Someone at the Pentagon read Shockwave Rider over the weekend

[Bill Stewart]

At 04:17 PM 07/29/2003 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>Doing this aboveboard, and doing it with the collusion of the 
>actors who can alter the outcome, is asking for trouble:
>* violation of gambling laws...as I said in other articles, 
>betting on the death of the King of Jordan is not different 
>from betting on the winner of the World Series.

One of the similarities is that, aside from there being 
government anti-gambling laws that might forbid both,
the Baseball Leagues have rules against members
(both players and owners) gambling on the results -
is John Poindexter the next Pete Rose?

Also, various administration statements came out about
how they were going to limit the bets to token amounts, e.g. $100,
which might prevent funding of terrorist groups
        (including Ollie North projects as well as Al Qaeda projects,
        if in fact the two weren't connected),
-- but those limits contradict one of the arguments the
Pentagon and its supporters were making about valid uses for this market,
which is companies insuring their business activities by
betting on terrorist events, similarly to the way they hedge currencies.