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summary: "Graff's interest in psi phenomena stemmed from a personal experience in 1968, where he had a profound out-of-body experience while caught in a rip current."
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born: 1934-12-13
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location: "Lynn Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania"
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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@ -26,8 +27,19 @@ Graff attended the first meeting of the Defense Department's Grill Flame committ
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On *Nightline* in November 1995, identified as the physicist who had directed the DIA's project for five years, Graff said of the Dozier kidnapping, "we had one viewer come up with the name of the city, Padua. We had another one come up with the name of the building he was in," and of the Jordan search, "we like to count it as a success."[^3]
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Graff attended the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee meeting of November 27, 1979, listed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, at which the working group moved to demand sight of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]]'s report "prior to it being given to any other party or group."[^900]
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Graff attended the meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities in Vorona's conference room on August 24, 1978, as "Mr. Dale Graff, Air Force/FTD," with Vorona, Colonel Jack Capps of the Army staff and Charlie Carter of the Missile Intelligence Agency.[^901]
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### The Documents
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A cable from the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the CIA's Office of Technical Service, "Request for OTS Report," held in two copies, one dated April 13, 1976, stated that "in recent discussion with OTS regarding Stanford Research Institute (SRI) investigations on remote sensing, we were informed of an OTS published study related to this effort. Our office is investigating intelligence estimates regarding possible USSR applications of such a technique," and named "the OPR within FTD for this subject" as "Mr. Dale E. Graff/XRQ"; the undated copy is filed with [[David Brandwein]]'s memorandum of February 20, 1976, terminating OTS support. A request of May 15, 1978, asked that "Mr. Dale Graff of your organization be made available to assist DIA in their presentation by conducting an informal discussion/briefing on your most recent publication," the FTD report "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact." He sat at the meeting of August 24, 1978, and on the DoD Grill Flame committee as "Dale Graff FTD/TQTR," where in May 1979 he "briefed the Committee on the FTD Special Search project," in July "volunteered that he had already produced an ICR," and at the committee's meeting of November 28, 1978, "suggested that a cover story be developed for the program." A meeting at SRI on September 13 and 14, 1978, "to discuss experiments to test tactical applications of the remote viewing phenomenon" listed him with John W. Kramar and Colonel Albert De Prospero of AMSAA, Marion Bryson of CDEC, Major [[William Stoner]], and SRI's Puthoff, Targ, [[Edwin May]], [[Charles Tart]] and [[Ingo Swann]]. A tasking record of December 1984 notes a "follow-up interview conducted (date unknown) by D. Graff at RVer's location."[^900]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
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[^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^3]: "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room.
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[^900]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^901]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^900]: Foreign Technology Division (XRQ) to CIA/OTS, "Request for OTS Report," cable of April 13, 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020005-5 and R000200020001-9; "Sensory Technology Assessment," November 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500120001-5; DoD Grill Flame Committee minutes of May 3, July 12 and September 25, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130022-3, R002000130020-5, R002000130009-8; "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact," May 15, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160008-6; minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; "QRT Tasking," December 4, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800220001-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Goslin.md
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@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
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---
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category: "Scientists & Researchers"
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tags:
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- Person
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- DavidGoslin
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- AIR
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- NationalResearchCouncil
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alias:
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- David A. Goslin
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summary: "Sociologist who ran the National Research Council's behavioral sciences commission for thirteen years and then the American Institutes for Research, where he coordinated the 1995 evaluation of Star Gate."
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born: 1936-10-27
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died: 2024-12-28
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location: "Washington, D.C."
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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David Alexander Goslin was born in [[New York City]] on October 27, 1936, grew up after his father's death in Berkeley, [[California]], graduated in psychology from [[Swarthmore College]] in 1958 and took his doctorate in sociology at [[Yale University]] in 1962. He joined the [[Russell Sage Foundation]] in New York, "held adjunct teaching positions at six different universities and published five books in the field of sociology over a 13-year period," moved to [[Washington, D.C.]] in 1974 and "spent 13 years as Executive Director of the Commission of Behavioral and Social Sciences of the [[National Research Council]]," the commission under which the 1988 report *Enhancing Human Performance* was produced. He was elected a fellow of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 1982. In 1987 he became the fourth president and chief executive of the [[American Institutes for Research]], serving until 2001; in his tenure AIR ran "a large-scale personnel evaluation of the U.S. Army that tracked the careers of more than 3 million Army personnel" and in 1994 acquired Pelavin Associates. He died on December 28, 2024.[^1]
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In 1995, after the National Research Council declined the CIA's request for a review of Star Gate, the CIA met "with president and representatives of American Institutes of Research (AIR)" on May 10 and signed a contract on June 12 ([[1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate]]); the report records that "Dr. David A. Goslin, President of AIR, served as coordinator." [[Edwin May]]'s commentary of 1996 objected that Goslin had also administered the NRC's 1988 report.[^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: "The American Institutes for Research Honors the Life and Legacy of David Goslin." American Institutes for Research, January 6, 2025. https://www.air.org/news/press-release/american-institutes-research-honors-life-and-legacy-david-goslin "David Goslin Obituary." Gamble Funeral Service, Savannah, Georgia, family notice, January 2025. https://www.gamblefuneralservice.com/obituaries/david-goslin
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[^3]: May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, 1996, pp. 3-23.
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[^2]: "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Mumford, Michael D., Andrew M. Rose, and David A. Goslin. *An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications.* American Institutes for Research, September 29, 1995, pp. E-1 to E-2.
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39
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---
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category: "Skeptics & Critics"
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tags:
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- Person
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- DavidMarks
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- Skeptic
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- RemoteViewing
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- Otago
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alias:
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- David F. Marks
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summary: "University of Otago psychologist whose 1978 Nature letter with Richard Kammann argued that cues in the SRI transcripts, not remote viewing, explained the Price series, and who pursued the case through 1986."
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location: "Dunedin, New Zealand"
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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David F. Marks, of the department of psychology at the [[University of Otago]] in [[Dunedin]], [[New Zealand]], began "an investigation in 1975, in association with [[Richard Kammann]]," of the remote-viewing experiments of [[Russell Targ]] and [[Hal Puthoff]] at the [[Stanford Research Institute|Stanford Research Institute]]. Their letter to [[Nature (journal)|Nature]], received July 2, 1977, accepted May 31, 1978, and printed on August 17, 1978: "Targ and Puthoff have described investigations of an extrasensory remote viewing ability which they claim may be widely distributed in the general population. We have carried out duplicate experiments, but our results do not verify their conclusions." Its conclusion, as they later quoted it: "Our investigation of the SRI remote viewing experiment with [[Pat Price]] forces the conclusion that the successful identification of target sites by judges is impossible unless multiple extraneous cues which were available in the original unedited transcripts are utilized. Investigators of remote viewing should take much more care to ensure that such cues are not available. Furthermore, the listing of targets given to judges should be randomized and not presented in the same sequence as that which occurred in the experiments."[^1][^2]
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### The Otago Experiments and the Cues
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Five series of experiments at Otago, "with completely negative results," preceded the critique: "Our decision to break normal protocol and accompany the subject to the target at the end of each experiment was an attempt to gain a better understanding of why our subjects consistently reported successful remote viewing while judges consistently failed to make correct matches," a process the authors named "subjective validation." The SRI judge, [[Arthur Hastings]], "agreed to let me see the Price transcripts" and, "in a letter dated 26 May 1977," told them "that, for the Price series of experiments, he had been given a typed list of targets in the same order as the table in Mind-Reach, i.e., in the correct order." Using "only the cues and the target list," a method they called "remote judging," judges in New Zealand matched the transcripts without visiting the sites: "If in the transcript the experimenter states 'Nothing like having three successes behind you' (Price, transcript 4), it would be irrational to place it earlier than fourth in the series." The book's remote-viewing chapters end: "it appears to us that the remote viewing effect is, at present, nothing more than a massive artifact of poor methodology and wishful thinking."[^2]
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Puthoff wrote to Marks on July 10, 1978: "With regard to your assumption that the judges knew the order of target visitation, that is incorrect. Neither the single judge (Hastings) nor the panel of five judges were given the order; they were kept blind"; and on August 25, 1980: "You are correct that, in the case of the Price series, the published list of the targets was in the order of target usage, and that, furthermore, when the target list was provided to the judge, it was inadvertently (through an error) given in the same order." In May 1979 Puthoff declined to release the transcripts, "since premature disclosure would prevent further blind analysis work... I do not think it will be in 1979, however, as our analysis contracts extend beyond that; thus, I doubt it will be in time for your book." Hastings "loaned me a complete set of nine transcripts from the Price series and showed me six of the nine [[Hella Hammid|Hammid]] transcripts," then "said he felt 'paranoid' about releasing this information and soon requested their return as they had become 'confidential.'" Of the Hammid transcripts: "I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that four of the six Hammid transcripts actually carried dates. Hastings told me one transcript even carried the name of the associated target"; twenty-four cues in six transcripts ("This is the 18th of September," "Russell Targ has gone to the remote site," "Our second experiment of the morning," "Hal has gone to a second target") let a remote judge in New Zealand reach "a sum of ranks of 8 giving a p value of 0.001," which "exceeded that obtained by Hastings." Hastings had received "three target lists" for the Hammid series, one randomized and two not. Marks's 1982 conclusion: "Well-controlled experiments never find the RV effect, while poorly controlled experiments nearly always do. Data suppression, flawed methodology, and lack of replication lead to the conclusion that remote viewing is a cognitive illusion, an artifact of human error and wishful thinking."[^3]
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### The Replies
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Puthoff and Targ's answer, "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments: II," dated January 1979 and "submitted for publication to Nature," survives in the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s files. It called the critique a "conjecture," reported that [[Charles Tart]] had the Price transcripts edited of "any additional phrases for which even the most remote post hoc cue argument could be made" and rejudged by a judge selected by a five-transcript test, with "seven of the nine" matched, and added: "We will have to await disclosure of the Marks-Kammann protocols to determine whether failure on their part can be traced to differences in procedure." Tart's accompanying note: "I would hypothesize that Marks and Kammann were unable to obtain significant results in their reanalysis of the subset of the Price series because their judges either lacked the necessary discriminative skills and/or were not sufficiently motivated to use them effectively." Marks replied in Nature in 1981 ("Sensory cues invalidate remote viewing experiments") and, with Christopher Scott, in 1986 ("Remote viewing exposed"). [[Ray Hyman]]'s review for the [[1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate]] cited the book's account of judges convinced by wrong matches: "This phenomenon of subjective validation is pervasive, compelling and powerful."[^4]
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### Later Career
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Marks was senior lecturer in psychology at Otago in 1982, one of five founding members of the New Zealand Skeptics in February 1986, who "used his knowledge" of remote viewing "to test the claim" of a New Zealand psychic, and left "for a professional chair in a new university in London"; he became professor of psychology at [[City, University of London|City University London]], where he issued a second edition of the book in 2000 with three new chapters on remote viewing "including the 'psychic spying' attempted during Cold War days."[^5]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "Information transmission in remote viewing experiments." *Nature,* vol. 274, August 17, 1978, pp. 680-681, received July 2, 1977, accepted May 31, 1978. https://www.nature.com/articles/274680a0 (abstract and dates only; the text is behind a paywall).
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[^2]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. *The Psychology of the Psychic.* Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1980, pp. 12-41, 129, 151, 177, 185, read through the archive.org search index of the item psychologyofpsyc0000mark_j8m3 (page fragments only).
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[^3]: Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf
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[^4]: Puthoff, H. E., and Russell Targ, "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments: II," and Tart, Charles T., "Reanalysis of SRI Remote Viewing Experiments," January 1979, "submitted for publication to Nature," CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090017-5; published as Tart, Puthoff and Targ, *Nature,* vol. 284, 1980, p. 191, not seen. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena," September 11, 1995, in *An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications,* American Institutes for Research, September 29, 1995, p. 3-71, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180006-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Marks, D. F., "Sensory cues invalidate remote viewing experiments," *Nature,* vol. 292, 1981, p. 177, and Marks, D., and C. Scott, "Remote viewing exposed," *Nature,* vol. 319, 1986, p. 444, titles and authors from the journal's pages only.
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[^5]: Lippard, Jim, editorial note to Kammann, Richard, "Statistical Numerology in the Skeptics' Response to the Mars Effect," *Zetetic Scholar,* no. 10, December 1982, pp. 50-65, reprinted at discord.org/lippard/kammann.html (Wayback Machine copy); University of Otago, "Wellbeing at heart of annual prize" (Wayback Machine copy); Kammann, R., M. Farry and P. Herbison, "The analysis and measurement of happiness as a sense of well-being," *Social Indicators Research,* vol. 15, 1984, pp. 91-115; Howard, Bernard, "Ah Yes! I Remember It Well," NZ Skeptics, February 1, 1999, and "A Classic Updated," February 1, 2002, articles.skeptics.nz; Skeptical Inquirer author page for David F. Marks, skepticalinquirer.org/authors/david-f-marks/; MARC record of the archive.org item psychologyofpsyc0000mark_j8m3 ("Kammann, Richard, 1934-1984").
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@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Bergmann's role in developing [[Israel]]'s nuclear arsenal remains a state secre
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By mid-1960, when rumors of a possible French pullout from [[Dimona]] circulated, many Israelis, including Bergmann, were ready for the French to leave, believing they could complete the project themselves. Bergmann was a founding member of the Rafi party, and continued to influence [[David Ben-Gurion]] regarding the dangers of not initiating the production of a nuclear arsenal.[^2]
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By the spring of 1966, Bergmann resigned under pressure as director of the commissionerless Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, as well as from his two high-level defense science posts. Many in the [[Levi Eshkol]] cabinet viewed his departure as long overdue. A pouting Bergmann retreated, with the aid of [[Lewis L. Strauss]], to the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University.[^2]
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By the spring of 1966, Bergmann resigned under pressure as director of the commissionerless Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, as well as from his two high-level defense science posts. Many in the [[Levi Eshkol]] cabinet viewed his departure as long overdue. A pouting Bergmann retreated, with the aid of [[Lewis L. Strauss]], to the Institute of Advanced Studies at [[Princeton University]].[^2]
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### Footnotes
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---
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category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
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tags:
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- Person
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- RemoteViewer
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- Military
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- Stargate
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- SRI
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summary: "Fernand 'Fern' Gauvin was a civilian counterintelligence specialist working at Arlington Hall, a military/civilian intelligence complex."
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location: "Rhode Island"
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---
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Fernand "Fern" Gauvin was a civilian counterintelligence specialist working at Arlington Hall, a military/civilian intelligence complex. He was one of the original six soldier psychics selected for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] program in 1977.[^1]
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Gauvin, a dark-haired, handsome Rhode Islander in his late forties, had a long history of psychic experiences and transcendental yearnings dating back to his childhood. He practiced yoga and meditation, experimented with altered states, and read books about spirit-mediums and auras. In 1975, he had an unusual out-of-body experience, an encounter with a "benevolent, luminous, loving entity" that profoundly affected him.[^1]
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Gauvin was one of the six most promising members of the team selected to travel to [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) for further evaluation of their talents. He participated in the intense, round-the-clock remote viewing sessions during the Iran hostage crisis. Like [[Nancy Stern]], he was deeply affected by the failure of the rescue mission and subsequently left the unit, vowing never to remote-view again.[^1]
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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---
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aliases:
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- Fern Gauvin
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- Fernand A. Gauvin
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category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
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tags:
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- Person
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- RemoteViewer
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- Military
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- Stargate
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- SRI
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summary: "Gauvin worked at Arlington Hall, home to some of the more 'James Bond-ish' elements of the U.S."
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summary: "Civilian counterintelligence specialist at Arlington Hall and one of the first six Gondola Wish remote viewers, who left the unit after the failed Iran hostage rescue of 1980."
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location: "Rhode Island"
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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Fernand "Fern" Gauvin was a civilian counterintelligence specialist working at Arlington Hall, a military/civilian intelligence complex, home to some of the more "James Bond-ish" elements of the U.S. espionage community. He was among the initial group of ten or eleven candidates selected by [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]] and [[Murray Watt|Scotty Watt]] for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] (later Grill Flame) remote viewing unit in 1977, and one of the original six soldier psychics. A dark-haired, handsome Rhode Islander in his late forties, Gauvin had a long history of psychic experiences and transcendental yearnings dating back to his childhood; he practiced yoga and meditation, experimented with altered states, and read books about spirit-mediums and auras. In 1975 he had an unusual out-of-body experience, an encounter with a "benevolent, luminous, loving entity" that profoundly affected him.[^1]
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[[Fernand Gauvin]] was a civilian counterintelligence specialist from Rhode Island and an early member of the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] (later [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]) remote viewing unit. He was among the initial group of ten or eleven candidates selected by [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]] and [[Murray Watt|Scotty Watt]]. Gauvin had a long history of psychic experiences and transcendental yearnings, going back to his childhood. He practiced yoga and meditation, experimented with altered states, and read books about spirit-mediums and auras. In 1975, he had an unusual out-of-body-type experience, an encounter with a benevolent, luminous, loving entity.[^1]
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Gauvin was one of the six most promising members of the team sent to [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] for two weeks of outbound remote-viewing experiments. He participated in the intense, round-the-clock remote viewing sessions during the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1981). Like [[Nancy Stern]], he was deeply affected by the failure of the rescue mission in April 1980 and subsequently left the unit, vowing never to remote-view again.[^1]
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Gauvin worked at Arlington Hall, home to some of the more "James Bond-ish" elements of the U.S. espionage community. He was among the six most promising members sent to [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] for two weeks of outbound remote-viewing experiments. He was present during the intense and monotonous remote viewing taskings related to the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1981). After the failed hostage rescue mission in April 1980, he left the unit, vowing never to remote-view again, highlighting the psychological toll of the relentless remote viewing operations.[^1]
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The released personnel file of the Grill Flame unit holds a volunteer consent statement of October 4, 1979, another of February 28, 1980, and a statement of consent of April 22, 1980, whose signature lines the scan renders as "Eepatae A Caucie," "LEAUAWD F. GARVIN" and "FESVAML A. CAUCI," with an organization fragment reading "SSO, 902d MI Gp"; the body of one reads "Fernand A. Gauvin." No item title in the collection carries his name.[^2]
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---
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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[^2]: Grill Flame security agreements, volunteer consent statements, participant counseling statements, "Information About Remote Viewing for Participants" forms, and DIA Sun Streak access forms, 1977 to 1988, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100150005-8 to R002100150079-7; names as printed in the item titles, the signature lines being largely illegible in OCR. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. The three readings are inconsistent and the identification is not confirmed.
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@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Harold Thomas Finney II (1956 to 2014), known as Hal Finney, was an American cry
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### Cryptography and PGP
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Finney graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1979 and joined APh Technological Consulting, the firm Mattel contracted to develop the Intellivision, where he programmed the console game Space Battle and its Atari 2600 port Space Attack, as well as Astroblast, the 2600 port of Astrosmash. He began volunteering on [[Phil Zimmermann]]'s Pretty Good Privacy in 1991, became a central contributor to PGP 2.0, and when the federal investigation into Zimmermann closed in 1996 Zimmermann hired him as an employee.[^1][^2][^8]
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Finney graduated from the [[California Institute of Technology]] in 1979 and joined APh Technological Consulting, the firm Mattel contracted to develop the Intellivision, where he programmed the console game Space Battle and its Atari 2600 port Space Attack, as well as Astroblast, the 2600 port of Astrosmash. He began volunteering on [[Phil Zimmermann]]'s Pretty Good Privacy in 1991, became a central contributor to PGP 2.0, and when the federal investigation into Zimmermann closed in 1996 Zimmermann hired him as an employee.[^1][^2][^8]
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|
||||
Finney ran one of the early anonymous remailers, servers that stripped routing information so that a message could not be traced to its sender, and he was a frequent contributor to the cypherpunks list, where he introduced the idea of digital cash to the overlapping extropian community. He continued working on PGP under Zimmermann until ALS forced his retirement in 2011, by which point PGP had become the standard tool for encrypting email and the federal effort to suppress it had collapsed.[^3][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ According to Bergier, the ESP experiment involved simple sender-receiver trials
|
|||
|
||||
An expanded version of his story, "The Secret of the Nautilus," was published in France's top science journal, *Science et Vie*, in February 1960. While no authors were identified, editor [[Gérald Messadié]] stated that multiple sources had confirmed the story. [[J. B. Rhine]] of the [[Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory]] was identified as the civilian scientist assigned to the project, with reports of "about 75% of the telepathic tries are said to have been successful"[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
Whether Bergier's story was true or fabricated remains a debate, but it had real-world consequences. The Soviets used the news story to their strategic advantage, with [[Leonid L. Vasilev]], Russia's leading ESP researcher, claiming that Soviet parapsychology research was stimulated by the *Nautilus* reports[^1].
|
||||
Whether Bergier's story was true or fabricated remains a debate, but it had real-world consequences. The Soviets used the news story to their strategic advantage, with [[Leonid Vasiliev|Leonid L. Vasilev]], Russia's leading ESP researcher, claiming that Soviet parapsychology research was stimulated by the *Nautilus* reports[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
### Publications
|
||||
* "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" (*Constellation*, 1959)
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
21
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Alcock.md
Normal file
21
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Alcock.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- JamesAlcock
|
||||
- Skeptic
|
||||
- CSICOP
|
||||
- YorkUniversity
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- James E. Alcock
|
||||
summary: "York University social psychologist, CSICOP founding participant and author of Parapsychology: Science or Magic?, named by the National Research Council in 1995 as a prospective reviewer of Star Gate."
|
||||
location: "Toronto, Ontario"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
James E. Alcock, professor of psychology at [[York University]] in [[Toronto]] from 1973 and former director of its graduate program in psychology, took an honours physics degree at [[McGill University]] and a doctorate in social psychology at McMaster, with post-doctoral training in clinical psychology, and was a registered psychologist from 1974. He was "invited to the initial conference where the organization was formalized" of the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal|CSICOP]], later a fellow and member of its executive council, a member of the editorial board of the *Skeptical Inquirer* and of the advisory board of the American Council on Science and Health, and the author of *Parapsychology: Science or Magic?* (1981) and *Science and Supernature* (1990) and co-editor of *Psi Wars* (2003). Of the 1970s: "This led to such crazy things as 'spoon bending parties' among some American congressmen, the use of 'biorhythm analysis' by some companies with regard to vetting their employees, and even at one point the use of horoscopes to help a judge decide on terms of punishment." [[John Palmer]] answered his book in *Zetetic Scholar* in 1983. The CIA's chronology of the Star Gate transfer records that on March 15, 1995, "Jessica Utts, John Palmer, James Alcock, and Ray Hyman contacted by NRC and agree to act as commissioned reviewers," and that on May 10 the NRC "formally rejects" the study.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "James Alcock," speaker biography, European Skeptics Congress 2005, alpha.uhasselt.be/~gjb/esc2005/Alcock_James.html, Wayback Machine capture; Gerbic, Susan, "James Alcock - an Interview with Susan Gerbic," Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, September 6, 2017. https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/james_alcock_-_an_interview_with_susan_gerbic "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
|
|
@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ summary: "Jeannie Betters was the unit secretary for the DIA's Remote Viewing pr
|
|||
|
||||
Jeannie Betters was the unit secretary for the [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]]'s [[Remote Viewing]] program at [[Fort Meade]]. She took notes during remote viewing sessions, including those conducted by [[Angela Dellafiora]][^1].
|
||||
|
||||
In one notable session concerning the fugitive [[Charles Frank Jordan]], Betters recorded the exchange between [[Fern Gauvin]], the operations manager, and Dellafiora. When Dellafiora stated Jordan was in "Lowell, Wyoming," and Gauvin questioned if she meant Lowell, Massachusetts, Betters interjected, "She said Wyoming, Fern," confirming Dellafiora's specific location[^1].
|
||||
In one notable session concerning the fugitive [[Charles Frank Jordan]], Betters recorded the exchange between [[Fernand Gauvin|Fern Gauvin]], the operations manager, and Dellafiora. When Dellafiora stated Jordan was in "Lowell, Wyoming," and Gauvin questioned if she meant Lowell, Massachusetts, Betters interjected, "She said Wyoming, Fern," confirming Dellafiora's specific location[^1].
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,9 +7,10 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Stargate
|
||||
- SRI
|
||||
summary: "U.S. Army captain and original remote viewer in the Stargate Project known for extraordinary ability to connect with distressed or missing human targets."
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Ken Bell was a U.S. Army captain and one of the original six remote viewers in the [[STARGATE PROJECT]]. He was recruited into the program, then codenamed [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]], in 1977 by [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]] and [[Murray Watt|Scotty Watt]].[^1]
|
||||
Ken Bell was a U.S. Army captain and one of the original six remote viewers in the [[STARGATE PROJECT]]. He was recruited into the program, then codenamed Gondola Wish, in 1977 by [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]] and [[Murray Watt|Scotty Watt]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Bell had a background in counterintelligence and was known for his interest in meditation. He was described as short, wiry, and somewhat intense. He believed that psi could never be used to make money, as psychics who tried to get rich often failed, suggesting a connection between psi and human morality. He was among the six most promising members sent to [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) for two weeks of outbound remote-viewing experiments, where SRI evaluated their talents and confirmed their suitability for operational remote viewing.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -23,8 +24,13 @@ He was instrumental in the "telepathic interrogation" of a KGB agent in South Af
|
|||
|
||||
During the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1981), Bell, along with other remote viewers, was tasked hundreds of times to provide information on the hostages. He experienced the intense pressure and monotony of these taskings, which contributed to mental burnout among the remote viewing team. He was present during the debriefing after the failed hostage rescue mission, and remained with the unit during the subsequent period of uncertainty.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Bell, along with [[Mel Riley]] and [[Joe McMoneagle]], became one of the three full-time remote viewers when the unit was officially designated the Special Action Branch and the program was codenamed [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]. He arranged to stay with the unit initially but left within a year to rejoin the regular Army career track, eventually retiring in the late 1980s as a lieutenant colonel.[^1]
|
||||
Bell, along with [[Mel Riley]] and [[Joe McMoneagle]], became one of the three full-time remote viewers when the unit was officially designated the Special Action Branch and the program was codenamed Grill Flame. He arranged to stay with the unit initially but left within a year to rejoin the regular Army career track, eventually retiring in the late 1980s as a lieutenant colonel.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### The Documents
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
|
||||
The released personnel file holds his Grill Flame volunteer security agreement, listing him as "INSCOM" with a position the scan renders as "Grill Flame Agent," his "Information About Remote Viewing for Participants" form of May 9, 1979, and his statement of consent of April 21, 1980, "as a participant in the INSCOM GRILL FLAME Project (IGFP)," to "the tape recording, monitoring and transcribing of all session interviews." From March 1980 to May 1981 he signed the unit's session reports, memoranda for record and transcript summaries from HQ INSCOM (IAFM-OPS-HU-SA) as "CPT, MI, Special Actions Branch" (March 19, 1980), "Project Analyst" (the summary of Project 8003, July 14, 1980) and "CPT, MI, Control Analyst" (sessions DC-68 of January 23, 1981, and DCC-45 of May 8, 1981), twenty-eight documents in all.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
|
||||
[^2]: Grill Flame security agreements, volunteer consent statements, participant counseling statements, "Information About Remote Viewing for Participants" forms, and DIA Sun Streak access forms, 1977 to 1988, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100150005-8 to R002100150079-7; names as printed in the item titles, the signature lines being largely illegible in OCR. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. INSCOM Grill Flame program session reports, memoranda for record and transcript summaries signed by Kenneth V. Bell, Jr., March 1980 to May 1981, among them CIA-RDP96-00788R000200470007-3 (March 19, 1980), R000200570001-8 (Project 8003 summary, July 14, 1980), R000500330001-1 (session DC-68, January 23, 1981) and R000500450001-8 (session DCC-45, May 8, 1981). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- Kit Green
|
||||
- Christopher Green
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
|
|
@ -52,8 +52,11 @@ Following his departure from CIA, Green continued academic and research work in
|
|||
|
||||
Green contributed as a consultant and scientific advisor to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program ([[AATIP]]), the Pentagon's UAP research program that operated from approximately 2007 to 2012 under the direction of [[Luis D. Elizondo III|Luis Elizondo]]. His contribution included review of reported physical and physiological effects on individuals claiming proximity to anomalous aerial phenomena. He published research examining injuries reported by people claiming UAP encounters - a category he termed "exotic wounds" - applying forensic neurological analysis to the reported symptom patterns. This work represented the extension of his long-standing interest in the medical and physiological dimensions of anomalous phenomena from the SRI era into the post-AATIP period.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
A Defense Electronics article of July 1993 in the CIA's Star Gate files, on closed briefings by the Russian scientist Igor Smirnov on "a computerized acoustic device allegedly capable of implanting thoughts in a person's mind," held from March 17 in northern Virginia and later at the University of Kansas Medical Center, lists among "the non-military attendees" "Dr. Richard Nakamura of the National Institute of Mental Health and Dr. Christopher Green, director of General Motors Corp. (GM) biomedical research department in Detroit"; whether this is the Green of this page the article does not say.[^900]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Puthoff, Harold E. Letter to Christopher Green, CIA, June 27, 1972. CIA FOIA Reading Room, cia.gov/readingroom. CIA document CIA-RDP96-00791R000200030006-8 (released). Kripal, Jeffrey J. *Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion*. University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp. 381-385.
|
||||
[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
|
||||
[^3]: Lacatski, James T., Kelleher, Colm A., and Knapp, George. *Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insider's Account of the Secret Government UAP Program*. RTMA, 2021. Elizondo, Luis. *IMMINENT: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs*. Morrow, 2024.
|
||||
[^900]: "DoD, Intel Agencies Look at Russian Mind Control Technology, Claims," July 1993, reprinted from *Defense Electronics,* CIA-RDP96-00792R000600150001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. The article gives no CIA affiliation and the identification is not confirmed.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
25
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Larry Combest.md
Normal file
25
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Larry Combest.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Political Figure"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- LarryCombest
|
||||
- Congress
|
||||
- HPSCI
|
||||
- Texas
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Larry Ed Combest
|
||||
summary: "Texas Republican and former aide to John Tower who chaired the House intelligence committee in 1995-96, received the CIA's Star Gate transfer report, and produced the IC21 review."
|
||||
born: 1945-03-20
|
||||
location: "Lubbock, Texas"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Larry Ed Combest was born in Memphis, Hall County, [[Texas]], on March 20, 1945, graduated from West Texas State University in 1969, farmed, directed the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service office in 1971, and was legislative assistant to Senator [[John Tower]] from 1971 to 1978. Elected as a Republican in 1984, he sat in the House, a member from [[Lubbock]], from January 3, 1985, until his resignation on May 31, 2003, sat on the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] from 1988, chaired it in the 104th Congress, and chaired the Agriculture Committee in the 106th and 107th.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
As chairman he was the addressee of the CIA's letter of March 28, 1995, transmitting DIA's and the CIA's responses to Congress's directed actions on the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Star Gate]] program ([[1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA]]). On April 9, 1996, he sent the Speaker the committee staff study *IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century,* "carefully edited in consultation with the appropriate agencies to remove any classified information." In 1996 "Mr. Combest was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and the Seal Medallion of the Central Intelligence Agency," and he served as vice chairman of the [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission]] on secrecy.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "COMBEST, Larry Ed," History, Art and Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/COMBEST,-Larry-Ed-(C000653)/
|
||||
[^2]: Executive Director for Intelligence Community Affairs to Larry Combest, March 28, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100040002-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Combest, Larry, transmittal letter to the Speaker, April 9, 1996, in *IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century,* staff study, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, GPO, 1996. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-IC21/html/GPO-IC21-2.htm *Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy,* 1997, appendix D, biographical information. https://sgp.fas.org/library/moynihan/appd.html The commission's biography dates his chairmanship 1994 to 1996.
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2026-05-15
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
title: Lyn Buchanan
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Lyn Buchanan
|
||||
|
|
@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ After retiring from the Army, Buchanan founded Problems - Solutions - Innovation
|
|||
|
||||
In 2003, Buchanan published *The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a "Psychic Spy" for the U.S. Military* (Hampton Roads Publishing), an account of his Army remote viewing experience and his understanding of the CRV process. The book drew on his experience as both viewer and unit data manager and provided one of the more technically detailed accounts of operational military remote viewing from the Fort Meade period.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Edwin May]] wrote from the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory on September 21, 1995, that he had obtained a tape of "an hour program that aired a few weeks ago in England," Channel 4's version of [[Jim Schnabel]]'s Independent article, which "features [[Mel Riley]] and [[Ed Dames]] but includes interviews with MG (ret) [[Edmund Thompson|Ed Thompson]] (former ARMY ACSI), Adm. [[Stansfield Turner|Turner]], Dr. [[Hal Puthoff|Puthoff]], Lyn Buchanan, and [[John B. Alexander|John Alexander]]"; "in my opinion, the show is sensational and makes no attempt to separate fact from fiction. By implication it attempts (and perhaps accomplishes) to raise the credibility of Dames, Riley, and Alexander by association with generals, admirals and the Intelligence community."[^900]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies.* Dell, 1997.
|
||||
[^900]: May, Edwin, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, "Re: Publicity and things," September 21, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030077-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
27
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manfred Gale.md
Normal file
27
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manfred Gale.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- ManfredGale
|
||||
- GrillFlame
|
||||
- RemoteViewing
|
||||
- Army
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- M. Gale
|
||||
summary: "Army staff official who chaired the 1979 Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee and whose report and briefings the Defense Department's parapsychology working group rejected as misleading."
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Manfred Gale, of the Army staff at the Pentagon (office symbol DAMA-ZD, under the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research, Development and Acquisition), chaired the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], appointed after "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." He "organized" the committee and invited its members, "carefully screened to avoid any persons with preconceived notions for or against the subject under investigation," and kept "a collection of all such documents" in his office. Its report of December 1979 found that remote-viewing research "thus far have not proved the existence of the phenomena," that "sole dependence on SRI-like protocols to resolve the RV issue will not be fruitful," and, by five votes to three, that [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|INSCOM]]'s operational work could continue under oversight.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The Defense Department's Grill Flame committee under [[Jack Vorona]] of [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] heard on November 27, 1979, that the report "had not been completed," one member "questioned the substantive expertise of the Gale Committee," and the group asked to see it "prior to it being given to any other party or group." Gale briefed it on January 10, 1980: "Mr. Gale's briefing was not received favorably by the Grill Flame group. There were many substantive reservations based upon errors in both facts and analysis. The report was, in the view of the group, misleading and inadequate." Major [[William Stoner]], the committee's own coordinator, wrote after Gale's briefing of January 14 that Gale "has, in briefing the report here and elsewhere, done a great deal of verbalizing (shading) issues, personal opinion, 'faction,' and general guesswork not contained anywhere in the report. Some of it is just plain misleading"; that his claim of having "rejected two people who had pronounced tendencies to be nonobjective" was false as to [[Ray Hyman]], "rejected not because of any action by Gale, but because of a protest memo from MG [[Edmund Thompson|Thompson]] to Dr LaBerge"; that "the Gale report is big, but weak"; and that Gale, "selling the report around the Pentagon," "should be thanked by the DoD Steering Committee and allowed or told to quietly go his way." On January 25, 1980, Gale asked Stoner to distribute 27 copies of the report, with LaBerge's "official copy by Monday, 28 Jan."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Gale's Army title was "Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA." On August 8, 1979, the Under Secretary's military assistant wrote that "the Under Secretary would like you to brief" [[Ruth Davis]] and a Mr. Nealsen "with the same informal briefing that you gave him," that Nealsen "will also ask that you brief Admiral Murphy in the same way," and that "Dr. LaBerge discussed your proposed change in test design with USAMSAA. They are taking action to implement the proposal at this time." A month earlier his office had been told that [[Harry Snyder]] "has been asked in place of Dr. Hyman." Lieutenant Colonel [[Murray Watt]]'s message of November 1979 from Fort Meade recorded that "Mr Manfred Gale (Team Chief) assured LTC Watt that INSCOM would be provided with a copy of the team's report when it was finalized," and that his office was "anxious to see their recommendations concerning our program in particular and the DoD program as a whole."[^903]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Gale, M., "Distribution of GRILL FLAME Reports," memorandum for Major Stoner, ACSI, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research, Development and Acquisition, January 25, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230023-0; three CIA Reading Room items of February 13, 1980, are titled "Scientific Evaluation Committee (SEC) Grill Flame Report, Dated November 1979" (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250025-7, R001100080007-6, R001200230026-7), not read. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^903]: "Grill Flame Review Panel Members," undated roster, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230008-7; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; K. Lytle, Major, Military Assistant, memorandum for Mr. Gale, Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA, "Briefing for Dr. Ruth Davis and Mr. Nealsen," August 8, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230013-1; Snyder to Gale, undated (catalogued May 11, 1979, but referring to October and a visit of September 28), CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230038-4, and November 19, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230042-9; "Findings," "Recommendations," "Estimated Costs," unsigned, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230043-8; SSO Meade to SSO ACSI DA, "Grill Flame DoD Science Evaluation Team Report," LTC Watt, November 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230047-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
|
|
@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Before his resignation, Bissell had authorized the development of ZR/RIFLE under
|
|||
|
||||
### Later Career
|
||||
|
||||
After leaving the CIA, Bissell worked at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and other positions. He wrote his memoirs, *Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs*, which were published posthumously by Yale University Press in 1996. The memoir provided a careful but incomplete account of his CIA career; some of the most sensitive material about ZR/RIFLE and the organized crime relationships remained unaddressed.
|
||||
After leaving the CIA, Bissell worked at the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]] (IDA) and other positions. He wrote his memoirs, *Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs*, which were published posthumously by Yale University Press in 1996. The memoir provided a careful but incomplete account of his CIA career; some of the most sensitive material about ZR/RIFLE and the organized crime relationships remained unaddressed.
|
||||
|
||||
Bissell died in Hartford, Connecticut, on February 7, 1994.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
39
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard D'Amato.md
Normal file
39
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard D'Amato.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- RichardDAmato
|
||||
- Congress
|
||||
- SenateAppropriations
|
||||
- StarGate
|
||||
- USChinaCommission
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- C. Richard D'Amato
|
||||
- Dick D'Amato
|
||||
- Charles Richard D'Amato
|
||||
summary: "Senate Appropriations Committee counsel under Robert Byrd who wrote the 1995 language moving Star Gate to the CIA, later a Maryland delegate and chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission."
|
||||
born: 1942-09-28
|
||||
location: "Annapolis, Maryland"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Charles Richard D'Amato was born in Hackensack, [[New Jersey]], on September 28, 1942, took his degree in government at [[Cornell University]] in 1964 and a master's at the [[Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy]], taught government at the [[United States Naval Academy]] from 1968 to 1971, served in the USS King in the Pacific, and took a law degree at [[Georgetown University]] in 1980. He was legislative director to Representative [[James Jeffords]] from 1975 to 1978, legislative assistant and chief of staff to Senator [[Abraham Ribicoff]] to 1980, "staff director and counsel to U.S. Senate Majority Leader [[Robert Byrd|Robert C. Byrd]]" from 1980 to 1987, "co-director of the Senate Arms Control Observer Group," and "chief democratic counsel, U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, 1988-98," where, in his own description, he was "lead staff on Foreign Policy, National Defense Intelligence and Trade." The committee's hearing volume on the fiscal 1998 defense appropriation lists him among the minority staff of the defense subcommittee under Byrd. Over twenty-five years in the Navy Reserve, retiring as a captain, his assignments included "attaché duty at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China on proliferation issues and military-to-military initiatives in March 1997" and the battle group staff of the USS Eisenhower in Desert Shield.[^1][^2][^3]
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|
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### Star Gate
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA's papers on the transfer of the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Star Gate]] program in 1995 ([[1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA]]) record that the Director of Congressional Affairs "described our approach to Mr. Richard D'Amato, the congressional staffer responsible for the language effecting the transfer, and Mr. D'Amato expressed concern about the DIA people, in particular the three remote viewers, during the period that the panel is conducting our review"; that on March 27, 1995, the CIA "briefed Richard D'Amato at Hart Senate Office bldg, on status of transfer; obtained agreement on previously submitted Terms of Reference"; and, in slides for the committee, that "CIA terms of reference requested that no resources be transferred until Blue Ribbon Panel completes directed review, SAC staffer agreed." His support for the program in the Senate is said to have been vital. [[Edwin May]] wrote to him in 1993 to complain that research reports sent to Fort Meade had never been read, and in 1995, dissatisfied with DIA's treatment of the project, he pressed for the transfer.[^4][^5]
|
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|
||||
A statement he posted on his own website, headed "1980's Inquiry into Unidentified Aerial Crash in New Mexico," reads: "In the 1980's and 1990's, I served on the staff of the Senate Democratic Leader, Senator Robert C. Byrd, and my responsibilities involved helping manage the budgets of the Department of Defense and the National Foreign Intelligence Program... In this context, a senior Senate Committee chairman asked me to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations that came to his attention regarding unidentified aerial crashes in the 1940's in New Mexico. I met with a number of people who had made public statements on the matter. I reported my conclusion to the Senator that the basis for such allegations did not appear to merit any further Senate investigation. Beyond this inquiry on behalf of the Senator, I have no personal opinion on the matter and consider the inquiry to have been closed for over 20 years."[^1]
|
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|
||||
### Afterward
|
||||
|
||||
By 1999, while a Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates for Annapolis (1999-2003, Appropriations Committee), he was "President of a consulting firm that represents American corporations on strategic planning and international trade matters" and a member of the Trade Deficit Review Commission. He "developed the legislation creating" the [[U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission]] in 2001 and sat on it from 2001 to 2007 and 2011 to 2012, as chairman in 2002-03 and 2004-05, "appointed to serve for four terms by Senate Democratic Leaders," with "top security clearances." He was later vice president of Synergics Energy, a wind-power developer, a partner in McKenzie Environmental Recycling, and a trustee or commissioner of the Historic Annapolis Foundation, the Coast Guard Foundation, Maryland's climate change commission and its prosecutor selection commission; his wife, Dorothy Walsh, was senior staff to Senator [[Bill Nelson]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
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|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: D'Amato, C. Richard, resume, self-published at megalomediadesigns.com/dickdamatoresume.pdf, Wayback Machine capture of April 28, 2016; and "1980's Inquiry into Unidentified Aerial Crash in New Mexico," statement posted as an image on the same site, Wayback Machine capture of July 6, 2020 (on the site by April 2013). The resume dates the Fletcher degree to 1965 and adds "Harvard Law School, 1966"; the Maryland and commission biographies give 1967.
|
||||
[^2]: "C. Richard D'Amato, MSA SC 3520-2771," Archives of Maryland, Biographical Series, msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/002700/002771/html/2771bio.html; Maryland Manual On-Line, former members of the House of Delegates, msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/former/html/msa02771.html.
|
||||
[^3]: "C. Richard D'Amato," Trade Deficit Review Commission member biography, c. 1999-2000, govinfo.library.unt.edu/tdrc/members/damato.html. *Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1998,* hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, 105th Congress, S. Hrg. 105-340, Washington: GPO, 1998, front matter. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-105shrg39834/html/CHRG-105shrg39834.htm
|
||||
[^4]: Director of Research and Development, CIA, "Response to CDA on Stargate," CIA-RDP96-00791R000100040020-2; "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9; briefing slides for the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 22, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100050001-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^5]: The characterizations of his support, May's 1993 letter and the pressure for the transfer are those of Mörck, Nemo C. Review of *The Star Gate Archives, Volume 4,* *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2026, pp. 149-154, citing Smith, R. Jeffrey, "Senators kept psychic intelligence program alive, staff aides say," *Washington Post,* December 1, 1995, which was not seen.
|
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|
|
@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ born: 1933-01-01
|
|||
died: 1999-08-09
|
||||
location: "Newark, New Jersey"
|
||||
---
|
||||
Dr. Robert Byck was a Yale University cocaine expert who testified before Congress in 1979 to warn of an impending drug epidemic from smokable cocaine, seven years before the 1986 crack panic. His warnings were completely ignored.[^1]
|
||||
Dr. Robert Byck was a [[Yale University]] cocaine expert who testified before Congress in 1979 to warn of an impending drug epidemic from smokable cocaine, seven years before the 1986 crack panic. His warnings were completely ignored.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### 1979 Warning
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
24
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ruth Davis.md
Normal file
24
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ruth Davis.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- RuthDavis
|
||||
- Pentagon
|
||||
- GrillFlame
|
||||
- RemoteViewing
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Ruth M. Davis
|
||||
summary: "Deputy under secretary of defense for research and advanced technology who in 1978 set the managerial questions for the Pentagon's remote-viewing oversight and in 1979 widened the Gale Committee's mandate to the whole department."
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Ruth M. Davis was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology) in 1978 and 1979. On October 25, 1978, Representative [[Charlie Rose]], chairman of the evaluation subcommittee of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]], wrote to her that he had "recently had occasion to become acquainted with some interesting research involving paranormal phenomena, specifically that relating to remote viewing," that "we have a strong obligation also to learn what Soviet research is underway," and that "I would therefore like to see the Department of Defense undertake those efforts deemed necessary and appropriate to investigate remote viewing and other related phenomena." On November 20, 1978, ahead of a [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] meeting on the subject set for November 28, she sent [[Jack Vorona]] eight "topics or issues that appear to me to demand immediate attention from the oversight groups you will establish": "a clear cut statement of objectives sought by the Intelligence Community"; "a rationale for continued exploration of remote viewing phenomena, e.g., in terms of understanding the impact of success by others on U.S. vulnerabilities"; "the scientific status of remote viewing experiments treating such issues as the apparent non-reproducibility of results, the lack of documented and/or accepted scientific protocols, the seeming lack of consistent criteria for accepting and treating subjects"; measures of progress "developed by other than the current experimenters" that "ensure that the magicians' processes of deception, feedback to subjects, etc. are not inadvertantly allowed"; evaluation "by other than the experimenters"; "a past, present and future funding profile justifiable in terms of DoD objectives"; "a stark clear statement of events, data, etc. that will justify termination of continued funding of the project"; and "the related legal issues of individual privacy, controlled surveillance, etc." "As you know, I have had highlighted to me both the potential afforded by success in remote viewing as well as the current scientific skepticism about the ongoing activity." Copies went to [[Walter LaBerge]], Jill Wine-Volner and Major General [[Edmund Thompson]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
She sat on the Grill Flame steering committee at its first meeting on February 13, 1979, with the service intelligence chiefs, LaBerge and Vorona, and "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," which set the mandate of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Davis, Ruth M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology), memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to Davis, October 25, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240017-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^2]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
|
|
@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Scott Belsky (born 1980) is an American entrepreneur and investor who founded th
|
|||
|
||||
### Behance and 99U
|
||||
|
||||
Belsky took a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2002 and an MBA from Harvard Business School, working at Goldman Sachs before founding Behance in 2006 with the designer Matías Corea. Behance built an online portfolio network for creative professionals, and Belsky paired it with the 99U conference, launched in 2009 and "devoted to the execution of ideas," and the Action Method, a productivity system and line of organizational products. The company raised a single outside round, a 6.5 million dollar Series A in May 2012, with investors including Union Square Ventures and Jeff Bezos's Bezos Expeditions.[^2][^3]
|
||||
Belsky took a bachelor's degree from [[Cornell University]] in 2002 and an MBA from Harvard Business School, working at Goldman Sachs before founding Behance in 2006 with the designer Matías Corea. Behance built an online portfolio network for creative professionals, and Belsky paired it with the 99U conference, launched in 2009 and "devoted to the execution of ideas," and the Action Method, a productivity system and line of organizational products. The company raised a single outside round, a 6.5 million dollar Series A in May 2012, with investors including Union Square Ventures and Jeff Bezos's Bezos Expeditions.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The 99U brand and the *Making Ideas Happen* and *The Messy Middle* books extended Belsky's name beyond the product into the productivity-and-creativity commentary that accompanied his investing.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
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