STAR GATE - PROGRAM STATUS AND PROPOSED NEW DIRECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00791R000100160001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: MF

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SG1I
SUBJECT: Star Gate - Program Status and Proposed New Direction
1. In late January, the Executive Director approved our
recommended approach to the Congressionally Directed Action that
transfers the "Star Gate" program to CIA (attachment A). Our approach
was later formally transmitted to Congress and briefed to Richard
D'Amato of the SAC staff on 27 March 1995 (attachment B). This approach
included asking the National Research Council to conduct a blue ribbon
panel review and evaluation of the Star Gate program, using experts that
had participated in a similar review for the US Army several years ago.
2. We proceeded to contact the NRC and officially transferred
funds to the Army Research Institute to have them be the executive agent
for this review. In parallel with this, we also have been working
closely with DIA and their support contractor to identify all relevant
documents pertaining to Star Gate and have made plans to declassify all
but the most sensitive aspects of the program.
3. Last week we received from NRC their letter, dated 5 May 1995,
in which NRC declines to do the evaluation, citing their 1988 report
(attachment C). In fact, they quote from their previous report on this
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subject further stating that they hope their recent report will be
helpful in guiding our assessment of remote viewing studies:
"In summary, after approximately 15 years of claims and
sometimes bitter controversy, the literature on remote
viewing has managed to produce only one possibly successful
experiment that is not seriously flawed in its methodology -
and that one experiment provides only marginal evidence for the
existence of ESP. By both scientific and parapsychological
standards, then, the case for remote viewing is not just very
weak, but virtually nonexistent. It seems that the preeminent
position that remote viewing occupies in the minds of many
proponents results from the highly exaggerated claims made for
the early experiments, as well as the subjectively compelling,
but illusory, correspondences that experimenters and
participants find between components of the descriptions and
the target sites."
4. We were subsequently referred by our contacts at NRC to Dr.
David Goslin, President of American Institutes of Research (AIR), a
highly respected firm dealing with behavioral science issues. AIR could
quickly assemble a panel that includes some of the original NRC study
contributors. We have talked to AIR and believe they could indeed do
the review and evaluation in less time and for fewer dollars than the
NRC itself, and AIR is currently preparing a preliminary proposal.
5. However, in view of the strong position taken by the NRC that
the "case for remote viewing is not just very weak, but nonexistent", I
want to propose at this point that we strongly consider the option of
going back to Congress with the recommendation not to accept the Star
Gate program from DIA. Even if we do proceed with a new review by AIR,
there exists a very strong possibility that AIR will merely reach the
same conclusion firmly held by the NRC. Furthermore, as you may recall,
neither the DO nor the DI were at all interested in having this program
reside in their directorates, and we deferred any decision regarding
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what to do with the operational people currently at DIA until after we
had completed the blue ribbon panel assessment regarding the value of
the program to CIA and the Intelligence Community.
6. Regardless, we are prepared to proceed with a blue ribbon
panel review and evaluation as originally proposed but we would be
contracting with AIR instead of NRC. The alternative plan, however,
which I recommend you raise at the EXDIR level, is to take the advice of
the NRC and conclude without further review that the Star Gate program
is not likely to be of value to CIA. Despite the interest of various
members of the SSCI and SAC, I recommend we adopt this alternative plan
and ask Congress to agree that the program should NOT be transferred to
CIA.
SG1I
Attachments:
A. Lotus Note Memo to EXDIR
(January 1995)
B. CIA Response to Congressionally
Directed Action, 28 March 1995
C. Ltr frm NRC dtd 5 May 1995
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