Experiment fail

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A newly declassified report shows that the US Central Intelligence Agency terminated an ambitious project to embed an elaborate wiretap mechanism in a cat, after several failed attempts at controlling the bugged cat’s behavior in real-life situations. The document (.pdf), entitled “Views on Trained Cats [Redacted] for [Redacted] Use”, dates from March 1967. It wraps up by stating that “the environmental and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that, for our [redacted] purposes, [using bugged cats] would not be practical”. This conclusion was apparently drawn after a meticulously bugged and trained cat was run over by a taxi during a real-life experiment at a park in Washington DC. The existence of the project, known as ACOUSTIC KITTY, has been known for almost a decade. It was envisioned and implemented by CIA technical specialists at the Agency’s Directorate of Science and Technology. By the time it was terminated, the unorthodox project had cost US taxpayers over $15 million.

http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/03-153/