Reuters · UPI 


 Canadian indicted in alleged Y2K pipeline plot

                   Updated 11:53 PM ET November 19, 1999

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities said they
 indicted a Canadian man Friday for allegedly preparing to
 blow up the trans-Alaska pipeline in hopes of making a
 killing in oil markets on the expected rise in prices.

 Alfred Heinz Reumayr, 50, who is being held in Canada
 awaiting extradition to the United States, planned the
 explosions for Jan. 1 next year, using computer problems
 postulated for the end of the millennium as a cover.

 The Justice Department, relaying a statement by the U.S.
 Attorney in New Mexico, said a U.S. District Court in the
 state indicted Reumayr on terrorism and other charges.

 He was charged in that state because of his use of the
 Internet and mail to communicate between his home in
 British Columbia and a person he recruited in New Mexico
 to help him.

 This person notified the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
 and Firearms, and Reumayr was arrested by the Royal
 Canadian Mounted Police in August after he delivered
 components for 14 explosive devices, the statement said.

 Every sector of the U.S. economy has launched a major
 drive to correct what has become known as the Y2K
 problem, in which older computer programs that use only
 two digits to represent the year may fail to recognize 2000
 or mistake it for 1900.

 The bug could potentially cause breakdowns in all areas of
 modern life controlled by computers, from traffic signals to
 electrical power.