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IP: Well maybe a real urban leg. Acoustic Kitty
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 09:41:02 -0500
Reply-To: <tbridis () ap org> From: "Ted Bridis" <tbridis () ap org> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>, <denning () cs georgetown edu> >>... this is an urban legand<< Our intelligence writer wrote about "acoustic kitty" two months ago. It might be urban legend, I suppose, but there is a paper trail. Here's the redacted CIA document, "Subject: [deleted] Views on Trained Cats [deleted] for [deleted] Use" http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/st27.pdf Date: Mon Sep 10 20:06:02 2001 Copyright 2001 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. a0743----- r wbx ^BC-Spy Research,410< ^CIA satellites worked, spy cats didn't, recently declassified documents show< ^By JOHN J. LUMPKIN= ^Associated Press Writer= ¶ WASHINGTON (AP) _ Soviet-tracking psychics and cats wired as mobile eavesdropping platforms didn't work out so well. But CIA proposals for spy planes and satellites to peer on America's adversaries from above became resounding successes. ¶ Recently declassified documents, released Monday by the National Security Archive, detail some of the successful _ and silly _ research of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. ¶ The CIA designed and operated spy satellites for years, until the separate National Reconnaissance Office took over many of those duties, said Jeffrey T. Richelson, a researcher with the archive and author of "The Wizards of Langley," a book detailing the directorate's efforts. The directorate also developed the U-2 and A-12 spy planes. Another of its advances turned into an integral part of the pacemaker. ¶ In the 1960s, under a program code-named Palladium, scientists trying to design stealthy aircraft figured out how to insert ghost planes on Soviet radar screens. Assisted by the National Security Agency, the CIA eavesdropped on Soviet radar operators and determined the sensitivity of particular Soviet radars. ¶ While the CIA's scientific successes have become part of the U.S. inventory of spy techniques, its follies are notable as well, Richelson said. ¶ Many of those have been previously documented in books about the CIA. The multiagency plan to use psychics _ called "remote viewers" _ to map Soviet military bases and 1950s research into interrogation drugs are well-known. ¶ Another project, known as "Acoustic Kitty," involved wiring a cat with transmitting and control devices, allowing it to serve as a mobile listening post. ¶ A heavily redacted 1967 government memo released by the archive Monday suggests that cats can be altered and trained, but concludes the program wouldn't work. ¶ "The program would not lend itself in a practical sense to our highly specialized needs," it says. "The environmental and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that, for our ... purposes, it would not be practical." ¶ In the first test of feline surveillance, the cat was run over by a taxi, according to Richelson. ¶ ___ ¶ On the Net: ¶ Central Intelligence Agency: http://www.cia.gov ¶ National Security Archive: http://www.nsarchive.org
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- IP: Well maybe a real urban leg. Acoustic Kitty David Farber (Nov 09)