- The Pentagon has abandoned plans to set up a 'terror
stock market' in which investors could bag cash by successfully predicting
terrorist attacks.
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- US defence chiefs had hoped the market would have been
a valuable tool in second guessing when terror strikes would occur.
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- But critics dismissed the move as "unbelievably
stupid", "ridiculous" and "grotesque".
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- The programme, which would have run on the internet,
was called the Policy Analysis Market and would have been overseen by the
Pentagon and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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- Windfall
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- Traders would have been able to buy and sell futures
contracts - just like energy traders do when they bet on the future price
of oil.
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- But the contracts would have been based on Middle Eastern
affairs, such as economics, civil and military affairs or terrorist attacks.
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- A successful terror attack, which could have resulted
in many deaths, would have led to a windfall for the holder of the futures
contract.
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- The agency statement said the project was "investigate
the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks".
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- Investors would have been able to have signed up on Friday
and trading was due to begin on October 1.
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- 'Unbelievably stupid'
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- Two Democratic senators slammed the move.
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- "The idea of a federal betting parlour on atrocities
and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque," said Senator Ron
Wyden D-Ore.
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- Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan described the market
as "unbelievably stupid".
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- "Can you imagine if another country set up a betting
parlour 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.
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- An agency statement defended the move saying markets
could reveal, "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".
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