Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday he killed a proposed terrorism futures market because it was doomed to failure after an uproar in Congress, but he did not have enough information to judge whether it was a bad idea.
Rumsfeld said he scrapped the Pentagon’s scheme to let investors bet on the probability of wars, terrorist attacks and assassinations as a policy analysis tool “an hour after I read about it.” On Capitol Hill after a closed briefing with senators, he said it was clear “that even if it happened to have been a brilliant idea, which I doubt, it would not have been able to function in the environment that was created.” He said he hoped to have time this weekend “to learn more about it and see what I think of it, and how it happened and whether it made sense or didn’t make sense.” Full Story