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Status of STARGATB Program
In response to Congressional direction that the Defense
Intelligence Agency
(DIA)
transfer the STARGATE program to
CIA,
and that we perform a retrospective review of the
program's activities,
we have initiated a number of actions,
including:
•
Trading data with DIA to conduct
the requested
review and program transfer,
including several
officially declassified documents.
•
Exchanging draft tasking statements with the
National Research Council
(NEC)
to establish
a
Blue Ribbon Panel
to ensure a comprehensive and
unbiased technical retrospective review of
the
program.
•
Beginning an effort
to declassify information
related to STARGATE.
We already have held
informal discussions with the Agency's Center
for the Study of Intelligence on developing
strategies
for declassifying information and are
preparing a memorandum that
specifies our
declassification requirements
for DIA.
•
Requesting the cooperation of
the US Army
Research Institute,
which holds
a contract
related to behavioral
sciences with the NRC.
We
also are preparing
to transfer resources
to the
Institute
for the cost
of managing and
supporting the NRC during the technical review.
•
Contacting several organizations involved in the
program to review STARGATE' s operations.
Following the completion of these declassification and
review efforts,
we will develop
a comprehensive management
strategy for the program,
(S)
Declassi fi cati on
To comply with Congressional direction,
we will
declassify immediately certain aspects
of our program,
including the Agency's past sponsorship of activities
related to the investigation of paranormal phenomena for
intelligence purposes and the results
of
this
research.
In
order to determine what additional
information related to
SG1B
DECL OADR
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the STARGATE program can be declassified,
we will convene
a
DC. I classification review committee.
This committee will
conduct
a detailed review of
all CIA and DIA program
documents and other information— including actual targets
against which operations were conducted and their nature,
the customers
for these operations,
and resources allocated
to this
ef fort--to declassify further where appropriate.
(S)
To
facilitate the declassification effort and the Blue
Ribbon Panel
review,
we will
reguest DIA to:
•
Declassify its sponsorship of STARGATE and to
continue downgrading and declassifying the
technical reports associated with the program.
•
Eliminate the program'
s
( compartmentat ion,
and
remove from a limited distribution status all
other classified documentation related to
STARGATE and consider declassifying these
documents
further,
•
Transfer to CIA all DIA documents associated
with STARGATE following declassification
consideration
for archival purposes and further
revievt by the DCI declassification committee.
•
Assist
the Agency
in executing the Blue Ribbon
Panel review by providing unclassified
information relating to the program when
requested by the Panel.
(S)
Retrospective Review
To perform the retrospective review of STARGATE
1 s
20-
year history and
a technical
analysis
of
the program's
results,
we will work closely with the NRC,
which has ready
access
to
a variety of experts
in the scientific
fields
related to the program,
in addition
to establishing the
Blue Ribbon Panel
of parapsychological phenomena,
CIA will
request the NRC
to:
•
Review research and development studies related
to this program--less
than
50 studies--for which
unclassified reports are available.
•
Meet with former program officials to develop
a
comprehensive understanding of STARGATE 's
current direction.
•
Perform technical evaluation of all
the data
related
to the program,
including experimental
designs and their results,
and proposed future
research.
This evaluation will contain
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recommendations on which technical areas have
the potential
for fruitful research and will
identify areas
that
should not be pursued
further.
•
Draft
the final report, which will
incorporate
the findings
of
the Blue Ribbon Panel;
the NRC
also will participate,
as appropriate,
in
briefing these findings
to the Congress.
(S)
The review and analysis of
the Blue Ribbon Panel will
be unclassified,
but we will not release
its
findings until
the Congress and the involved agencies have been briefed.
We are working with the NRC
to determine the appropriate
amount,
of
time
for the
study,
which could require up to six
months.
(S)
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Attachment
Schedule of Events
March 1995
«
Status
of transfer of program activities
to CIA.
•
Preliminary declassification actions by CIA,
request
to
DIA for further action.
April 1995
•
Establish DC I declassification committee to review long-
term issues.
•
Form Blue Ribbon Panel
to conduct retrospective review
and technical data analysis.
March-June 1995
•
Conduct
technical review,
interview intelligence
Community users,
draft preliminary report and
recommendations
.
July 1995
•
Develop CIA program management strategy that addresses
proper scope,
resources,
and management.
•
Brief Congress on results
and recommendations
of Blue
Ribbon Panel.
•
Report program design and status
to Congress and complete
actual transfer.
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