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assessment.
It will recommend the necessary resource levels
as well as the mix of personnel skills required for execution of
the program under the new strategy.
B. Declassification
In response to Congressional direction, CIA will declassify
certain aspects of its program immediately. These aspects include
CIA sponsorship of past program activities relating to investigation of
paranormal phenomena for intelligence applications, and the
technical results of these investigations.
Following these actions, a Congressionally mandated DCI
classification review committee will be convened.
This committee
will conduct a detailed review of all CIA and DIA program documents
and information. These documents and information will include the
actual targets against which operations were conducted, the nature of
those collection operations, the customers for these operations, the
resources allocated during the history of the program, and other
aspects appropriate for review. The committee will consider these
aspects and further declassify where appropriate.
To facilitate declassification and the Blue Ribbon Panel review,
CIA will ask DIA to take certain actions. CIA will request that DIA
make unclassified DIA's sponsorship of Star Gate and that DIA
continue to downgrade and declassify the technical reports
associated with Star Gate.
It will request that DIA decompartment
and remove all other classified Star Gate documentation from
"Limited Distribution" and consider this documentation for further
declassification. CIA will request that all DIA documents associated
with Star Gate be transferred after declassification consideration to
CIA for archival purposes and further declassification review by the
DCI declassification committee.
Finally, CIA will ask that DIA
program personnel assist CIA in executing the Blue Ribbon Panel
OEORET
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Review (described below) by providing unclassified information
relating to the program when requested by the panelists.
C. Blue Ribbon Panel
Congress also has directed a twenty-year retrospective review
of this program including a technical analysis of all program results.
The CIA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) believes that the
National Research Council (NRC) is the single best organization to
perform the mandated review.
This is because of its Congressional
charter to address questions of Congressional interest, and its ready
access to a variety of world-class experts having expertise in the
area in question.
Therefore, CIA will ask the NRC to perform the
following tasks:
• Assemble an objective, unbiased, "Blue Ribbon Panel" of
world-class experts in parapsychological phenomena or the
experiments designed to investigate such phenomena
•
Review sponsor-selected contract research and
development studies relating to the technical program in
question (less than 50 journal-article length studies) for which
unclassified reports are available (most are currently available)
•
Interview and interact with the past principal
investigators to the extent possible in order to develop a
comprehensive understanding of the program's current
approach including its successes and failures.
•
Interview past principal expert evaluators of the
technical data to the extent possible since external evaluation
has been utilized in the past to facilitate experimental design
and validate results
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•
Attend unclassified presentations in the Metro area by
the existing government program manager and his staff
pending the anticipated approval of these presentations
•
Perform technical evaluation of all data and
information presented, including experimental designs, results
obtained, proposed future research, etc. This evaluation should
include recommendations about those technical areas for which
fruitful research potential exists, identify areas not useful for
further consideration, and should consider the overall utility of
the technical program, i.e., whether it achieves its stated or
intended purpose.
•
Draft final report incorporating Blue Ribbon Panel
findings, and participate as appropriate in briefing these
findings to Congress
The review and analysis of NRC's Blue Ribbon Panel will be
unclassified, but will not be released until Congress and the
sponsoring Agencies have been briefed on the results. During the
review all work product shall be treated as "For Official Use Only"
anticipating eventual release of all unclassified information reviewed
or generated by this study.
Since this study will be performed in response to Congressional
direction, the anticipated period of performance of this study is
schedule driven at three months. However, preliminary discussions
with the NRC and the US Army Research Institute (the current
manager of NRC's contract to consider similar issues) indicate that a
minimum of six months are required to effectively complete this
review. CIA will seek to extend the Congressional deadline
consistent with what we believe is a strong Congressional interest in
a credible, thorough review. CIA will provide the technical and
administrative support necessary to carry out this review.
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D. Management Strategy, Transfer to CIA
CIA will develop a comprehensive management strategy after
program declassification and review. The Star Gate program
currently has 10 DIA billets and $500K in resources allocated to it.
Congressional language recommends an even balance in investment
between operations, research, and foreign assessment.
E. Schedule of Events
• Communication of status of CIA program transfer activities to
Congress (Mar 1, 1995)
• Preliminary declassification actions by CIA, request to DIA for
further action (Mar 95)
• Establish DCI declassification committee to review long-term issues
(Apr 95)
• Form Blue Ribbon Panel to conduct retrospective review and
technical data analysis (Apr 95)
• Conduct technical review, interview intelligence community users,
draft preliminary report and recommendations. [Mar-Jun 95]
•
Develop CIA program management strategy which addresses
proper scope, resources, and management. Brief Congress on Blue
Ribbon Panel results and recommendations. Report program design
and status to Congress, complete actual transfer (Jul 95).
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