The White House's failed prediction of a terrorist incident on February 13 may have had an ulterior motive. "The American population was instructed to panic," writes the Guardian of London. "Place themselves, that is, on a state of highest vigilance. Some cataclysmic act of terrorism would happen - within hours. But nothing terrible happened. Something creepy did. On Thursday there was an inconspicuous news item. John M. Poindexter [3] had been appointed to head a new agency 'to counter attacks on the US.' " Poindexter will run the Information Awareness Office [4] (IAO), which will help U.S. spy agencies such as the CIA, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency to share information. The IAO will also act as a domestic Big Brother, overseeing domestic espionage and monitoring American's phones and emails. The Poindexter appointment is the latest of several Bush administration decisions to rehabilitate officials implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal. In his old job as Reagan's national security advisor, Poindexter helped mastermind arms sales to Iran [5], financial support for Iraq [6], illegal funding for the contras in Nicaragua, and efforts to cover up Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's involvement in cocaine smuggling [7]. In 1990, he was convicted on seven felony counts [8] for activities that included obstruction of inquiries, illegal destruction of documents, and lying to Congress. (His conviction was later overturned on a technicality, and George H. Bush pardoned him in 1992, preventing a retrial.)