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Transfer of Star Gate Program from DIA to CIA
Status and Terms of Reference
I.
Status of Program Transfer
The Central Intelligence Agency officially has been
tasked by Congress
to transfer the Defense Intelligence
Agency's Star Gate program to CIA by July
1,
1995.
Congress
also has directed a retrospective review of Star Gate program
activities.
CIA has taken a number of
steps
in accordance
with this direction:
•
We have opened dialog with the appropriate point of contact
at
the National Research Council and exchanged draft tasking
statements
to
set up a Blue Ribbon Panel,
so that an
unbiased,
technical retrospective review can occur
.
•
Cooperative meetings between DIA program personnel and CIA
already have resulted in a data exchange
for the purposes of
conducting the review and transfer.
Some officially
declassified documents have been obtained from DIA.
.
Informal discussions with the CIA Center
for Studies on
Intelligence
(CSI)
regarding strategies
for declassification
have occurred and a memorandum is
in preparation from CIA to
DIA specifying the need for further declassification
• Request has been made through the CIA Office of Military
Affairs
focal point channel
to enlist the cooperation of
the
US Army Research Institute,
which currently holds
a study
contract with the NRC
for program review in the behavioral
sciences
.
•
CIA has contacted the appropriate individuals at the US
Army Research Institute and a resource transfer
to Army for
the cost of managing and supporting the National Research
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Council
in performance of
the technical review
is now in
preparation
•
CIA has scheduled a meeting with the former SAIC principal
investigator
for the research performed in the Star Gate
program.
• CIA has scheduled a review of
the operations program at
Ft.
Meade
II.
Terms of Reference
A. Objectives
CIA will undertake these primary activities
in response
to Congressional direction:
1.
Declassification
We will define the issues associated with
declassification of both the DIA's compartmented Star
Gate program and the previous noncompartmented CIA
program.
Examine possible near-term actions,
and
establish or utilize existing DCI Committee
to address
broader declassification issues.
.
Blue Ribbon Panel Review
CIA will establish an external,
unbiased,
"Blue
Ribbon Panel"
of world-class experts
in
parapsycho logical phenomena and the experimental design
used to investigate such phenomena.
These experts will
perform the twenty-year retrospective technical
analysis
3.
Management Strategy,
Transfer to CIA
After completion of
initial Star Gate
declassification and Blue Ribbon Panel review,
CIA will
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develop a comprehensive management strategy.
This
strategy will address
the proper investment balance
between operations,
research,
and foreign 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 Congress ionally 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
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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 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
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
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•
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
• 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
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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.
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]
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•
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
)
.
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