Hacks & Wonks

- Angelo Persichilli, Edmonton Sun

Stanislav Petrov was a Strategic Rocket Forces lieutenant colonel, the officer on duty at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow on September 26, 1983. Petrov's responsibilities included observing the satellite early warning network and notifying his superiors of any impending nuclear missile attack against the Soviet Union. In the event of such an attack, the Soviet Union's strategy was an immediate nuclear counter-attack against the United States, specified in the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction.

At 00:40 hrs, the bunker's computers identified a US missile heading toward the Soviet Union. Petrov considered the detection a computer error, since a United States first-strike nuclear attack would hypothetically involve hundreds if not thousands of simultaneous missile launches to disable any Soviet means for a counterattack. Furthermore, the satellite system's reliability had been questioned in the past. Petrov dismissed the warning as a false alarm, though accounts of the event differ as to whether he notified his superiors or not after he concluded that the computer detections were false and that the United States had not launched any missile. Later, the computers identified five additional missiles in the air, all directed towards the Soviet Union. Petrov once again concluded that the computer system was malfunctioning, despite there being no other source of information to confirm his suspicions. The Soviet Union's land radar was not capable of detecting missiles beyond the horizon and waiting for them to positively identify the threat would limit the Soviet Union's response time to mere minutes.

Should Petrov have disregarded a real attack, the Soviet Union would have been struck by several nuclear missiles. Had he reported the incoming American missiles, his superiors might have launched a catastrophic assault against their enemies, precipitating a corresponding nuclear response from the United States. Petrov trusted his intuition and declared the system's indications a false alarm. Later, it was apparent that his instincts were right: no missiles were approaching and the computer detection system was malfunctioning.

"One person often nominated and who deserves to be is Chief Clarence Louie, who is promoting economic development not reliance on the Indian Industry as the path for improving the lot of Canada's native population. He is making a real difference in (some) people's live and if his example were followed elsewhere across the country, Indians everywhere would benefit."

OTTAWA -- Federal bureaucrats questioned whether Canada could meet its Kyoto Accord commitments even before the Conservatives took power, according to a ministerial briefing obtained by Sun Media.

One page raises the question, "Whether/when to acknowledge Canada will be very unlikely to meet target?"

"Once again, the Liberals have been caught misleading Canadians," said environment minister John Baird's communications director Garry Keller. "This document clearly shows that in the dying days of the Liberal government they were fully aware that Canada had no chance of meeting our Kyoto targets."

Dion says he was never given such advice. He suggested the report resulted from civil servants reading the Conservatives' criticisms of Kyoto and predicting it was no longer a priority .

"We will focus our tax cuts on the competitiveness of the country," Mr. Dion told reporters following a one-day Liberal Party conference focused on economic issues. "I will give the good incentives to create a good economic culture.