Acoustic Kitty

From MysteryWiki

Operation Acoustic Kitty[1] was a CIA program which intended to use trained cats as "living, walking surveillance machine[s]" by "implanting a microphone in [the cat's] ear canal and a small radio transmitter at the base of [the cat's] skull, and weaving a thin wire antenna into [the cat's] long gray-and-white fur" (Anthes, N. pag.). A memo released in 2001[2] revealed that the program "would not lend itself in a practical sense to [the CIA's] highly specialized needs" due to "environmental and security factors ... in a real foreign situation" ([Excised] Views on Trained Cats [Excised] for [Excised] Use 1-2)

Notes

  1. This may not have been the actual name of the operation, currently references to the origin of this name have yet to be found. The released memo ([Excised] Views on Trained Cats [Excised] for [Excised] Use) does not use this name.
  2. The document was obtained as part of the research for The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology through the Freedom of Information Act, the National Archives, or the CIA. For more information, see here. Despite this, the document itself appears to have been released in September 1983 ([Excised] Views on Trained Cats [Excised] for [Excised] Use 1).

References

  • [Excised] Views on Trained Cats [Excised] for [Excised] Use. Rep. no. MORI 21897:21897. N.p.: n.p., 1983. Print.
  • Anthes, Emily. Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts. New York City: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. Print.
  • Macrakis, K. "Technophilic Hubris and Espionage Styles during the Cold War." Isis 101.2 (2010): 378-85. Print.
  • Richelson, Jeffrey. The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. Boulder: Westview, 2001. Print.