DISCLAIMER

The following is a staff memorandum or other working document 
prepared for the members of the Advisory Committee on Human
Radiation Experiments.  It should not be construed as representing
the final conclusions of fact or interpretation of the issues. 
All staff memoranda are subject to revision based on further 
information and analysis.  For conclusions and recommendations of
the Advisory Committee, readers are advised to consult the Final
Report to be published in 1995.



ATTACHMENT D (TAB H)

Staff Memorandum to CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence
Acting Director, dated August 12, 1994.                           

                            graphic



ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS
1726 M STREET, N.W., SUITE 600
WASHINGTON, D.C.  20036


MEMORANDUM

TO:  JOHN PEREIRA, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF   
     INTELLIGENCE, CIA
FR:  GARY M. STERN, SENIOR POLICY AND RESEARCH ANALYST
DA:  August 12, 1994
RE:  CIA RECORDS SEARCH HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS

     This memorandum is pursuant to your request that we
restate our request for CIA records on foreign activities
relating to the work of the Advisory Committee on Human
Radiation Experiments.  In order to understand fully the human
radiation experiments -- both medical and environmental --
conducted by the government during the Cold War, the Advisory
Committee must understand the extent to which the discussion,
development, and conduct of such experiments relied on data
and analysis supplied by the CIA.

     At the first Advisory Committee meeting in April 1994,
the CIA representative stated that the agency had found no
records on "what other agencies were doing in this area."  We
now know that the CIA participated in meetings of the
Department of Defense's Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of
Atomic Warfare, which was formed to coordinate common
interests of the Committees on Medical Science and Atomic
Energy of the Research and Development Board of the Office of
the Secretary of Defense.  The Joint Panel was the central
place in which human experimentation relating to the effects
of atomic weapons and nuclear powered vehicles was developed
and pursued, including biomedical experiments as part of the
atmospheric testing program.  The Joint Panel was also charged
wit obtaining medical intelligence; its founding directive
states that the panel shall obtain "[n]ecessary information
concerning United States and foreign progress, programs,
plans, and budgets in the field of medical aspects of atomic
warfare."  Thus, for example, "a representative of an
intelligence agency" (presumably the CIA) briefed the Joint
Panel in 1951 on the collection of medical intelligence and
solicited "requirements for medical intelligence in the field
of interest of the Panel."

Accordingly, the Committee would like the CIA to provide it
with information that it collected on the activities of the
Soviet Union and other countries relating to medical
intelligence or that may have provided a threat rationale for
U.S. activities such as the Green Run and the human radiation
experiments conducted by other agencies.  This would include,
in addition to any information relating to the activities of
the DOD committees and panels mentioned above,


				 1

information on foreign research activities (including, but not
limited to actual human experiments) into the medical effects
and dangers of nuclear weapons, radiation exposure, and/or any
other military application of nuclear energy -- e.g., nuclear
powered submarines, nuclear powered airplanes, space
exploration, nuclear medicine.

     To the extent the CIA did collect intelligence
information on such foreign activities, we are also interested
in why, and by whom, the agency was tasked to do so.  Thus, we
would like a sampling of records on the "tasking" process for
such information, from the top policy level in the government
down to the operational level in the CIA -- e.g., did the
interests of the Joint Panel lead to the collection of
specific information.

     In addition, the Committee is examining the ethical
policies and practices relating to human experimentation
during the Cold War.  The DOD Committee on Medical Sciences,
of which the CIA was a member, for example, played an active
role in the debate over human experimentation guidelines,
which resulted in the promulgation of the 1953 Secretary of
Defense memo on human experimentation.  The CIA representative
on this Committee apparently came from the Office of
Scientific Intelligence, which was involved in the CIA's early
human behavior experiments prior to MKULTRA.  Accordingly, the
Advisory Committee would like information the CIA has on the
consideration and implementation of ethical guidelines,
including the Nuremburg Code, by U.S. government agencies and
operatives.

     Finally, we would like to encourage the CIA to provide
the Committee with as much information that it can in
unclassified form.  Although many Committee members and some
of the staff will be receiving security clearance and will
therefore be able to review classified information as
necessary, we prefer to operate openly to the greatest extent
possible.  Thus, we prefer that the CIA provide us with
sanitized copies of relevant classified records so that we can
review their substance and them determine the extent to which
further declassification might be necessary. 


				   2