WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The official who oversaw a plan for the Pentagon to run a terrorist futures-trading market is resigning under pressure.
John M. Poindexter, a retired rear admiral who was President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, is stepping down "within a few weeks," a defense official told the New York Times Friday.
That followed the disclosure of a proposal that outraged lawmakers and embarrassed senior Pentagon officials. The plan was to create an online trading parlor that would have rewarded investors who forecast terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not personally fire Poindexter, but the defense official said Rumsfeld agreed the admiral had become too much of a political lightning rod and it was time for him to go.
A spokesman for Poindexter and his organization, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Pentagon, said he and the office had no comment on the resignation.
