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CIA recruited cat to bug Russians
The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^
| 11/04/2001
| Charlotte Edwardes
Posted on 11/03/2001 3:26:28 PM PST by Pokey78
THE CIA tried to uncover the Kremlin's deepest secrets during the 1960s by turning cats into walking bugging devices, recently declassified documents show.
In one experiment during the Cold War a cat, dubbed Acoustic Kitty, was wired up for use as an eavesdropping platform. It was hoped that the animal - which was surgically altered to accommodate transmitting and control devices - could listen to secret conversations from window sills, park benches or dustbins.
Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that Project Acoustic Kitty was a gruesome creation. He said: "They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that."
Mr Marchetti said that the first live trial was an expensive disaster. The technology is thought to have cost more than £10 million. He said: "They took it out to a park and put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead."
The document, which was one of 40 to be declassified from the CIA's closely guarded Science and Technology Directorate - where spying techniques are refined - is still partly censored. This implies that the CIA was embarrassed about disclosing all the details of Acoustic Kitty, which took five years to design.
Dr Richelson, who is the a senior fellow at the National Security Archive in Washington, said of the document: "I'm not sure for how long after the operation the cat would have survived even if it hadn't been run over."
The memo ends by congratulating the team who worked on the Acoustic Kitty project for its hard work. It says: "The work done on this problem over the years reflects great credit on the personnel who guided it . . . whose energy and imagination could be models for scientific pioneers."
By coincidence, in 1966, a British film called Spy With a Cold Nose featured a dog wired up to eavesdrop on the Russians. It was the same year as the Acoustic Kitty was tested.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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1
posted on
11/03/2001 3:26:28 PM PST
by
Pokey78
To: Pokey78
The CIA would have to be animals to do that to a defenseless cat.
To: Pokey78
Victor Marchetti is a somewhat unstable element. I'd take anything he says with a grain of salt....
3
posted on
11/03/2001 3:33:28 PM PST
by
yooper
To: Pokey78
Stuff like this could make me start wearing a tin foil hat. We listened to crap like this about the CIA for decades, and took it seriously, and dismantled our intelligence apparatus. So what happens? We lose 6,000 in a terrorist attack that we didn't see coming.
Now that we're starting to wake up to the fact that there really are bad guys out there, and maybe we might have to do a few bad things ourselves, this croaker from the 1960's appears out of nowhere. Who the Hell is behind this stuff? Why does a CIA-demonization story from the 1960's appear in a newspaper today? Are we going to be treated to a barrage of this stuff? Whoever writes this stuff can kiss my royal Irish ass. |
To: Pokey78
Finally, a cat with a purpose. And the reson they never patented this idea?
To: summer
Ping.
6
posted on
11/03/2001 3:40:22 PM PST
by
Pokey78
To: Pokey78
Now we know what happened to SocksC.
So sad.
7
posted on
11/03/2001 3:41:12 PM PST
by
Dog Gone
To: curmudgeonII
Victor Marchetti says, "We have, indeed, been contacted perhaps even visited by extraterrestrial beings, and the US government, in collusion with the other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public. Victor Marchetti, former Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the CIA, in an article written by him for Second Look entitled "How the CIA views the UFO Phenomenon", Vol. 1, No 7, May 1979.Aliens and wired cats,yeah whatever.
8
posted on
11/03/2001 3:42:07 PM PST
by
mdittmar
To: Dog Gone
[ding, dong]
"Who is there?"
"Kitty Gram for Mr. Ken Starr."
To: Dog Gone
and FELIX !
10
posted on
11/03/2001 3:54:08 PM PST
by
exmoor
To: yooper
Actually the 'wired cat' episode is well documented in a book called "The Wizards of Langely" by Jeffrey Richelson.
To: Pokey78
Although this attempt was surely stupid and misquided, today's technology (or perhaps tomorrow's) offers us a chance to actually use critters in spy work. It won't be long before cameras and wireless networking devices will be small enough to implant in the lowly bumble bee, hovering over the ground near cave-entrances, perhaps, sending billions of GPS-stamped pic-packets up to satellite collection devices, giving us thousands of little eyes just-above-the-ground. Far fetched? Perhaps. For now.
To: Nick Danger
To: Pokey78
Project Acoustic Pussy: it's coming over for dinner tonight.
14
posted on
11/03/2001 4:07:00 PM PST
by
Hemlock
To: Pokey78
I have noticed my cats (the boys) have been staring oddly at be lately when I am on FreeRepublic... Hmmmmm....
15
posted on
11/03/2001 4:11:11 PM PST
by
Hacksaw
To: Hacksaw
at be lately AT ME LATELY
I haven't had that many beers!
16
posted on
11/03/2001 4:13:36 PM PST
by
Hacksaw
To: Hacksaw
....at be lately
Do you have a cold?
17
posted on
11/03/2001 4:16:05 PM PST
by
Hemlock
To: Pokey78
"...and a taxi comes and runs him over."
I wonder if an Arab was driving the taxi?
To: mdittmar
I think this whole post is going to the dogs.
To: curmudgeonII
Maybe it's just for the birds.
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