Controversial DARPA official may resign

Adm. John Poindexter, director of the Information Awareness Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will resign his post "in a matter of weeks," The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Senators in both parties this week criticized Poindexter and DARPA for research into an $8 million project to create an online futures market aimed at predicting terrorism and political upheaval. Poindexter and DARPA also have been criticized for the Terrorism Information Awareness program.

Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democratic member Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Thursday that the administration shares the blame for approving the programs in the first place.

"The lesson seems to be that you can do whatever you want quietly, so long as it doesn't become a public embarrassment," he said. "That is why the administration still has a problem as far as the privacy rights of Americans are concerned, and simply removing Adm. Poindexter doesn't fix that."