The UAP Researcher’s Guide to the CIA’s Directorate of Science & Technology

37 min read2 days ago

A major source for this research was The Wizards of Langley by Jeffrey Richelson. Let’s get into it.

AAWSAP TECH TRANSFER

It’s been alleged by multiple sources that an individual at the CIA blocked the transfer of recovered UAP materials from Lockheed Martin to Bigelow Aerospace during the AAWSAP era. I’ll quote here from a bombshell article released recently from the Liberation Times, where Chris Sharp writes:

Multiple sources informed Liberation Times that these material transfer efforts were blocked by former CIA Director of Science and Technology, Glenn Gaffney, when he held the position.
Gaffney’s alleged interference in the material transfer left those involved — including the now-deceased James Ryder, former Vice President of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, who is said to have led efforts within Lockheed Martin — feeling threatened due to the harshness of exchanges with CIA officials.
Ultimately, Liberation Times understands that the transfer was blocked by Gaffney, as the CIA’s Directorate of Technology remains the original custodian of the alleged non-human materials, which Lockheed Martin may still possess to this day.

OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE

As we begin diving into the history of the Directorate of Science & Technology, I want to first point you to the Intelligence Advisory Committee. From 1947–1958, a number of IAC-directed committees and subcommittees oversaw the collection of Science & Technology intel derived from the military’s Foreign Material Exploitation Programs.

The Scientific Intelligence Committee was formed in 1949 by directive from the Director of Central Intelligence, Roscoe Hillenkoeter (who would later sit on NICAP’s board), and approved by the IAC. The SIC was chaired by a CIA representative, and the Atomic Energy Commission, State Department, Army, Navy, and Air Force each had their own reps. Interestingly, the services were opposed to the CIA’s involvement in military intel gathering at this time.

The same year, the CIA’s own Office of Scientific Intelligence came into play, merging the Nuclear Energy Group of the Office of Special Operations (a predecessor to the Directorate of Operations) with the Scientific Branch in the Office of Reports and Estimates. The Nuclear Energy Group was originally composed of members of the Manhattan Project’s Foreign Intelligence Section.

H. Marshall Chadwell took on the position of Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence in 1950, coming over from the Atomic Energy Commission’s New York Office. Chadwell believed the issue of UFOs to be of such great importance “that it should be brought to the attention of the National Security Council, in order that a community-wide coordinated effort towards a solution may be initiated.” Richard Dolan has an entire section dedicated to “Chadwell and UFOs” in the first volume of UFOs and the National Security State.

In 1952, Chadwell briefed the IAC on the UAP situation. It concluded that the Director of Central Intelligence should “enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories”. In 1953, he helped organize the infamous Robertson Panel meeting. The panel concluded that the phenomenon posed no threat to national security, and recommended the initiation of a campaign to reduce public interest in the subject.

DIRECTORATE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OSI was incorporated into the Deputy Directorate for Research in 1962, which was renamed the (Deputy) Directorate of Science & Technology in 1963. The Nuclear Energy Division would eventually be absorbed by the Office of Scientific and Weapons Research (OSWR), which was formed in 1980 through a merger of OSI with the Office of Weapons Intelligence (OWI). Two heads of the Agency’s Weird Desk, Kit Green and Ron Pandolfi, were analysts in this office. OSWR would become the Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center (WINPAC), and WINPAC morphed into what is known today as the Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center (WCPMC).

Of interest from the infamous 177-page briefing document created for the General Accountability Office of the United States Congress:

(PUBLIC DOMAIN) — 20 December 2022 — Ret. CIA official John Ramirez states several new pieces of information in an interview including: that he was told of a compartmented area of the Navy as sensitive as the Manhattan project that may be UAP related; he heard rumors of a relationship between ONR and CIA OSWR/WINPAC where USO materials were recovered and transferred to CIA; and that NGA has the most UAP evidence in the form of videos. Ramirez also states dialogue inside the USG from official channels he heard states UAP occupants/factions will arrive in 2027 and “we need to prepare.”

On WCPMC, Liberation Times states:

According to multiple sources, the CIA’s WCPMC has allegedly played a key role in UAP missions, and has historically provided analytical expertise on exotic, non-human materials.
While it does not directly participate in the operational component of current retrieval and reverse engineering efforts — coordinated by the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology and Directorate of Operations — it remains an integral source of intelligence.
Sources tell Liberation Times that the WCPMC receives space-based technical intelligence from National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) assets, along with technical analysis from DoD combat support agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Security Agency (NSA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). This includes signals intelligence, measurement and signature intelligence, and geospatial intelligence.
The sources also tell Liberation Times that the WCPMC collects and analyses UAP data from all domains, including aerospace, space and undersea domains. Of note, the CIA’s current Chief Operating Officer, Maura Burns — who manages the CIA on a day-to-day basis — previously served as Assistant Director of WCPMC, before earning a promotion in 2021.
A source connected with the Intelligence Community told Liberation Times that the WCPMC served as the CIA’s primary liaison to the UAPTF.

DEPUTY DIRECTORS

Herbert J. Scoville (April 15, 1962-June 17, 1963)

Scoville was named Assistant Director, Scientific Intelligence (AD/SI) and Director, Office of Scientific Intelligence (D/OSI) in August 1955. Prior to joining the agency, he had been the technical director of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) since 1948. The Deputy Directorate for Research (DDR, later renamed DS&T) was created in 1962 and Scoville was placed at the helm. He and his deputy, USAF Colonel Edward Giller, formed the Office of Research & Development. Giller would serve as ORD’s first director. ORD, which housed Project OFTEN, had a working relationship with the so-called Collins Elite.

Declassified documents show that Scoville had an interest in UFOs.

On January 9, 1956, Scoville wrote a Memorandum for the Record delineating “Office Responsibilities for Non-Conventional Types of Air Vehicles”.

Albert D. (Bud) Wheelon (August 5, 1963-September 26, 1966)

After a brief stint at Douglas Aircraft, Wheelon joined TRW in 1953. There, he helped develop the USA’s first ICBM and was “an important contributor to the company’s work for the Central Intelligence Agency.” He started at the CIA in 1962, taking over as AD/SI and D/OSI before becoming its first Deputy Director for Science & Technology in 1963. Wheelon played key roles in the oversight of U-2 reconnaissance ops, as well as the development of the A-12 Oxcart, SR-71 Blackbird, and the first spy satellites under codename CORONA. He became a VP at Hughes Aircraft in 1966 and retired as chairman and CEO in 1988.

In 1966, Wheelon, along with future deputy directors Carl Duckett and Les Dirks, selected the site for what is now the Joint Defense Facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs, Australia.

On February 1965, Wheelon signed off on a memo to the Director of Central Intelligence concerning the “Evaluation of UFOs”.

Carl E. Duckett ((Acting) September 26, 1966-April 20, 1967; April 20, 1967-June 1, 1976)

Duckett was involved in the development of early satellite tech at Westinghouse Electric. During his time in the military, he served at White Sands Proving Ground then at the US Army’s Missile Command at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama (the same path followed by Wernher von Braun’s team). Upon joining the CIA, he was appointed FMSAC’s director. Duckett was named Assistant Deputy Director for Science & Technology in May 1966 before ultimately becoming Deputy Director later that year.

Richelson describes the origin of the FMSAC, established under Wheelon in 1963, with some intriguing details about future DDS&T Evan Hineman:

After the war, Duckett was assigned to White Sands Proving Ground and became involved in missile testing and telemetry analysis. From White Sands he moved on to Huntsville to work on range instrumentation. In 1957, he was brought to Washington as part of the JAM SESSION program.
Among those Duckett brought into FMSAC were David Brandwein, a veteran of TRW and EARSHOT, who would succeed Duckett as FMSAC director; M. Corley Wonus, a future head of the directorate’s SIGINT operations; and future DS&T chief R. Evans Hineman (commonly referred to as Evan Hineman). In 1956, Hineman, having obtained his degree in mechanical engineering and completed his Reserve Officer Training Course, was headed for two years of Army service. A course in technical intelligence, which he considered preferable to the alternative of learning to repair tanks, was followed by assignment to the Army missile intelligence unit at Huntsville. In his two years there, he had an inside view of Soviet space and missile efforts and was called on to brief notables such as Wernher von Braun and General John Medaris, head of the Army’s missile program.
When his two years at Huntsville were up, Hineman joined the Army Ordnance Technical Intelligence Agency at Arlington Hall, Virginia — an organization that would become part of the Army’s Foreign Science and Technology Center (FSTC) when it was formed in 1962. Hineman first met Carl Duckett around 1960. When Duckett was subsequently put in charge of the Army’s missile intelligence effort, he tried to get Hineman to come back to Huntsville, but both Hineman and his wife felt they had seen enough of the Alabama town. When he became head of FMSAC, Duckett called again, and this time, Hineman signed up. Not everyone was as enthusiastic about FMSAC as Wheelon, Duckett, and Hineman. Among the least enamored were two powerful Air Force generals, Bernard Schriever, head of the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) and chief of staff Curtis LeMay. In September 1963, LeMay had been alerted of Wheelon’s plans in a letter from Schriever’s deputy. In December, after the center’s creation and a briefing from Wheelon and Duckett, Schriever wrote to LeMay, urging that “immediate action should be taken to slow down or block CIA action to duplicate DOD missile and space intelligence.” By “DOD” Schriever meant “FTD,” which reported to his Systems Command.

When the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office was in its infancy, Duckett was the one to brief the NSC’s Executive Committee on its framework. From The Taking of K-129 by Josh Dean:

On August 8, 1969, Carl Duckett outlined the framework for NURO to the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, better known as ExCom, a small, shadowy advisory group formed by Kennedy in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which met whenever a major foreign policy decision was at hand. The organization the Agency was proposing, Duckett explained, would be based on the model of the NRO, which had been successful in its mission of overseeing and distributing intelligence gathered by aerial surveillance. The submarine recovery would be NURO’s first program, but the idea was that other underwater espionage operations would surely follow, particularly if this was successful, and NURO could shepherd those, too.

Duckett maneuvered to wrangle control of NURO from the Navy:

NURO was supposed to be divided evenly between Navy and CIA staﬀers. At its top ranks, it was. Its director was John Warner, Nixon’s new secretary of the Navy. Bradley would be staﬀ director. Heading up the CIA end was Carl Duckett, its deputy director for science and technology. But from the day NURO was formed, the CIA took charge. Bradley could spare only a few people for the new oﬀice. His entire staﬀ in the undersea part of Naval Intelligence numbered only about a dozen. The CIA, however, had no such constraints. It moved in with eight permanent staﬀers and more consultants loyal to the agency. Worse, it was becoming increasingly clear to Bradley and Craven that the CIA couldn’t tell a submarine from an underwater mountain.

The Liberation Times has alleged that NURO is involved in underwater retrieval operations, some of which involve non-human technologies:

Liberation Times has uncovered details of an alleged program focused on retrieving advanced crafts from beneath the sea, some reportedly of non-human or unknown origin. This alleged program draws on multiple agencies and departments’ specialised assets and expertise to carry out these missions.
Among those involved are the Maritime Branch of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, the U.S. Navy, the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office (jointly operated by the Navy and CIA), and United States Special Operations Command.

A declassified memo addressed to Mr. Duckett from [redacted] asks for his confirmation of a meeting scheduled to “discuss the UFO problem” on July 19, 1967.

Rutledge P. Hazzard (1973–1978)

Hazzard is missing from Richelson’s list of deputy directors, but a page on the NGA’s official website describes him as joining the Central Intelligence Agency as its Director of Science and Technology in 1973. Prior to his CIA career, Hazzard held various project management positions at Redstone Arsenal. One June 30, 1978, he was appointed director of NPIC, a heritage organization of the NGA, and stayed in that role until February 20, 1984.

Hazzard is one of the individuals named in a court case filed by Ground Saucer Watch in 1981:

Ground Saucer Watch does, however, contest the conclusion that it failed to raise a substantial and material question about the CIA’s good faith. Its argument on this point defines the issue before us: Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to appellant, can it be said that the CIA affidavits left no substantial and material fact to be determined and that appellees were entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law?
The CIA released the materials to appellant on December 14, 1978. Affidavits explaining its search procedures, together with indices to the uncovered documents, were filed with the District Court on February 26, 1979. The affidavits were by George Owens, CIA Information and Privacy Act Coordinator; Robert Owen, Directorate of Operations documents; Karl Weber, Office of Scientific Intelligence documents; Sidney Stembridge, Office of Security documents; and Rutledge Hazzard, Directorate of Science Technology documents.”

Leslie C. Dirks (June 1, 1976-July 3, 1982)

While studying at MIT in the late 1950s, Dirks worked as an analyst and researcher at Raytheon, Ewen Knight Corporation, and EG&G. He joined the OSI in 1961 and went on to become Deputy Director of Special Projects in 1971. The Office of Special Projects was renamed the Office of Development & Engineering (OD&E) in 1973. He was appointed DDS&T after a stint as OD&E’s Director from April 23, 1973 to May 23, 1976.

Following his retirement from the CIA, Dirks joined the Hughes Aircraft Communications Satellite Organization, headed at the time by Wheelon.

A memo of interest from his time as deputy director is quoted in a 1979 New York Times article:

Another memo, dated July 14, [1976] and routed to the deputy chief in the Office of Development and Engineering, reads: “As you may recall, I mentioned my own interest in the subject as well as the fact that DCD [Domestic Collection Division] has been receiving U.F.O. related material from many of our S & T [Science and Technology] sources who are presently conducting related research. These scientists include some who have been associated with the Agency for years and whose credentials remove them from the ‘nut’ variety.”

Richard Evans Hineman (July 3, 1982-September 5, 1989)

In a phone call between Admiral Bobby Ray Inman and NASA Mission Specialist Bob Oechsler in 1989, Hineman is named as the man to talk to about recovered nonhuman crafts.

ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN: The Deputy Director for Science and Technology at CIA is named Everett [sic] Hineman. He is in fact getting ready to retire in the very near future. That may make him somewhat more willing to have dialogues than he otherwise would have had. When I knew him in the period seven to ten years ago, he was a person of very substantial integrity and just good common sense. So as a place to start he would clearly be high on the list. In the retired community of those who nonetheless were exposed to the intelligence business and stayed reasonably close to it, there is a retired Rear Admiral, a former director of Naval Intelligence, named Sumner Shapiro, who has been a Vice President of BDM. I think he just retired.
BOB OECHSLER: VDM?
ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN: BDM. It’s a corporation there in the McLean area. His level of competence again is very high, his integrity is very high. Whether he has any knowledge in the areas you are working on I don’t have a clue, because I don’t have any ongoing dialogue with him. But those are at least two thoughts for you that are there in the area where you are located. And who have a prospect of still having some currency. I don’t know that they do. In my case I don’t have any.
BOB OECHSLER: Do you anticipate that any of the recovered vehicles would ever become available for technological research? Outside of the military circles.
ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN: Again, I honestly don’t know. Ten years ago, the answer would have been no. Whether as time has evolved they are beginning to become more open on it — there’s a possibility. Again, Mr. Hineman probably would be the best person to put that kind of question to.

Hineman joined the CIA in 1964 as a scientist in the Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center. In 1973, the Office of Weapons Intelligence was formed through merging “certain functions” of the Office of Scientific Intelligence with FMSAC. Hineman served as OWI’s Deputy Director for three years before becoming Director of Weapons Intelligence in 1976, when OSI and OWI were moved into the Directorate of Intelligence. He became the DI’s Associate Deputy Director in 1980, the same year OSWR was created. He stayed in that position until 1982, when he was named Director of Science & Technology and Director of NRO’s Program B. Following his retirement in 1989, he was named President of TASC following their acquisition by Litton. TASC was eventually purchased by Northrop Grumman, and when Northrop made the decision to sell the consulting group in 2009, Hineman was one of the deal’s advisors along with another former DDS&T Donald Kerr. Hineman also served in executive roles at Mantech International Corporation.

Richelson describes how Hineman overhauled DS&T during his tenure as director:

Hineman sought to break down the barriers between offices in different directorates, particularly between NPIC, the technical service, and development and engineering offices and their consumers in the operations directorate. By 1982, OTS had been outside of the operations directorate for almost a decade and had lost some of its feel for that culture. Both NPIC and OD&E provided support to clandestine operations through the acquisition and analysis of imagery to aid covert action and espionage operations. Hineman arranged for an interchange of staffers from the relevant offices to help improve understanding across the directorate.

A note on the Office of Technical Service — its first director was Sidney Gottlieb of MKULTRA fame. I will explore OTS and its lineage further in a future article.

James V. Hirsch (September 5, 1989-September 5, 1995)

Director, Office of ELINT (D/OEL) (Acting), May 21, 1973-June 14, 1974
Director, Office of Research and Development (D/ORD), June 14, 1974-September 22, 1975
Director, Office of ELINT (D/OEL), September 22, 1975-February 14, 1977
Associate Deputy Director for Science & Technology (AD/DS&T), May 2, 1983-September 5, 1989
Deputy Director for Science & Technology (D/DS&T), September 5, 1989-September 5, 1995

After his initial departure from the agency in 1978, Hirsch found work doing “national security analysis” for BETAC Corporation for an undisclosed amount of time. Before returning in 1983, he’d been involved in “private consulting” for more than a year. BETAC was a major contractor for the so-called Doomsday Project, a Continuity of Government plan. BETAC was acquired by Affiliated Computer Services Inc in 1998 before being absorbed by Lockheed Martin in 2003. In 2016, Leidos (formerly known as SAIC) purchased Lockheed’s IT business for $4.6 billion.

In light of this, I’d like to share some interesting speculation on MJ-12 from John Alexander’s UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities:

The following is speculation, but that clue caused me to think seriously about what such a body as MJ-12 might be involved in. It was Hal Puthoff who pointed me toward what could be the real answer — Continuity of Government or COG. For decades this was one of the most highly guarded secrets in America. Formally initiated under President Eisenhower at the height of the Cold War, COG was designed to prevent nuclear decapitation of the U.S. Government. It would appear that some of those plans remain classified and have been adapted to current counterterrorism circumstances. The point is that in those early post — World War II days, nerves were frayed, tensions were high, and a plan for national survival was needed.

Hirsch had a front row seat to the CIA’s early remote viewing activities:

It was not long before a number of problems developed with the program, including the objection of ORD scientists that the tests being conducted by SRI were not sufficiently rigorous. Such objections were also raised by the broader scientific community. Later in 1974, Puthoff and Targ published some of their remote-viewing experiments in the prestigious science journal Nature. However, an accompanying editorial comment noted that “there was agreement that the paper was weak in design and presentation, to the extent that details given as to the precise way in which the experiment was carried out were disconcertingly vague.” Further, all the referees felt that the details of the various safeguards taken to rule out fraud were “uncomfortably vague.” By the time the paper was published in fall 1974, there were new directors of both OTS and ORD. In August, John McMahon took another step in his rise through the agency, becoming Associate Deputy Director for Administration. He was replaced by former FMSAC head David Brandwein, who was skeptical about the value of the program. Meanwhile, Stevens became Duckett’s deputy in June. He was replaced as head of ORD by James V. Hirsch, who had graduated from MIT with a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1959 and had been lured away from General Electric by the directorate’s ELINT office in 1968. Hirsch told Kress that he could not accept that paranormal capabilities existed, but, realizing his bias, would accept the advice of his staff. That willingness would give the project further life.

An interesting excerpt from Richelson about Pat Price, who carried out an RV investigation of four underground UFO bases in 1973:

Not everyone was as enthusiastic. The experiments were followed by a review by the Operations directorate, OTS, and ORD. ORD project officers felt that the results “were not productive or even competent” and therefore decided to terminate funding to SRI. James Hirsch, then ORD director, later recalled that the experiments were conducted without proper scientific protocols — that CIA officers present during the experiments knew where the code rooms were and thus were subject to the “unconscious elicitation of information.” OTS also ceased funding SRI’s experiments — but it did sign Price to a personal services contract, and Price was assigned to work with an OTS psychologist.

Hirsch executed his own restructuring of the Directorate:

In August 1993, James Hirsch, faced with budgetary and personnel downsizing, effectively reversed one of his and Evan Hineman’s changes, when he established the Office of Technical Collection (OTC). OTC absorbed, in their entirety, the Office of SIGINT Operations and the Office of Special Projects. It also took charge of some of the projects that were assigned to the Office of Technical Service, including some of its clandestine imaging activities. Since the OSP-managed activities had largely been the responsibility of OSO until the special projects office was established in 1987, in one sense the clock had been turned back.

Ruth David (September 15, 1995-September 4, 1998)

David was the mastermind behind a radical shift in the agency and how it dealt with procurements. Along with the woman who would become her successor in leading the directorate, she pushed for the CIA to pursue partnerships in the private sector, getting in on new, innovative technologies during the development stage. During her controversial reign, David established three new offices — the Office of Advanced Projects, the Office of Advanced Analytical Tools, and the Clandestine Information Technology Offices — and abolished the ORD. Prior to joining the agency she worked in various capacities at Sandia National Labs. Upon retirement, she became President and Executive Officer at Analytic Service Inc, also known as ANSER, a think tank similar to RAND, MITRE, and the like.

David made an appearance in Jacques Vallee’s Forbidden Science 5:

In response to a message from Colm, Kit has clarified the rumors reported by Starstream: “This was first written in 2006. Bekkum’s sources are Pandolfi, Paul Murad, Mark Pesses and, in part, me. There was a TIGER discussion, around a coffeepot during a break with the chair, ex-Deputy Director for Science and Technology of the CIA, Dr. Ruth David. Paul Murad was there, and Jim Dearlove [DWO chief scientist], and the sponsor of the TIGER and myself. Bekkum later mis-identified the discussion as part of the official agenda.” He goes on: “Paul (Murad) had just read Colm’s Hunt for the Skinwalker. There had been conversation about Bigelow, led by Pandolfi, who had an office next to Paul, and also Mark Pesses.” Kit stresses: “The Tiger never discussed Bigelow, but there was an unrelated incident in 2008 when I was asked to talk to senior Academy officials with Dr. Ruth David to see if the Tiger would do a BAASS study: The request was that I first check with Ruth, then John Gannon, then the Academy vice-president, and then, if approved in principle, I was to go to Bob and convince him to carve out some dollars from BAASS to Tiger. Ruth and John and I agreed. So did the actual DIA DWO sponsor and boss of Murad. “Very soon after, I spoke to Bob who said reluctantly yes, but it was clear he didn’t want to do it. Jim and Bob, several months later briefed [name withheld] on BAASS. He refused to have anything to do with it, or the proposed Tiger study. Independently, the Academy Board said they wouldn’t accept any money from a private corporation for such a study, and Ruth withdrew support as well.”

Gary L. Smith (April 1, 1999-January 10, 2000)

Smith resigned suddenly only nine months into his tenure as DDS&T “because he wished to resume his retirement.”

Joanne O. Isham ((Acting) September 5, 1998-April 1, 1999; January 10, 2000–2001)

As DDS&T, Isham was pivotal in the creation of the CIA’s nonprofit venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, the “skunkworks” of the intelligence community. She was appointed Associate Deputy Director in November 1997 and began her run as Deputy Director in January 2000. After leaving the agency in 2001, she became Deputy Director of the NGA. Isham also spent a number of years in leadership roles at the NRO. In private industry, her CV includes various leadership roles at ANSER, BAE Systems, High Performance Technologies Inc, and L-1 Identity Solutions.

A 2022 article from The Intercept provides insight about In-Q-Tel and the CIA’s other venture capital activities:

Top leadership for Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, have quietly launched a separate “blank check” fund that stands to fuel astronomical fortunes for former intelligence officials.
In-Q-Tel, which receives funding and directions from the CIA, was founded by the CIA in the late ’90s to spur private sector innovation with the goal of bringing the latest technology to market to fuel America’s covert national security operations. Now, its chief executive and president are taking advantage of the latest stock market fad to create financial windfall for themselves and a small set of former national security officials.
In November, a “special purpose acquisition company,” or SPAC, called Chain Bridge I filed for an initial public offering designed to raise $200 million. The fund, which had little fanfare, was formed by In-Q-Tel’s senior leadership along with a team of retired CIA leaders and technology investors.
SPACs, which have surged in popularity over the last two years, are referred to as “blank check” funds because they allow investors to pool capital in a publicly traded fund, with no underlying assets or business model, for the sole purpose of acquiring a private company. In response to the wave of inadequate disclosure and fraud in the market, the SEC has proposed new rules governing SPACs.

Donald M. Kerr (2001–2005)

It was under Kerr’s watch as deputy director that the Office of Global Access was formed in 2003. A bit of his resume:

Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1979-1985
President and Director, EG&G, 1989-1992
Corporate Executive Vice President and Director, SAIC, 1993-1996
Executive Vice President and Director, SAIC, 1996-1997
Director, Laboratory Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997-2001
Director, National Reconnaissance Office, 2005-2007
Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, 2007-2009

After his retirement in 2009, Kerr served on the Board of Trustees at MITRE, and as Director of Michael Baker International and Orbis Operations. Kerr’s name is among the many found in Oke Shannon’s 1985 ATP-10 meeting notes (written inside of a secure BDM facility).

Kerr was also on the Scientific Advisory Board at CosmosID. In the context of possible alien-human hybridization, John Ramirez describes the company as such:

They’re a company involved in the human genome, involved in bioinformatics. Involved in DNA. Then you look at the company, then you who look at who are the consultants to that company. It’s a who’s who of IC officers. The company was started by someone from the National Science Foundation. So if you go back to FOIA, and you go back to the National Science Foundation and research who these people are, all of a sudden you go, “Oh my gosh. These guys are really well connected."
In fact, one of the officers was CEO of EG&G. EG&G was the parking lot where Eric W. Davis allegedly had his conversation with Admiral Wilson. The EG&G facility in north Las Vegas. The guy who was the CEO of that company, who is the operations maintenance contractor at Area 51, is part of the scientific consultation team for CosmosID.

Moving on now to the AAWSAP-era directors.

Stephanie O’Sullivan (2005–2009)

Quoting from a 2023 article co-authored by Michael Shellenberger:

Stephanie O’Sullivan, a former associate deputy director of the CIA and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), is aware of a UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program, people close to the issue say, but denied its existence to Senator Rubio in a private meeting recently.
The Board of Trustees of the Aerospace Corporation, a US government-funded nonprofit research organization, added O’Sullivan in 2017 and named her acting chair in 2021. The Aerospace Corporation offers technical advice to NASA, the United States Space Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office.
In the past, O’Sullivan worked for TRW, now Northrop Grumman, and the Office of Naval Intelligence. She served as deputy director of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T), the same office worked in by Kit Green, who has suggested to British author Mark Pilkington that the core UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering program is real.
In 2020, the New York Times reported that a man named Eric Davis, who works for Aerospace Corporation, said he gave a classified briefing to the Defense Department about retrievals of “offworld vehicles not made on this earth.”

O’Sullivan also joined the boards of Battelle Memorial Institute, HRL Laboratories (formerly Hughes Research Laboratories) and Huntington Ingalls Industries. She has served as an advisor at Google, Adobe, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (hello, Dr. Kirkpatrick), Noblis, Peraton, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Glenn Gaffney (2009–2015)

Over his 31 year career in the IC, Gaffney held senior positions as the Director of Science and Technology, taking over O’Sullivan’s position in 2009, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection, and the Associate Director of CIA for Talent. He was Associate Deputy Director for S&T from November 2006 to December 2007 under O’Sullivan. He is Chief Strategy Officer at NobleReach Foundation, a new merger formed when Emerge was spun out from In-Q-Tel, where he was VP from 2017–2022. Gaffney also sits on the advisory board at Black Mesa. As discussed at the top, Glenn Gaffney was allegedly responsible for shutting down the divestiture of UAP materials from Lockheed to Bigelow Aerospace.

Dawn Meyerriecks (2015–2021)

Technical Staff, TRW, 1981–1983
Project Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, 1983–1998
Chief Technology Officer, DISA, 1998–2004
Senior Vice President, AOL, 2004–2006
Assistant Director for Acquisition, Technology, and Facilities, ODNI, 2009–2013
Associate Deputy Director of S&T, CIA, 2013–2015

Meyerriecks currently serves in various capacities at MITRE, KnightSwan, Arka Group, Donovan Capital Group, and Google Public Sector, among others.

Of interest from a recent article published in the Liberation Times by Chris Sharp:

To truly uncover the core of these retrieval programs, Congress must begin by focusing on the CIA. Testimony under oath should be obtained from current and former officers in key divisions involved in retrievals of alleged non-human materials, including:
-The Directorate of Science and Technology, particularly the Office of Global Access
-The Directorate of Operations, Special Activities Center — especially its Maritime Department, previously known as the Maritime Branch
-The Directorate of Analysis — previously known as the Directorate of Intelligence
-The Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center.
Key witnesses, such as former CIA Directors and Deputy Directors of the Directorate of Science and Technology — like Dawn Meyerriecks — could provide crucial insights into alleged exotic material retrievals, enabling congressional hearings to cut through the layers of secrecy surrounding these programs.

Her connection to MITRE is intriguing, bearing in mind a recent release of FOIA documents containing records of communication between AARO and USSPACECOM.

Todd Lowery (July 2021-present)

Todd Lowery is the current Deputy Director for Science & Technology. His CV:

Supported the Offices of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Strategy and Policy Planning, 2005–2007
Special Assistant and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, Low-Intensity Conflict, and Integrated Capabilities (SO/LIC&IC), 2007–2011
Senior Adviser to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, 2011–2014
Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, 2015–2017
Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, 2017
Associate Deputy Director of CIA for Science and Technology, 2017–2021

ASSOCIATE DEPUTY DIRECTORS

In this section, I will take a look at some of the Associate Deputy Directors for Science & Technology over the years. The title for this position changed from Assistant to Associate Deputy Director effective May 8, 1973.

Edward B. Giller (1962–1964)

Assistant Deputy Director for Research, June 25, 1962-August 5, 1963
Assistant Deputy Director for Science and Technology, August 5, 1963-May 4, 1964
Director, Office of Research & Development, November 29, 1962-May 4, 1964

Interestingly, Giller later took on the role of USAF coordinator for the Condon Committee. In the early 1950s, he was executive, Weapons Effects Division, and chief, Radar Branch, Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. Giller was USAF liaison to Project Orion, a study concerned with the viability of nuclear pulse propulsion.

Lloyd Lauderdale (June 5, 1967-March 21, 1969)

Lauderdale was known as the “father of RHYOLITE” and spent much of his CIA career in OSI’s Defensive Systems Division. He served as Duckett’s deputy for nearly three years before departing to become one of the founding partners of E-Systems, later acquired by Raytheon.

According to the CIA’s website:

Mr. Lauderdale developed an innovative solution to one of the Intelligence Community’s most critical technical collection problems. His proposal was risky and was one of the most ambitious space initiatives undertaken by CIA. The program was successful and greatly enhanced the nation’s national technical means.

Donald Steininger (November 1, 1969-June 14, 1974)

Steininger joined the CIA in 1969 as Associate Deputy Director for Science & Technology, where he remained until 1974. In the early 1960s, he was assigned as chief of test operations for the first Nike-Zeus ballistic missile program at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and led planning for the Nike antiballistic missile program. In 1962, Dr. Steininger was appointed to the Office of Science and Technology within the Executive Office of the President at the White House. There, he managed technical intelligence collection, ground warfare, and military and civilian space systems, serving on the President’s Science Advisory Committee. After leaving the CIA in 1974, he joined Xerox Corporation where he led the corporate research staff. He was also a member of the Defense Science Board and chaired a panel of consultants to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence starting in 1978.

Sayre Stevens (June 14, 1974-May 17, 1976)

Director, Office of Research and Development (ORD) July 1, 1972-June 14, 1974
Deputy Director for Intelligence, June 1, 1976-October 11, 1977

Stevens began his career as an “all source” analyst working in the Space Division of the Office of Scientific Intelligence. We catch a glimpse of Stevens’ time as D/ORD from Richelson:

The office was, in Stevens’s words, “kind of a Johnny-come-lately research organization” in supporting such operations. It was in severe competition with the “very spooky” technical services unit. Attempts by the research and development office to simply hand off a product to the Operations directorate usually didn’t work, and TSD/OTS would wind up re-engineering ORD’s invention.

Sayre Stevens on the CIA’s remote viewing experiments:

In any case, the summer 1973 experiments were reviewed by Colby, who had replaced Schlesinger as DCI in September; McMahon; and Sayre Stevens, who had become director of ORD in July 1972 and was far less enthusiastic than McMahon about such activities. He even told Duckett he “was out of his mind” to approve such research.* Nevertheless, a jointly funded ORD-OTS program commenced in February 1974. The premise behind the program was that paranormal phenomena such as remote viewing existed; the objective was to develop and exploit them for intelligence purposes. ORD funds were used for research into measurable physiological or psychological characteristics of individuals believed to have psychic capabilities and the establishment of protocols for verifying such abilities. OTS funding was used to assess the operational utility of paranormal capabilities.
*In a 1999 interview, Stevens said he would not assert that such phenomena were impossible, but that as a means of intelligence, they were “useless” and “absolute bullshit.” (Interview with Sayre Stevens, Springfield, Virginia, March 18, 1999.)

Thanks to a lawsuit filed by Peter Gersten of Ground Saucer Watch, hundreds of CIA docs related to UFOs were released in the late 1970s. One April 1976 memo details how urgent information regarding UFOs was hand-delivered to the A/DDS&T at the time:

The document states: ‘We contacted A/DDS&T (Dr [redacted]) to see if he knew of any UFO program and also to answer the questions posed by [redacted].
‘Dr [redacted] exhibited interest in [redacted] which was hand-carried to his office. After a short examination of its contents Dr [redacted] advised us that he would personally look into the matter and get back to us.’”

Stevens’ promotion out of the Directorate leads us to our next Associate Deputy Director. From The Wizards of Langley:

When Duckett departed on June 1, 1976, Leslie Dirks moved up from director of the development and engineering office to take Duckett’s place. Duckett’s deputy, Sayre Stevens, had left a few weeks earlier to become deputy director for intelligence. Replacing Stevens as the directorate’s number-two man was Ernest J. Zellmer, a former submariner, who had served in the Office of Scientific Intelligence under Wheelon and who would play a major role as the directorate’s voice in the National Underwater Reconnaissance Program.

Ernest J. Zellmer (June 1, 1976-September 24, 1979)

Prior to becoming A/DDS&T in 1976, Zellmer served as D/OWI from January 6, 1975 to June 7, 1976.

The National Underwater Reconnaissance Office was formally established on August 19, 1969, its organization modeled after the NRO by John Parangosky with help from Gene Poteat, who had notably headed Project Palladium. According to Josh Dean, Robert Frosch, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development, was named its staff director. Zellmer served as Frosch’s “special assistant”.

A Special Projects Staff was established on July 1, 1969 within Duckett’s DS&T with John Parangosky as its head and Zellmer as his deputy. The unit was responsible for the planning the retrieval of a sunken Soviet submarine and the creation of the Hughes Glomar Explorer under Project Azorian. Zellmer oversaw the project’s day-to-day operations for the next six years.

James H. Taylor (September 24, 1979-September 27, 1982)

Richelson writes the following about Taylor’s time at the agency:

Rather than replace Dirks with his deputy James Taylor, William Casey, who became Ronald Reagan’s first DCI, brought Evan Hineman back from the intelligence directorate, where he was serving as associate deputy director. Taylor stayed on as associate deputy director for science and technology until late September and subsequently become the agency’s executive director. Recruiting a successor for Taylor proved difficult, and the job remained vacant for over six months, when James Hirsch returned to the CIA.

According to an article from the New York Times, Taylor became Executive Director in 1984 following a stint as the CIA’s Inspector General. After his retirement in 1991, he is quoted as saying, “When the Cold War ended, I, like thousands of others, needed to find something useful for my life.”

Gary W. Goodrich (October 16, 1989-December 31, 1995)

Director, Special Projects Staff (SPS), January 18, 1987-October 12, 1987
Director, Office of Special Projects (OSP), October 12, 1987-October 16, 1989

A bit on Goodrich from Richelson:

Just as Bud Wheelon had removed the responsibility for satellites from OSA and created the Special Projects Staff in 1963, Hineman removed the responsibility for emplaced sensors from the other directorate offices and placed it in a new Special Projects Staff in summer 1987. At the beginning of the 1988 fiscal year, it became the Office of Special Projects. The office’s director was “responsible for the development and operational support of [emplaced sensor] systems to collect Measurement and Signature Intelligence, Nuclear and Signals Intelligence.” In order to carry out that mission, the office was to analyze potential targets, plan the operation, develop collective devices appropriate for the specific targets, and provide operational support during deployment. It was headed by a DS&T official, Gary Goodrich. Its chief of operations came from the operations directorate, its Systems Development Group came from the SIGINT and development and engineering units, and its Collection Group came from the Office of SIGINT Operations.

Peter M. Daniher (January 1, 1996-November 12, 1997)

Director, Office of Special Projects (OSP), December 4, 1989-August 26, 1993
Director, Office of Technical Collection (OTC), August 26, 1993-January 1, 1996

An excerpt about Daniher from The Wizards of Langley, linking him to OSWR (later known as WINPAC, then WCPMC):

Daniher had served in the intelligence directorate’s Office of Scientific and Weapons Research (established in 1980 by merging OSI and OWI) and had ambitions to be the Deputy Director for Intelligence. When it became clear to him that he was unlikely to achieve that position, he shifted his focus to the DS&T and became director of the special projects office in October 1989 when Gary W. Goodrich moved up to become Hirsch’s deputy.

James Runyan (2000–2001)

Director (Acting), Office of Technical Collection, May 5, 1997-September 2, 1997
Director, Office of Technical Collection, September 3, 1997-January 10, 2000

Before joining the CIA in 1997, Runyan had spent more than thirty years with the National Security Agency.

Dennis Fitzgerald (June 2001-August 2001)

Systems Analysis Group, CIA OD&E, 1974–1980
Deputy Director, Technology Application Group, CIA OD&E, 1980–1982
Deputy Director for Systems Collection, CIA OD&E, 1982-
Director, Office of Systems Applications, NRO, 1994–1996
Director, CIA OD&E, 1995–2001
Director SIGINT Systems Acquisition and Operations Directorate, NRO, 1996–2001
Deputy Director, NRO, 2001–2006
Principal Deputy Director, NRO, 2006–2007

Fitzgerald joined the S&T Directorate in January 1974. He had previously worked in private industry on Polaris and Poseidon Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Programs as a field engineer for Sperry Gyroscope, Inc and spent some time at Vitro Corporation. In addition to the positions listed above, Fitzgerald held the roles of Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Intelligence Space Technology, Associate Director of NPIC, and Deputy Director of the CIA’s ORD.

Richelson on Fitzgerald:

The bureaucratic loser was Dennis Fitzgerald, who served simultaneously as the head of OD&E and the NRO’s SIGINT directorate, and whose operation of collection systems [sic]. Fitzgerald had been passed over for the top DS&T job twice in a short period of time — first, in favor of Smith, and then in favor of Isham.

Scott F. Large (2001–2003)

Large began his CIA career in 1986, working in the Office of Development and Engineering on advanced spacecraft payloads for the NRO. Before his government service, Large worked in the private sector, where he obtained three patents in fiber optics technology. He joined SRA in 2009 as Senior Vice President and Strategic Advisor. His CV:

Executive Assistant to the Director, NRO, 1994–1995
Deputy Chief for Programs, Technology Management Office, CIA Directorate of Operations, 1998–2000
Director, Clandestine Signals Intelligence Operations Group, CIA Office of Technical Collection, 2000
Deputy Director, CIA Office of Technical Collection, 2000–2001
Director, Imagery Systems Acquisition and Operations Directorate, NRO, 2003–2006
Director, Source Operations and Management, NGA, 2006–2007
Principal Deputy Director, NRO, 2007
Director, Director, NRO, 2007–2009
Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force (Intelligence Space Technology), 2007–2009

Tanya Pemberton

Pemberton is currently the Executive VP of The Aerospace Corporation, a role she began on January 1, 2024. Before this, she was senior vice president of the company’s National Systems Group. Previously, Pemberton served as Chief Information Officer and director of Information Technology Services at the NGA. She has held several senior executive roles over her extensive career, including chief of staff, Associate Deputy Director for Science and Technology, and Director of the Intelligence Community’s Open Source Center. Earlier, she worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, where she managed acquisitions and developments in the Geospatial and Signals Intelligence Directorates. Prior to this, Pemberton was an aerospace engineer at Hughes Space and Communications.

Sean P. Roche (December 2014-October 2015)

Roche joined the agency in 1993 and took on various technical director leadership roles. Within DS&T, he led the offices of Development and Engineering, Technical Collections, Global Access, Integrated Missions, and Mission Resources. According to a 2023 article from the Daily Mail, the Office of Global Access has played a central role in the US government’s UFO crash retrieval program since 2003. He became A/DDS&T in 2014 and was named Associate Deputy Director for Digital Innovation the following year, serving as second-in-command of the agency’s first new directorate in more than five decades.

Douglas Wolfe (2016–2017)

Wolfe served 33 years within the IC, his last position being Associate Deputy Director of Science and Technology. He spent 16 years at the NRO and the CIA’s OD&E. Other notable roles include Deputy Director for Acquisition, Technology, and Facilities at the ODNI and Deputy Director of the Office of Global Access, which Wolfe was key in establishing. He currently resides on the advisory board at TransUnion and oversees operations at BlackLynx.

Andrew Makridis (2017–2018)

Makridis was Chief Operating Officer of the CIA from 2018 to 2022. He began his career as a graduate fellow in the Directorate of Science & Technology, spent four years in the Directorate of Operations, and over a decade in the Directorate of Intelligence. Makridis was the daily intelligence briefer for President George W. Bush. In 2017, at the request of Director Mike Pompeo, he led the investigation into the WikiLeaks data breach (Vault 7), the largest security breach in CIA history, resulting in a major overhaul of the agency’s cybersecurity framework. He served on Director John Brennan’s Agency modernization panel, contributing to the CIA’s most significant reorganization in five decades. Makridis was named the first Director of the Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center before serving Associate Deputy Director for Science & Technology.

Tonya Wilkerson (February 2019-November 2021)

Wilkerson became the Deputy Director of the NGA on January 10, 2022. Her career began at the CIA in the 1990s, where she worked in various technical and operational roles. Later, she held positions as a senior official at the NRO, including as the Director of the Advanced Science and Technology Directorate and Director of the Mission Operations Directorate from 2015 to 2019. In May 2024, Wilkerson was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security. The previous USD(I&S), Ronald Moultrie, was instrumental in establishing AARO and selected Sean Kirkpatrick as the office’s director.

Christopher M. Jones (2021–2024)

Jones was a system engineer at Lockheed Martin from 1994 to 1998, when he joined the Central Intelligence Agency. Over his 25 years at the agency, he served in a number of senior executive roles, eventually becoming Associate Deputy Director for Science & Technology. Jones joined Nightwing as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer in September 2024.