From Michael Moore, Dude, Where's My Country.

Keeping America safe
 
The US Patriot Act and the enemy combatant designation are just a hint of what
Bush has in store for us. Consider a brainchild of Admiral John Poindexter, an
Iran-contra perp, and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa): the
"policy analysis market", which the government was to put up on a website.
 
Apparently, Poindexter reasoned that commodity futures markets worked so well
for Bush's buddies at Enron that he could adapt it to predicting terrorism.
Individuals would be able to invest in hypothetical futures contracts involving
the likelihood of such events as "an assassination of Yasser Arafat" or "the
overthrow of Jordan's King Abdullah II". Other futures would be available based
on the economic health, civil stability and military involvement in Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. All oil-related countries.
 
The proposed market lasted about one day after it was revealed to the Senate.
Senators Wyden and Dorgan protested the Pentagon's $8m request, and Wyden said,
"Make-believe markets trading in possibilities that turn the stomach hardly seem
like a sensible next step to take with taxpayers money in the war on terror." As
a result of the uproar over this, Poindexter was asked to step down.