The Real Story Of Project Acoustic Kitty

Drugs, nukes, and animal operatives: The 1960s saw more than operation MK-Ultra, the CIA's human mind control operation.

In that decade, the U.S. government used ravens, pigeons, and cats to spy on Cold War enemies, says Smithsonian Magazine's Tom Vanderbilt. Project Acoustic Kitty was never investigated by Congress, unlike MK-Ultra, although CIA papers and sources prove its existence.

Although cats are unruly, the CIA felt they might become spies with training. The group also planned to use the animal's curiosity. It believed that a cat linked to capture sound may go undetected and be manipulated to record intriguing noises like Soviet leader speaks using audio cues.

The core tragic narrative of Acoustic Kitty appears many times. According to former CIA associate director Victor Marchetti, it entailed developing a FrankenKitty. Marchetti often says, “They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up.” “They made a monster.”

It seems plausible. After all, the 1960s CIA did weird things. Matt Soniak of Mental Floss explains that Project Acoustic Kitty's story is complicated. It “actually took five years to complete,” he writes. In the age of reel-to-reel audio and room-sized computers, making a high-tech cat was difficult. The cats also have to appear like cats—no odd protrusions or unusual scars. Soniak says

However, a cab killed the cat while crossing the road on the first trip. It never reached the goal. Acoustic Kitty and the project were canceled in 1967. “I'm not sure for how long after the operation the cat would have survived even if it hadn't been run over,” NSA Archive's Jeffrey Richelson told The Telegraph.

The extensively classified letter “Views on Trained Cats” in the National Security Administration library at George Washington University reveals the research wasn't a complete failure. The document states that the concept was not practicable for our very specific demands after examining trained cats for use in the program.

The document said discovering that “cats can indeed be trained to move short distances” was “in itself a remarkable scientific achievement.” The record of any further Acoustic Kitties is unknown, although small computers and high-tech espionage devices may have prevented a revival.

Reference

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cia-experimented-animals-1960s-too-just-ask-acoustic-kitty-180964313/