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40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee.md

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-The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, chaired by [[Manfred Gale]] of the Army staff and known in the program as the Gale Committee, reported in December 1979 on the Defense Department's parapsychology work: the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] remote-viewing research, the psychokinesis contract of the Army Missile Command (MICOM) at [[Redstone Arsenal]], the replication trials of the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], and the [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|INSCOM]] unit at [[Fort Meade]] ([[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]). "In June 1979 it was suggested by Dr. [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]], then Under Secretary of the Army, that a Scientific Evaluation Committee be appointed to review the Army's parapsychological activities. In early July 1979, Dr. [[Ruth Davis]] recommended that because of the special interest of the Secretary of Defense, that the Committee review the total DOD posture and report directly to the GRILL FLAME Oversight Committee." Its mission was "to review the parapsychological research, investigations, and applications within DOD and the intelligence community," "to assess the validity of claims made for the alleged existence of the PSI phenomena," and "to recommend a course of action for DOD." Members "were carefully screened to avoid any persons with preconceived notions for or against the subject under investigation"; "since 1972, the combined funding for DOD and the intelligence community was less than a total of $1.5M." The report's security guide stated that "all connection between official U.S. Government interest or participation in the generic field of Parapsychology is classified a minimum of SECRET, caveat NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION," and that "future security planning for GRILL FLAME includes making it totally a special access program."[^1]
+The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, chaired by [[Manfred Gale]] of the Army staff and known in the program as the Gale Committee, reported in December 1979 on the Defense Department's parapsychology work: the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] remote-viewing research, the psychokinesis contract of the Army Missile Command (MICOM) at [[Redstone Arsenal]], the replication trials of the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], and the [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|INSCOM]] unit at [[Fort Meade]] ([[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]). "In June 1979 it was suggested by Dr. [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]], then Under Secretary of the Army, that a Scientific Evaluation Committee be appointed to review the Army's parapsychological activities. In early July 1979, Dr. [[Ruth Davis]] recommended that because of the special interest of the Secretary of Defense, that the Committee review the total DOD posture and report directly to the GRILL FLAME Oversight Committee." Its mission was "to review the parapsychological research, investigations, and applications within DOD and the intelligence community," "to assess the validity of claims made for the alleged existence of the PSI phenomena," and "to recommend a course of action for DOD." Members "were carefully screened to avoid any persons with preconceived notions for or against the subject under investigation"; "since 1972, the combined funding for DOD and the intelligence community was less than a total of $1.5M." The report's security guide stated that "all connection between official U.S. Government interest or participation in the generic field of Parapsychology is classified a minimum of SECRET, caveat NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION," and that "future security planning for GRILL FLAME includes making it totally a special access program."[^1]
 
 ### Membership and Visits
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ The roster printed as annex 1: [[Douglas Tang]], chief of biostatistics and math
 
 ### The Chronology
 
-The report's own history, which it said was "not attributable to the Committee's action," ran from the SRI work of 1971 through [[Ingo Swann]]'s magnetometer trial of 1972 and [[Pat Price]]'s readings of 1973 to 1975: the West Virginia site, where Price "spoke out classified codewords he 'read' from file folders"; the Urals crane, of which "CIA analysts concluded that either Remote Viewing had taken place, or Price had intimate knowledge of the URDF-3"; the embassy code rooms; an in-house CIA trial of the fall of 1974 that produced "what could only be a SA-5 missile training site" in [[Libya]]; and the guerrilla training site of July 1975, "the same month Price tragically died of a heart attack." "Since July 1975, CIA interest has remained minimal and unofficial. The Agency claims to have stopped all work," the "primary reason for abandoning the effort" being, in a phrase the scan garbles, "of winning a 'Golden Fleece Award.'" On the Army side, MICOM let "a one-year $80K contract" in August 1977 "under the innocuous title, 'Investigation of Unconventional Discrimination Techniques'"; in July 1978 DIA "sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which Swann, given the coordinates of "a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow," "passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel," entering "a command and control room" whose "floors are paved in 'white tiles'"; in August 1978 Vorona chaired the first meeting toward "a coordinated DOD program"; INSCOM's selection criteria of the autumn of 1978 were "above average intelligence, outgoing personality, adventuresome, open-minded, mature, artistic nature, and successful life career." The Grill Flame steering committee first met on February 13, 1979, with "all Service ACSI's, Dr. Ruth Davis, Dr. LaBerge, and Dr. Vorona (standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]])." Of the Navy: "Suspicion lingers among Army project personnel that Navy may have nevertheless kept a tightly compartmented effort going. Navy representatives attend all DOD meetings, but remain uncommitted and literally silent." Funding to date: "CIA, 1972-78: $240K. DIA, 1979: $100K. USAF, 1976-79: $300K. Army, 1977-79: $490K."[^1]
+The report's own history, which it said was "not attributable to the Committee's action," ran from the SRI work of 1971 through [[Ingo Swann]]'s magnetometer trial of 1972 and [[Pat Price]]'s readings of 1973 to 1975: the [[West Virginia]] site, where Price "spoke out classified codewords he 'read' from file folders"; the Urals crane, of which "CIA analysts concluded that either Remote Viewing had taken place, or Price had intimate knowledge of the URDF-3"; the embassy code rooms; an in-house CIA trial of the fall of 1974 that produced "what could only be a SA-5 missile training site" in [[Libya]]; and the guerrilla training site of July 1975, "the same month Price tragically died of a heart attack." "Since July 1975, CIA interest has remained minimal and unofficial. The Agency claims to have stopped all work," the "primary reason for abandoning the effort" being, in a phrase the scan garbles, "of winning a 'Golden Fleece Award.'" On the Army side, MICOM let "a one-year $80K contract" in August 1977 "under the innocuous title, 'Investigation of Unconventional Discrimination Techniques'"; in July 1978 DIA "sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which Swann, given the coordinates of "a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow," "passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel," entering "a command and control room" whose "floors are paved in 'white tiles'"; in August 1978 Vorona chaired the first meeting toward "a coordinated DOD program"; INSCOM's selection criteria of the autumn of 1978 were "above average intelligence, outgoing personality, adventuresome, open-minded, mature, artistic nature, and successful life career." The Grill Flame steering committee first met on February 13, 1979, with "all Service ACSI's, Dr. Ruth Davis, Dr. LaBerge, and Dr. Vorona (standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]])." Of the Navy: "Suspicion lingers among Army project personnel that Navy may have nevertheless kept a tightly compartmented effort going. Navy representatives attend all DOD meetings, but remain uncommitted and literally silent." Funding to date: "CIA, 1972-78: $240K. DIA, 1979: $100K. USAF, 1976-79: $300K. Army, 1977-79: $490K."[^1]
 
 ### Findings