"How would you feel if you were the King of Jordan and you learned that the US Defense Department was taking bets on your being overthrown within a year?"--US Senator Byron Dorgan

The White House has finally shown its true color and it has become The House of Cards. After waging the wrong war against Iraq rather than Al Qaeda, the Bush administration wanted to entrench terrorism in the Free Market with the buying and selling of speculated futures on terrorist events in the Middle East. Luckily enough this gambling game to self-predict terrorist behaviour into an ongoing traded future commodity was uncovered by senators Ron Wyden and Byron Dorgan and it has been immediately canceled.

The Pentagon's contention to establish this gambling game, called Policy Analysis Market (PAM), is that

"Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as election results; they are often better than expert opinions."

And so the now deleted PAM's web site included the future probable events of the assassination of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a missile attack by North Korea and the overthrow of King Abdullah of Jordan.

Sometime ago I wrote about the demented thinking of conceptualizing a world view of "game theory" and I realize today how aberrant our conventional thinking of game theory has become. This latest game theory was schemed with the participation of the supposed best economic analysts of the Economist under the direction of retired Navy Admiral John Poindexter who was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and destroying evidence in the Iran Contra scandal.

The gambling and lying of the Bush administration continues.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Reynolds, Paul Pentagon Plans Online Terror Bets July 29, 2003 BBC, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0729-03.htm

Wyden, Dorgan Call For Immediate Halt to Tax-Funded "Terror Market" Scheme July 28, 2003, Senator Ron Wyden, http://wyden.senate.gov/media/2003/07282003_terrormarket.html

Jerusalem Post UK committee: Iraq war might have impeded al-Qaida war July 31, 2003

Milchen, Jeff The Lunatic Fringe of Capitalism: Trading in Terrorism July 29, 2003 Pacific News Service http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/pam.html

deSantis, Mario The societal implications of the work of scientists John Nash, Thomas Saaty and Jay Forrester: Game Theory versus System Dynamics July 27, 2002 Ensign http://www.ftlcomm.com:16080/ensign/desantisArticles/2002_600/desantis673/gametheory.html

Perry, Steve The Bush Administration's Top 40 Lies about War and Terrorism:Bring 'em On! July 30, 2003 Minneapolis City Pages, http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0730-06.htm