Only my comment here, so far?
Is Alaska oblivious to the possibility that these NSA attack tools could shut TAPS down at any moment, and in a way which would make restart extremely difficult?
I believe that there are valves designed to shut the flow off slowly, in case of a leak, as to not create a water hammer effect. If those valves were to be shut off quickly, the pipeline could burst somewhere upstream of each valve.
Are the people operating TAPS cognizant of the potential danger? Even if TAPS isn't hard-wired into the N. American fiber-optic system, there are still the satellite connections. And if the NSA attack tools have already infected TAPS, they could be set to trigger as soon as any remotely activated controls are taken off-line.
Were I in charge, I would immediately have all shut-off valves physically blocked from activating, except by manual override. That alone would prevent the worst of damage.
Then what about the smaller pipelines? The inlet platforms? What else?