---
aliases:
  - Robert Gates
  - Bob Gates
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
  - Person
  - Stargate
  - CIA
  - RemoteViewer
summary: "Robert Gates is an American government official who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1991 to 1993."
born: 1943-09-25
location: "Wichita, Kansas"
---

Robert Gates is an American government official who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1991 to 1993. He was also an analyst on loan to the [[National Security Council|NSC]] from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] during the [[Cold War]][^1][^2].

Gates was known to be a vocal adversary of the [[Psychoenergetics|psychoenergetic phenomena]] programs within the [[Pentagon]]. He expressed skepticism about the [[Remote Viewing]] program, particularly after [[Joe McMoneagle]]'s remote viewing of the [[Typhoon Submarine|Typhoon]] class submarine, which Gates initially dismissed as defying logic[^2].

In 1986, Gates noted a significant buildup in advanced technology weapons facilities in both the [[United States]] and the [[Soviet Union]], particularly in areas like laser, particle beam, kinetic energy, and microwave technologies applicable to strategic weapons[^2].

Gates revealed details about the [[Moscow Signal]] in his 1997 memoir, *From the Shadows*. He described how the CIA detected a new and more powerful set of Soviet microwave beams aimed at the [[U.S. Embassy in Moscow]] in 1973, code-named MUTS-2. He noted that these signals were regarded as posing a greater health hazard due to their duration and peculiar characteristics[^2].

On November 28, 1995, Gates appeared on *Nightline* with [[Ted Koppel]] to discuss the [[Stargate Project|Stargate program]], where he downplayed the significance of the government's psychic research[^2].

### Remote Viewing

On ABC's *Nightline* of November 28, 1995, the night the [[1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate|AIR evaluation]] of the remote-viewing program was released, Gates said that after the mid-1970s "CIA basically monitored the activities of other government agencies and what was going on in the academic community and then in mid 1980s, then-deputy director [[John McMahon]] formalized that. So, CIA really during that period had a very limited role"; that "I don't know of a single instance where it is documented that this kind of activity contributed in any significant way to a policy decision or even to informing policy makers about important information"; that "most intelligence professionals have been pretty skeptical of this. We got into it, I think, mainly because we heard the Soviets were involved and also because the Congress, individual members of the Congress and some staff pushed us into it"; and that "this is a pretty low priority for the intelligence community, and it's better done on the outside."[^3]

### Publications
*   *From the Shadows* (1997)

### Footnotes

[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^3]: "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room.