WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- John Poindexter submitted his resignation this week as head of the Pentagon's Office of Information Awareness, but continued to take issue with his critics.
Poindexter's five-page letter of resignation, obtained Wednesday by the Washington Post, officially ends his 20-month tenure. However, he took advantage of the missive to take issue with critics of his efforts to develop new data scanning systems, an online futures market for terrorist incidents, and other controversial proposals.
Poindexter says his ideas fell victim to ignorance, distortion and Washington's "highly-charged political environment."
The Post said Poindexter insists new technologies are needed to discern terrorists' plans in such everyday transactions as credit card purchases, travel reservations and e-mail. He said innovative approaches are needed to gain access to information currently not available to the government.
The resignation came after Poindexter suggested creating an online futures market for betting on such events as assassinations, bombings and other terrorist acts. Before that, the former admiral was embroiled in a controversial plan for computerized surveillance of people's travel, financial, medical and other private records.
