This is a posting many of us did not take time to
look at. It is a very terrible stage that developed nations want to pass
under your own nose without knowledge. The agenda is to put terrorism in
the market, so if you know for a fact that a leader so and so will be
assassinated, you can bet on it and if you are wrong you loose the cash on
the market. pentagon calls it a way to track terrorism from a wider
source. Many people calls it an absolutely stupid idea. This is how low
the American administration has been forced into this new world order. The
question is what is next?
Two Democratic senators demanded Monday the project be stopped before
investors begin registering this week. "The idea of a federal betting
parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque," Sen.
Ron Wyden (news,
bio,
voting
record), D-Ore., said.
The Pentagon office overseeing the program, called the Policy Analysis
Market, said it was part of a research effort "to investigate the broadest
possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks." It said there
would be a re-evaluation before more money was committed.
The market would work this way. Investors would buy and sell futures
contracts — essentially a series of predictions about what they believe
might happen in the Mideast. Holder of a futures contract that came true
would collect the proceeds of investors who put money into the market but
predicted wrong.
A graphic on the market's Web page showed hypothetical futures
contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news
- web
sites) would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be
overthrown.
Although the Web site described the Policy Analysis Market as "a market
in the future of the Middle East," the graphic also included the
possibility of a North Korea (news
- web
sites) missile attack.
That graphic was apparently removed from the Web site hours after the
news conference in which Wyden and fellow Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (news,
bio,
voting
record) of North Dakota criticizing the market.
Dorgan described it as useless, offensive and "unbelievably stupid."
"Can you imagine if another country set up a betting parlor so that
people could go in ... and bet on the assassination of an American
political figure, or the overthrow of this institution or that
institution?" he said.
According to its Web site, the Policy Analysis Market would be a joint
program of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known
as DARPA, and two private companies: Net Exchange, a market technologies
company, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm
of the publisher of The Economist magazine.
DARPA has received strong criticism from Congress for its Terrorism
Information Awareness program, a computerized surveillance program that
has raised privacy concerns. Wyden said the Policy Analysis Market is
under retired Adm. John Poindexter, the head of the Terrorism Information
Awareness program and, in the 1980s, a key figure in the Iran-Contra
scandal.
In its statement Monday, DARPA said that markets offer efficient,
effective and timely methods for collecting "dispersed and even hidden
information. Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at
predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than
expert opinions."
The description of the market on its Web site makes it appear similar
to a computer-based commodities market. Contracts would be available based
on economic health, civil stability, military disposition and U.S.
economic and military involvement in Egypt, Iran, Iraq (news
- web
sites), Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.
Contracts would also be available on "global economic and conflict
indicators" and specific events, for example U.S. recognition of a
Palestinian state.
Traders who believe an event will occur can buy a futures contract.
Those who believe the event is unlikely can try to sell a contract. The
Web site does not address how much money investors would be likely to put
into the market but says analysts would be motivated by the "prospect of
profit and at pain of loss" to make accurate predictions.
Registration would begin Friday with trading beginning Oct. 1. The
market would initially be limited to 1,000 traders, increasing to at least
10,000 by Jan. 1.
The Web site says government agencies will not be allowed to
participate and will not have access to the identities or funds of
traders.
The market is a project of a DARPA division called FutureMAP, or
"Futures Markets Applied to Prediction." FutureMAP is trying to develop
programs that would allow the Defense Department to use market forces to
predict future events, according to its Web site.
"The rapid reaction of markets to knowledge held by only a few
participants may provide an early warning system to avoid surprise," it
said.
It said the markets must offer "compensation that is ethically and
legally satisfactory to all sectors involved, while remaining attractive
enough to ensure full and continuous participation of individual parties."
Dorgan and Wyden released a letter to Poindexter calling for an
immediate end to the program. They noted a May 20 report to lawmakers that
cited the possibility of using market forces to predict whether terrorists
would attack Israel with biological weapons.
"Surely such a threat should be met with intelligence gathering of the
highest quality — not by putting the question to individuals betting on an
Internet Web site," they said.
Wyden said $600,000 has been spent on the program so far and the
Pentagon plans to spend an additional $149,000 this year. The Pentagon has
requested $3 million for the program for next year and $5 million for the
following year.
Wyden said the Senate version of next year's defense spending bill
would cut off money for the program, but the House version would fund it.
The two versions will have to be reconciled.
___
On the Net:
Policy Analysis Market: www.policyanalysismarket.org
DARPA's FutureMap Web site: http://www.darpa.mil/iao/FutureMap.htm
