A Proposal to the U.S. Administrators of Iraq

A National Lottery for Iraqi Citizens to Reward Tips About Terrorists

A National Lottery for Iraqi Citizens That Will Help Us Find the Killers in Iraq

This is a way to teach Iraqi citizens to use secret PIN numbers to contact American forces and safely collect large rewards for information on the whereabouts of Sadaam Hussein’s killers.

Dr. Bill Wattenburg, Consultant, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

July 20, 2003

We need the Iraqi people to help us stop the killing of our soldiers and eliminate the thousands of criminals in their communities. This uncommon lottery (no gambling) is an inexpensive, no-lose, all-win program that can be started immediately with a small clerical staff and published instructions in the Iraqi media. The cost is trivial compared to the life of one American soldier. This program could save tens of billions. The killers are clearly waging psychological warfare against us. We must explore every scheme available that plays with their heads and makes them fearful they will be disclosed. The purpose of this lottery scheme is to build trust in the Iraqi people and give them a mechanism so that they can safely communicate with American forces and collect rewards with complete secrecy.

How the Iraqi National Lottery Works

1. Iraqi citizens submit only a 20-digit personal PIN number to play the lottery. They pay nothing to be eligible for jackpots. In the beginning, American forces hand out preprinted lottery tickets with random 20-digit PIN numbers. A duplicate of each lottery ticket is submitted for a weekly drawing. We give away thousands of small jackpots each week.
2. Winners know they have won when only 10-digits of the winning PIN numbers are published each week. But only the winners know they have won. Impostors cannot collect the jackpots (or informer rewards) without the remaining 10 digits of the winning PIN numbers.
3. Winners collect their jackpots (or informer rewards) by submitting their full 20-digit PIN numbers in a variety of ways and places that protect their identities
4. After a few weeks, special envelops are distributed for citizens to use to play the lottery. Then citizens are informed that they can use the PIN number scheme to submit information on criminals in their communities and collect large rewards without being identified—the same way they play the lottery. In fact, the first 10-digits for lottery winners and informer winners are published in the same way each week. No one knows the difference.

Summary

The lottery proposed herein is not the usual lottery. It is not gambling. Any Iraqi citizen can play this lottery free of charge by submitting a 20-digit (or less) personal PIN number which he is given or he makes up according to lottery instructions. The lottery pays out thousands of modest jackpots each week to citizens all over Iraq. The personal PIN numbers allow players to collect large lottery (or informer) rewards while remaining safely anonymous because only a portion of winning PIN numbers are published. The rest of a winning PIN number is known only to the winner and American forces. In the beginning, American forces can give Iraqi citizens, young people in particular, lottery cards (tickets) with pre-printed, computer-generated 20-digit PIN numbers. All they have to do is hold these numbers and wait for the winning lottery numbers to be announced each week.

This is not gambling that is prohibited by Islamic law. The players pay nothing, lose nothing. The winnings are gifts from the government. In fact, the lottery jackpots distributed will be a down payment on their national oil income that will eventually be distributed to all Iraqi citizens.

This national lottery creates an atmosphere in which it becomes normal and usual for millions of Iraqi citizens to be contacting American forces every week in order to play the lottery. The lottery also gives Iraqi citizens everywhere the practice, confidence, and opportunity to inform on criminals in their communities using the same personal PIN number scheme that they use to play the lottery. The PIN numbers allow intelligence officers to communicate with informers over public media and reward them secretly and safely.

In September 2001, a group of top scientists proposed the use of a unique Informer PIN Number scheme to encourage people in terrorist dominated countries to provide information on terrorist leaders. However, oppressed people do not trust any such scheme until they practice it and have proof that it is safe. The lottery solves this problem. It provides the mechanism for citizens to use and learn to trust the PIN number scheme. Page 4 shows an example of how a winner can use his PIN number to collect a reward without being identified.

Implementation

In the beginning, American forces can give Iraqi citizens lottery cards with pre-printed, computer-generated 20-digit PIN numbers. The cards (tickets) will be printed in duplicate so that a copy can be retained by our forces for the lottery drawing. All the citizens have to do is hold their PIN numbers and wait for the winning lottery numbers to be announced each week.

There are many simple procedures that can be used to discourage fraud. For instance, we can pre-select the winning lottery numbers each week (in some secure location) before the computer generated lottery tickets are distributed to citizens. This will eliminate fraud by duplication of many tickets with the same PIN number, no matter who does it.

Only the first 10 digits of winning PIN numbers will be published to let anonymous winners know that they have won. Anyone with a PIN number that matches one of the 10-digit winning sequences published will know with high certainty that he is a winner. But he will also realize that no one else (except the lottery office) knows his full 20-digit PIN number. This is the mechanism that allows citizens to safely give us information on criminals in their communities. Lottery jackpots and informer rewards will be paid the same way. No one will know the difference.

We can generate public enthusiasm immediately by simply publishing hundreds of winning 10-digit PIN numbers and large rewards every day – from day one. It costs nothing if no one comes forward with a correct 20-digit PIN number.

The Iraqi National Lottery should be funded by American forces for a nominal amount every week, say, one to two hundred thousand dollars (which can be repaid from oil revenues later). This is a small amount to save the life of even one American service soldier. The lottery should pay at least $100 to $1,000 winners (or maybe $10 to $10,000 winners) each week to gain broad support and recognition. In addition, a few large jackpots should be paid and highly publicized. The U.S. has already announced multimillion dollar rewards for Sadaam Hussein and his sons.

For the first few weeks, they will be told they can submit their names and addresses with their PIN numbers if they want (American forces can help them). These winners will be announced by name and address. This will build wide-spread recognition in all communities that friends and neighbors are winning money in the lottery.

As described below, the winners can collect their rewards by submitting only a portion of their PIN numbers or their full 20-digit PIN numbers in a variety of ways that allow them to remain anonymous if they desire. All players will be given instructions on how they or their representatives can pick up jackpots—no questions asked under any circumstances.

The Transition

After a while, citizens will be told that they do not have to submit name and address, but only a personal PIN number each week. They can make up their own PIN numbers or use pre-printed lottery tickets. They will be given special lottery envelops to submit their lottery entries. Winning numbers will be drawn from the envelops submitted each week. Thereafter, jackpots will be announced by publishing the first 10 digits of winning PIN numbers only. They must use a pre-printed ticket or make up a new PIN number each time they play the lottery. This will give them experience in creating their own PIN numbers if they chose to do so.

The lottery will make it commonplace for millions of Iraqi citizens to be giving envelops to, or otherwise contacting American forces every day. In all cases, the lottery can be the innocent reason for Iraqi citizens to contact American forces and give us valuable intelligence without being suspected as informers.

Lottery Staff

A full-time staff of three or four enterprising people can quickly set up and operate the lottery and the informer PIN Number scheme. All that is necessary is to advertise the rules of the lottery game in the newspapers and over the media. The first winners can be published within a week. In fact, we can publish the 10-digit PIN numbers of hundreds of winners every day if we like to generate interest.

Keep in mind that the lottery staff does not have to open a million envelops or read pieces of paper every week. For the lottery drawing, all the submissions for one week are thrown into a box and winning envelops are drawn on TV for all to see. For the first few weeks, the names of the big winners should be announced immediately on TV and radio, and all lesser winners published in the papers. This will make believers out of the Iraqi citizens. Then the process should transition to the use of sealed envelops and personal PIN numbers only.

After a few weeks, when sealed envelops are available, the lottery rules can be changed such that a player must submit a personalized PIN number with his entry and present the PIN number to collect lottery winnings. One central lottery office can verify winning PIN numbers for local offices or American forces in each area. The winners should be paid on the spot as soon as they submit winning PIN numbers.

Tell them about big rewards for criminals

Once Iraqi citizens gain some confidence that the lottery is for real and that PIN numbers really can protect their identity, they can then be told how to collect big rewards for information on the criminals in Iraq—how to become informers with complete anonymity. They can be told how to use the lottery envelops and the PIN number scheme to submit information and safely collect their rewards (without submitting their names, of course). In fact, the lottery and the Informer PIN Number scheme can be managed by the same staff.

Next, we publish the type of information we want and the rewards that can be earned. We also publish instructions on the type and quality of information that will be worthy of rewards. We tell informers that we will publish the first 10 digits of their Informer PIN numbers (as if they were just lottery winning numbers) if they are eligible for rewards. We also tell them that when they contact the lottery office, they may be asked for more information before they can be paid a reward. They can submit this additional information under the same PIN number so that it can be associated with the first information they sent. This is an effective way to weed out deliberate misinformation.

The 10-digit winning PIN numbers for informers that are published can include the rewards that are being paid and the type of information that was submitted, i.e., local thief, Baath Party official, High official in Sadaam Hussein’s regime, location of illegal arms and munitions, etc.

The objective must be to build trust in the lottery office and the American forces who manage it. Once millions of Iraqi people believe that the lottery office can be trusted to always pay winning PIN numbers and maintain strict confidentiality, no questions asked, many more Iraqis will be willing to assist U.S. forces in stopping the criminals in Iraq.

Some critics of the Informer PIN Number scheme say that impostors will flood the system with false information to cripple its effectiveness. That is always a problem. However, criminal investigators everywhere would have to throw up their hands and quit if they did not know how to wade through misinformation. Assessing intelligence information always involves this problem. Only one thing is for sure. If there is no information at all, no crimes can be solved.

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The Informer PIN Number Scheme

The following is a brief summary of the Informer PIN Number Scheme from the original report sent to many in Washington in September 2001 and posted on Pushback.com under the section “Freedom Phones and PIN Numbers”

An informer must worry about being revealed to those who might harm him. But he wants a guarantee that he can collect his reward sometime. He must also worry about any representative he uses to communicate with the intelligence office. If he gives a representative his full Informer PIN number, the representative can collect the reward.

An example of a 20-digit Informer PIN number and the manner in which it is used are given below:

A 20-digit Informer PIN number: 84092 38769 7035 863204

1. An informer submits information on criminals along with his personal 20-digit PIN number above. The informer includes nothing else that can identify him.
2. If the information submitted is worthy of a reward, intelligence officials publish the first 10 digits of the PIN shown in bold above (84092 38769). The informer will know that he has likely won a substantial reward because the chances are only I out of 10 billion that someone else submitted a PIN number with the same first 10 digits for any purpose. (If this is used in conjunction with a lottery, all who read the published list of winners will have no way of knowing that this particular informer winner is not just another lottery winner.)
3. The informer or his representative can contact the intelligence office to confirm that he is the winner without coming forth to collect his reward immediately, if he so chooses.. For this purpose, the informer will have to give the intelligence office both the first 10 digits and the next four digits of his PIN number as shown in italics above (7035) to verify that he is the real informer and not an impostor. The intelligence office may want more information before paying a reward—or more information to pay him a larger reward. The intelligence office will instruct him or his representative on all the options available to him for collecting his reward. This could include, for instance, a written guarantee from the U.S. government that he can collect his reward at a future date from any U.S. embassy in the world when he provides his full 20-digit PIN number. Note that he still has not revealed the last six digits of his PIN number underlined above (863204). That means the odds are still one in a million that anyone can guess the last six digits of his PIN number and steal his reward even if by some means an impostor (or his representative) learns the first 14 digits. This procedure lets a winning informer use a go-between representative to get instructions and, yet, rest assured that the representative will not steal the reward.
4. The informer (or his representative) can submit his full 20-digit PIN number to intelligence officials and collect his reward at any time in the future. He can simply wait until it is safe, or the reward can be paid in a variety of ways to protect the informer ( such as a designated bank account in another country, or to relatives or friends in another country, or at any U.S. embassy or consulate).
5. Obviously, the distribution of PIN digits between the first portion publicized (10) and those that are withheld (4 + 6) can be changed.

Dr. Willard H. (Bill) Wattenburg is presently a consultant for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and a former member of the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He was a faculty member at U.C. Berkeley and a staff member at the Livermore Lab where he worked in nuclear weapons design and testing for many years. He is also host of the popular “Open Line to the West Coast” show, KGO Radio AM810, ABC Network, San Francisco.

This page was last modified on Monday, 11-Oct-2004 19:57:16 PDT.

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