| Memo regarding a meeting of 25 August 1973 between CIA and DIA personnel, names redacted, on the subject of parapsychological research. DIA was then “considering funding a program in parapsychology”, possibly in collaboration with Stanford Research Institute (SRI); CIA responded by relating details of a “small classified contract”, which were included in a “film concerning the first studies with Uri Geller”, and noted that CIA had no further contractual relationship with SRI and that “CIA management has not decided the official policy with regard to paranormal research.” It was further noted that there was “some strong pressure being applied to DIA to become involved in paranormal research”, details being redacted, which CIA internally considered as indicating “sensitive internal CIA matters should not be freely discussed with DIA and that coordination and liaison with DIA in parapsychology research should be treated cautiously.”
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| Memo regarding discussions of 13 June 1973 on CIA termination of their involvement in SRI program, noting “interest in this area was at least temporarily being terminated not because of incompetency, lack of relevancy, etc.” but rather internal concerns over “high potential for exposure of the Agency’s interest and consequent controversy for the Agency”. SRI representatives likewise noted they were considering cancelling the program entirely, which is considered “unfortunate” by author of memo as “results of the studies at SRI certainly indicate the existence of a type of phenomena which is not well understood” and that “if controllable does and will have profound implications for intelligence collection and security”, further predicting future Agency interest. Concludes that giving SRI the news of CIA disengagement “could adversely effect their performance for the duration of the contract” and the result may be a “poor final report because there is no incentive of follow-up projects.”
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| Handwritten draft of a memo on cost overruns at SRI, re: CIA contract mentioned in earlier memos. Mentions amount of overrun as $10K, claimed by Russell Targ as “incurred by responding to a request from Dr. Gottlieb to increase the scope of their investigation”, and that “Dr. Gottlieb assured them they should not slow the pace of their investigation for lack of funds,” that “He, Dr. Gottlieb, would cover the additional funding if the anticipated ORD increase (18K) fell through.” Author of memo continues “we were aware of this situation as of about 3 weeks ago,” that [redacted] and the author “met with Mr. McMahon and [redacted] on the general possibility of a ‘cost overrun’”, and that “Dr. [redacted] never mentioned any of the details claimed by Mr. Targ so the topic was dropped and never explicitly discussed”, concluding “[i]f Mr. Targ chooses to pursue this line of reasoning, these facts will have to be explicitly considered before a final decision can be made.”
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