Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

STAR GATE (OPERATION).From 1972 until the mid-1990s, the

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and some other agencies of the

U.S. government funded parapsychological research, such as remote

viewing, mental telepathy, and extrasensory perception (ESP), at the

Stanford Research Institute and Science Applications International

Corporation. The highly classified project sought to discover the ap-

plications of such methods in clandestine and covert operations. See

alsoOPERATION MKULTRA.

STARLITE (SYSTEM).Starlite is a constellation of radar satellites,

first proposed in 1997, to provide near-continuous, day and night, all-

weather, imaging support to battle commanders in the field. The

acronym stands for Surveillance, Targeting, and Reconnaissance

Satellite, which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (DARPA).

STEPHENSON, WILLIAM SAMUEL (1896–1989).Prior to Amer-

ica’s entry into World War II, Sir William Stephenson, a Canadian

entrepreneur, headed the New York Office of British Security Coordi-

nation and was the representative of Special Operations Executive

(SOE) in Washington, D.C. Stephenson, code-named INTREPID, was

instrumental in pressing President Franklin D. Rooseveltto establish

the coordinator of information (COI) position to coordinate U.S. in-

telligence activities and lobbied for William J. Donovanto head it.

COI Donovan, having recently toured British defenses at the be-

hest of William S. Stephenson and President Roosevelt, had gained

the trust of British prime minister Winston Churchill. When America

entered the war, Donovan became head of the Office of Strategic

Services (OSS), which worked closely with and learned from British

and Canadian intelligence officials. Stephenson was highly regarded

by the Americans who worked with him. In 1946, General Donovan

awarded Sir William Stephenson the Medal for Merit, the highest

civilian decoration awarded by the United States (and never before

awarded to a foreigner). One of William S. Stephenson’s legacies was

that former OSS officers formed the core of the Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA) when established in 1947.

STRATEGIC ARMS LIMITATION TALKS (SALT). These arms

controlnegotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union

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