Agency Behind Terrorism Futures Profiled (DARPA)

[kainah]

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A government office is sponsoring a robot race through the Mojave Desert with a $1 million cash prize, trying to build lasers powerful enough to down missiles and studying the feet of geckos. And it calls its best employees "freewheeling zealots."

DARPA — the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — is unlike any other federal agency.

New assignments in terrorism and high-powered computer software have brought unwanted attention and controversy to the office of just 240 employees. Before that, it had quietly transformed not only the U.S. military, with stealth aircraft, Predator drones and precision bombs, but also American society, with the Internet and global positioning satellites.

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