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12 June 95
SG11 MEMO FOR: CIA Public Affairs
SG1 I FROM: ORD
SUBJECT: CIA Remote viewing Declassification
SG11 As you know from our conversation yesterday, I will be
meeting Wednesday (14 June) with the American Institutes for
Research (AIR) to begin CIA's panel review of past CIA and DIA
programs where remote viewing was investigated for intelligence
collection. This is not a public meeting and AIR is not planning
to meet with the media during the review. Since there is an
ongoing media inquiry by ABC News, however, it is possible that
ABC will learn of AIR's activities in support of CIA and will
attempt to contact them or us. For-professional reasons, AIR seems
predisposed not to comment until the panel has completed its
review. However, anticipating possible questions regarding the
review, I have prepared some preliminary responses for you:
Why is CIA studying parapsychology?
CIA is not currently developing or using parapsychology.
CIA is conducting a panel review of past programs at CIA and
DIA in response to a Congressionally Directed Action.
What was the nature of these past programs?
These programs involved the investigation of
parapsychological phenomena, mainly remote viewing, for
intelligence collection.
Did these programs produce positive results?
Until the panel review has been completed, we cannot
comment on how effective past programs were. Parapsychology
has always been an extremely controversial area. The
National Research Council previously reviewed a US Army
training program in 1988 and recommended that it be
discontinued. The NRC did not evaluate past CIA or DIA
programs at that time.
When was CIA involved, and with whom?
CIA funded research and development activities at
Stanford Research Institute (SRI) during about 1972 to about
1977. This activity was discontinued about 18 years ago. Much
of the work performed by the investigators at SRI, however,
was later published in the open literature.
When was DIA involved?
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Since we have not completed the review, we can't provide
the exact time frame but primarily during the last ten years.
Who is conducting the review?
The CIA's Office of Research and Development with the
aid of a blue ribbon panel of experts in the behavioral
sciences at the American Institutes for Research.
Will the results of the review be made public?
At this point, there is no reason why the results cannot
be made public, when the review is complete, and when CIA has
completed additional declassification of various program
documents.
How can we find out more about these programs?
The CIA is in the process of reviewing and declassifying
it's previous research and development activities. The
results of the panel will be available before the end of the
calendar year.
* How much was spent on this activity, and how many people
were involved?
These were modest programs, involving few personnel and
dollars.
How were the CIA program results used?
The CIA program was never a major effort, nor as far as
we know were its results used to influence any major
intelligence assessments. CIA discontinued this program
activity before it could be institutionalized. At the time it
was conducted the program was considered to be speculative.
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