TheCold Warmade multitude do crazy things . The United States administration was so desperate to defeat communism that it threw money at any half - baked dodging that would give Americans an vantage over the Soviet menace .
showing A : " Project Acoustic Kitty , " a top - secret CIA research programme that quiz whether housecats could be used to spy on Soviet operative . If that sounds like the patch of a defective motion picture from 1966,it was(with a dog instead of a cat ) . But it was also a veridical thing and we have theheavily redacted CIA documentsto prove it .
The $20 Million Cat
In the 1970s video show " The Six Million Dollar Man , " a badly injured test pilot was reconstruct with mechanical parts and transformed into a cyborg superhero . The CIA had a similar mind back in the 1960s , except they wanted to produce a bionic woman superspy out of a cat .
The CIA ’s Office of Technical Research and Office of Research and Development spent five age and an count on $ 20 million on " Project Acoustic Kitty , " according toMental Floss . The high monetary value tag came from the eminent degree of technical difficulty . In an era beforemicrochipsand digital twist , the CIA scientist had to figure out how to discreetly fit out a African tea with a microphone , transmitting aerial , sender and battery .
In the end , a 3/4 - in ( 2 - centimetre ) transmitter was implanted at the foot of the African tea ’s skull , a microphone was sew into its capitulum epithelial duct , and an antenna was woven into the fur of the computed axial tomography ’s bum .
The results were n’t pretty . Victor Marchetti , a former CIA police officer , toldThe Telegraphin 2001 :
RIP Acoustic Kitty
The bad was yet to come . The CIA team ( who did n’t seem to jazz much about feline behavior ) spent calendar month trying to train the cat to follow simple instructions . According to Marchetti , the cat would range off when he was athirst , so they try out plant another wire to reverse his snacking sensation .
Miraculously , the training seemed to be play , and the CIA was quenched that Acoustic Kitty was quick for a field test .
It was your distinctive undercover agent - movie frame-up . The CIA cat pulled up to a ballpark in an unnoted van . They slid spread the doorway and gave their feline operative his mission : Slink over to those two cat on the bench and eavesdrop on their conversation . It did n’t quite go as design .
" They put him out of the van , and a cab hail and fly the coop him over , " tell Marchetti . " There they were , sitting in the van with all those dial , and the cat was dead ! "
Not only did the poor Frankenstein computerized axial tomography lose the last of its nine lives , but " Project Acoustic Kitty " was also killed . Inredacted CIA document , the agency was surprisingly upbeat about the $ 20 million collapse .
The authors of the reputation said it was " a singular scientific accomplishment " to learn that " cats can indeed be coach to move short distances , " and they extol the CIA scientist for their " pioneering " work . But in the end , the CIA concluded that given the " environmental and surety factors in using this proficiency in a foreign berth … it would not be practical . "
