John Trudel has led an interesting life to say the least. From graduating in an elite level of electronic engineering and research, chasing an elusive doctoral degree, to bouncing around in the back of an airplane in the height of the Vietnam War testing new electronic intelligence and weapons systems in varying Special Operations missions as a civilian. John has found himself as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense, the developer of the first automobile radar detector (a personal huge “Thank You” for that one!), and as a consultant for a number of large, world-wide tech firms. John’s latest endeavors however is one of his favorites; writing.
This week on The Malliard Report John is the featured guest and joins Jim in discussion about the current unrestful state of information security, the growing collection of novels that he has written and one of the most unusual declassified CIA programs to date.
Operation Stargate. No not the movie from 1994 with Kurt Russel and James Spader (while a bit dated, is still actually a halfway decent movie) but rather a classified program ran by the CIA in 1970s through the 1990s in an attempt to use remote viewing to gather intelligence and influence Russian operations. .
Originally falling under a handful of different names (Project Gondola Wish, Grill Flame, Center Lane, Sun Streak, and Scanate) the projects eventually merged together under the Stargate moniker. With a purpose “To provide an overview on remote viewing focusing on definitions, operations, management, participation, benefits, primary and secondary methodologies, categories of taskings, types of targets, and operational methodology” the program studied many different elements to remote viewing. One of the most astounding take aways from this program is that within the actual documents themselves, from the CIA website archives, it states that remote viewing is “ accessing information without the use of: The normal five senses, Information from other people, Logical deductions, Direct connective implementation of electronic or other devices.” Remote viewing is also declared as “A talent which is inherent to every human to some degree. Probably a vestigial form of self-preservation. Largely ignored in today’s societal setting. Through proper training, can be developed to a person’s individual potential”.
The program allegedly ended in 1995 with the results stating that remote viewing should not be used as a “stand alone source” for information but “Remote Viewers can be used as Collectors in Conjunction with other Intelligence Sources Throughout the DoD Intelligence Community [sic].” Pretty crazy huh?
Make sure to head over to www.johntrudel.com to keep up to date with his latest events, order his books, and to follow his blogs. He can be also be reached via Twitter @JohnDTrudel. If you wish to look over the declassified CIA documents on Project Stargate they can be found here: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R003300210001-2.pdf and of course for all things Malliard head over to www.malliard.com or Twitter @Malliard.
