PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94
A: There's a gray area here. I was certainly aware that
what we were doing in Alamagordo was highly classified and was
well aware, and I guess had been perhaps encouraged to have a
suitable cover story to explain what we were doing.
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Q: So you were encouraged by whom to have a cover story?
A: Probably by James Peoples, who was our scientific
monitoring ••• As you may be aware, there is a former colonel,
later General DuBose, who makes a statement that something was a
cover story. When I read this, I was not at all surprised. I
interpreted that as saying someone was covering up on Mogul.
That was my interpretation when I read what was attributable to
General DuBose. So from his point of view, there were certainly
no threats, but we were aware we weren't supposed to be talking.
Q: so was it Dr. Peoples then who actually actively said
use meteorology as a cover story, or •••
A: I don't remember the details, to be truthful •••
Q: But it was kind of a natural thing to think of in terms
of meteorology?
A: We were careful around NYU with the various technicians
we hired. We kept our knowledge of what we were doing to
ourselves. It's certainly my memory that we were aware that this
was classified, but we weren't threatened. We were just
instructed that this sort of information was not to be passed
out, even though the technical aspects we understood. So the
answer is yes, we very well understood this was classified; and
second, there was no physical threat or anything like that. We
were instructed not to talk about it, and until Todd told me that
Mogul had been declassified I was very reluctant to say anything
about it.
Q: Anywhere. in the early days were you ever aware of
involvement by General LeMay?
A: Not at all.
Q:
group? Not at your level. How about the [AFOAT-1] study
A: I became involved with them later on Project Grab Bag
and others, and I knew a bunch of people in [AFOAT-1] -- Doyle
Northrop ••• I knew that, but later ballooning got even more
heavily involved in various classified things.
Q: Where were your duty locations involved with [AFOAT-1]?
A: Probably at General Mills.
Q: Not ever in Washington?