Wyden Wins in Fight Against Government
Waste: Defense Department will Close “Terror Market”
Senator exposed $8 million program selling
“futures” on terror attacks
July 29, 2003
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) today hailed the news that the Defense Department will
shut down a program which would have sold “futures contracts”
on assassinations, political coups and missile attacks in an
attempt to predict terrorist events. Wyden and Sen. Byron Dorgan
(D-N.D), who have joined together in recent months to root out
waste in Federal agencies, held a press conference yesterday
to expose and condemn the program and to publicly oppose the
White House’s $8 million budget request to continue and
expand it during the next two years.
“At a time when so many Oregonians are hurting
financially, when schools and fire departments and police departments
need more funding, I just couldn’t stand by and watch
the waste of $8 million in taxpayer money on a morally questionable,
dubiously useful program like this,” said Wyden. “I’m
glad the Defense Department chose to heed my concerns.”
The “Policy Analysis Market” (PAM),
the first phase of the program, had already gone online with
funds from a Federal grant and was scheduled to begin a beta
test on Friday, August 1. Some of the possibilities the Policy
Analysis Market website planned to offer for sale were the overthrow
of the King of Jordan, the assassination of Yasser Arafat, and
a missile attack by North Korea. Bidders would have profited
if the events for which they held futures – including
government coups, assassinations and missile attacks –
occurred. PAM was a precursor to the Defense Department’s
$8 million “Futures Markets Applied to Prediction”
(FutureMAP) initiative – just one portion of the Terrorism
(formerly Total) Information Awareness (TIA) program, which
Senator Wyden has sought to rein in due to concerns about potential
violations of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.
“Today’s cancellation of the terror
market should be another step toward shutting down the entire
TIA program,” said Wyden. “With data-mining, gait-mapping
and now with terror betting, TIA has consistently crossed the
line on Americans’ privacy, civil liberties, and good
sense, and it’s time to end it once and for all.”
The Senate version of the Defense Appropriations
bill currently contains no funding for any component of the
Terrorism (formerly Total) Information Awareness (TIA) program,
which Poindexter oversees. The House version contains funding
for TIA and its component programs. Wyden will seek to keep
the TIA program de-funded in the final bill.
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