by Jim Manner
staff writer

A Faber man's secret involvement in a government-sponsored team of psychics surfaced last week when the CIA declassified information on its "Stargate" program.

Joseph McMoneagle, 49, of Faber applied psychic abilities to gather intelligence information for various government agencies during his 10-year service with Stargate. The existence of the program and McMoneagle's participation were revealed when the CIA released a study that deemed Stargate to be ineffective in relation to its funding. McMoneagle conducted "remote viewings" — a psychic introspection that attempted to glean information otherwise unavailable to the government.

Remote viewings were conducted by concentrating on a specific person, called a "target," through the use of a photograph. The person's whereabouts would be determined by summoning images through the target's senses, McMoneagle said.

"Remote viewing is a formal scientific protocol using psychic functioning to describe a remote person, place or object that you have never seen before," McMoneagle said.

He and other members of the group, which ranged from about eight to about 15 members, used remote viewings to search for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi; for Americans held prisoner during the Iran hostage crisis, and for plutonium in North Korea.

A specific case in 1988 that proved successful, McMoneagle said, involved the search for kidnapped U.S. Army Brig. Gen. James L. Dozier.

Through the use of remote viewing, the city where Dozier was being held was identified, plus a description of the building and the surrounding area, McMoneagle said.

"The Italians ended up getting the information from a different source at the same time we did, but I'd say that's pretty important stuff," McMoneagle said.

McMoneagle refused to share details on other specific targets chosen by the government. "You've got to understand, many of these were extremely sensitive," he said.

McMoneagle's employment as a government-funded psychic began in 1978. He was recruited for a program entitled "Grillflame," a project founded to delve into applications of the mind for military use, while enlisted in the U.S. Army's intelligence field.

Grillflame was later redesignated as Stargate, McMoneagle said, and from 1978 until his retirement from the Army in 1984 as a chief warrant officer, he conducted remote viewings for more than 300 targets while stationed at Fort Meade, Md. He was "on-call" for the project aafter 1984, he said; the most recent assignment occurred in 1993 for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Management of the project bounced from the auspices of the CIA to the DIA, McMoneagle said. Remote viewing of targets was conducted for numerous government agencies such as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, National Security Agency, and the Secret Service.

McMoneagle became the "target" last week after the release of Stargate's existence. News reporters tracked him to his home in Faber to divine information in a more traditional method.

More than a dozen reporters from local and national newspapers contacted McMoneagle requesting interviews, as well as television crews whose combined call-letters could form an alphabet soup. He continued to answer the phone — ringing on two different telephone numbers — and granted interviews to "set the record straight," McMoneagle said.

The American Research Institute (ARI) compiled the report that debunked Stargate's usefulness. The $20 million price tag for the project, as tallied since its inception in the early 1970's, was too costly for the results it produced, the published report stated.

"I'm really unhappy with the implication that there was nothing of value produced by our work. It wouldn't have lasted 20 years if we weren't productive," McMoneagle said, and later added, "Across the board, we probably had a success rate of 15 to 20 percent."

Stargate was of "critical importance," McMoneagle said. "I'm not at liberty to share details, and that's one of the problems — they didn't share the good stuff."

"A certain amount of scrutiny" is healthy, McMoneagle said, but the ARI report determined its findings without consulting with key members of the project. Criticism of the $20 million funding is "ridiculous" when compared to its actual percentage of the national budget during the entire 20 years, he said,

"In the first year of operation, we saved more money than spent during the whole 20 years," McMoneagle said. "That $20 million wouldn't buy two surface-to-air missiles."

As a "hypothetical examples," McMoneagle said military aircraft could search the Iranian deserts for days searching for SCUD missile launchers. This could cost millions of dollars in operational costs, while remote viewing could determine the answer with minimal investment.

Questioned whether he participated in such searches during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, the tight-lipped McMoneagle responded only with the answer, "probably," and a smile.

Although no longer with Stargate, McMoneagle still plies his psychic trade through his business, Intuitive Intelligence Applications. McMoneagle conducts remote viewings for private businesses and laboratories to advise in searching for oil or investment practices.