Waging Terror (US Govt. website to BET on TERROR attacks)

[underpants]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/terror_bet030728.html



Will the king of Jordan be overthrown? Will Yasser Arafat be assassinated? Will North Korea launch a nuclear attack? You can bet on it.

The Pentagon has set up a Web site for the Policy Analysis Market, which is intended for a group of scholars and analysts to bet on the likelihood of dramatic events, especially in the Middle East.

The Policy Analysis Market would be a joint project of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and two private companies: Net Exchange, a market technologies company, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, a business component of the publisher of the Economist magazine.

The idea is to apply business market analysis to create a Defense Department "early warning system to avoid surprise," a DARPA statement said. The Pentagon says it's a technique that's been successful in predicting elections, even box-office receipts.

But as Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Ron Widen, D-Ore., told reporters in Washington, D.C., today, it is a sick idea.

So far, $749,979 has been spent on the project and Wyden and Dorgan said the Pentagon is asking Congress for $8 million to set up the Internet program. Anyone invited to play will wager that specific events will happen or not. Participants can actually make a small amount of money if their predictions come true.

"The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque," said Wyden.

[ze_dscherman]

1. Older thread on the same subject

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=39277&mesg_id=39277&page=

[jus_the_facts]

2. Good God Almighty ME.......

....seeing stories like this just further convinces me of the fact there is no more hope for mankind....just when you thought they can't possibly be more evil :evilfrown:

[smirkymonkey]

3. Call me crazy, but when I read about this

I found it shockingly sickening. Am I missing something? Is there any logical or beneficial reason for this, or is this the bottoming out of mankind. I can't even find words for my revulsion. :grr: