The Pentagon yesterday said it has decided to abandon a plan to set up a stock market like investment system that would allow speculators to bet on the likelihood of events in the war occurring on terror such as a suicide bombings and assassinations.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz announced the decision yesterday claiming that he had only learned of the terror betting system following news reports on Monday.

The system was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under the guidance of John Poindexter who also oversaw the developed of the Big Brother-like Total Information Awareness system.

Democrat Senator Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said, “I must say this is perhaps the most irresponsible, outrageous and poorly thought-out of anything that I have heard the administration propose to date.”