disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

vault backup: 2026-10-05 17:40:05

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
disinfo.zone 2026-10-05 17:40:05 -04:00
parent 0015c8a040
commit d4681aeee4
No known key found for this signature in database
16 changed files with 463 additions and 204 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

4
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jefferson Caffery.md
View file

@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Caffery was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Cuba on Fe
Grau's government lasted until January 15, 1934, when Caffery coordinated its removal. While Grau nominally retained presidential authority, Batista as Army Chief of Staff was engaged in parallel negotiations with U.S. embassy personnel. On January 15, 1934, Colonel Batista, acting with Caffery's backing, forced Grau's resignation. Caffery communicated U.S. approval of [[Carlos Mendieta]] as provisional president, and the Mendieta government received formal U.S. recognition within days of taking power. The resulting arrangement was referred to by historians as the "Caffery-Batista-Mendieta" government, reflecting the degree to which U.S. embassy influence was constitutive of the new order rather than external to it.[^3]
In 1934, four assailants attempted to assassinate Caffery in front of his home in Havana; he escaped because he had left earlier than usual to attend mass. From 1934 to 1937, Caffery and Batista maintained close personal contact, and Caffery consistently approved of the political direction Batista was taking in consolidating power within the Cuban military and political system.[^4]
In 1934, according to the university's account of his life, Caffery narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Cuba because he left earlier than usual to attend mass; clippings in his papers carry the headlines "Assassins' leader is Seized on Eve of Attempt to Shoot Down Caffery" and "Plot to Murder Envoy of U.S. in Cuba Balked."[^4]
### Brazil: Wartime Diplomacy and the Corridor of Victory (1937-1944)
@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ Caffery retired to Rome in 1955 with his wife Gertrude, where he served as honor
[^1]: Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, "Jefferson Caffery," People - Department History, history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/caffery-jefferson.
[^2]: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Dupre Library Special Collections, "Collection 45: Caffery, Jefferson (1886-1974) Papers, 1902-1974," finding aid (2014); Office of the Historian, "Jefferson Caffery," history.state.gov.
[^3]: On the "Caffery-Batista-Mendieta" government (January 15, 1934 coup deposing Grau): FRUS 1934, Vol. V (The American Republics), Documents 10-14, documenting Caffery's active role; Irwin F. Gellman, *Roosevelt and Batista: Good Neighbor Diplomacy in Cuba, 1933-1945* (University of New Mexico Press, 1973), Ch. 4.
[^4]: Prabook, "Jefferson Caffery (February 1, 1886 - April 13, 1974)," World Biographical Encyclopedia, prabook.com/web/jefferson.caffery/931756.
[^4]: University of Louisiana at Lafayette University Libraries, "Did You Know ... The Reading Room Was Named After Ambassador Caffery?," April 13, 2022, https://library.louisiana.edu/node/2448; "Conspiracy to Assassinate Caffery," in "'Getting Things Done': Ambassador Jefferson Caffery's Life as a United States Diplomat," Scalar project, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Jefferson Caffery Collection clippings, https://scalar.usc.edu/works/ambassadorcaffery/media/conspiracy-to-assassinate-caffery
[^5]: Caffery Collection, "Brazil (1937-44)," cafferycollection.wordpress.com/brazil-1937-44/.
[^6]: Jefferson Caffery to Secretary of State, August 15, 1941, telegram no. 5152, FRUS 1941, The American Republics, Vol. VI, Document 534, history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1941v06/d534.
[^7]: Caffery Collection, "Brazil (1937-44)," cafferycollection.wordpress.com/brazil-1937-44/; State Department, Office of the Historian, "Jefferson Caffery," history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/caffery-jefferson (posting dates and assignments).

17
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Richard Babayan.md
View file

@ -4,9 +4,8 @@ tags:
- Person
- CIA
- PROMIS
- OctoberSurprise
- Arms
summary: "Richard Babayan was a CIA contract operative and arms broker who received a reported $6 million from Earl Brian on behalf of Hadron, Inc. and who appeared in overlapping accounts of the PROMIS software scandal, October Surprise allegations, and Robert Maxwell's Australian operations."
summary: "Richard Babayan was a CIA contract operative and arms broker who received a reported $6 million from Earl Brian on behalf of Hadron, Inc. and who appeared in overlapping accounts of the PROMIS software scandal and Robert Maxwell's Australian operations."
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-09-22
---
@ -16,18 +15,16 @@ Richard Babayan was a former arms broker and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] con
Babayan was identified as a recipient of financial transfers from [[Earl Brian]], head of the government consultancy firm [[Hadron]], Inc. According to accounts assembled by researchers into the [[PROMIS]] scandal, Brian acted on behalf of Hadron - described as a CIA proprietary or cutout - in distributing a modified version of the PROMIS case-management software to foreign governments. Babayan reportedly received a check for approximately $6 million from Brian, an amount investigators connected to the commercialization of the PROMIS program.[^1]
Babayan later stated that Brian played a central role in marketing PROMIS to the governments of Iraq, Libya, and Korea, with Babayan serving as an intermediary in at least some of those transactions.[^1]
Babayan later stated that Brian played a central role in marketing PROMIS to the governments of Iraq, Libya, and Korea.[^1]
The report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General (March 1993) stated that there was no credible evidence that Hadron had tried to acquire Inslaw or PROMIS, apart from claims by William Hamilton, and declined to pursue Ari Ben-Menashe's allegations of foreign distribution.[^2]
### Maxwell and Australian Connection
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] alleged that in 1987 the flow of funds from PROMIS sales extended to [[Robert Maxwell]]'s Australian business operations. According to Ari Ben-Menashe's account, a contribution to the West Australian Labor Party passed through one of Maxwell's Australian companies and was deposited by the Pergamon Press Trust Fund in Moscow, with Babayan and [[Earl Brian]] acting on behalf of Hadron in facilitating the transaction.[^2]
### October Surprise Context
Babayan's name arose in investigators' research connected to the [[1980 October Surprise conspiracy theory|October Surprise]] allegations. He was among the Americans whose potential roles in Reagan campaign contacts with Iranian officials during the 1980 election were examined by congressional researchers and journalists covering the PROMIS cluster of cases. No formal finding established his direct involvement in the October Surprise negotiations.[^3]
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] alleged that in 1987 the flow of funds from PROMIS sales extended to [[Robert Maxwell]]'s Australian business operations. According to Ari Ben-Menashe's account, a contribution to the West Australian Labor Party passed through one of Maxwell's Australian companies and was deposited by the Pergamon Press Trust Fund in Moscow, with Babayan and Earl Brian acting on behalf of Hadron in facilitating the transaction.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Dirtier than Watergate," *New Statesman,* April 2011. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2011/04/promis-government-inslaw
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* TrineDay, 1992.
[^3]: "1980 October Surprise conspiracy theory," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_theory
[^2]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc., March 1993, https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
[^3]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* TrineDay, 1992.

77
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Annie Jacobsen.md
View file

@ -1,27 +1,70 @@
---
aliases:
- Annie M. Jacobsen
category: "Authors & Journalists"
aliases:
- Annie M. Jacobsen
- Annie Jacobsen
created: 2025-08-05
updated: 2026-10-05
tags:
- Person
summary: "Annie Jacobsen is an American investigative journalist and author, known for her non-fiction books focusing on government secrecy, national security, and warfare."
- Journalist
- Author
- Area51
- OperationPaperclip
- DARPA
- Stargate
- CIA
summary: "American journalist and author of Area 51 (2011), Operation Paperclip (2014), The Pentagon's Brain (2015), Phenomena (2017), Surprise, Kill, Vanish (2019) and Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024); 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist in History."
born: 1967-06-28
location: "Middletown, Connecticut"
location: "Los Angeles, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Los Angeles Times]]"
role: "contributing editor, Los Angeles Times Magazine"
fn: 1
---
Annie Jacobsen is an American journalist and author. A graduate of [[Princeton University]], she was a contributing editor at the [[Los Angeles Times]] Magazine and lives in Los Angeles.[^1] Her books on American secret programs are *Area 51* (2011), *Operation Paperclip* (2014), *The Pentagon's Brain* (2015), *Phenomena* (2017), *Surprise, Kill, Vanish* (2019) and *Nuclear War: A Scenario* (2024); *The Pentagon's Brain* was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in History.[^1][^2]
Annie Jacobsen is an American investigative journalist and author, known for her non-fiction books focusing on government secrecy, national security, and warfare. She is a graduate of [[Princeton University]].
### Northwest Airlines Flight 327, 2004
### Bibliography
* [[Phenomena - The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis]] (2017)
* [[The Pentagon's Brain]]
* [[Operation Paperclip]]
* [[Area 51]]
On June 29, 2004, Jacobsen, her husband and their son were passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles, on which 14 Middle Eastern men were also traveling. On July 12, 2004 she published an account on the website WomensWallStreet.com, "Terror in the Skies, Again?," describing consecutive use of the lavatories, a McDonald's bag passed between men, and, as the plane prepared to land, seven men entering lavatories in turn; she wrote that one man drew a forefinger across his neck and mouthed "No." On arrival, the plane was met by officers of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the Los Angeles Police Department, the [[Federal Air Marshal Service]] and the [[Transportation Security Administration]].[^3][^4] Dave Adams, head of public affairs for the Federal Air Marshal Service, told her the 14 men were Syrian musicians hired to play at a casino, had been questioned at length by the air marshals, the FBI and the TSA, had no arrest records and were not on the FBI no-fly or most wanted terrorist lists. Asked why marshals had not acted, he said, "Our FAM agents have to have an event to arrest somebody."[^4] The story circulated widely and she expanded it in *Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again* (Spence Publishing, 2005), which the writer Anne Morse of *National Review* reviewed in October 2005, reporting that Jacobsen received more than 5,000 e-mails after the article, that her persistence angered higher-ups in the Federal Air Marshal Service, and that it led to her testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.[^3]
### Affiliations
* Los Angeles Times Magazine (contributing editor)
* Princeton University (alumna)
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General investigated the flight for about two years. A redacted report released in May 2007 after a Freedom of Information Act request by the *Washington Times* stated that the Syrians (12 musicians and their Lebanese-born promoter) were traveling on expired visas that had been extended a week after the flight, that a June 18, 2004 FBI National Crime Information Center check returned "positive hits" for criminal records or suspicious behavior for eight of the 12, and that the promoter was in a separate FBI database for acting suspiciously on a flight in January 2004. It found TSA's follow-up on the incident "inadequate" and said logging the matter with the Homeland Security Operations Center only after a July 22, 2004 *Washington Times* article undercut TSA's statement that it had been "determined to be unfounded, and not a terrorist threat."[^5]
### Notes
* Her book "Phenomena" details the U.S. government's decades-long interest in anomalous mental phenomena, including extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK).
* She conducted extensive interviews with scientists and psychics who worked on government programs for her book.
* Her work often involves declassified documents and in-depth research into sensitive topics.
### Area 51, 2011
*Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base* (Little, Brown, 2011), according to its publisher, rests on interviews with nineteen men who served at the base and fifty-five other military, intelligence, scientific and aviation personnel, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there, covering nuclear testing, supersonic aircraft and the war on terror. The *New York Times* review called it "cauldron-stirring" and "an assertive account."[^6] The book proposes that the 1947 [[Roswell Incident]] involved a Soviet aircraft crewed by surgically altered human children. *Publishers Weekly* (May 16, 2011) wrote that Jacobsen "demolishes her own credibility by proposing a novel conspiracy theory, sourced mainly to a nameless engineer," linking Roswell to Soviet-built flying saucers and a hoax in which "the 'aliens' were human children created by Josef Mengele," and concluded: "Let the reader beware."[^7]
### Operation Paperclip, 2014
*Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America* (Little, Brown, 2014) follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives, drawing on interviews with Paperclip family members, colleagues and interrogators, German archival documents, Freedom of Information Act files and dossiers found at Harvard University. The book is covered on the page for [[Operation Paperclip]].[^8]
### The Pentagon's Brain, 2015
*The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top Secret Military Research Agency* (Little, Brown, 2015) is a history of the [[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]]. The Pulitzer Prize board named it a finalist in History for 2016.[^2]
### Phenomena, 2017
*Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017, 527 pages) treats government interest in ESP and PK, among them the [[Andrija Puharich]] theory, the [[Uri Geller]] testing at [[Stanford Research Institute]], the physicists [[Russell Targ]] and [[Hal Puthoff]], remote viewing and the GRILL FLAME and [[Stargate Project]] programs of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. Its chapter list includes a chapter on skeptics and the CIA, and the publisher's description states that it describes Soviet interest in the field, including the microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.[^9]
### Surprise, Kill, Vanish, 2019
*Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins* (Little, Brown, 2019, 545 pages) concerns the Special Activities Division of the CIA, based on her interviews with members of its Senior Intelligence Service, counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers and Ground Branch operators. J. R. Seeger, reviewing it in the CIA's *Studies in Intelligence* (September 2019), wrote that it presents vignettes of special operations from World War II to the present and that its biographical threads follow Billy Waugh and Lewis Merletti; he also wrote that Jacobsen places the British Special Operations Executive inside the Secret Intelligence Service in her first chapter, and that in fact the two were entirely separate.[^10]
### Nuclear War: A Scenario, 2024
*Nuclear War: A Scenario* (Dutton, 2024) presents a minute-by-minute account of a hypothetical nuclear missile launch against the United States and the response decisions, based on interviews with military and civilian experts.[^11]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Annie Jacobsen," Hachette Book Group contributor page and "Area 51" title page, author biography ("A graduate of Princeton University"; "contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine"). https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/annie-jacobsen/
[^2]: Hachette Book Group, "Area 51" title page, author biography ("the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain"). https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/annie-jacobsen/area-51/9780316202305/
[^3]: Anne Morse, "Could It Happen Again?," *National Review Online*, October 26, 2005 (reprinted by CBS News), reviewing Annie Jacobsen, *Terror in the Skies: Why 9-11 Could Happen Again* (Spence Publishing, 2005). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/could-it-happen-again
[^4]: Daniel Pipes, "Those Fourteen Syrians on Northwest Airlines Flight #327," July 13, 2004, quoting Annie Jacobsen, "Terror in the Skies, Again?," WomensWallStreet.com, and her conversation with Dave Adams of the Federal Air Marshal Service. https://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2004/07/those-fourteen-syrians-on-northwest-airlines
[^5]: "Report Confirms Terror Dry Run; Government Handling Hit," *Washington Times*, May 31, 2007, reprinted by Aviation Pros, reporting the redacted Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report on Northwest Flight 327. https://www.aviationpros.com/home/news/10388457/report-confirms-terror-dry-run-government-handling-hit
[^6]: Hachette Book Group, "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base," description and praise (quoting the *New York Times*). https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/annie-jacobsen/area-51/9780316202305/
[^7]: Review of *Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base*, *Publishers Weekly*, reviewed May 16, 2011. https://publishersweekly.com/9780316132947 Sole source for the passages so cited on the Roswell proposal as characterized.
[^8]: Hachette Book Group, "Operation Paperclip" title page (description and sources). https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/annie-jacobsen/operation-paperclip/9780316221054/
[^9]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017), publisher's description and table of contents as catalogued by library records and *Publishers Weekly*. https://catalog.sbplibrary.org/Record/34646
[^10]: J. R. Seeger, review of *Surprise, Kill, Vanish*, *Studies in Intelligence* 63, no. 3 (extracts, September 2019), p. 73 ff. https://cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Review-Surprise-Kill-Vanish.pdf
[^11]: Annie Jacobsen, *Nuclear War: A Scenario* (Dutton, 2024), publisher and library descriptions. https://catalog.washoecountylibrary.us/Record/757603

11
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.md
View file

@ -20,21 +20,22 @@ Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini was born on May 17, 1900 (some sources cite 1
Khomeini's public profile shifted in the early 1960s when he began delivering speeches condemning the rule of [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]]. He criticized the White Revolution land reforms, what he characterized as the selling of Iranian interests to foreign powers, and the subordination of Islamic law to secular governance. He was arrested in 1963 following an especially provocative speech and briefly jailed. The Shah's government exiled him in 1964; he spent the following years in Najaf, [[Iraq]].[^1]
In October 1978, [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government, under pressure from Iran, expelled Khomeini from Iraq. He relocated to Neauphle-le-Chateau, a suburb of Paris, from which his circle distributed audio recordings of his speeches and coordinated the revolutionary movement inside Iran. The combination of labor strikes, mass demonstrations, and military defections in late 1978 forced the Shah to flee on January 16, 1979.[^2]
In October 1978, [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government expelled Khomeini from Iraq. He relocated to Neauphle-le-Chateau, a suburb of Paris, from which his circle distributed audio recordings of his speeches and coordinated the revolutionary movement inside Iran. The combination of labor strikes, mass demonstrations, and military defections in late 1978 forced the Shah to flee on January 16, 1979.[^1]
Khomeini returned to Tehran on February 1, 1979, greeted by an estimated crowd of up to five million people. Within weeks the revolutionary government had consolidated power and declared the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was formally designated Supreme Leader in December 1979 under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, embodying the principle of velayat-e faqih - guardianship of the jurist - which he had articulated as a theological and political concept across decades of writing.[^1]
Khomeini returned to Tehran on February 1, 1979, greeted by enormous crowds. Within weeks the revolutionary government had consolidated power and declared the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was formally designated Supreme Leader in December 1979 under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, embodying the principle of velayat-e faqih - guardianship of the jurist - which he had articulated as a theological and political concept across decades of writing.[^1]
### Hostage Crisis and October Surprise
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and took more than sixty American diplomats and staff hostage. Khomeini endorsed the seizure. The crisis lasted 444 days and consumed the final year of President [[Jimmy Carter]]'s administration. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981, the day of [[Ronald Reagan]]'s inauguration - a coincidence that became the basis for the [[1980 October Surprise conspiracy theory|October Surprise]] theory, which alleged that Reagan campaign officials had secretly negotiated with Khomeini's government to delay the release.[^2]
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and took more than sixty American diplomats and staff hostage.[^2] A November 9, 1979 CIA report quoted a confidant of former Prime Minister [[Shahpour Bakhtiar]] in Paris as saying the occupation was "certainly a planned action authorized by Khomeini."[^2] The crisis lasted 444 days and consumed the final year of President [[Jimmy Carter]]'s administration. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981, the day of [[Ronald Reagan]]'s inauguration - a coincidence that became the basis for the [[1980 October Surprise conspiracy theory|October Surprise]] theory, which alleged that Reagan campaign officials had secretly negotiated with Khomeini's government to delay the release.[^3] The January 3, 1993 joint report of the House task force chaired by [[Lee Hamilton|Lee H. Hamilton]] and [[Henry Hyde|Henry J. Hyde]] examined the allegation.[^3]
The [[Iran-Iraq War]], which began with Iraq's invasion in September 1980, provided the context for the subsequent arms channels to Iran that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. Iran's need for weapons and spare parts during the war was the lever through which intermediaries including [[David Kimche]], [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], and others brokered arms transfers in exchange for American hostages held in Lebanon by Iranian-linked groups.[^1]
### Death and Succession
Khomeini died on June 3, 1989, in Tehran. The funeral drew an estimated ten million or more attendees, one of the largest in recorded history. He was succeeded as Supreme Leader by [[Ali Khamenei]]. *Time* magazine had named him its Man of the Year for 1979 following the revolution.[^1]
Khomeini died on June 3, 1989, in Tehran. The funeral drew an estimated ten million attendees, one of the largest in recorded history. He was succeeded as Supreme Leader by [[Ali Khamenei]]. *Time* magazine had named him its Man of the Year for 1979 following the revolution.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Ruhollah Khomeini," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ruhollah-Khomeini
[^2]: "Ruhollah Khomeini," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini
[^2]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, vol. XI, part 1, Iran: Hostage Crisis, November 1979-September 1980, memorandum "Takeover of Embassy Tehran," November 4, 1979, and CIA comment of November 9, 1979. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v11p1
[^3]: Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages in Iran in 1980, Lee H. Hamilton, Chairman, and Henry J. Hyde, Ranking Republican Member, January 3, 1993 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993). https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003230365

10
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/David Kimche.md
View file

@ -17,13 +17,13 @@ David Kimche was born on February 14, 1928, in London. He joined [[Mossad]] in 1
### Iran-Contra Role
Kimche is consistently identified as the principal Israeli official who initiated and structured the arms-for-hostages channel between the United States and Iran that became the foundation of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].
Kimche is consistently identified as the principal Israeli official who initiated and structured the arms-for-hostages channel between the United States and Iran that became the foundation of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^2]
In mid-1985, Kimche, serving as director-general of the Foreign Ministry, approached U.S. National Security Advisor [[Robert McFarlane]] and pressed him to authorize the transfer of American weapons to Iran via Israel in exchange for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Kimche framed the proposal as a potential opening to moderate Iranian factions; McFarlane presented it to President [[Ronald Reagan]], who agreed. The arrangement violated an international arms embargo on Iran.[^2]
Kimche met [[Robert McFarlane]] in Washington on July 3, 1985; McFarlane's later account of that meeting was that there was no request for arms and no linkage to the hostages, though Kimche mentioned that arms might be raised later, and that President [[Ronald Reagan]] approved a political dialogue. On July 7 and 8, 1985 Kimche, [[Yaacov Nimrodi]], [[Al Schwimmer]], [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]] and Adnan Khashoggi met in Geneva and Hamburg to discuss TOW missiles and hostages. On August 2, 1985 Kimche asked McFarlane whether it would be different if Israel delivered the TOWs, and McFarlane testified that Reagan then approved Israel's delivery with replacement sales to follow.[^3]
Kimche operated as part of what contemporaneous accounts called a "troika" of Israeli facilitators alongside [[Yaacov Nimrodi]], a former military attache, and [[Al Schwimmer]], founder of Israel Aircraft Industries. The three managed the first three arms transfers to Iran in 1985, which consisted of TOW anti-tank missiles supplied from Israeli stocks in exchange for American replacement weapons.[^3]
Nimrodi was a former military attache and Schwimmer the founder of Israel Aircraft Industries. Working through Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar, Israel shipped 96 U.S.-made TOW missiles to Iran on August 20, 1985 and 408 more on September 14, 1985, after which one American hostage, Benjamin Weir, was released.[^3] Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger objected on December 7, 1985 that the United States embargo on arms sales to Iran would make such a sale illegal even if it were done through Israel.[^3]
Kimche stepped back from the operation by late 1985, reportedly concerned about the growing complexity of the arrangement and its departure from the original policy rationale. By that point, the channel had been handed off to figures including [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Oliver North]], and the network that would produce the scandal's subsequent stages.[^1]
Kimche met McFarlane on November 8, 1985, spoke with him about a HAWK missile shipment on November 18, 1985, and attended the London meetings of December 7 and 8, 1985 with McFarlane, [[Oliver North]], Richard Secord, Ghorbanifar, Schwimmer and Nimrodi. By May 1986 Amiram Nir had replaced Kimche as the Israeli official in the arms deals.[^3]
### Later Career
@ -33,4 +33,4 @@ After leaving the Foreign Ministry in 1987, Kimche served as Israel's ambassador
[^1]: Ignatius, David. "David Kimche dies; Israeli spy involved in Iran-contra scandal," *Washington Post,* March 9, 2010. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/09/AR2010030903843.html
[^2]: "David Kimche: Israel's Leading Spy and Would-Be Mossad Chief," *Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,* October 1991. https://www.wrmea.org/1991-october/david-kimche-israel-s-leading-spy-and-would-be-mossad-chief.html
[^3]: "David Kimche," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kimche
[^3]: Lawrence E. Walsh, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels, 1993), chapter 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane," account of the Iran arms sales, July 1985 to May 1986 (citing McFarlane, SSCI testimony, December 7, 1986; Israeli Historical Chronology, Part One, July 29, 1987; Weinberger and Hill notes). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm

28
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Saddam Hussein.md
View file

@ -13,33 +13,37 @@ born: 1937-04-28
died: 2006-12-30
location: "Al-Awja, Iraq"
---
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was born on April 28, 1937, near the town of Tikrit in central [[Iraq]], the son of a peasant family. He joined the [[Ba'ath Party]] in 1957. In 1959, he participated in a failed [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]-linked assassination attempt against Prime Minister [[Abd al-Karim Qassem]] and subsequently lived in exile in [[Egypt]].[^1]
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was born on April 28, 1937, near the town of Tikrit in central [[Iraq]], the son of a peasant family. He joined the [[Ba'ath Party]] in 1957. On October 7, 1959 Prime Minister [[Abd al-Karim Qassem]] was wounded in the shoulder in an assassination attempt.[^1] The journalist Richard Sale reported in 2003, citing unnamed former U.S. intelligence and diplomatic officials and the writer Adel Darwish, that Saddam Hussein was part of a "CIA-authorized six-man squad" tasked with killing Qasim and was later paid and trained by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] in Beirut and watched over in Cairo, in [[Egypt]]; the CIA declined to comment, and the historian Bryan Gibson has cited declassified records showing that on October 1, 1959 [[Allen Dulles]] told the National Security Council only that an attempt might be made in the next two months.[^2]
### CIA and Ba'ath Rise to Power
U.S. intelligence played a documented role in the 1963 Ba'athist coup that first brought the party to power in Iraq. Evidence that Saddam was on the CIA payroll in 1959 emerged in later investigations. After the 1963 coup, the CIA provided lists of suspected communists and leftists to the incoming Ba'athist government; those lists facilitated the killing of thousands of political opponents.[^1]
A Defense Department memorandum of February 8, 1963 quoted White House aide Robert Komer's note to President [[John F. Kennedy]] that the Iraqi coup was "almost certainly a net gain for our side," and the State Department asked on February 9 for authority to recognize the new regime.[^3] Historians disagree about a CIA role in the coup: Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt cites "compelling evidence of an American role," while Bryan Gibson concludes the preponderance of evidence shows the CIA was not behind it.[^4] King Hussein of Jordan was reported in September 1963 as saying that a secret radio beamed to Iraq on February 8 supplied the coup plotters with the names and addresses of Communists, and Richard Sale reported in 2003, citing unnamed former U.S. intelligence officials, that the CIA gave Iraqi National Guardsmen lists of suspected communists; the same report quotes a former very senior CIA official as saying the Agency was "absolutely stunned" by the coup, and the CIA declined to comment.[^2][^4]
The Ba'ath Party was ousted from government in the same year and returned to power in a 1968 coup. Saddam served as deputy to President [[Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr]] and was the de facto strongman of the regime through the 1970s. He forced al-Bakr to resign on July 16, 1979, formally assuming the presidency. Within days he convened a party congress at which he personally identified and had arrested dozens of alleged conspirators; hundreds of senior Ba'athists were executed in the following weeks.[^2]
The Ba'ath Party was ousted from government in the same year and returned to power in a 1968 coup. Saddam served as deputy to President [[Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr]] and was the de facto strongman of the regime through the 1970s. He forced al-Bakr to resign on July 16, 1979, formally assuming the presidency. Within days he convened a party congress at which he personally identified and had arrested dozens of alleged conspirators; hundreds of senior Ba'athists were executed in the following weeks.[^5]
### Iran-Iraq War and Western Support
In September 1980, Saddam launched an invasion of [[Iran]] following the instability created by the [[Iranian Revolution]]. The eight-year [[Iran-Iraq War]] (1980-1988) killed an estimated half million to one million people. Beginning in 1982, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] began providing Iraq with satellite intelligence during the conflict. The Reagan administration extended credits, arms, and dual-use technology to Baghdad while simultaneously running the secret arms-for-hostages pipeline to Iran that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^1]
In September 1980, Saddam launched an invasion of [[Iran]] following the instability created by the [[Iranian Revolution]]. The eight-year [[Iran-Iraq War]] (1980-1988) killed an estimated half million to one million people. A State Department memorandum of October 7, 1983 assumed that the United States was already providing tactical intelligence to Iraq, and on November 29, 1984 Secretary of State [[George Shultz]] told Tariq Aziz that superior intelligence must be an important factor in Iraq's defense.[^6] According to a January 31, 1995 affidavit by former National Security Council staff member Howard Teicher, Director of Central Intelligence [[William Casey]] led efforts to ensure that Iraq received weapons, financial credits, intelligence and strategic military advice.[^6] The administration meanwhile ran the secret arms-for-hostages pipeline to Iran that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].
[[Donald Rumsfeld]] visited Saddam in December 1983 as a special envoy for President [[Ronald Reagan]], cementing the relationship at a moment when U.S. intelligence knew Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iranian forces. The arms and technology transfers to Iraq during the 1980s - including chemical and biological precursors - were later examined in congressional investigations and linked to the [[BNL scandal]] involving the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]].[^3]
[[Donald Rumsfeld]] visited Saddam in December 1983 as a special envoy for President [[Ronald Reagan]], cementing the relationship at a moment when U.S. intelligence knew Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iranian forces.[^6] The arms and technology transfers to Iraq during the 1980s - including chemical and biological precursors - were later examined in congressional investigations and linked to the [[BNL scandal]] involving the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]].[^7]
### Arms Procurement Networks
Iraq's weapons procurement during the 1980s passed through several networks that intersect with vault subjects. [[Carlos Cardoen]], a Chilean arms manufacturer with CIA connections, supplied cluster bombs to Iraq. Iraqi procurement agents operated through front companies in Europe, the United States, and the [[United Kingdom]], the exposure of which became known as the [[Arms-to-Iraq affair]] in Britain.[^3]
Iraq's weapons procurement during the 1980s passed through several networks that intersect with vault subjects. [[Carlos Cardoen]], a Chilean arms manufacturer with CIA connections, supplied cluster bombs to Iraq.[^6] Iraqi procurement agents operated through front companies in Europe, the United States, and the [[United Kingdom]], the exposure of which became known as the [[Arms-to-Iraq affair]] in Britain.[^7]
[[PROMIS]] software was among the products allegedly sold to Iraqi intelligence. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and other sources placed Iraq on the list of recipients of the Israeli-distributed, backdoor-equipped version of the software.[^4]
[[PROMIS]] software was among the products allegedly sold to Iraqi intelligence. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and other sources placed Iraq on the list of recipients of the Israeli-distributed, backdoor-equipped version of the software.[^8]
### Gulf War and Fall
Saddam invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The resulting [[Gulf War]] saw a U.S.-led coalition expel Iraqi forces in February 1991. The regime survived until the 2003 [[Iraq War]], during which U.S. and coalition forces invaded and captured Baghdad in April 2003. Saddam was captured in December 2003, tried by an Iraqi tribunal, and executed by hanging on December 30, 2006.[^2]
Saddam invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The resulting [[Gulf War]] saw a U.S.-led coalition expel Iraqi forces in February 1991. The regime survived until the 2003 [[Iraq War]], during which U.S. and coalition forces invaded and captured Baghdad in April 2003. Saddam was captured in December 2003, tried by an Iraqi tribunal, and executed by hanging on December 30, 2006.[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "CIA activities in Iraq," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Iraq
[^2]: "Saddam Hussein," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein
[^3]: "US and British Support for Hussein Regime," Global Policy. https://archive.globalpolicy.org/iraq-conflict-the-historical-background-/us-and-british-support-for-huss-regime.html
[^4]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* TrineDay, 1992.
[^1]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, vol. XII, Near East Region; Iraq; Iran; Arabian Peninsula, document 205 (editorial note on the October 7, 1959 attempt) and document 206 (CIA memorandum of October 13, 1959). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v12
[^2]: Richard Sale, "Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot," United Press International, April 10, 2003, https://www.upi.com/Exclusive-Saddam-key-in-early-CIA-plot/65571050017416/ ; Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, vol. XII, document 204 (NSC 420th meeting, October 1, 1959); Bryan R. Gibson, *Covert Relationship: American Foreign Policy, Intelligence, and the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1989* (Praeger, 2010).
[^3]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, vol. XVIII, Near East, 1962-1963, documents 153 (memorandum from Stephen O. Fuqua to Sloan, "Iraqi Coup," February 8, 1963) and 154 (Rusk to Kennedy, February 9, 1963). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v18
[^4]: Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt, "Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'Etat in Baghdad," *Diplomatic History* 35, no. 1 (2011); Bryan R. Gibson, *Covert Relationship* (Praeger, 2010); King Hussein's remarks as published in Al-Ahram, September 27, 1963.
[^5]: "Saddam Hussein," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein
[^6]: Joyce Battle, ed., "Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82, February 25, 2003, documents 22, 24, 26, 29, 31, 53, 60 and 61 (document 61 is the affidavit of Howard Teicher, United States v. Cardoen, S.D. Fla., January 31, 1995). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
[^7]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam Books, 1993.
[^8]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* TrineDay, 1992.

52
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Hal Puthoff.md
View file

@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ relations:
with: "[[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group]]"
start: 1985-05
role: "named on Oke Shannon's attendee list; presented on remote viewing at the first meeting, according to the Loose Threads authors"
fn: 6
fn: 12
- type: member_of
with: "[[The Aviary]]"
role: "membership as alleged: listed as Owl in a roster published by Richard J. Boylan"
fn: 10
fn: 16
---
Harold E. "Hal" Puthoff (born June 20, 1936) is a physicist and engineer who co-founded the [[Stanford Research Institute]] remote viewing research program with [[Russell Targ]] in 1972 under [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] contract and served as its principal investigator through 1985. The program, which operated under the code names SCANATE, Gondola Wish, and [[Stargate Project|Grill Flame]] before consolidating as STAR GATE under [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] oversight, represented the primary [[U.S. government]] institutional effort to investigate anomalous cognition for intelligence applications over two decades. Puthoff subsequently contributed technical research to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] [[Pentagon]] program and became a founding member of [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science|To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science]].
@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ He published a standard textbook in his field, *Fundamentals of Quantum Electron
### Scientology Background
Puthoff was a practicing member of the [[Church of Scientology]] for several years in the late 1960s. [[Ingo Swann]] and [[Pat Price]], the two most prominent early subjects in the SRI program, were also current or former Scientologists. This overlap attracted attention within the CIA's counterintelligence staff, who questioned in internal assessments whether the church was exploiting the program for its own intelligence or reputational purposes, and whether claimed psychic results reflected Scientology training methods rather than independently verifiable phenomena. The Scientology connection among the program's leading figures was flagged repeatedly but did not result in the program's cancellation.
Puthoff joined [[Scientology]] in the 1960s and resigned his membership in the mid-1970s, according to [[Jim Schnabel]], who wrote that he afterward supported a group of anti-Scientologists, that [[Pat Price]] and Puthoff met at a Scientology course in Los Angeles, and that one of Puthoff's laboratory assistants was a Scientologist.[^1] The [[Time (magazine)|Time]] cover story of March 4, 1974 described Puthoff as a promoter of "the bizarre and controversial cult of Scientology."[^2] [[Ray Hyman]] wrote in *The Humanist* in 1977 that Puthoff "has made it to the level of a Class III Operational Thetan in the Church of Scientology" and had previously obtained funding to study the Backster Effect.[^3] In the Washington Post in 1977, [[John L. Wilhelm]] wrote that "one item that continues to trouble those in government who follow the SRI work is the unusually large number of Scientologists involved with the psychic tests there," and that their involvement "partially accounts for at least two government agencies pulling back from funding further work there."[^4] In a preliminary report on psychological testing of six subjects in the SRI study, an unsigned clinician wrote that "at least four of the subjects in this study describe to me an interest in scientology and two of them indicate that they have been involved in the Church of Scientology for some time," a commonality that "may account for the similarity described above."[^5] Puthoff, supported by Russell Targ, who was not a Scientologist, said that in the laboratory he was a scientist first, and Schnabel wrote that within a year or two of the Time article Puthoff left Scientology.[^1] [[Jon Atack]] wrote that Puthoff and [[Ingo Swann]] had each completed Operating Thetan section three, and that Puthoff replied that his involvement was trivial; [[Tony Ortega]]'s note on Atack's comments, citing [[Hugh Urban]], states that Puthoff "was OT VII by 1971."[^6]
### Initial Contact with CIA and SRI Experiments (1972)
@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Puthoff hired Targ as a research colleague, and together they developed the remo
### The 1996 Account
After the CIA declassified 270 pages of SRI reports in July 1995, Puthoff published his own account. In early 1972, doing laser research at SRI, he had written a proposal that Ingo Swann saw at [[Cleve Backster]]'s laboratory and wrote to him, and Puthoff invited him for a week in June 1972. He arranged access to "a well-shielded magnetometer used in a quark-detection experiment in the Physics Department at Stanford University," in a vault beneath the floor "shielded by mu-metal shielding, an aluminum container, copper shielding and a superconducting shield"; Swann "appeared to perturb the operation of the magnetometer" and then "went on to 'remote view' the interior of the apparatus, rendering by drawing a reasonable facsimile of its rather complex (and heretofore unpublished) construction." Within weeks "a pair of visitors showed up at SRI with the above report in hand. Their credentials showed them to be from the CIA. They knew of my previous background as a [[Office of Naval Intelligence|Naval Intelligence]] Officer and then civilian employee at the [[NSA|National Security Agency]]," and spoke of "increasing concern in the intelligence community about the level of effort in Soviet parapsychology being funded by the Soviet security services." An eight-month "Biofield Measurements Program" of 49,909 dollars followed, and Russell Targ joined; the second year, January 1974 to February 1975, was funded at 149,555 dollars. The first coordinate target, "the West Virginia Site," produced from one subject "a detailed map of the building and grounds layout" and from the other "information about the interior including codewords, data subsequently verified by sponsor sources"; Pat Price then "went on to scan the other side of the globe for a Communist Bloc equivalent and found one located in the Urals," also "verified by personnel in the sponsor organization as being substantially correct." The [[Semipalatinsk]] experiment of July 1974, "carried out in three phases," was "under direct control of the COTR," and "several details concerning the salient technology of the Semipalatinsk site appeared to dovetail with data from other sources, and a number of specific large structural elements were correctly described." The CIA "dropped out as a major player in the mid-seventies due to pressure on the Agency (unrelated to the RV Program) from the [[Church Committee|Church-Pike Congressional Committee]]," and Major General [[Edmund Thompson]], the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence from 1977 to 1981, said: "I had one or more briefings by SRI and was impressed. The decision I made was to set up a small, in-house, low-cost effort in remote viewing." One application, Puthoff noted, "yielded not only a published, statistically significant result, but also a return of $26,000 in 30 days in the silver futures market." The article does not mention [[Scientology]].[^1]
After the CIA declassified 270 pages of SRI reports in July 1995, Puthoff published his own account. In early 1972, doing laser research at SRI, he had written a proposal that Ingo Swann saw at [[Cleve Backster]]'s laboratory and wrote to him, and Puthoff invited him for a week in June 1972. He arranged access to "a well-shielded magnetometer used in a quark-detection experiment in the Physics Department at Stanford University," in a vault beneath the floor "shielded by mu-metal shielding, an aluminum container, copper shielding and a superconducting shield"; Swann "appeared to perturb the operation of the magnetometer" and then "went on to 'remote view' the interior of the apparatus, rendering by drawing a reasonable facsimile of its rather complex (and heretofore unpublished) construction." Within weeks "a pair of visitors showed up at SRI with the above report in hand. Their credentials showed them to be from the CIA. They knew of my previous background as a [[Office of Naval Intelligence|Naval Intelligence]] Officer and then civilian employee at the [[NSA|National Security Agency]]," and spoke of "increasing concern in the intelligence community about the level of effort in Soviet parapsychology being funded by the Soviet security services." An eight-month "Biofield Measurements Program" of 49,909 dollars followed, and Russell Targ joined; the second year, January 1974 to February 1975, was funded at 149,555 dollars. The first coordinate target, "the West Virginia Site," produced from one subject "a detailed map of the building and grounds layout" and from the other "information about the interior including codewords, data subsequently verified by sponsor sources"; Pat Price then "went on to scan the other side of the globe for a Communist Bloc equivalent and found one located in the Urals," also "verified by personnel in the sponsor organization as being substantially correct." The [[Semipalatinsk]] experiment of July 1974, "carried out in three phases," was "under direct control of the COTR," and "several details concerning the salient technology of the Semipalatinsk site appeared to dovetail with data from other sources, and a number of specific large structural elements were correctly described." The CIA "dropped out as a major player in the mid-seventies due to pressure on the Agency (unrelated to the RV Program) from the [[Church Committee|Church-Pike Congressional Committee]]," and Major General [[Edmund Thompson]], the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence from 1977 to 1981, said: "I had one or more briefings by SRI and was impressed. The decision I made was to set up a small, in-house, low-cost effort in remote viewing." One application, Puthoff noted, "yielded not only a published, statistically significant result, but also a return of $26,000 in 30 days in the silver futures market." The article does not mention Scientology.[^7]
### Protocol Development and Pat Price
@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ Pat Price, a retired [[Burbank, California|Burbank]] police commissioner introdu
Price died of a reported heart attack in [[Las Vegas]] in July 1975, under circumstances Puthoff considered potentially suspicious. His suitcase of remote viewing notes and CIA materials disappeared before Puthoff arrived in Las Vegas. No evidence of foul play was established.
On September 26, 1977, Puthoff sent Dave Johnson, whose office the memorandum does not give, the reply of Senator [[William Proxmire]] to a letter from a Wisconsin-born colleague: "Since fear of the 'Proxmire Effect' is often cited in discussions with sponsors and potential sponsors, I asked a friend of mine in psychoenergetics research to query his senator with regard to this field."[^2]
On September 26, 1977, Puthoff sent Dave Johnson, whose office the memorandum does not give, the reply of Senator [[William Proxmire]] to a letter from a Wisconsin-born colleague: "Since fear of the 'Proxmire Effect' is often cited in discussions with sponsors and potential sponsors, I asked a friend of mine in psychoenergetics research to query his senator with regard to this field."[^8]
### Published Research
@ -76,11 +76,11 @@ Puthoff and Targ published the SRI program's experimental results in two major p
The *Nature* paper represented an unusual case of a mainstream scientific journal publishing parapsychology research; the editorial board attached a statement acknowledging the reviewers' uncertainty about publication. The IEEE paper presented data across multiple subjects and sessions, including [[Hella Hammid]], a German-American photographer included specifically to test whether anomalous results were limited to self-identified psychics.
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of 1979 reviewed a paper of Puthoff's, "Potential Criticisms and Responses," setting out nine criticisms of the SRI work with his answers (experiment selection, data selection, cueing, "educated guess," target limitations, target generality, "read-in" matches, handling of judging materials, and post hoc photography), and found most "at least partially valid": SRI "ran 7000+ experiments with Swann" of which "only a fraction appear in the literature"; of the term "double-blind," "the word clearly does not apply in either the traditional, or in a meaningful, sense to the SRI protocol"; and "was the San Andres airfield photograph taken after the judging? Why do aspect angles of photographs always coincide with the direction from which the Subject 'views' the target?" Against the authors' claim to have "in five years of self- and other criticism... not found a way to fault either the experimental protocols or the conclusions derived therefrom," the annex answered: "I do not agree, and I believe that careful evaluation amply documents numerous such faults."[^3]
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of 1979 reviewed a paper of Puthoff's, "Potential Criticisms and Responses," setting out nine criticisms of the SRI work with his answers (experiment selection, data selection, cueing, "educated guess," target limitations, target generality, "read-in" matches, handling of judging materials, and post hoc photography), and found most "at least partially valid": SRI "ran 7000+ experiments with Swann" of which "only a fraction appear in the literature"; of the term "double-blind," "the word clearly does not apply in either the traditional, or in a meaningful, sense to the SRI protocol"; and "was the San Andres airfield photograph taken after the judging? Why do aspect angles of photographs always coincide with the direction from which the Subject 'views' the target?" Against the authors' claim to have "in five years of self- and other criticism... not found a way to fault either the experimental protocols or the conclusions derived therefrom," the annex answered: "I do not agree, and I believe that careful evaluation amply documents numerous such faults."[^9]
The 1979 evaluation by [[Harry Snyder|Harry]] and [[Arlene Snyder|Arlene]] Snyder of [[Systemetrics]], held by the CIA, reproduced his protocol "as described in a written communication from H. Puthoff to a sponsor in late 1977," noted that in the alphabet-letter experiments "Puthoff did the judging," quoted his letter of March 28, 1978, to Karnes and Susman of [[Denver]] ("We have found remote viewing to be extremely sensitive to the feedback parameters"), and of his and Targ's claim to have found no fault in five years, "we do not agree." To [[David Marks]] he wrote on July 10, 1978, that "neither the single judge ([[Arthur Hastings|Hastings]]) nor the panel of five judges were given the order; they were kept blind," in May 1979 that the transcripts could not be released "since premature disclosure would prevent further blind analysis work," and on August 25, 1980, that "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."[^4]
The 1979 evaluation by [[Harry Snyder|Harry]] and [[Arlene Snyder|Arlene]] Snyder of [[Systemetrics]], held by the CIA, reproduced his protocol "as described in a written communication from H. Puthoff to a sponsor in late 1977," noted that in the alphabet-letter experiments "Puthoff did the judging," quoted his letter of March 28, 1978, to Karnes and Susman of [[Denver]] ("We have found remote viewing to be extremely sensitive to the feedback parameters"), and of his and Targ's claim to have found no fault in five years, "we do not agree." To [[David Marks]] he wrote on July 10, 1978, that "neither the single judge ([[Arthur Hastings|Hastings]]) nor the panel of five judges were given the order; they were kept blind," in May 1979 that the transcripts could not be released "since premature disclosure would prevent further blind analysis work," and on August 25, 1980, that "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."[^10]
His "Standard Remote-Viewing Protocol (Local Targets)" with Targ, of November 1978, held by the CIA, prescribed a target list prepared "by an experimenter who will not interact with the subject after that," selection by "a [[Texas Instruments]] SR-51 hand calculator, which has a random-number function," fifteen-minute viewings, "no hypnosis, strobe lights, or sensory-deprivation procedures," feedback at the site "for each experiment to ensure success," and judging by direct matching or rank ordering. On August 3, 1979, he wrote to [[Manfred Gale]] that the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee had "all but skipped Part 2 on scientific questions" at its SRI visit and that "it is incumbent on the committee members to obtain a more thorough grounding in the technical details," enclosing a revised procedure with Targ and May; on March 19, 1980, he, Targ and May wrote to [[Walter LaBerge]] that "based on a recommendation of the Gale Committee, [[Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering|ODDR&E]] will not provide support for R&D efforts in the Grill Flame area," that "we were not mandated to undertake formal proof-of-principle research," and that their results had been described by clients "as being of vital importance to the national interests."[^5]
His "Standard Remote-Viewing Protocol (Local Targets)" with Targ, of November 1978, held by the CIA, prescribed a target list prepared "by an experimenter who will not interact with the subject after that," selection by "a [[Texas Instruments]] SR-51 hand calculator, which has a random-number function," fifteen-minute viewings, "no hypnosis, strobe lights, or sensory-deprivation procedures," feedback at the site "for each experiment to ensure success," and judging by direct matching or rank ordering. On August 3, 1979, he wrote to [[Manfred Gale]] that the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee had "all but skipped Part 2 on scientific questions" at its SRI visit and that "it is incumbent on the committee members to obtain a more thorough grounding in the technical details," enclosing a revised procedure with Targ and May; on March 19, 1980, he, Targ and May wrote to [[Walter LaBerge]] that "based on a recommendation of the Gale Committee, [[Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering|ODDR&E]] will not provide support for R&D efforts in the Grill Flame area," that "we were not mandated to undertake formal proof-of-principle research," and that their results had been described by clients "as being of vital importance to the national interests."[^11]
### Transition and Departure from SRI
@ -90,28 +90,34 @@ After leaving SRI, Puthoff founded [[EarthTech International|EarthTech]] Interna
### UFO-Related Contacts, 1985 to 1996
A page of handwritten notes by [[Oke Shannon]] of [[Los Alamos]], headed "Attendees" and placed by the authors of the [[Loose Threads Report]] at a meeting of August 7, 1985 labeled "ATP Ten," lists "Hal Puthoff" among participants in the [[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group]] convened by [[John B. Alexander]] in the [[BDM Corporation|BDM]] facility at [[McLean, Virginia]]; those authors write that Shannon's notes of the first meeting show Puthoff giving a presentation on remote viewing.[^6] [[Jacques Vallee]] recorded a 1989 telephone conversation in which Puthoff said that Alexander had briefed "the head of [[NORAD|Norad]], the head of the [[United States Space Command|Space Command]], the top guy at [[Strategic Defense Initiative|SDI]]" and that "a lot of people had been briefed and had agreed to cooperate"; Vallee's account has Puthoff conceding that the plan "may have been killed by someone deciding that the timing was wrong, or they were the wrong people, or the approach was bad."[^7] At the 2018 conference of the [[Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies]], asked about Alexander's conclusion that no program could be found, he answered that "somebody else [was] doing it" and that "if materials are being held in [[Special Access Programs]], a casual conversation even with high-level people, who know your interest, and they're interested too, won't necessarily reveal facts."[^6]
A page of handwritten notes by [[Oke Shannon]] of [[Los Alamos]], headed "Attendees" and placed by the authors of the [[Loose Threads Report]] at a meeting of August 7, 1985 labeled "ATP Ten," lists "Hal Puthoff" among participants in the [[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group]] convened by [[John B. Alexander]] in the [[BDM Corporation|BDM]] facility at [[McLean, Virginia]]; those authors write that Shannon's notes of the first meeting show Puthoff giving a presentation on remote viewing.[^12] [[Jacques Vallee]] recorded a 1989 telephone conversation in which Puthoff said that Alexander had briefed "the head of [[NORAD|Norad]], the head of the [[United States Space Command|Space Command]], the top guy at [[Strategic Defense Initiative|SDI]]" and that "a lot of people had been briefed and had agreed to cooperate"; Vallee's account has Puthoff conceding that the plan "may have been killed by someone deciding that the timing was wrong, or they were the wrong people, or the approach was bad."[^13] At the 2018 conference of the [[Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies]], asked about Alexander's conclusion that no program could be found, he answered that "somebody else [was] doing it" and that "if materials are being held in [[Special Access Programs]], a casual conversation even with high-level people, who know your interest, and they're interested too, won't necessarily reveal facts."[^12]
[[Mark Pilkington]] wrote in *[[Mirage Men]]* that at a Denny's restaurant "back in 1986" Kit Green, Puthoff and Vallee "distilled what they knew about the subject into what has become known as the 'core story.'"[^8] Shannon said in a 2022 interview that in 1999 Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]] telephoned him to ask whether [[Eric Davis]] could be trusted and "may have even mentioned Hal Puthoff and one or two other people."[^6]
[[Mark Pilkington]] wrote in *[[Mirage Men]]* that at a Denny's restaurant "back in 1986" Kit Green, Puthoff and Vallee "distilled what they knew about the subject into what has become known as the 'core story.'"[^14] Shannon said in a 2022 interview that in 1999 Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]] telephoned him to ask whether [[Eric Davis]] could be trusted and "may have even mentioned Hal Puthoff and one or two other people."[^12]
On October 17, 1996 [[Laurance Rockefeller]] wrote to [[John Gibbons|John H. Gibbons]] that an international conference on extraterrestrial intelligence and UFOs would be useful, and enclosed with a [[Carl Sagan]] letter a draft invitation to a small meeting on its feasibility. The attached list of suggested invitees, headed "Supplemental Suggestions" after a list from [[Julia Marton-Lefevre]] of the [[International Council of Scientific Unions]], includes Harold Puthoff, "Director, Institute for Advanced Studies," Austin, Texas, with [[Rodney Nichols]] ([[New York Academy of Sciences]]), [[Peter Sturrock]] (Stanford), [[William Golden]], [[Charles M. Vest]] ([[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]), [[Daniel S. Goldin]] ([[NASA]]), [[Frank D. Drake]], [[Gordon Cooper]] and [[Harold Aspden]]. The letter describes the proposed meeting as "informal and off the record," of "6-10 people," in [[New York City|New York]] in the first quarter of 1997.[^9] [[Richard J. Boylan]] listed Puthoff as Owl in a roster of the [[The Aviary|Aviary]].[^10]
On October 17, 1996 [[Laurance Rockefeller]] wrote to [[John Gibbons|John H. Gibbons]] that an international conference on extraterrestrial intelligence and UFOs would be useful, and enclosed with a [[Carl Sagan]] letter a draft invitation to a small meeting on its feasibility. The attached list of suggested invitees, headed "Supplemental Suggestions" after a list from [[Julia Marton-Lefevre]] of the [[International Council of Scientific Unions]], includes Harold Puthoff, "Director, Institute for Advanced Studies," Austin, Texas, with [[Rodney Nichols]] ([[New York Academy of Sciences]]), [[Peter Sturrock]] (Stanford), [[William Golden]], [[Charles M. Vest]] ([[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]), [[Daniel S. Goldin]] ([[NASA]]), [[Frank D. Drake]], [[Gordon Cooper]] and [[Harold Aspden]]. The letter describes the proposed meeting as "informal and off the record," of "6-10 people," in [[New York City|New York]] in the first quarter of 1997.[^15] [[Richard J. Boylan]] listed Puthoff as Owl in a roster of the [[The Aviary|Aviary]].[^16]
### AATIP and Later Work
Puthoff contributed as a scientific consultant to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), the Pentagon program that investigated Unidentified Aerial Phenomena from approximately 2007 to 2012 under [[Luis D. Elizondo III|Luis Elizondo]]. His contribution included commissioning and reviewing Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) - theoretical analyses of advanced aerospace concepts including warp drives, traversable wormholes, negative energy, and exotic propulsion systems. His EarthTech research in zero-point energy physics made him the natural contractor for the theoretical physics studies that formed part of AATIP's research portfolio.
Puthoff became a founding member and scientific advisor to To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science (TTSA), the public benefit corporation established by [[Tom DeLonge]] in 2017, which published three unclassified [[United States Navy|Navy]] videos of UAP encounters that the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 it had authorized for release after "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,"[^11] and became a public vehicle for intelligence community-adjacent UAP disclosure.
Puthoff became a founding member and scientific advisor to To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science (TTSA), the public benefit corporation established by [[Tom DeLonge]] in 2017, which published three unclassified [[United States Navy|Navy]] videos of UAP encounters that the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 it had authorized for release after "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,"[^17] and became a public vehicle for intelligence community-adjacent UAP disclosure.
### Footnotes
[^1]: Puthoff, H. E. "CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing Program at Stanford Research Institute," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 63-76. Read in a mirror copy; the journal's own site refused the fetch.
[^2]: Puthoff, H. E., memorandum to Dave Johnson, "Proxmire Response Re Psychoenergetics," September 26, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020042-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: *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.
[^4]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. 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
[^5]: Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. "Standard Remote-Viewing Protocol (Local Targets)." SRI International, November 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500400001-4 (copy at CIA-RDP96-00788R001300050001-3). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, H. E., to Manfred Gale, "SRI/Gale Committee Meeting of 24-25 July," August 3, 1979, with the enclosure "Standard Remote Viewing (RV) Procedures: Local Sites," by H. E. Puthoff, R. Targ and E. C. May, August 1979, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100060001-6 (memorandum alone at CIA-RDP96-00788R002000240028-5). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, H. E., R. Targ and E. C. May, Radio Physics Laboratory, SRI International, to Walter B. LaBerge, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, March 19, 1980, SRI 0-4132, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230031-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Elizondo, Daniel, and The Hermetic Penetrator, "The Loose Threads Report," Anomaly Archives, 2022, pp. 15, 25, 28-29, 57-58, https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf. The Shannon page image was read directly; podcast and conference statements are quoted there at second hand. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^7]: Vallee, Jacques. Journal, 1989 telephone conversation with Puthoff, as quoted in the Loose Threads Report, pp. 26-27 (volume not named there; the year falls in *Forbidden Science: Volume Three*).
[^8]: Pilkington, Mark. *Mirage Men.* 2010, chapter "The Man in the White Coat" (the Denny's statement is Pilkington's narration), https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Mark%20Pilkington%20-%20Mirage%20Men%20-%20A%20Journey%20into%20Disinformation,%20Paranoia%20and%20UFOs.pdf. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^9]: Rockefeller, Laurance S., letter of October 17, 1996 with "Suggested Invitees for the Meeting of Scientists," Clinton Presidential Library, Office of Science and Technology Policy FOIA 01-22, item 72, https://avalonlibrary.net/Grant_Cameron/Clinton_Presidential_Library_collection/OSTP%20-%20FOIA%2001%2022/ (file "1996 10 17_Laurance Rockefeller to John Gibbons"). The OSTP routing slip addresses the letter to Gibbons; the invitation text and invitee list are enclosures.
[^10]: Boylan, Richard J. "UFO/ET-Disclosure Policy Splits Covert Network," *Perceptions,* http://web.archive.org/web/20130831033026/http://www.think-aboutit.com/ufo/aviary.htm. Sole source.
[^11]: U.S. Department of Defense. "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos," April 27, 2020. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/ (read through the Internet Archive capture, https://web.archive.org/web/2020id_/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/). Greenewald, John, Jr. "Navy Officially Releases UFO/UAP Videos, Calls Them 'Historical.'" The Black Vault, April 27, 2020 (reproduces the statement and gives the GOFAST date). https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/navy-officially-releases-ufo-uap-videos-calls-them-historical/
[^1]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997), passage on Scientology following the Nature publication and Time cover story; chapter notes "Puthoff and Swann resign: Puthoff; Swann" and "Scientologists everywhere: Swann; Wilhelm 1976." https://archive.org/details/jim-schnabel-remote-viewers-the-secret-history-of-americas-psychic-spies_2
[^2]: Leon Jaroff, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time*, March 4, 1974 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100030002-8
[^3]: Ray Hyman, "Psychics and Scientists: 'Mind-Reach' and Remote Viewing," *The Humanist*, May/June 1977 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080037-4). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200080037-4
[^4]: John L. Wilhelm, "The Scientology Link," *Washington Post*, 1977, in CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700360003-3
[^5]: "Preliminary Group Report for the Psychological Testing of Subjects from the Parapsychology Study at Stanford Research Institute," unsigned (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200140007-0; duplicate CIA-RDP96-00787R000700090021-5). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200140007-0
[^6]: Jon Atack, "The Central Intelligence Agency and the Church of Scientology," https://religio.de/atack/ciacos.html (the Operating Thetan III statement is Atack's assertion).
[^7]: Puthoff, H. E. "CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing Program at Stanford Research Institute," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 63-76. Read in a mirror copy; the journal's own site refused the fetch.
[^8]: Puthoff, H. E., memorandum to Dave Johnson, "Proxmire Response Re Psychoenergetics," September 26, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020042-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^9]: *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.
[^10]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. 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
[^11]: Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. "Standard Remote-Viewing Protocol (Local Targets)." SRI International, November 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500400001-4 (copy at CIA-RDP96-00788R001300050001-3). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, H. E., to Manfred Gale, "SRI/Gale Committee Meeting of 24-25 July," August 3, 1979, with the enclosure "Standard Remote Viewing (RV) Procedures: Local Sites," by H. E. Puthoff, R. Targ and E. C. May, August 1979, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100060001-6 (memorandum alone at CIA-RDP96-00788R002000240028-5). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, H. E., R. Targ and E. C. May, Radio Physics Laboratory, SRI International, to Walter B. LaBerge, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, March 19, 1980, SRI 0-4132, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230031-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^12]: Elizondo, Daniel, and The Hermetic Penetrator, "The Loose Threads Report," Anomaly Archives, 2022, pp. 15, 25, 28-29, 57-58, https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf. The Shannon page image was read directly; podcast and conference statements are quoted there at second hand. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^13]: Vallee, Jacques. Journal, 1989 telephone conversation with Puthoff, as quoted in the Loose Threads Report, pp. 26-27 (volume not named there; the year falls in *Forbidden Science: Volume Three*).
[^14]: Pilkington, Mark. *Mirage Men.* 2010, chapter "The Man in the White Coat" (the Denny's statement is Pilkington's narration), https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Mark%20Pilkington%20-%20Mirage%20Men%20-%20A%20Journey%20into%20Disinformation,%20Paranoia%20and%20UFOs.pdf. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^15]: Rockefeller, Laurance S., letter of October 17, 1996 with "Suggested Invitees for the Meeting of Scientists," Clinton Presidential Library, Office of Science and Technology Policy FOIA 01-22, item 72, https://avalonlibrary.net/Grant_Cameron/Clinton_Presidential_Library_collection/OSTP%20-%20FOIA%2001%2022/ (file "1996 10 17_Laurance Rockefeller to John Gibbons"). The OSTP routing slip addresses the letter to Gibbons; the invitation text and invitee list are enclosures.
[^16]: Boylan, Richard J. "UFO/ET-Disclosure Policy Splits Covert Network," *Perceptions,* http://web.archive.org/web/20130831033026/http://www.think-aboutit.com/ufo/aviary.htm. Sole source.
[^17]: U.S. Department of Defense. "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos," April 27, 2020. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/ (read through the Internet Archive capture, https://web.archive.org/web/2020id_/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/). Greenewald, John, Jr. "Navy Officially Releases UFO/UAP Videos, Calls Them 'Historical.'" The Black Vault, April 27, 2020 (reproduces the statement and gives the GOFAST date). https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/navy-officially-releases-ufo-uap-videos-calls-them-historical/

19
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ingo Swann.md
View file

@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ By the early 1970s, Swann was participating as a paid research subject in paraps
### Scientology Background
Swann was a practicing member of the [[Church of Scientology]] from the mid-1960s through at least the early 1970s, reaching advanced levels in Scientology's training hierarchy. He subsequently maintained that his Scientology background was irrelevant to his remote viewing abilities, which he characterized as natural sensory phenomena rather than church-specific training. The CIA's internal program assessments flagged the Scientology affiliations of Swann, Price, and Puthoff as a counterintelligence concern, and the church's possible exploitation of the program was considered in internal reviews.
Swann joined [[Scientology]] in the 1960s and "would later resign," according to [[Jim Schnabel]].[^1] The [[Time (magazine)|Time]] cover story of March 4, 1974 wrote that Hal Puthoff promoted "the bizarre and controversial cult of Scientology" and that Swann, "another psychic tested by S.R.I., also practices" it.[^2] In the Washington Post in 1977, [[John L. Wilhelm]] wrote that Swann "helped to establish Scientology's 'Celebrity Center' in Los Angeles, the headquarters recently raided by the FBI," and that at his original SRI testing Swann "revealed that there are 'fourteen Clears [a medium-high level of Scientology achievement], more than I would suspect,' working at SRI."[^3] [[Tony Ortega]] published a paper by Swann for the First Conference on Psychotronic Research in Czechoslovakia in 1973, titled "Scientological Techniques: A Model Paradigm for the Exploration of Consciousness and Psychic Integration."[^4] In a preliminary report on psychological testing of six SRI subjects, an unsigned clinician wrote that "at least four of the subjects in this study describe to me an interest in scientology and two of them indicate that they have been involved in the Church of Scientology for some time."[^5]
### SRI Magnetometer Experiment and CIA Contact (1972)
@ -49,11 +49,11 @@ After Price's death in 1975, Swann returned to SRI and worked with Puthoff to fo
### The SCANATE Sessions
SRI's SCANATE report records that "as a result of the experimentation carried out on what might be termed micro-abilities, Swann expressed the opinion that the insights obtained had strengthened a macro-ability which had been researched prior to his joining the SRI program; namely, the ability to view remote locations." In a training series "100 targets on the earth's surface, ten per day for ten days, were chosen at random," Swann "being given a target location by latitude and longitude only," each run of ten finished "in less than thirty minutes"; the report itself cautioned that "an individual could, in principle, obtain good results on the basis of memory" or "subliminally from an experimenter who knows the target location." On May 29, 1973, at 4:34 in the afternoon, Hal Puthoff gave him coordinates supplied by the sponsor, 38°23'N, 79°25'W, "described simply as being in [[West Virginia]]," with no maps, on videotape: "This seems to be some sort of mounds or rolling hills. There is a city to the north (I can see the taller buildings and some smog). This seems to be a strange place, somewhat like the lawns that one would find around a military base, but I get the impression that there are either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir. There must be a flagpole, some highways to the west, possibly a river over to the far east, to the south more city." The next morning: "Cliffs to the east, fence to the north. There's a circular building (a tower?), buildings to the south. Is this a former Nike base or something like that? I seem to get the impression of something underground, but I'm not sure." On July 21, 1973, given 49°20'S, 70°14'E, he said: "My initial response is that it's an island, maybe a mountain sticking up through a cloud cover," with buildings "rather mathematically laid out," one orange, "something like a radar antenna, a round disc," two white cylindrical tanks, and "to the northwest a small airstrip," and the next day mapped its coastline. Later, surprised in a New York hotel room with an abacus locked in the adjoining room, bought as "a target analogous to a cipher machine of particular interest," he drew its outline "in approximately one minute" and called it "a game box with little balls." The 1975 final report's West Virginia sessions are coded to subject S3.[^1]
SRI's SCANATE report records that "as a result of the experimentation carried out on what might be termed micro-abilities, Swann expressed the opinion that the insights obtained had strengthened a macro-ability which had been researched prior to his joining the SRI program; namely, the ability to view remote locations." In a training series "100 targets on the earth's surface, ten per day for ten days, were chosen at random," Swann "being given a target location by latitude and longitude only," each run of ten finished "in less than thirty minutes"; the report itself cautioned that "an individual could, in principle, obtain good results on the basis of memory" or "subliminally from an experimenter who knows the target location." On May 29, 1973, at 4:34 in the afternoon, Hal Puthoff gave him coordinates supplied by the sponsor, 38°23'N, 79°25'W, "described simply as being in [[West Virginia]]," with no maps, on videotape: "This seems to be some sort of mounds or rolling hills. There is a city to the north (I can see the taller buildings and some smog). This seems to be a strange place, somewhat like the lawns that one would find around a military base, but I get the impression that there are either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir. There must be a flagpole, some highways to the west, possibly a river over to the far east, to the south more city." The next morning: "Cliffs to the east, fence to the north. There's a circular building (a tower?), buildings to the south. Is this a former Nike base or something like that? I seem to get the impression of something underground, but I'm not sure." On July 21, 1973, given 49°20'S, 70°14'E, he said: "My initial response is that it's an island, maybe a mountain sticking up through a cloud cover," with buildings "rather mathematically laid out," one orange, "something like a radar antenna, a round disc," two white cylindrical tanks, and "to the northwest a small airstrip," and the next day mapped its coastline. Later, surprised in a New York hotel room with an abacus locked in the adjoining room, bought as "a target analogous to a cipher machine of particular interest," he drew its outline "in approximately one minute" and called it "a game box with little balls." The 1975 final report's West Virginia sessions are coded to subject S3.[^6]
At [[Maimonides Medical Center]], in an experiment reported to the American Physical Society in February 1976, [[Edwin May]] and [[Charles Honorton]] had him attempt to influence a noise-driven binary random generator: 29 runs gave a mean of 493 against 500 expected (p = 0.011), improving as he was moved twelve feet away behind "two double steel walls," while a control run after he left gave 499.7. "We conclude that Mr. Swann was successful in exerting a psychokinetic influence on the instrument." The SRI final report's instrumented magnetometer series of 1974 and 1975, thirteen ten-trial runs on a Develco gradiometer at four metres giving p = 0.004, was run with subject S1, the code that matches Pat Price's sessions, not S3; the "early research (1972)" perturbation "of a Josephson effect magnetometer" is described there as a pilot study of "a few hours" that "prevented a proper investigation." He visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] on October 17, 1978, and was still reporting to Puthoff as a consultant in April 1984.[^2]
At [[Maimonides Medical Center]], in an experiment reported to the American Physical Society in February 1976, [[Edwin May]] and [[Charles Honorton]] had him attempt to influence a noise-driven binary random generator: 29 runs gave a mean of 493 against 500 expected (p = 0.011), improving as he was moved twelve feet away behind "two double steel walls," while a control run after he left gave 499.7. "We conclude that Mr. Swann was successful in exerting a psychokinetic influence on the instrument." The SRI final report's instrumented magnetometer series of 1974 and 1975, thirteen ten-trial runs on a Develco gradiometer at four metres giving p = 0.004, was run with subject S1, the code that matches Pat Price's sessions, not S3; the "early research (1972)" perturbation "of a Josephson effect magnetometer" is described there as a pilot study of "a few hours" that "prevented a proper investigation." He visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] on October 17, 1978, and was still reporting to Puthoff as a consultant in April 1984.[^7]
The report of the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of December 1979 recorded that "in July 1978, DIA sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which "the DIA Project Officer had prepared three sets of Soviet/Bloc target coordinates, and one US control set," and that "Swann provided a 'moderate to high', lengthy description of the last target, a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow... Swann passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel. Going through this passageway he entered a command and control room. One comment, among many, stands out: 'The floors are paved in "white tiles".'" The same report put SRI's experiments with him at "7000+," "only a fraction" of them published.[^3]
The report of the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of December 1979 recorded that "in July 1978, DIA sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which "the DIA Project Officer had prepared three sets of Soviet/Bloc target coordinates, and one US control set," and that "Swann provided a 'moderate to high', lengthy description of the last target, a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow... Swann passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel. Going through this passageway he entered a command and control room. One comment, among many, stands out: 'The floors are paved in "white tiles".'" The same report put SRI's experiments with him at "7000+," "only a fraction" of them published.[^8]
### Training the Army Program
@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ Swann maintained an active painting career throughout his life, exhibiting abstr
### Footnotes
[^1]: Stanford Research Institute, "Project SCANATE, Exploratory Research in Remote Viewing," 1973, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100480002-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: May, Edwin C., and Charles Honorton. "A Dynamic PK Experiment with Ingo Swann," Maimonides Medical Center, abstract for the American Physical Society meeting of February 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part one, executive summary, SRI Project 3183, covering January 1974 to February 1975, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100420001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Visit of Ingo Swann to AMSAA, 17 October 1978," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240010-3, and "Memo to Dr. H.E. Puthoff from I. Swann, Consultant, Subject: Work Report," April 15, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00792R000100140033-6, titles only.
[^3]: *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.
[^1]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997), passage on Scientology following the Time cover story; chapter note "Puthoff and Swann resign: Puthoff; Swann." https://archive.org/details/jim-schnabel-remote-viewers-the-secret-history-of-americas-psychic-spies_2
[^2]: Leon Jaroff, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time*, March 4, 1974 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100030002-8
[^3]: John L. Wilhelm, "The Scientology Link," *Washington Post*, 1977, in CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700360003-3
[^4]: Tony Ortega, as cited on the vault page Scientology for the paper's title and the 1973 conference (not independently opened; coordinator should reopen before merging). Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^5]: "Preliminary Group Report for the Psychological Testing of Subjects from the Parapsychology Study at Stanford Research Institute," unsigned (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200140007-0). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200140007-0
[^6]: Stanford Research Institute, "Project SCANATE, Exploratory Research in Remote Viewing," 1973, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100480002-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: May, Edwin C., and Charles Honorton. "A Dynamic PK Experiment with Ingo Swann," Maimonides Medical Center, abstract for the American Physical Society meeting of February 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part one, executive summary, SRI Project 3183, covering January 1974 to February 1975, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100420001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Visit of Ingo Swann to AMSAA, 17 October 1978," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240010-3, and "Memo to Dr. H.E. Puthoff from I. Swann, Consultant, Subject: Work Report," April 15, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00792R000100140033-6, titles only.
[^8]: *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.

108
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Ober.md
View file

@ -3,61 +3,105 @@ category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- CIA
- Operation_CHAOS
- OperationCHAOS
- Counterintelligence
- Church_Committee
- ChurchCommittee
- RockefellerCommission
- Nixon
- Cold_War
- 1960s
- 1970s
summary: "CIA counterintelligence officer who directed Operation CHAOS (MHCHAOS) from its 1967 creation to its March 1974 termination, reporting to James Angleton."
born: 1921-01-01
died: 2001-09-11
- Watergate
- ColdWar
aliases:
- Dick Ober
- Richard Ober
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
summary: "CIA counterintelligence officer who headed the Special Operations Group that ran Operation CHAOS from August 1967, later Director for Intelligence Coordination at the National Security Council (1974 to 1976)."
born: 1921
died: 2001
location: "Fairfax Station, Virginia"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
start: 1948
end: 1980
role: "career officer; Special Operations Group, Counterintelligence Staff, 1967 to 1972"
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Operation CHAOS]]"
start: 1967-08
end: 1972
role: "chief of the Special Operations Group, Counterintelligence Staff"
fn: 2
- type: reported_to
with: "[[James Jesus Angleton]]"
start: 1967-08
end: 1972
role: "Chief of Counterintelligence, described by the Church Committee as Ober's immediate superior"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[National Security Council]]"
start: 1974
end: 1976
role: "Director for Intelligence Coordination"
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Church Committee]]"
start: 1975-10-28
end: 1975-10-30
role: "testified October 28 and 30, 1975"
fn: 2
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Rockefeller Commission 1975]]"
start: 1975-03-28
role: "testified March 28, 1975"
fn: 2
---
Richard Ober (born 1921, New York City; died 2001, Fairfax Station, Virginia) was a career [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] counterintelligence officer. He headed the Special Operations Group of the Agency's [[Counterintelligence Staff]] from August 1967, the unit that ran [[Operation CHAOS]], the program that assembled files on American antiwar, student and Black militant groups. His papers are at the [[Hoover Institution]]. A 1979 book by [[Deborah Davis]] named him as [[Deep Throat]].[^1]
Richard Ober (born approximately 1921; died September 11, 2001) was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] counterintelligence officer who directed [[Operation CHAOS]] (operational codeword MHCHAOS) from its creation in August 1967 until its formal termination in March 1974. He reported throughout this period to [[James Jesus Angleton]], the CIA's chief of counterintelligence. After CHAOS was exposed in December 1974 by Seymour Hersh's New York Times reporting, Ober was seconded to the National Security Council rather than dismissed, remaining within the intelligence establishment until his forced departure from the CIA in 1980. He died in Fairfax Station, Virginia, on September 11, 2001, of prostate cancer, aged approximately 80.[^1]
### Education and CIA career
### Career
Ober received an A.B. from [[Harvard University]] in 1943 and served in the [[United States Army]] from 1943 to 1946. He joined the CIA in 1948, took an M.A. at [[Columbia University]], and graduated from the [[National War College]] in 1964 (his papers include a war college file on a student group trip to Africa).[^1]
Ober was a graduate of Harvard (class of 1943 per Hoover Institution finding aid) who joined the OSS following graduation and served as a liaison with anti-Fascist underground networks in Nazi-occupied Europe. Following the dissolution of the OSS by Executive Order in October 1945, he joined the CIA in the late 1940s. He served for over two decades as a chief deputy to Angleton in the CIA's Counterintelligence Staff before being assigned to head the Special Operations Group (SOG).[^1]
The Hoover Institution finding aid lists three assignments after 1967: chief of the CIA Counterintelligence Special Operations Group, 1967 to 1972; chief of the Counterintelligence International Terrorism Group, 1972 to 1974; and Director for Intelligence Coordination, [[National Security Council]], 1974 to 1976. He retired from the CIA in 1980.[^1]
### Appointment to Head MHCHAOS
### Special Operations Group, 1967 to 1972
In August 1967, CIA Director [[Richard Helms]] received direct pressure from President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] to determine whether foreign powers were funding and directing the American antiwar movement. Helms tasked Angleton's Counterintelligence Staff with the inquiry; Angleton assigned Ober to head a new unit within the Counterintelligence Staff designated the Special Operations Group. The program's operational codeword was MHCHAOS. CHAOS's formal stated rationale was foreign influence assessment, a framing that gave it a constitutional basis (the CIA's statutory authority to collect foreign intelligence) while allowing it to accumulate domestic files.[^2]
By early 1967 Ober was investigating possible links between foreign intelligence services and persons connected with [[Ramparts]] magazine, which had that year published an account of CIA relationships with private institutions. He had begun a computerized file on dissident activists connected to the magazine; by August 1967 he estimated he had indexed several hundred Americans and opened perhaps fifty files.[^2]
### Scale and Operations
On August 15, 1967, [[Thomas Karamessines]], Deputy Director for Plans, sent [[James Jesus Angleton]] a memorandum titled "Overseas Coverage of Subversive Student and Related Matters." It asked for the "establishment of some sort of system by Dick Ober (or whatever officer you select)." The [[Church Committee]] wrote that Angleton chose Ober to head what became the Special Operations Group within the Counterintelligence Staff. It described Angleton as Ober's immediate superior.[^2]
The program expanded significantly under the Nixon administration from 1969. At peak operations in 1971, the MHCHAOS Special Operations Group employed 52 personnel. The principal outputs were:
The Committee recorded Ober's testimony that his operation soon came to include antiwar activists as well as student radicals and Black nationalists, and that his participation in the CIA's October 1967 study for the President on the "International Connections of the United States Peace Movement" made Vietnam protest a major target. He coordinated the Plans Directorate contribution and the receipt of material from the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. He also supplied the [[Kerner Commission]] with 26 reports at the request of [[Richard Helms]], and prepared 34 "M" memoranda, reports on particularly sensitive items for the [[White House]], the Attorney General, the Secretary of State and similar officials.[^2]
- The HYDRA computerized database, which ultimately indexed approximately 7,200 American citizens with individual files and cross-referenced approximately 300,000 names and 1,000 domestic organizations
- More than 5,000 reports disseminated to the FBI over seven years of operation (the Church Committee documented 4,400 memoranda and approximately 1,000 cable disseminations)
- Six reports compiled directly for the [[White House]]; 34 disseminated to Cabinet-level officials
The [[Rockefeller Commission 1975]] (which referred to him as the Chief of the Operation) found that the group was physically removed from the Counterintelligence Staff and that Angleton, though technically responsible in the chain of command, had little connection with CHAOS operations. It cited a May 1969 CIA memorandum recording that Helms instructed the chief of the operation to refrain from disclosing part of his activities to the Counterintelligence Chief. The Commission also reported that both men considered actual supervisory responsibility to rest with the Director of Central Intelligence.[^3] A memorandum by Ober dated May 29, 1969 set the restricted handling of MHCHAOS cable traffic and provided that none of it would be destroyed by divisions or sent to RID.[^4]
Two subprograms fed directly into MHCHAOS: [[Project MERRIMAC]], which placed CIA infiltrators in domestic antiwar and civil rights organizations in Washington D.C., and [[Project RESISTANCE]], which compiled dossiers on radical groups near CIA facilities through coordination with campus administrators and local police. Both subprograms were run through the CIA's Office of Security rather than directly through the Counterintelligence Staff.[^2]
Ober refused in early 1971 to approve a directive that would have given the [[Domestic Contact Service]] a secondary interest in domestic background, and its reporting to CHAOS was narrowed to information suggesting foreign involvement in American radical activities. A September 10, 1971 cable over his name told a station that named subjects "are not aware MHCHAOS and this subject should not be discussed with them."[^2][^5] His deputy testified to the Church Committee on October 14, 1975 under the alias "James Eatinger."[^2]
### White House Access
Ober testified that Helms never pressured him as to the findings reported by the CIA. Helms testified that the White House was dissatisfied with the reports because they did not show "enough foreign money and foreign influence in these dissident movements."[^2]
One of the most operationally significant aspects of Ober's role was a covert office he maintained inside the White House, known within a restricted circle of Nixon administration principals: President Nixon himself, Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, domestic policy aide John Ehrlichman, and possibly National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. This arrangement gave Ober direct access to senior White House staff bypassing normal CIA liaison channels, an arrangement that went substantially beyond CHAOS's nominal counterintelligence remit of tracking foreign influence on domestic movements.[^2]
### Terrorism group and the end of CHAOS
### Church Committee Investigation
The Church Committee wrote that Ober had taken on the duties of coordinating the CIA's efforts against international terrorism in the summer of 1972, and that in 1973 CHAOS was transferred from the Counterintelligence Staff to a newly formed Operations Staff in the Plans Directorate. [[William Colby]] terminated CHAOS as a collection program in March 1974 (the Rockefeller Commission gave the date as March 15, 1974).[^2][^3]
CHAOS was exposed on December 22, 1974 by Seymour Hersh's front-page New York Times article "Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces." DCI [[William Colby]] had already dismissed Angleton on December 17, 1974, before the article appeared, having been warned it was imminent. The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the Church Committee) subsequently investigated CHAOS in detail. Ober testified before the committee on October 28, 1975. The committee's findings are documented in Book III of its final report, "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]]" (S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976), available at aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_9_CHAOS.pdf. The [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|Rockefeller Commission]] also examined CHAOS in its Chapter 11, available at aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf.[^2]
### Deborah Davis and Deep Throat, 1979 to 1983
The committee found that CHAOS violated the CIA's legislative charter prohibiting domestic operations and characterized it as "unlawful." The Rockefeller Commission reported in 1975 that the CHAOS "files and computerized index are still intact."[^3]
In *Katharine the Great* (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979), [[Deborah Davis]] wrote that Ober was "Angleton's deputy" and "one of the few" men in the CIA whom [[Richard Nixon]] trusted; that Ober "was given a small office inside the White House, where he was known only to Nixon, [[H. R. Haldeman]], [[John Ehrlichman]], and possibly [[Henry Kissinger]]"; and that his name was never recorded in White House logs. The passage is quoted in a biographical note on Ober published by the Spartacus Educational website. X[^2][^3]
### Post-CHAOS Career
Davis also wrote that Ober was Deep Throat, the [[Washington Post]] source of [[Bob Woodward]] and [[Carl Bernstein]] on [[Watergate]]. According to a 1983 account by Eve Pell in *The Nation* (clipped in CIA files), a lawyer for Ober wrote on the November 6, 1979 publication day that references to his client were "defamatory and libelous," called Davis's theory that Ober was involved in Watergate dirty tricks a "complete fabrication," and branded as false her assertion that he had been involved with the "Plumbers" group headed by [[E. Howard Hunt]] and [[G. Gordon Liddy]] or had helped plan the break-in at the office of [[Daniel Ellsberg]]'s psychiatrist. Davis agreed to delete the allegations about Watergate involvement; because the lawyer did not deny her claim that Ober was Deep Throat, she let that stand. [[Ben Bradlee]] separately wrote to her editor that she had made thirty-nine errors on thirty-nine pages where his name appeared. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich withdrew as publisher in early 1980, and in October 1983 paid Davis $100,000 to settle her breach-of-contract suit.[^7] The Hoover finding aid describes Davis as having "mistakenly named Ober as Deep Throat" and lists a potential legal case in which Ober figured as a potential plaintiff.[^1][^7]
After CHAOS's public exposure, Ober was seconded to the National Security Council as its senior staff member for intelligence matters - a significant position suggesting continued institutional trust rather than a punitive reassignment. When the CIA subsequently sought to terminate his employment as public attention to CHAOS created institutional liability, Ober resisted the pressure and was not forced out until 1980, when he retired from what was described as "a counterintelligence post."[^1]
### National Security Council and retirement
After leaving the CIA he operated an herb farm at his Fairfax Station home. He died on September 11, 2001, the same day as the September 11 attacks, though his death from prostate cancer was unrelated to them.[^1]
After CHAOS was reported by [[Seymour Hersh]] in the [[New York Times]] on December 22, 1974, Ober was seconded to the National Security Council as its senior staff member for intelligence matters (Director for Intelligence Coordination, 1974 to 1976). The finding aid states that the publicity prompted the Agency to seek severance of his employment, that he resisted, and that he was retired in 1980.[^1]
### Papers
### Testimony, lawsuits and papers
The Richard Ober Papers, 1942-2001, are held at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University. The finding aid is accessible through the Online Archive of California (OAC), ark:/13030/c81z4b3g. The collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, personnel records, memoranda, reports, legal records, and printed matter relating to his CIA career and Operation CHAOS, including documentation of his Senate Select Committee testimony.[^1]
Ober testified to the Rockefeller Commission on March 28, 1975, and to the Church Committee on October 28 and 30, 1975.[^2] The Hoover finding aid lists the Rockefeller Commission, [[Murphy Commission]], Church Committee and [[Pike Committee]] files, a Justice Department report file on the mail-opening component, and a legal-cases file concerning civil suits in which Ober was a defendant in all but one. The collection (Richard Ober Papers, 1942 to 2001, acquired by Hoover in 2018) also holds his Army, CIA and National Security Council personnel files.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "CIA Officer Richard Ober, 80, Dies." Washington Post, September 12, 2001. Richard Ober Papers, 1942-2001, Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University. Finding aid: Online Archive of California, ark:/13030/c81z4b3g.
[^2]: Church Committee, "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the Office of Security," Book III, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976. aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_9_CHAOS.pdf. Rockefeller Commission, "Special Operations Group - 'Operation CHAOS,'" Chapter 11. aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf. Rafalko, Frank J. *MH/CHAOS: The CIA's Campaign Against the Radical New Left and the Black Panthers*. Naval Institute Press, 2011.
[^3]: Rockefeller Commission, *Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States* (June 1975), Chapter 11, "Special Operations Group, 'Operation CHAOS,'" pp. 130 to 151. https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf
[^1]: "Ober (Richard) papers, 1942-2001," finding aid (biographical note, scope and contents), Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Online Archive of California, ark:/13030/c81z4b3g, prepared by Dale Reed. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c81z4b3g
[^2]: Church Committee, *Final Report*, Book III, "CIA Intelligence Collection About Americans: CHAOS and the Office of Security," S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, pp. 679 to 730 (citing Ober testimony, October 28 and 30, 1975; Ober before the Rockefeller Commission, March 28, 1975; Eatinger testimony, October 14, 1975; Memorandum from Karamessines to Angleton, August 15, 1967). https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_9_CHAOS.pdf
[^3]: Rockefeller Commission, *Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States* (June 1975), Chapter 11, "Special Operations Group, 'Operation CHAOS,'" pp. 130 to 151, discussion of compartmentation and supervision. https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf
[^4]: Richard Ober, Memorandum for the Record, "Procedures for Restricted Handling of RYBAT MHCHAOS Traffic," May 29, 1969, CIA Reading Room doc. C01475738. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01475738
[^5]: CIA cable from Richard Ober, September 10, 1971, "RYBAT MHCHAOS," CIA Reading Room doc. C01482292. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01482292
[^6]: Deborah Davis, *Katharine the Great: Katharine Graham and Her Washington Post Empire* (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979), as quoted in "Richard Ober," Spartacus Educational. https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKober.htm Sole source for the passages so cited on a White House office.
[^7]: Eve Pell, "Private Censorship: Killing 'Katharine the Great,'" *The Nation*, November 12, 1983, as clipped in CIA-RDP90-00845R000201250018-9. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00845R000201250018-9