Bush + Rummy = Poindexter---OUCH!

[Gimpy]

What a TEAM!

Let's see whether I have this right, last week we heard that the Pentagon - yes, the Pentagon - was setting up its own version of off-track betting.
They didn't call it that. They called it a commodity-style market.
It's funny how names get cleaned up when the conservative republicans takes them over. I'm suprised this wasn't Bill Bennets idea.

Anyhow, the idea was that investors would somehow be lured to the market to buy and sell futures contracts on world events- in other words, bet on the likelihood of future terrorist attacks and other chaotic events.

The scheme was going to be called the ``Policy Analysis Market,'' and roughly half a million dollars in tax money had been spent to set up the project.

According to the story, as many as 10,000 investors were expected to buy contracts, speculating on whether they thought an event might occur.

Apparently the project had a Web site. One of the graphics on the site ``showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would be assassinated.

The Pentagon had asked for $3 million for next year for the program and $5 million for the following year. How much MORE shit like this is "Rummy" & Georgie Boy cooking up that could have been used in the VA budhet??

Unfortunately, they didn't budget money for spin control, and once the word got out that we were betting on the odds of getting blown up, the public got a little testy.

By the end of the week, the politicians had deep-sixed the project, and retired Adm. John Poindexter, who was overseeing the plan, was expected to offer his resignation. If you're trying to recall where you heard that name before, he was the national security adviser to President Reagan. Ummmmmmmmmmm?

It's weird, isn't it, how all those names suddenly come piling back into memory now that GEE-DUBYA is in the whitehouse?- Robert McFarlane, Oliver North and John Poindexter. That was Iran-Contra, another in a line of republican scandals that stretches so long they jumble together.

Poindexter was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, destroying evidence and probably singing the national anthem out of tune as well! He was allowed to go free only after making an immunity agreement.

I suppose a deal is a deal and if they wanted to send the admiral quietly off into the sunset, that would have been OK.

What's a little more difficult to understand is how 20 years down the road that same retired admiral is hired by this administration (in particular Donald Rumsfeld) and is making bonehead decisions that affect the rest of us. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., was quoted as calling the project ``a rather egregious error of judgment.'' NO SHIT!!!

The egregious error seems to be more in who allowed Poindexter to even be hanging around the Office of Bad Ideas at the Pentagon to start with! More corrupt characters hireing corrupt characters to further corrupt and already corrupt administration! That's the republican way! Doesn't suprise me at ALL!

[sfc_darrel]

Poindexter to Resign From Pentagon Post

Thursday, July 31, 2003

WASHINGTON ? The admiral who developed two controversial Pentagon database programs quickly killed by Congress is leaving his post as head of the Information Awareness Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (search).

Senior Defense Department officials said Thursday John Poindexter (search) will resign from his advisory position in the "next few weeks."

"My understanding is that he is working through the details, and he expects to, within the next few weeks, offer his resignation," the official said.

Earlier in the week, the Pentagon agreed to kill a "predictive markets" Web site that invited participants to bet on the likelihood of terror attacks and upheaval in the Middle East and other global hotspots. The Future Markets Applied to Predictions (search) program would have allowed traders to buy and sell futures contracts based on their predictions about activities such as attempted assassinations of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat or a biological weapons attack on Israel.

The program was killed within days of the start of trader registration after lawmakers said they in no way authorized the funding for the program.

Congress also is refusing to fund the Total Information Awareness (search) program, another project conceived by Poindexter's office. TIA envisioned a massive data collection system that would have been able to track personal information and commercial transactions of just about anybody. It was the subject of piercing scrutiny by privacy advocates.
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/sh...872#post165872

[xgrunt]

is nothing new Gimpy. You know they're betting that the average American's memory is about 15 minutes or one sound bite repeatedly. Remember Afghanistan? Where's the media coverage? Remember the corperate scandals that were HOT Stories until WMD's blew them out of memory range? How about 28 blacked pages in the 9/11 report? They are betting that Joe Six-pack won't care-because He's too busy looking for a job in a job market has the highest unemploment rate in close to 30 years. If W gets a second term I bet Future Historians will refer to Ashcroftism, as they now do to McCarthism.

[BLUEHAWK]

Gimpy, Darrel and Grunt -

Re: "TIA" Check out http://opengov.media.mit.edu/

Yes, but it'll then be: Rice-Kristol-Cheney-Wolfowitz-Gingrich-Kissinger-DeLay-Quayle-Rove-Perle-Rumsfeld-Ashcroftism!

[blues clues]

gimp this would be funny if it wasn't true, and james, dubby will win that bet because most of the people can't see past yesterday much least 20 years ago and the ones who do are called the nuts I guess it's true if someone tells some folk's the sky is green long enough most will agree with them! all we can do is keep on telling the truth and hope someone will hear what we are saying.

razz

[BLUEHAWK]

Razz -

With your last statement I could not possibly agree more...

[Andy]

This will be unpopular but I disagree. If you want to know what to do to protect your house, one of the best things you can do is get a professional burglar to tell you how he?d break in. If you want to stop car thefts, talk to a pro car thief to find out how he would do it. (I recall talking to a guy about the usefulness of ?the Club?, he showed me how to nullify it in less than 10 seconds.) Look at computer security. If you want a protection device that works, have a hacker help you develop it.

If the government is interested in knowing what targets are ?at risk? and how they might be breached, let people who think about such things give you ideas and let them bet their money on it. (The betting of the money only indicates they are serious and they are willing to put there money were their mouth is.)

This is a case of thinking outside of the box. Politically it is obviously very unpopular, thus there should have been more layers in the plan so that there could have been better ?deniability?. However the idea is sound. If you are responsible for security you should have as many avenues open as possible. This plan was to brainstorm what might or could happen. Getting ideas from the maximum number of sources is a great idea. Politically incorrect, but not a bad idea.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[BLUEHAWK]

Andy -
Damn...
I believe you are right in a sense... had that plan not been named as it was, i.e. a kind of "Futures Trading" (which sets off ALL kinds of bells and whistles), then it probably could have worked, would not have become instantly politically incorrect (and for damn good reason!), and could have or might even still BE a useful intelligence tool. I see your concept exactly.

I am mighty glad that Poindexter is out, for the moment, however. If he did not have enough sense to characterize the idea intelligently then he has NO business being a loose cannon out there.

[blues clues]

blue like you I'm glad that poindexter is out but what worrys me is the mind set of the one who appointed him to the job in the first place. just who is driving this bus anyway I should have got off two stops ago.

razz