The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

July 31, 2003 Thursday Home Edition

SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 22A

LENGTH: 333 words

HEADLINE: OUR OPINIONS: Hedge a bad bet: Fire Poindexter

SOURCE: AJC

BODY:
Never mind if you were bullish on a possible North Korean missile attack or
inclined to bet on the odds of Yasser Arafat's assassination. The U.S.
Department of Death --- oops, Defense --- announced that its planned terrorism
futures market, based on investment options in nuclear strikes and
assassinations, won't open Oct. 1 after all.

Sounds too scary to be true. But it is --- or was.

This week, a bipartisan chorus of senators, including Sen. John Warner,
Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, demanded the
so-called policy analysis market's demise. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz professed shock at learning of it in the media. But embarrassment is
hardly a sufficient reaction from the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld should fire John Poindexter, who dreamed up the risky scheme, and rein
in or abolish his Terrorism Information Awareness Office.

The idea of collecting valuable information on the basis of a futures-style
market isn't totally without credence, of course. Some economists believe it is
a broad-based way to predict certain global financial trends. But the use of
information "markets" --- open to covert participation by terrorists --- for
forecasting events that could trigger pre-emptive American policy actions would
surely fuel more hatred of America in the Middle East and disrespect by other
nations.

This is the second time that Poindexter --- the retired rear admiral who helped
design a plan for illegally diverting Iranian arms sales proceeds to Nicaraguan
rebels --- has come up with a wacky post-Sept. 11 scheme. He got into trouble
with Congress earlier when he proposed electronic spying on Americans--- tapping
into private medical and financial records.

The White House has been unfortunately silent. In addition to abolishing
Poindexter's toy job, Congress should demand full disclosure of the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency's secretive initiatives --- from Rumsfeld
himself.