TRANSFER OF STAR GATE PROGRAM FROM DIA TO CIA, STATUS AND TERMS OF REFERENCE (DRAFT)

CIA-STARGATE

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Body:  Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP96-00791 R0001 00040007-7
 DRAFT
 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
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 managing and supporting the National Research 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.
 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 develop a comprehensive
 management strategy. This strategy will address the proper
 investment balance between operations, research, and foreign
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 "POW
 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
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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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