businesses. After inten- sive a.n.a.lysis and profile comparison, we got a a few thousand candidates. What we decided to look for was two things.

"First, we listen to the lines to make sure it"s a computer. If it is, we get a look at the transmissions. If they are encrypt- ed, they get a red flag and onto the Hit List."

"The President bought this?"

"We told him we"d only need the records for a short time, and then we would dispose of them. He agreed."

"What a sucker. Good work."

Friday, February 12 New York City Times

Computer License Law Possible?

by Scott Mason

Senator Mark Bowman"s proposed legislation is causing one of the most stirring debates on Capital Hill since the divisive decision to free Kuwait militarily.

The so-called "Computer License Law" is expected to create as much division in the streets and homes of America as it is polit- ically.

The bill calls for every computer in the country to be registered with the Data Registration Agency, a working component of the Commerce Dept. The proposed "nominal fees" are intended to insure that the technology to protect computer systems keeps up with other computer technology.

Critics, though, are extremely vocal in their opposition to a bill that they say sends a strong message to the American people: We don"t trust you. The FYI, Freeflow of Your Information says that pa.s.sage of the Computer License Law will give the federal government the unrestricted ability and right to invade our privacy. Dr. Sean Kirschner, the chief ACLU counsel, is consid- ering a lawsuit against the United States if the bill pa.s.ses.

Kirschner maintains that " . . .if the License Law goes into effect, the streets will be full of Computers Cops handing out tickets if your computer doesn"t have a license. The enforcement clauses of the bill essentially give the police the right to listen to your computer. That is a simple invasion of privacy, and we will not permit a precedent to be set. We lost too much freedom under Reagan."

Proponents of the bill insist that the low fee, perhaps only $10 per year per computer, is intended to finance efforts at keeping security technology apace with computer technology. "We have learned our lesson the hard way, and we now need to address the problem head on before it bites us again." They cite the example of England, where televisions have been licensed for years, with the fees dedicated to supporting the arts and maintaining broad- casting facilities.

"Does not apply," says Dr. Kirschner. "With a television, there isn"t an issue of privacy. A computer is like an electronic diary, and that privacy must be respected at all costs."

"And," he adds, "that"s England, not the U.S.. They don"t have freedom of the press, either."

Kirschner vowed a highly visible fight if Congress " . . .dares to pa.s.s that vulgar law . . ."

Monday, February 15 Scarsdale, New York

"ECCO reports are coming in."

"At this hour?" Scott said sleepily.

"You want or no?" Tyrone Duncan answered with irritation.

"Yeah, yeah, I want," Scott grumbled. "What time is it?"

"Four A.M. Why?"

"I won"t make the morning . . ."