Staff Study: Transfer of Project Star Gate to the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center

“Staff Study: Transfer of Project Star Gate to the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center ... December 1992”

THE PROGRAMME WAS STILL BEING MOVED IN 1992. This project's psi column shows STAR GATE as a single block running to 1995; this title page is a proposal to move it again, three years before the CIA recommendation to close it.

“To determine the advantages and disadvantages of transferring the mission and resources of Project Star Gate from the immediate management and control of the Directorate for Scientific and Technical Intelligence of the Defense Intelligence Agency to the management and control of the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center. ... Since 1986, Congressional Committee action has authorized the Defense Intelligence Agency to pursue investigations into parapsychological phenomena. This action resulted from evidence of growing activity in paranormal research in the former Soviet Union and China, and from findings derived from DoD-sponsored exploratory research on this topic. The direction given in FY86 was for DIA to develop an operational capability in this area for the Intelligence Community. Twelve billets were authorized for this effort. ... In 1991 and 1992 Congressional direction reaffirmed DIA's responsibility for exploring parapsychological phenomena. One of the initial steps taken by DIA following the FY91 direction was to establish a limited dissemination (LIMDIS) project, codenamed Star Gate, to provide security and access control for this program. The project was housed in temporary facilities at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.”

THIS PAGE DATES THE NAME, AND IT CONTRADICTS THIS MAP. The stargateproject node carries date 1978-01-01 and describes itself as "Umbrella name for the U.S. government's two-decade remote-viewing program". This document says the codename was established following the FY91 direction, as a LIMDIS wrapper "to provide security and access control for this program" - a security compartment, not a twenty-year umbrella. The conflict is recorded here and NOT acted on: splitting the umbrella from the compartment restructures the whole psi column and is the operator's ruling to make. A POSSIBLE SECOND CONFLICT, ALSO FLAGGED RATHER THAN SETTLED: this page says of the FY86 direction that "Twelve billets were authorized." Link 1277 on this map says Congress directed DIA to dedicate ten civilian billets and $2,000,000. Those may be different directions in different years, and this project has not established that either way.

“The emphasis of Project Star Gate has been on investigations into anomalous phenomena. Much of this research has uncertain value if viewed solely from the perspective of traditional intelligence production. Some current project personnel are concerned that if the project is subordinated to AFMIC, the main emphasis of the project could be shifted from these investigations to more traditional foreign intelligence research and the production of finished intelligence studies. In addition, some of these researchers are admittedly untrained to work as intelligence analysts. ... There would be overall value added from the transfer of Project Star Gate to the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center. ... The best value to be gained from consolidation would be if Star Gate were physically moved from Fort Meade to Fort Detrick, so that Star Gate researchers could be collocated with the medical research and development community and so that the project could receive the administrative support and oversight that it needs.”

THE TENSION IN ONE SENTENCE, WRITTEN BY THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT ITSELF: "Much of this research has uncertain value if viewed solely from the perspective of traditional intelligence production." Everything in the psi column of this map runs on that clause. The people doing the work were investigating anomalous phenomena; the people funding it wanted finished intelligence; and the recorded fear here is that a reorganisation would convert one into the other. Three years later CIA recommended termination on exactly the ground this page anticipates - that the product was not actionable intelligence.

“Chronological Summary of Actions ... 28 February 1993 ... Action Item 1a: Conduct safety and habitability inspection of Project Star Gate facility and provide results to Director, AFMIC. ... Action Item 1d: Discuss availability of office space at Fort Detrick with the Fort Detrick Post Commander. ... Action Item 2a: Conduct an informal working level inspection of security aspects related to Project Star Gate. If needed, request that DIA headquarters assist with a more detailed inspection or with corrective measures. ... Action Item 3a: Obtain and review FY93 financial plan for Project Star Gate.”

AN ADMINISTRATIVE PAGE, AND THAT IS WHY IT IS HERE. Safety inspections, property book procedures, office space at Fort Detrick, an FY93 financial plan. Whatever else Project Star Gate was, in February 1993 it was a going concern with a property book and a budget line, being prepared for a move. Nothing on this page is remarkable, which is the point: the seventeen unread pages of this file are mostly of this kind, and a reader should know that before assuming what they contain.