CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110016-8

{ "Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110016-8
22 June 1974
MEMO FOR THE RECORD
Discussions with OTS on the SRI Project
SUBJECT
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1. OOB Ops Testing. On 27 June 74 I met with
of OTS
to review with them their protocol for testing one of the SRI subjects in an
OOB 'viewing' of a Soviet target; the substance of their proposal may be seen
in the attached draft. Though many other aspects were discussed, the only
points made by me which touched on our basic research interests may be summar-
ized as follows: we'd like to have EEG, GSR and plethysmograph monitoring of
the subject during the trials (OTS felt that such instrumentation might obscure
or interfere with the initial trials but agreed to work them in at a later stage
should there be any positive results); the OTS personnel should prepare a memo
detailing all their own factual knowledge of the Soviet site before they go to
SRI for the tests; in view of the subject's relative incompetence with drawings,
provision be made for him to construct models of what he 'sees' out of lago or
similar materials; that all his models, drawings, transcripts, etc, be sent to
NPIC for evaluation before the OTS personnel go to SRT and are exposed to the
subject. On 18 July 74
and myself (and others)
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on the outcome of the experiments. Since the detailed evaluation will be pre-
pared by OTS, it is sufficient here to state that: for practical reasons, none
of the above suggestions were implemented; though some of the details of the
subject's perceptions of the target seem impressive, the overall results were
mixed at best;
and I strongly urged that the scoring of the results
be related to the total stimulus field (based on NPIC photography) rather than
focus merely on the subject's specific 'hits' and 'misses'. Recognizing that
scoring on that basis would provide more valid statistics on the subject's perf-
formance, OTS felt that such exhaustive analysis could not reasonably be asked
of NPIC.
2. SRI's Performance in re Basic Research.
On 27 June 74 OTS was given an
advanced copy of my 17-18 June SRI trip report.
During the 18 July meeting, in
response to the criticisms contained in the trip report and the allusion to the
possibility of terminating the project,
asked for more details
on our position. After reviewing SRI's spotty performance thus far, we stressed
that we had explicitly told SRI that they had to make significant progress with
respect to the five items listed in para 5 of the trip report by mid-August.
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stated that he would send SRI an official letter covering those points so
that, should termination eventually be necessary, our case would be well-docu-
mented. It was agreed that
would make a prolonged site visit
soon after the mid-August meetings with the SRI representatives in D. C. -- either
to monitor the continuing research (if acceptable progress has been made by then)
or to gather evidence for termination of, at least, the basic research portion
of the project. Other alternatives, such as allowing SRI a no-additional-cost
extension to complete the basic research tasks, were also discussed.
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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110016-8