Star Gate - Final Response to CDA (ORD-0520-95)

“ORD-0520-95 ... 27 September 1995 ... MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Director ... SUBJECT: Star Gate - Final Response to CDA ... In January the Executive Director asked ORD to respond to a Congressionally Directed Action (CDA) relating to transfer of the Star Gate Program from DIA to CIA. Shortly thereafter, the Executive Director approved ORD's recommended plan to satisfy the CDA. The plan had three parts: Form a blue-ribbon panel to conduct a twenty-year technical review, immediately declassify past CIA sponsorship and further review other program material for declassification, and at the completion of the panel review, develop a comprehensive management strategy for the program, including addressing whether or not this program made sense for CIA. ... Presentation to Congress of the management strategy for Star Gate was deferred until September 30. This date was selected in order to allow CIA to complete the requested technical review with an external blue ribbon panel commissioned by the American Institutes for Research (AIR).”

THE QUESTION IN FRONT OF CIA WAS NOT "IS REMOTE VIEWING REAL" - it was whether to accept a transfer. The CDA was about moving the programme from DIA to CIA, and the third part of CIA's own plan is "addressing whether or not this program made sense for CIA". That framing is worth holding on to when reading the recommendation on the next page.

“The key recommendations of the proposed management strategy are: Terminate remote viewing operations within the intelligence community. The American Institutes of Research, after interviewing multiple current users of remote viewing, concluded that ‘...the information provided by remote viewing is vague and ambiguous, making it difficult if not impossible for the technique to yield information of sufficient quality and accuracy for actionable intelligence.’ Terminate research and development relating to remote viewing within the intelligence community. The American Institutes for Research, after assessing its blue-ribbon panel review of CIA and DIA sponsored research spanning over twenty years, concluded that ‘...it remains unclear whether the existence of a paranormal phenomenon, remote viewing, has been demonstrated. The laboratory studies do not provide evidence regarding the sources or origins of the phenomenon...’ Perform a comprehensive declassification review of all DOD and CIA program files to prepare them for official transfer to the National Archives.”

A RECOMMENDATION, NOT AN ACT, AND THIS IS THE CLOSEST THING TO A TERMINATION THIS PROJECT HOLDS. The two "Terminate" lines are set in bold in the original. Nothing on this page or in this file says the programme WAS terminated, or on what date. NOTE ALSO WHAT THE SECOND QUOTATION ACTUALLY SAYS: "it remains unclear whether the existence of a paranormal phenomenon, remote viewing, has been demonstrated" - unclear, not disproved. The AIR report this quotes is held by this project separately and its own executive summary records that "A statistically significant laboratory effort has been demonstrated in the sense that hits occur more often than chance." Both sentences come from the same review.

“Apply no resources to the assessment of foreign developments in parapsychology. After overseeing the recent assessment of Russian programs, The CIA Directorate of Intelligence in consultation with the NIC states that ‘Among the areas of science and sociological change we are monitoring, we view developments in parapsychology as a relatively low threat to the United States and, consequently, as a low priority among all the threats we are trying to monitor and assess.’ In addition, the DI stated that ‘In none of this Russian research do we see credible evidence of developments that could significantly add to the threat that Russia currently poses to US national security.’ ... These key recommendations are based closely on the AIR review, the DI's comments after reviewing the NIO's foreign assessment, and the CDA itself. ... We propose that these recommendations, which comprise the essence of CIA's proposed Star Gate management strategy be forwarded at this time to appropriate members of Congress in satisfaction of the CDA.”

THE REASON GIVEN IS A THREAT JUDGEMENT, NOT A SCIENTIFIC ONE, and that distinction is usually lost when this episode is described. The Directorate of Intelligence does not say the research found nothing; it says parapsychology is "a relatively low threat to the United States and, consequently, as a low priority", and that Russian work adds nothing credible to the threat Russia poses. A programme can be closed because it does not work or because it stops mattering, and this page gives the second reason in the agency's own words. THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE ONE THAT DECIDES WHAT THIS DOCUMENT IS: "We propose that these recommendations ... be forwarded at this time to appropriate members of Congress." A proposal to forward a proposal. It is not a termination order and this project does not treat it as one.