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Transfer of Star Gate Program from DIA to CIA
Status and Terms of Reference
1. 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.
0 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.
0 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.
11. 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.
2. Blue Ribbon Panel Review
CIA will establish an external, unbiased, "Blue
Ribbon Panel" of world-class experts in
parapsychological 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 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
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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 50 journal-article length studies)
for which unclassified reports are available (most are
currently available)
0 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.
9 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)
0 Form Blue Ribbon Panel to conduct retrospective review and
technical data analysis (Apr 95)
0 Conduct technical review, interview intelligence community
users, draft preliminary report and recommendations. [Mar-Jun
951
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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
95).
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