Temporary Archive: Suzanne Brockmann's Message Board

I spent 8 yrs in telecom, so I'm actually quite aware of how important the transfer of information is, and why it's such a lucrative industry. When I first started out, I was located at a switch site. It's a building that you would NEVER notice, and it's surrounded by 2 or 3 fences, with barbed wire and electric security. Also 2 keycard gates and 2 keycard entrances into the building. But even though it sounds like a little compound, it is so bland looking, you would drive by and probably not even see it. Behind the building was a couple towers. They were for various forms of communication.

One day, a little girl, who was obviously mentally impaired, was waiting by the gate. When someone came in with their truck, she snuck in behind them before the gates closed. Then she went up to the door and started knocking on the door. The building had no windows on either of the two floors, only security cameras. So, they see this little girl on the security camera, and the whole site is made aware that someone is at the door, and to be aware of anything questionable or possibly disastrous. Also, all cameras are checked and monitored to see if anyone else is around.

The site manager went out to talk with her. She was just a curious girl, wondering about the tower behind the building. But her presence and questions caused a panic for weeks. Because by taking out that switch site, you could take out communication for a quarter of California, and any communication that would pass through there. Not just phones, but ALL electronic communication. That means no credit cards, no network communication, no ATM machines, anything hardwired. Plus anything using that tower is also out. You can reroute, but it can take months to get everything rerouted. It's a HUGE disaster.

Internet switch sites are even fewer and farther between. Take those out, and you crash the world.

Satellite communication is just a SMALL portion of that communication. AND you have to be able to destroy all the BACKUP, which is the wave since 9/11.

China cannot destroy the world by doing what they're doing, nor can they rule it. But they can definitely make more money than anyone else. So then my question is - how does money alone make a country that much more powerful? And why do they WANT that money? What are they planning on spending it on?