I was surprised to learn that the CIA has had a farsighted though not always fruitful human relationship with the animal kingdom . In Spycraft , the authors identify many canny brute - serve devices , from the dead - rat stagnant - cliff pocket to the “ acoustic kitty , ” a cat with a distant hearing system plant in its body . And what ’s this about the 1 million bats the CIA ’s precursor , the OSS , were gon na use to firebomb Tokyo during WWII ?
The acoustic kitty was a bionic feline with a 3/4 - column inch radio transmitter embedded at the radical of its skull . The transmitter ’s transmitting aerial was weave in to the cat ’s fur , while the mike was placed in the guy ’s auricle canal . Yes , PeTA member , the cat project did deal “ questions of humanistic discussion . ” Once the system was up and run , the cats did n’t seem to beware it at all . godsend , total success right ? Well , no . Spycraft author Bob Wallace told me in an interview : “ The Arabian tea wanted to do what the cat require to do , and not what we wanted it to do . ”
The British secret service actually used mice in a standardised manner , not as live microphones , but as a means to drag telegram along the studs inside paries . The CIA trained pigeon to take flight to laser dots and drop payloads , generally wireless mics . patently dogs too were trained for ops — though the Soviets were up on dog breeding , too , according to Spycraft co - source Keith Melton : the KGB rail hot dog to sniff out the gum used by the CIA in equipment drops .
Says Melton re : animals in the line of reasoning of duty : “ If you have a option between place human and animals at risk — and I ’m an creature lover — you have to practice an creature . ”
Dead animals worked as well or salutary . asleep rats , which seemingly had lived recollective happy lives and die of innate causes , were hollowed out and used to lay away surreptitious information for drops in hostile territory . The logical thinking was that citizenry do n’t go around picking up dead rats to see what ’s inside . As for animals who might be looking for a tasty collation , the lowlife were paint with Tabasco sauce , repellent to every critter but humans . Fun fact : The CIA used blanched rats for this , so that they could dye them to pit the indigenous coloration of local rats .
Before the CIA was carry , live rat — with wings — were considered for strategical use . Project X - Ray a.k.a . BAT was an OSS plan to liberate 1 million bats rig with tiny explosives over Japan towards the terminal of World War II . Bats from Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico were brought to a exam facility . harmonise to Spycraft , the squash racquet ’ most successful test run resulted in the fiery destruction of a new repair shed . The architectural plan was obliterate off , it seems , because no one screw how to automate the bat - arming physical process in a cost - effectual manner . Bombs were also attempted with the Norwegian skunk and trained domesticated cats , who were presuppose to float to a target after being drop in the ocean . ( Anyone see a problem with that ? ) [ More CIA Spytech on Giz ]
All of this CIA technical school and much more like it is plow with great depth and hair - lift anecdotes inSpycraft , a novel leger by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton , brush up by us , and available for pre - order atAmazon .
https://gizmodo.com/cia-spy-gadgets-revealed-q-aint-got-nothin-on-langley-392289
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