---
alias:
- Project Sun Streak
- SUN STREAK
category: Psi Research Program
created: 2026-09-21
end: 1990-12-31
location: Fort Meade, Maryland
start: 1986
summary: The DIA's special access program for the Fort Meade remote-viewing unit from
  1986 to 1990, twelve billets working 192 projects by 1989, judged by a 1990 counternarcotics
  test to give good data in about a third of cases.
tags:
- Program
- SunStreak
- DIA
- RemoteViewing
- FortMeade
- Counternarcotics
- SpecialAccessProgram
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Sun Streak was the [DIA](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/)'s name for the remote-viewing unit at [Fort Meade](/places/fort-meade/) after it took the Army's [Center Lane](/programs/center-lane/) project. Operational control passed on March 7, 1985, and "this unit was transferred to DIA in 1986 when 12 billets were authorized in the GDIP budget for this activity. A Special Access Program (SAP), SUN STREAK, was established in order to protect identity of the individuals and due to the nature of some of the projects examined." It sat under the Directorate for Scientific and [Technical Intelligence](/concepts/technical-intelligence/), and its viewers appear in its records only by number: 003, 011, 018, 025, 032, 049, 052, 079, 095, 099. Lieutenant Colonel [Brian Buzby](/people/brian-buzby/), the last Army project manager, filed his request for access to the DIA project on May 10, 1985. Its research contract stayed with [SRI](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/), on Army surgeon general's money, until 1990.[^1][^2]

### The Unit

The annual report for 1989 described "the SUN STREAK Prototype Operational Group" as "dedicated to the exploitation of the [Remote Viewing](/concepts/remote-viewing/) (RV) process to determine its potential and effectiveness as a [Human Intelligence (HUMINT)](/concepts/human-intelligence-humint/) collection tool," a group "comprised mainly of professional intelligence officers," whose "results to date reveal the presence of satisfying results, disappointing shortfalls, and quantifiable limitations directly related to the nature of the tasks at hand." Viewers were "cross-trained in both CRV and ERV," [coordinate](/concepts/coordinate-remote-viewing/) and [extended](/concepts/extended-remote-viewing/) remote viewing, with written remote viewing "optional" and its protocol still being drafted; "individual and beacon training searches were conducted during the reporting period with an apparent success rate of about 30%. Efforts to provide predictive data resulted in an apparent success rate ranging from 8 to 12 percent." Members attended a three-day seminar by Discovery Engineering International "to recognize theta states of consciousness through tonal recognition." One experienced viewer was to retire from the Army in June 1990 and another to rotate out in August.[^3]

### Operations

A report of November 1987 on Project 8713, eighteen sessions by four viewers in October against a coordinate target, concluded that "the activity of intelligence interest appears to focus on a foreign-flagged submarine operating from a secretive northern cold weather base and is responsible for tracking the activity of ships and objects launched in space"; Viewer 011 had "perceived this apparatus as originating from a very northern base (like the [USSR](/places/soviet-union/)), traveling through the Bering Straits, south into the Pacific Ocean." In Project 8804, fifteen sessions from August to October 1988 on a building, Viewer 079 placed the target "west southwest of Moscow in the vicinity of Bugulma and Blagoveschensk" and associated it with "the concept of the Blackjack's suitability as a low-level, strategic intelligence gathering platform"; other viewers reported "a turbine or compressor," "jet turbine engines and aircraft thrust," and "massive amounts of contained energy." Project 8808 of 1988 and 1989 was the search for Lieutenant Colonel [William Richard Higgins](/people/william-richard-higgins/) in [Lebanon](/places/lebanon/), described below. Project 8915, eight sessions in May and June 1989 on a site in overhead photography, produced "a compound of structures surrounded by leveled-off, flat, brown land in a foreign country" where "mobile military weapon structures are worked on" and "10-20 'vehicles' at a time are brought in by rail." In Project 8926, seventeen sessions in August and September 1989, one viewer described "cylindrical objects with rounded ends" with "the odor of an obnoxious chemical," one "a 'hydro-bomb,'" and Viewer 032 "a swirling, metallic energy mass rotating in a counter clockwise rotation," later "an information gathering UFO," which the operations officer noted "is considered as being probably incorrect; it was the cause of a viewing distraction which 032 was unable to overcome"; Viewer 018's "drug-related" reading "seems to be the result of interference caused from recent efforts directed against drug-related targets."[^4]

### Project 8718

On November 2 and 3, 1987, four viewers worked a target in [Iran](/places/iran/) from "only the encrypted coordinates." The monitor of viewer 003 wrote that "003 acquired the target with uncanny speed and accuracy: first the percepts of a ship... directly followed by those for a missile," and of viewer 011 that "the monitor did not wish the viewer to perceive these things for fear that it would induce AOL drive of a Persian Gulf scenario. In short, 011 was kept as much in the dark as possible about the nature of the task/target; consequently, the viewing was 'pure.'" Told the next day that the objects "were on a ship," 011 described "a chain of custody": "A ship, carrying missiles, arrives in a port. A long row of trucks is parked opposite the pier. The missiles are off-loaded onto a flatbed truck... The rail cars proceed north a great distance, perhaps hundreds of kilometers... onto a spur which takes them near two large structures, like hangers, located within the security boundary of an airfield. The missiles are stored in one of these structures for a short time and then transported again, this time by air." Shown redacted material afterward, "these were immediately recognized/perceived as corresponding to the areas perceived in the session," and "the highest confidence must be ascribed to the data." Viewer 079, in an extended session, saw "a huge ship" whose "flag on this huge ship was white, green, and red and I reported that it either had a man or animal in the center. After the session, the interviewer showed me that I identified the Iranian flag." No operational report or customer appears in the released file.[^5]

### Project 8806

On January 26, 1988, viewer 079 held a session on [Terry Waite](/people/terry-waite/) under a project numbered 276. The report recorded that 079 "was in fact utilizing a 'pen to write' in a form of channeling" and that "The source of the data was described and identified as 'George.'" The session placed Waite in a "rectangular concrete or stucco building" near "an airport not in use" and held that he would "be returned to neutral territory in August 1988 with two other hostages." A cover note to a [Washington Post](/organizations/washington-post/) article of January 20, 1988, enclosed with the report, recorded that Terry Anderson "will be the last to be released in August" and that "Terry Waite is to be released in August."[^8]

Project 8806 (target 5056) sought the building in Beirut where Waite was held. Its tasking sheet recorded that a "Previous search conducted via WRV revealed the viewer's perspective of the location of Terry Waite in Beirut, Lebanon," and asked the viewers to "Access and describe the location and structure where Terry Waite is currently being held captive," to name a recognizable landmark nearby, and to pinpoint the structure on a map of the city. Viewers 011 and 095 worked the target on February 5, 1988, and viewers 003, 011 and 095 each held a coordinate remote viewing session on February 16. Viewer 011, "Using the horse racing track (335245N/353045E) as a reference point," put the target east of the river, near a church, "in the vicinity of 335340N/353230E (in the BURJ HAMMUD district of the city)"; 095 put it "in the vicinity of the AD DAWRAH district," which the analyst found "very near to that determined by 011's data"; 003 put it "in the vicinity of 335230N/353020E," and the report noted that 003 and 011 both described the target person "sitting, with head in hands." A map of February 18 plotted the viewers' coordinates. On June 3, 1988, viewer 011 placed "a key structure (associated with the target person)" in the Burj Abi Haydar district, and on September 1, 1988, viewer 025 worked Waite as a written remote viewing training target: "When asked for the name, 025 tried phonetically and had a successful try but analytically disgarded information thinking it was not pertinent."[^9]

### Project 8808

Lieutenant Colonel Higgins of the Marines was abducted on February 17, 1988, near Naqurah, "located 15 miles south of Tyre," on his way back to the UNIFIL headquarters, on a coastal track the tasking sheets describe as contested between Hezbollah and Amal. The unit's interim report of February 24 to the Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence covered three viewers' sessions "to determine the extent of" a redacted person's "involvement in the abduction," information "shielded from the remote viewers and maintained by the customer at the DIAC, Bolling AFB": viewer 079 "identified" him "as a 47 to 50 year-old Lebanese christian who served with the Amal forces in a capacity described as 'District Manager', with the rank of Major," who "was not directly involved in the planning or execution of the kidnapping," "has no connections with 'Hezbollah,'" and "considers the US as an exploiter of Lebanon and its people." Sessions ran from February 18, 1988, into June 1989, by viewers 003, 011, 018, 079, 095 and 099, by coordinate, written, solo and "dowsing" methods over map sheets; one was held "in unfamiliar surroundings, at DIA on Bolling AFB," where the viewer "expressed annoyance over sounds from National Airport." On February 19 a viewer placed Higgins "next to BEAUFORT CASTLE"; on February 25 another had him "moved to this present location within the last day or so... blind-folded, hands tied behind his back and placed in a canvas-covered cargo truck," "within an 80 km arc from the point of capture and in an easterly direction." A tasking sheet of May 17 stated that "the intelligence community reportedly has all but given up on the status of LTC Higgins," and, in a passage the scan partly garbles, that DIA's counterterrorism analysts had found the unit's reporting consistent with their own and asked for more; a companion sheet placed him, in the analysts' belief, somewhere in Beirut. On May 21 two viewers described a vessel: 095, tasked to "describe the vessel, aboard which LTC Higgins is held," whose largely illegible transcript begins "in a cramped shaped room" and whose cover sheet reads "Excellent work, high confidence"; 099, "the hold of a fishing vessel which looks something like a tug boat in form," positioned "to the northwest of a small port city (AOL-Tyre)," with "a motorboat/dinghy with four armed men inside" nearby, Higgins's "hands bound in front of him" and his emotions "akin to 'confused contentment.'" A task paper then asked for "additional operational data" on a vessel "located offshore of the coast of Lebanon" "in support of possible follow-up action."[^6]

Through the rest of 1988 and 1989 viewer 079's "summaries of information" gave positions for Higgins and for Waite, Anderson, Thomas Sutherland, Joseph Cicippio, Alann Steen, Edward Tracy, Frank Reed, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and "the Israeli hostages," village by village: on September 29, 1988, "the release of LTC Higgins remains a foregone conclusion. Iran and Iraq peace talks could favorably affect the release"; in later sessions Higgins "is alive, secluded," "continues to be secluded from the other hostages," "appeared to be continually on the move," and Waite "will come out alive based on his own lie." A session that discussed "the Obeid," then a prisoner of the Israelis and "a 'planner' in the kidnapping of LTC Higgins," reported "that the group who claim that LTC Higgins was executed is not the terrorist group who is currently holding him" and that "it could not be determined if LTC Higgins is dead or alive." An undated solo session by viewer 003 "to determine whether USMC LTC William Richard Higgins is dead or alive" reported an "image of a black, lumpy, soft, sticky container leaning against a slope of brown, rough, coarse, pitted rocks... either under water or adjacent/very near water," "an extremely rotten smell," and "LTC Higgins died between 8-10 months after he was captured."[^6]

### Project 9028

On May 21, 1990, for "Requestor Task # JT4-0019-90," three viewers each did one solo session on "a suspected drug smuggling vessel," "a 40-50 foot 'lobster boat' with a white superstructure," which had "departed Barranquilla, [Colombia](/places/colombia/)," for the Netherlands Antilles. Viewer 095 put it "north of Aruba at 1456N/70W" carrying "8-10 kilograms of cocaine" in "a 'metal bubble' welded in place on the port-side of the vessel, near the bow, several feet below the waterline," to be transferred "west of Haiti" on about May 29 for "South of Florida," with the phonetic "keye-yah"; viewer 003 had it "about 60 miles WNW of St. Lucia" with "a fish smell and a quantity of slimy crustaceans aboard," its cargo already unloaded and bound for "the Florida coast SE of Florida City"; viewer 018 had it at "1505N/62W" with "a white, acrid-tasting powder" already transferred "at sea to a much larger ship" for "Galveston or Houston." The project summary: "Three current locations were provided as possible exploitation leads. No action taken. Unable to correlate." The draft report of May 22 gives 095's heading as 238 degrees, the final of May 23 as 338.[^7]

### Counternarcotics

"In 1989 the Military Intelligence Board (MIB) agreed to examine the utility of the project under field conditions involving counternarcotics projects." A review of 192 projects from 1986 to 1989, briefed to the board that year, found that "potential applications exist for certain project types: counternarcotics, counterterrorism, counterintelligence," "limited potential exists for detailed data," and "low potential exists for predictive tasks." In July 1990, for the Army staff, Viewer 018 gave a day-by-day account of drug transfers between vessels with names heard as "Oro Negra," "Bindar," and "Burgon/Burgundy," and "perceived the intercept and seizure of vessel(s) at the transfer point on 7 July 1990"; the report added that "Viewer 018 recently reported the apparent experimental use of the equivalent of a 'psychic shield' to avoid detection. Viewer 018 was instructed not to discuss this finding with anyone," since 018 was Viewer 052's trainer. On September 6, 1990, in Project 90102, Viewer 095 described a cargo vessel whose name "starts with the sounds 'CA LEH,'" carrying "solid, rock-like cocaine" in "a sealed metal compartment in the absolute stern," at a given position off [Central America](/places/central-america/), to be met by a white motor vessel that would carry the drugs to a port near Guaymas, and Viewer 049, for a base station in Mexico, a walled compound whose head, "an older man with graying hair," "frail but ruthless," ran a family associated with "the words 'GARCIA' or 'de GARCIA'" and "the 'Guadalahara Cartel'" and calling itself "SPIDER WEB"; "time sensitive information was reported on 061500L SEP 90 to DAMI-PO via STU-III." The board reviewed the test in September 1990: "Overall, about one third of all projects were judged to have provided data of good quality. This was based on evaluation of 32 projects. Although 104 projects were conducted, weather/operational constraints prevented follow-up for ground truth on the majority of those projects." "The effort at SRI was discontinued in 1990," and under the defense authorization act for fiscal 1991 the program became [Star Gate](/programs/stargate-project/).[^1][^4]

[^1]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Star Gate Project: An Overview," DTI-S-1056-SL, April 30, 1993, CIA-RDP96-00789R002800180001-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Grill Flame volunteer security agreements, consent statements, and counseling statements for Joseph W. McMoneagle (February 8, 1979; October 26, 1979; February 19, 1980), Melvin C. Riley (February 8, 1979), and Robert C. Cowart (June 3 and October 2, 1981), and "Requirement for Access to DIA Sun Streak Project (Brian Buzby)," May 10, 1985, CIA-RDP96-00789R0021001500xx series. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "SUN STREAK - Annual Report 1989," January 17, 1990, CIA-RDP96-00789R001100020014-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Sun Streak operational reports: Project 8713, November 19, 1987 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000200110001-7); Project 8804, October 24, 1988 (CIA-RDP96-00789R001800770001-8); Project 8915, June 1989 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000500200002-3); Project 8926, September 20, 1989 (CIA-RDP96-00789R003500800001-5), with the session report of Viewer 032 of September 6-7, 1989 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000700690001-9); Project 9044, July 1990 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000800340001-6); Project 90102, September 7, 1990 (CIA-RDP96-00789R003600150004-3). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Sun Streak Project 8718, task paper (CIA-RDP96-00789R000200210002-5) and session procedures reports of November 2 and 3, 1987, viewers 003, 011, 018 and 079, CIA-RDP96-00789R000200220001-5 to -008-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "SUN STREAK Operational Report - 8808," February 24, 1988, CIA-RDP96-00789R003400980001-7; Project 8808 task papers and handwritten papers, CIA-RDP96-00789R003400940003-9, -006-6, -012-9, -013-8 and -014-7; session reports of February 19, 1988 (CIA-RDP96-00789R003400600001-8), February 25 (R003401100001-2), February 28 (R003401110001-1), May 21 (R003400590001-0 and R003401310001-9), September 29 (R000400080001-9, read from the page images), and the summaries of information of viewer 079 of 1988 and 1989 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000400780001-2 to R000401000001-6 and R000400960001-2), and the undated solo session on Higgins's death (CIA-RDP96-00789R000401050001-1). Session dates and viewer numbers are as typed on the cover sheets; the handwritten transcripts are largely illegible in OCR. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: Sun Streak Project 9028: tasker and session cover sheets of May 21, 1990 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000900160001-5, -004-2, -005-1); "Feedback on JT4-0019-90 (9028)" (CIA-RDP96-00789R000900160003-3); "SUN STREAK Report - 9028," draft of May 22 (CIA-RDP96-00789R000900160007-9) and final of May 23, 1990, DCSINT-PO (CIA-RDP96-00789R000900190012-0); "Project Summary: Project # 9028" (CIA-RDP96-00789R000900160015-0). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^8]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Sun Streak project 276, session report of viewer 079, January 26, 1988, with enclosures: the Washington Post article of Nora Boustany and the cover note "Enclosure: to report of 079 re 8728 dtd 28 Jan 88," CIA-RDP96-00789R003400580001-1 to -4. The OCR of the session report is partly illegible. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^9]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Sun Streak Project 8806 session reports of February 16, 1988 (viewers 003, 011 and 095: CIA-RDP96-00789R003400090001-5, R003400100001-3, R003400120001-1), June 3, 1988 (viewer 011: R003400150001-8) and September 1, 1988 (viewer 025, training: R001401290001-4), and the location map of February 18, 1988 (R003400160001-7). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.