3/20/2024 0 Comments Hidden spy listening devices![]() “Marchetti’s version is a lot more fun,” said Wallace, but in reality, the cat lived a normal life after the spy gear was removed. On Acoustic Kitty’s first mission-that field test in a park-the cat spy wandered across a street and was promptly run over by a taxi. ![]() In a popular account by Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer and critic of the agency, that’s exactly how the story ends. Innate curiosity may seem like a good trait for espionage, but it’s also known to kill the cat. As a proud cat owner, I could have told them that wouldn’t work.” “Did nobody own a cat? You can't make a cat do anything. “You kind of wonder what they were thinking,” says David Welker, a CIA agency historian. A field test in a public park, likely full of distractions like pigeons and squirrels, proved Acoustic Kitty wasn’t going to work out. But there was a problem–despite its CIA training, Acoustic Kitty had a mind of its own and wasn’t great at staying near its targets. And the technology worked–the cat bug could pick up and transmit conversations. “This was before pacemakers, we weren’t putting electronics into mammals, because it’s a very inhospitable environment–it’s humid, it’s warm, it’s wet.” The cat was just fine, he recalls, although the project manager fainted at the sight of blood. The surgery itself was pretty revolutionary, Wallace says. Then, they wired the microphone to a battery pack under the cat’s loose skin, connected to an external antenna woven through the cat’s long fur. In a minor surgery, a veterinarian inserted a small microphone inside its pointy ear–an excellent natural funnel for directing sound. But what makes an animal a good spy candidate? And do furry and feathery secret agents still have a role to play in espionage today? Curiosity kills the cat?Īcoustic Kitty was a feline cyborg-a blend of unassuming household pet and high-tech. And it was just one of many efforts to recruit animal secret agents for their sensory capabilities and ability to blend in–with varying degrees of success. Read about the strange saga of Hvaldimir the ‘Russian spy whale.’Īs outlandish as it may sound today, the CIA was quite serious about Operation Acoustic Kitty. “You look at all the alternatives and if one looks viable, you’re gonna pursue it, until either you prove that you can’t do it, or a better way comes along.” Throughout the 20 th century, “intelligence services worldwide looked at animals as a possible way of both clandestinely getting into locations that an individual wouldn't otherwise have access to, and for carrying messages or equipment,” says Robert Wallace, who directed the CIA’s Office of Technical Service, the branch responsible for spy gadgets, in the 1990s. But after five years and likely millions of dollars in research and development, the project was scrapped in 1967, for reasons any cat owner might have anticipated-it’s not easy to convince a cat, of all animals, to go exactly where it’s directed and stay within range of a radio receiver.īefore digital technology and microelectronics, spying was hard, and everything was on the table. The CIA called the operation Acoustic Kitty. ![]() How do you get a spy inside the secure inner sanctum of a foreign head of state, for example, who only admits his closest confidants and the stray cats he has a fondness for? You send in a feline spy equipped with a hidden listening device, of course. Every situation called for its own unique solution. Central Intelligence Agency faced a perpetual espionage challenge: access. Amid the high stakes and desperation of the Cold War, the U.S.
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