According to the research program’s abstract:

“The specific aim of the research program was to examine the feasibility of controlling the behavior of a dog, in an open field, by means of remotely triggered electrical stimulation of the brain. The report describes such a system which depends for its effectiveness on two properties of electrical stimulation delivered to certain deep lying structures of the dog brain: the well-known reward effect, and a tendency for such stimulation to initiate and maintain locomotion in a direction which is accompanied by the continued delivery of stimulation. Experiments on the parameters of stimulation are described, in addition to an experiment on the ability of a conventional reinforcer, food, to disrupt ongoing, free field behavior under the control of rewarding brain stimulation. Finally, supporting research employing albino rats is summarized. (Author)”

One document was released by the CIA in late 2018 after a FOIA request by The Black Vault. The document, redacted in some parts with details missing, highlighted the research of creating remote control dogs using implants on the brain.  The record’s release was specifically highlighted by Newsweek, which as a result, was picked up by many other outlets.

After months of research, I tracked down a much cleaner copy of the document at the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), which contained NO redactions (therefore, new details about the research have emerged) but also much clearer copies of the photographs. In addition, more reports related to the program have been uncovered, all linked below.

Document Archive

Remote Control Behavior with Rewarding Electrical Stimulation of the Brain, 1965 (Remote Controlled Dogs), Final Report [103 Pages, 11MB]  (For comparison, here is the CIA’s 2018 release:  C00021825.pdf)

Open Field Control of Dog Behavior by Remote Brain Stimulation, 1 January 1964 – 1 January 1965, Annual Report [18 Pages, 1MB]

Some Behavioral Correlates of Brain-Stimulation Reward: Part B, 1 January 1963 – 1 January 1964, Annual Report [29 Pages, 2.1MB]

The post Remote Control Behavior with Rewarding Electrical Stimulation of the Brain, 1965 (Remote Controlled Dogs) first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to the (final?) report for Project Outgrowth:

A study was conducted by an ad hoc group within the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory during the calendar year of 1970 in an attempt to predict the major propulsion developments that may occur in the next 40 years.  This report evaluates the future of conventional chemical rocketry based on thermodynamic principles and revolutionary conceptual approaches to system applications. Advanced concepts falling under the general headings of Thermal, Field and Photon Propulsion are evaluated to a degree necessary to define their potential. This report does not define a long list of very near-term technology program subjects, but is designed to encourage and motivate talented and interested scientists and engineers to once again strive for “Advanced Propulsion Concepts.”

I first read about Project Outgrown in October of 2018, when I created the document archive on laser propulsion. Specifically, it was referenced in a 2017 document:  Perspective on One Decade of Laser Propulsion Research at Air Force Research Laboratory, November 2017 [13 Pages, 1MB]. In this document, the excerpt was as follows:

The concept of laser propulsion was conceived in 1969 at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (AFRPL) by Dr. Robert L. Geisler.1 During 1970, under the direction of Donald M. Ross, a group of 28-scientist/engineers at AFRPL conducted “Project Outgrowth,” which was a systematic study of the Geisler laser propulsion concept and numerous other Advanced Propulsion Concepts. Under the editorship of Franklin B. Mead the findings of “Project Outgrowth” were published in June 1972. Nearly simultaneously, in May 1972, the most-cited laser propulsion paper appeared, “Propulsion to Orbit by Ground-Based Lasers,” authored by “Arthur Kantrowitz.

The objective of the “Project Outgrowth” was to predict and analyze advanced propulsion concepts that could occur during the subsequent 40-years. It was the seed that spawned the modern era of studies of advanced concepts. “Project Outgrowth” also set forth a philosophy for evolution of chemical propulsion that is reminiscent of the modern-day, goal-oriented technology development program known as “Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology,” IHPRPT.

Of course, the above is similar to some aspects of the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program (AAWSAP) or also referred to or connected with the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) which has been referred to as a “secret UFO Study.” It is interesting that AAWSAP, what is considered either the same or the umbrella project of which AATIP operated under, was begun approximately 37 years after this study.  Although a coincidence, it coincides with the aim that they would project propulsion concepts through the next 40 years, and when that time frame was nearly up, AAWSAP was contracted out to a private contractor (as the story goes).  Propulsion was specifically mentioned in the original public AAWSAP solicitation posting among others. The entire scope included:

1. lift; 2. propulsion ; 3. control; 4. power generation; 5. spatial/temporal translation; 6. materials; 7. configuration, structure; 8. signature reduction (optical, infrared, radiofrequency, acoustic); 9. human interface; 10. human effects; 11. armament 

I do not propose there is a connection, but I have learned in twenty years of researching government secrets, that usually history repeats itself, and to verify something, one just needs to look at documents that have surfaced from past projects. This shows a bit of history with advanced technology research and projecting technology through a 40 year time frame.  Nearly all of the confirmed, and verifiable documents, show this was more of the aim to AAWSAP/AATIP, rather than UFOs specifically (though we know it was an aspect).

Project Outgrowth also pursued “fringe” scientific elements (referred to in the Project Outgrowth document as “Unknown Sciences) that went along with the nuts and bolts of propulsion. According to the study, this would include “psychic forces” and “psychokinesis.”

The document outlines that Project Outgrowth evaluated various aspects of advanced propulsion, like psychokinesis, or the movement of objects by mental forces; tachyon propulsion, or the harnessing of faster-than-light particles; and natural electric energy, or the understanding the difference (and tapping thereof) of the energy between the planet earth and clouds or between the earth and a missile. These “fringe” elements of science very much coincide with the study that would take place nearly 40 years later — very much like the AATIP “DIRD” reports showed  they pursued as well.

I filed various FOIA requests for documents on this study. You will find what has become available below, and more will be added, should they come up.

Document Archive

Project Outgrowth Documents

Advanced Propulsion Concepts — Project Outgrowth, June 1972 [274 Pages, 23MB]

Wernher Von Braun Warns… And Advanced Propulsion Concepts Project Outgrowth, 1973 [15 Pages, 5MB]

The above document was forwarded to the CIA, along with many others. Below, is the formal reference to the translated information, though the full text does not reside in the CIA files or the CREST database. I tracked down the full report, which was requested via FOIA from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) and is available at the above link.

When I posted the Wernher Von Braun Warns… And Advanced Propulsion Concepts Project Outgrowth, 1973 [15 Pages, 5MB] above, Reddit user kinch07 submitted some excellent additional information on this German publication that was archived by WPAFB and disseminated widely. They submitted the following, and with permission, I have reprinted it here for those interested:

“UFO Nachrichte[n]” which has the “n” missing in the transcript literally translates to “UFO News”. It was a “tabloid newspaper type magazine published by DUIST” which translates to German UFO Studies Community (Deutsche UFO-Studiengemeinschaft). DUIST existed from 1956 until 1988 and was founded by Karl L. Veit and Anny Veit.

Examples UFO-Nachrichten 1973-1975, they even have issue Nr. 200 on sale https://www.afushop.se/store/p/0/ufo-nachrichten-(1973-1975)-378122

Modern Homepage of UFO-nachrichten, looks quite terrible to me

DUIST Info, german

Researchers hunt for missing DUIST Archive, grenzwissenschaften also german

Other Documents of Interest

In 1983, more than 11 years after the above document was published, Princeton Combustion Research Laboratories, under contract with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), created the below study on space propulsion. They make reference to the research of Project Outgrowth, showing the connection between projected advanced propulsion studies, and that of deep space travel, also very much like the AATIP “DIRD” reports showed.

Space Propulsion by Intermittent Combustion [64 Pages, 2.7MB]

The post Project Outgrowth – 1970 Study on Major Propulsion Developments first appeared on The Black Vault.

Introduction as published in the document:

ISIL regularly uses social media and frequently receives coverage In news outlets. This guide enables the use of domestic and foreign websltes directly associated to the group. Most documents created or containing official ISIL Information will not likely be seen on the surface web.

Remember that research Is an iterative process and not accomplished In a single shot. Try different search terms, parameters, and language (English, French, and Arable}. When conducting OS INT research, do not login Into any social media platforms with either your personal account or a generic account. Also, do not contact any Individual you observe, like or follow any posts or groups that the individual is a part of nor the Individual himself. Stay passive and only observe. Do not visit any foreign website using an account attributed to any U.S. government or DoD IP address.

Document Archive

 ISIL Research Guide, September 2014 [9 Pages, 2.7MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/terrorism/ISILResearchGuide-usmc.pdf

The post ISIL Research Guide, September 2014 first appeared on The Black Vault.

West Desert Test Center (WDTC) is the testing area for US Army Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) and is designated as the US Army’s Major Range and Test Facility Base for chemical and biological defense testing. WDTC specializes in planning, conducting, and analyzing results of developmental and production tests. Areas of expertise include chemical and biological (CB) defense, smoke and obscurants, materiel and delivery systems, munitions and incendiary devices, meteorological research and modeling, environmental characterization and remediation technology testing, and technology transfer to include specialized hands-on CB training for military and civil support teams.

DPG is part of the US Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC). The WDTC is ATEC’s testing activity at Dugway. ATEC also includes Aberdeen Test Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland; Electronic Proving Ground, Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Redstone Test Center, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; White Sands Test Center, White Sands Test Center, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; and Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.

WDTC is organized into specialized divisions that work together to accomplish the mission. WDTC features a diverse and dedicated team of scientists, chemists, microbiologists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel who specialize in developmental test and evaluation.

WDTC’s divisions include:

• Chemical Test Division – Testing of chemical defense and decontamination systems and methodologies
• Data Management Division – Information technology systems management, data planning and analysis, programming and software development
• Life Sciences Division – Testing of biological defense systems, biosurveillance and medical countermeasures testing, production of biological testing materials
• Meteorology Division – Meteorological and climatological support, forecasting, meteorology project management
• Special Programs Division – Non-acquisition chem/bio testing, advanced training for civilian and military first responders, other advanced training programs

Below you will find report bibliographies of their technical reports. These were obtained by myself and some by GovernmentAttic.org. They are archived here for reference.

Document Archive

 West Desert Test Center / Dugway Proving Ground Technical Report Bibliography, 1950-1960 [350 Pages, 8.9MB] – Special Thanks: GovernmentAttic.org

 West Desert Test Center / Dugway Proving Ground Technical Report Bibliography, 1961-1965 [2,328 Pages, 13.5MB] – Special Thanks: GovernmentAttic.org

 West Desert Test Center / Dugway Proving Ground Technical Report Bibliography, 1966-1969 [24 Pages, 1.2MB]

The post West Desert Test Center / Dugway Proving Ground Technical Report Listings first appeared on The Black Vault.

General Document Research Guides

Government Manual, United States, 2009-2010 [750 Pages, 2.8MB]

Investigators’ Guide to Sources of Information, April 1997 [750 Pages, 580 kb] – This 1997 Investigators’ Guide to Sources of Information is published as a service to the investigative community by GAO’s Office of Special Investigations. It is intended to be a useful investigative tool for identifying sources of information about people, property, business, and finance. This year’s guide is organized so that all of the information about a single source is located in a single definitive category. An index has been addedto locate sources of information about a topic that may be discussed inone or more places in the guide. Finally, to make the guide useful in an increasingly electronic environment, we have added Internet addresses wherever possible and a chapter on how to use the Internet to gather information valuable to the investigative process.

Guide to Air Force Historical Literature, 1943-1983, 1985 [260 Pages, 21MB]

A Reference Guide to Selected Historical Documents Relating to the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, 1931 – 1985 [114 Pages, 76MB]

Transfer Logs

National Security Agency (NSA) Transfer of Documents to National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) in June 2012 [6 Pages, 1.1MB] – This document indexes the transfer of documents from the NSA to NARA in June of 2012. You will find page counts, document/report titles, accession numbers and classification at the time of transfer.

Financial Crisis Inquiry Center (FCIC) Transfer of Documents to National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) in 2011 [24 Pages, 3.7MB] – The commission was established to research, analyze, and report on the causes of the financial crisis originating in 2006.  These NARA records detail the current accession and disposition of the Financial Crisis inquiry Commission (FCIC) records.

The post Research Guides & Document Transfers first appeared on The Black Vault.

The following is the background information on CREST, as supplied by the CIA.

The automatic declassification provisions of Executive Order 13256 (formerly EO 12958, as amended) require the declassification of nonexempt historically valuable records 25 years or older. The EO was originally issued in April 1995 and via amendment established 31 December 2006 as the first major deadline for automatic declassification under the “25-year program”.  By that date, agencies were to have completed the review of all hardcopy documents determined to contain exclusively their equities.  For CIA, the 2006 deadline covered the span of relevant documents originally dating from the establishment of the CIA after WWII through 1981.

The requirement to automatically declassify records 25 years or older “rolls” forward one year at a time.  For example, by 31 December 2012, permanent records through 31 December 1987 were automatically declassified, unless appropriately exempted under the guidelines of the EO.  In this regard, CIA maintains a program operating out of the CIA Declassification Center to review records under the purview of EO 13526 before they reach their automatic declassification deadline.

CREST

Since 2000, CIA has installed and maintained an electronic full-text searchable system, which it has named CREST (the CIA Records Search Tool), at NARA II in College Park, Maryland. The CREST system is the publically accessible repository of the subset of CIA records reviewed under the 25-year program in electronic format (manually reviewed and released records are accessioned directly into the National Archives in their original format). Over 11 million pages have been released in electronic format and reside on the CREST database, from which researchers have printed about 1.1 million pages.

In order to directly access CREST, a researcher must visit the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. CIA recognizes that such visits may be inconvienent and present an obstacle to many researchers. Therefore, this website provides researchers with an online CREST Finding Aid to research the availability of CIA documents declassified and loaded on CREST. In certain cases, as described below, PDF document images are also available.

Title: The title listed will be the formal title of a report or the stated subject of a memorandum. However, the title maybe the best attempt by Agency indexers to identify documents without clear formal titles such as cables, letters, written notes, and other forms of communication and correspondence. In such cases, the title may include reference to the type of document, originator, recipient, location, etc.

Doc No./ESDN: The Electronic Standard Document Number (ESDN) is the internal Agency tracking number which should be used when submitting a FOIA request.

With each rolling year, CIA will continue to release documents on CREST that are 25-years old or older in compliance with the provisions of the Executive Order.

CREST Manuals

In April of 2014, I requested all CIA manuals that pertain to CREST. I was supplied with the below document.

 CREST User’s Manual, 2008 Version [80 Pages, 9.3MB]

 CREST Executive Overview, 2008 Version [15 Pages, 1.7MB]

 CREST Quick Reference Guide, 2008 Version [7 Pages, 1.2MB]

 CREST User Training, 2008 Version [26 Pages, 2.6MB]

The post The CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) Manuals and Procedures first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to the online news site FCW.com:

By Adam Mazmanian

The National Security Agency just released “Untangling the Web,” an unclassified how-to guide to Internet search. It’s a sprawling document, clocking in at over 650 pages, and is the product of many years of research and updating by a NSA information specialist whose name is redacted on the official release, but who is identified as Robyn Winder of the Center for Digital Content on the Freedom of Information Act request that led to its release.

It’ is a droll document on many levels. First and foremost, it’s funny to think of officials who control some of the most sophisticated supercomputers and satellites ever invented turning to a .pdf file for tricks on how to track down domain name system information on an enemy website. But “Untangling the Web” isn’t for code-breakers or wire-tappers. The target audience seems to be staffers looking for basic factual information, like the preferred spelling of Kazakhstan, or telephonic prefix information for East Timor.

Still, the author seems unable to resist frequent allusions to the cloak-and-dagger work of the NSA in the screen grabs she uses as illustrations. A demo of how to uses Windows Live Search features a request for information on Uranium-235. A how-to on the use of video aggregator Blinkx is keyed to a search for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The domain-lookup function of the WHOIS database is explained with a look at the DNS information of security firm Kaspersky Labs. Instructions on a complicated Google feature that allows users to view pages returned in searches stripped of any images is based on a search for DPRK.

Perhaps by using this technique, an NSA searcher could get info from the North Korean government website without tell-tale pings to the host network. But it seems unlikely that the puzzle-masters and cryptographers at NSA would find themselves in that sort of predicament.

It was last updated in February 2007, and the six year lag gives “Untangling the Web” the feel of an unearthed time capsule. In 2007, before the financial crisis, there was a mini-boom in specialized search, and this is reflected in the many now-defunct search services that are listed in the guide. The author, clearly a seasoned web searcher, has strong opinions about the utility and futility of certain techniques, and goes out of her way to tsk-tsk the “mess” that was Yahoo’s front page at the time.

The document contains some very useful information on searching the semantic or deep web – the disjointed mass of information and documents buried in databases that typically don’t show up in Internet searches, and these are worth a read for people interested in snooping for spreadsheets, slide decks, and documents that businesses, governments, and large institutions may have made available online inadvertently.

Source and special thanks to: http://fcw.com/articles/2013/05/10/nsa-untangling-web.aspx

1. Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research [650 Pages, 313.5 MB]

The post Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research first appeared on The Black Vault.

Since 1954, the center has had the goal of protecting America’s livestock from animal diseases. During the Cold War a secret biological weapons program targeting livestock was conducted at the site. This program has been the subject of controversy.

Declassified Documents

 The National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility: Issues for Congress, 19 May 2008 [25 Pages, 0.3MB] – The agricultural and food infrastructure of the United States is potentially susceptible to terrorist attack using biological pathogens. In addition to the impacts of such an attack on the economy, some animal diseases could potentially be transmitted to humans. These diseases are known as zoonotic diseases. Scientific and medical research on plant and animal diseases may lead to the discovery and development of new diagnostics and countermeasures, reducing the risk and impact of a successful terrorist attack. To safeguard the United States against animal disease, Congress has appropriated funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to engage in research at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), off the coast of New York, on animal diseases not native to the United States. When creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, Congress transferred the PIADC facility from USDA to DHS. Both USDA and DHS, in cooperation with USDA, conduct foreign animal disease research at PIADC, but PIADC has been identified as outdated and too limited to continue as the primary facility for this research.

Department of Homeland Security Records

I requested a copy of all documents that contain the lists of pathogens which are currently (as of 2013) stored or studied at Plum Island Animal Disease Center.  The below was their response:

 Final Response Letter to FOIA [2 Pages, 0.19MB]

 Inventory Sheet for FOIA Case 2013-STFO-023 [1 Page, 0.1MB]

 Lab Animals Buyers Guide [2 Pages, 0.11MB]

 Department Of Homeland Security Plum Island Animal Disease Center Research Publications 2008-2011 [11 Pages, 0.4MB]

 Plum Island Animal Disease Center Research Reprints 1955-Present [102 Pages, 38.37MB]

The post Plum Island Animal Disease Center first appeared on The Black Vault.