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Damaged Poindexter bailing out of Pentagon position
ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON—The official who oversaw a plan for the Pentagon to run a terrorism futures-trading market is resigning under pressure, a senior defence official said yesterday.
John Poindexter, a retired rear admiral who was U.S. President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, will step down "in the next few weeks," the official said, after the disclosure of a proposal that outraged lawmakers and embarrassed senior Pentagon officials.
The plan was to create an online betting parlour that would have rewarded investors who forecast terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not personally dismiss Poindexter, but the defence official said Rumsfeld agreed that the admiral's credibility was damaged and that he should leave.
"It's fair to say that the secretary understood what Admiral Poindexter understands, which is that it's difficult for any work that he might be associated with to receive a dispassionate hearing," the official said.
A spokesman for Poindexter and his agency, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Pentagon known as DARPA, said he and the office would have no comment on the resignation, first reported Wednesday night by The Wall Street Journal.
But Poindexter said in an electronic message to a friend, which was given to a reporter, on Wednesday night that he had been contemplating resigning for several months, to get out from under a steady stream of criticism and spend more time sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.
The furore centred on an initiative under Poindexter's control called Policy Analysis Market. Under the plan, traders were to be able to begin registering today to trade futures in Middle East developments as of Oct. 1 on a Web site program, which the Pentagon was operating with private partners.
Yesterday, the senior defence official sought to soften the impact of what even staunch supporters of Poindexter acknowledged were serious blunders.
The defence official praised Poindexter for his "very creative intellect" but said it was highly doubtful that the Pentagon would seek his advice as a consultant any time soon.
Damaged Poindexter bailing out of Pentagon position
ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON—The official who oversaw a plan for the Pentagon to run a terrorism futures-trading market is resigning under pressure, a senior defence official said yesterday.
John Poindexter, a retired rear admiral who was U.S. President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, will step down "in the next few weeks," the official said, after the disclosure of a proposal that outraged lawmakers and embarrassed senior Pentagon officials.
The plan was to create an online betting parlour that would have rewarded investors who forecast terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not personally dismiss Poindexter, but the defence official said Rumsfeld agreed that the admiral's credibility was damaged and that he should leave.
"It's fair to say that the secretary understood what Admiral Poindexter understands, which is that it's difficult for any work that he might be associated with to receive a dispassionate hearing," the official said.
A spokesman for Poindexter and his agency, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Pentagon known as DARPA, said he and the office would have no comment on the resignation, first reported Wednesday night by The Wall Street Journal.
But Poindexter said in an electronic message to a friend, which was given to a reporter, on Wednesday night that he had been contemplating resigning for several months, to get out from under a steady stream of criticism and spend more time sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.
The furore centred on an initiative under Poindexter's control called Policy Analysis Market. Under the plan, traders were to be able to begin registering today to trade futures in Middle East developments as of Oct. 1 on a Web site program, which the Pentagon was operating with private partners.
Yesterday, the senior defence official sought to soften the impact of what even staunch supporters of Poindexter acknowledged were serious blunders.
The defence official praised Poindexter for his "very creative intellect" but said it was highly doubtful that the Pentagon would seek his advice as a consultant any time soon.
