182 



Mr. Weldon. Let's move on to Dr. Baker. And just to clarify for 

 our friend and colleague, Admiral Watkins' testimony included 

 statements from the other four agencies that you referred to. 



We did not have a long enough table to have the other agencies 

 here, but they are all here on the record and Admiral Watkins al- 

 luded to their statements when he made his opening comments. 



So those agencies include NASA, the Geological Survey — and 

 who am I missing, Admiral? 



Admiral Watkins. MMS. 



Mr. Weldon. Right, MS. 



Admiral WATKINS. USGS. 



Mr. Weldon. And EPA, right. Thank you. 



Now, Dr. Baker. 



Dr. Baker. Let me just comment on the meaning of the word 

 MEDEA, the question. 



This grows out of a very strong interest of the Vice President 

 when he was a senator working with the intelligence community, 

 the DOD and the civil community, saying, is there in fact environ- 

 mental data that is in the classified realm that might in fact be 

 valuable if it were made unclassified? 



A group of scientists was formed called the Environmental Task 

 Force, which in fact got the clearances and looked at the possibility 

 of doing this. It turned out to be feasible. And a second group was 

 formed and this second group has the name MEDEA. It's a mythi- 

 cal name which was meant to be somewhat complementary to the 

 name JASON, which is the name for a group of scientists that also 

 advise the DOD on various technical issues. 



So MEDEA is the name for a group of scientists who come from, 

 as was mentioned, private industry, the civil sector, the intelligence 

 sector, various agencies, academia. And they are looking in fact at 

 what can be done with the classified data to make it released? 

 What kind of national security concerns have to be there and so on, 

 exactly addressing the question that you asked. 



Dr. Ballard. Just to point out, MEDEA was Jason's wife in 

 Greek mythology. 



Mr. Olver. Do either of you know where the Golden Fleece was? 



[Laughter.] 



Dr. Ballard. Yes, it was in Georgia, not the U.S., but past So- 

 viet Georgia in the Black Sea. 



Mr. Olver. You're sure of that? 



Dr. Ballard. Pretty much. 



[Laughter.] 



At least that's where they went. 



[Laughter.] 



Mr. Olver. You're sure of that? 



[Laughter.] 



Mr. Weldon. I thank the gentleman for his questions and thank 

 all of our colleagues for attending this very significant hearing 

 today. 



Most of the questions have been answered that I was going to 

 raise. I have a number that I'm going to submit for the record. 



I did want to ask one question about a reference made by Dr. 

 Ballard in regard to the competition in America. Five years ago it 



