You might not recall the Intelligence Gambling controversy from last year. The intelligence community was going to set up a game system so officers could "bet" when they thought an attack would happen in the Middle East. The press had a field day with it, and presented the idea as Big Government Out of Control. A favorite quote from a critic of the program is, "These absurd ideas about countering terrorism suggest that the war on terrorism has been a failure, that terrorists are still ahead." Well, shouldn't we assume that, you moron? Better safe than sorry. The story may be old, but it's worth a second look. It occured to me that this might have been one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of the republic. Think about it. You have a collective data pool, where every agent and officer with access, can throw their instinct into a pot. The hunches would be based on the collective data and experience that every agent has accrued up to that point. No sifting through words or codes to find clues. No management calls to make. Just pure intuition allowed to flow freely so a computer can track spikes in the collective hunch. The plan was shelved after all the negative press. Why is it that creative solutions are always killed, in favor of killing people who might have creative solutions?
