| Jason Defense Advisory Group |
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For administrative purposes, Jason's activities are run through the MITRE Corporation , a non-profit corporation in McLean, Virginia that contracts with the defense department. Jason typically performs most of its work during an annual summer study. Its sponsors include the Department of Defense (frequently DARPA and the U.S. Navy ), the Department Of Energy , and the U.S. intelligence community. Most of the resulting Jason reports are classified. The name "JASON" is sometimes explained as an acryonym, standing either for "July-August-September-October-November", the months in which the group would typically meet; or, tongue-in-cheek, for "Junior Achiever, Somewhat Older Now". But neither explanation is right and in fact, the name is not an acronym at all. It's simply a reference to the Greek myth, Jason . The wife of one of the founders thought the name given by the defense department, Project Sunrise, was unimaginative and suggested the group be named for a hero and his search. Jason studies have included a now-mothballed system for communicating with submarines using extremely long radio waves ( Project Seafarer , Project Sanguine ); an astronomical technique for overcoming the atmosphere's distortion; the many problems of missile defense; technologies for verifying compliance with treaties banning nuclear tests; and most controversially, during the Vietnam War, a system of computer-linked sensors that became the precursor to the electronic battlefield. MEMBERSHIP Jason members all have security clearances and consist of physicists, biologists, chemists, oceanographers, mathematicians, and computer scientists. They are selected for their scientific brilliance, and over the years, have included eleven Nobel Prize laureates and several dozen members of the National Academy Of Science . The following is a list of members, past and present, who have been publicly identified as Jasons or whose names appear as authors on Jason studies. Since not all study authors are members of Jason, and since Jason does not give out its membership list, the only way to verify the following list is to ask the individual Jasons.
CONTROVERSY In 2002, Democratic Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey sent letters to key members of the House Of Representatives to protest DARPA's decision to fire Jason. DARPA not only sponsored many of Jason's studies, it was also the channel through which Jason's other sponsors funded Jason. DARPA's decision came after Jason's refusal to allow DARPA to select three new Jason members, two of whom were Silicon Valley execs without PhDs and thus unqualified. Since Jason's birth, its current members have selected its new members. "This selection process maintains Jason's autonomy," Holt wrote, "and ensures that their decisions are not based on any obligation to the Department of Defense. Allowing the Department of Defense to choose JASON's members would compromise the objectivity and independence of the group's advice." Since 2002, funding has been secured from an office higher in the defense hierarchy, the office of the Director of Defence Research and Engineering. RESEARCH A selection of recent Jason studies is offered below. They can be found in an online archive at the Federation Of American Scientists {Link without Title} .
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EXTERNAL LINKS
The Federation of American Scientists link, above, has reliable information, as does this site from the Nautilus Institute
NB: Much of what's on the internet about Jason is a mix of fact, conjecture, and pure fantasy.
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