During the Cold War, the whole world went crazy. What tricks did the ideological opponents use to find out about each other's plans!
For example, wishing to establish surveillance of the employees of the Soviet embassies in the United States, the CIA agents decided to use … cats!
Thus began one of the wildest and most adventurous special operations called "Acoustic Kitty" - "Acoustic kitty".
Tailed spies
So, the state decided to put cats at its service.
On the one hand, cats are really cute, many adore them, besides, they can constantly be near people. You think that your pet is napping on the windowsill, but in fact he is recording and transmitting your conversations straight to the intelligence department. The perfect undercover agent!
And the veterinarians, trainers and sound engineers got to work.
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The essence of the operation was as follows. A tiny radio transmitter was mounted at the base of the cat's skull, and a small microphone was inserted into the ear canal. A thin antenna was to be hidden in the fur along the spine.
One of the biggest problems was masking the battery - it had to be small but powerful, otherwise the cat would not be able to record long conversations.
Do not forget that this took place in the 60s, when the equipment was not distinguished by its compact dimensions. It took 5 years to create sufficiently light and small recording devices. Finally, by 1966, the operation was ready for field testing.
Cotastrophe
So the first little furry spy was ready to go.
A van crammed with sophisticated surveillance equipment rolled into the city park. The first target was two men, peacefully talking on a bench. Tailed James Bond was supposed to walk up to them and relay their conversation.
The door of the van opened, the cat jumped out and … immediately fell under the wheels of a taxi!
Nobody expected such a turn! The wounded special agent was immediately rushed to the headquarters - it was impossible to entrust the examination of the animal to an ordinary veterinarian.
Someone says that the cat did not manage to survive. Others argue that all equipment was removed from the animal and released into the wild, to survive the remaining eight lives.
Be that as it may, it was decided to curtail the operation. The participants in the experiment admitted that the cats did not show the proper level of patriotism and simply ignored all commands addressed to them.
The operation cost American taxpayers $ 25 million and lasted 5 years …
Despite the utter failure of the idea of cat espionage, there was also a certain positive moment. In the course of Acoustic Kitty, portable audio recording devices were developed.