Acoustic Kitty

One of the benefits of going to school in the DC area is you get some pretty neat professors. I am currently taking a class on the History of American Spying taught by the Chief Historian of the CIA. This class is full of all kinds of interesting tidbits. But this one was too good to keep to myself. And seeing as how it was an operation inside DC it applies to our site. (note: altho I am fairly certain this violates the edict that the CIA can not operate on American soil – but we’ll ignore that for right now)

The operation was known as “Acoustic Kitty” – the CIA were having no luck eavesdropping on the Soviet Compound on Wisconsin Avenue. Eventually one group in the Agency noted that Soviet notables were congregating around a park outside the compound. The group then launched this plan.

It centered around a cat. A very special cyborg cat. Yes I did just say cyborg cat. The CIA trained a cat, then surgically inserted an antenna inside its tail while inside its chest they installed a power-source and a microphone.

They let “Acoustic Kitty” out of their surveillance van, intending for it to “stray” into the park and eavesdrop on the Soviets. But wouldn’t you know it – poor “Acoustic Kitty” got run over by a taxi cab on Wisconsin Avenue his very first day on the job.

As if being mutilated by CIA surgeons and getting run-over weren’t enough of an insult to this poor cat – an agent dodged traffic on Wisconsin and scooped the CIA technology out of “Acoustic Kitty’s” remains.

You can read a little more about this in a redacted CIA memo here and in a brief summary under Article 27 here.

Originally published on July 15, 2005.

This article got picked up by FARK and other websites and was the most read story on the Metroblogging Network for a few days.