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Operation Acoustic Kitty
rockville writes: "Remember the Cold War, when intelligence agencies had no oversight and a blank check? Now that those days are back, here's a good object lesson: the Chicago Sun-Times has details about Operation Acoustic Kitty, a CIA program to wire a cat to spy on the Soviet Union. Feel free to be either shocked at the depravity or shocked at the stupidity. The first prototype is also a nominee for Worst Presentation Ever." Hmmm. Last time I posted a story about cats, I got angry email from cat-lovers. Let's see what happens this time.
...a CIA team tried to chemically treat a cat's dander so that it would rub up against Fidel Castro and cause his beard to fall out.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
The "Acoustic Kitty" is one of the CIA's many failures. You can download the declassified documents at George Washington University. Most relevent is Document 27: Views on Trained Cat Use. Interesting read straight from the horse's mouth.
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[And so Operation "Cat Nap" comes unglued when an unexpected event occurs...]
General1: "Pavelovich? what is your kitty doing here?"
General2: "It is not my kitty..."
General1: "I wonder if it is true Russian Kitty..."
General2: "I will fetch the Vodka."
General1: "Let us see if you drink Vodka like true Russian Kitty..."
-- Dan =)
Instead of a wired cat, maybe we should send the Taliban a wired Bonsai Kitten. Considering their love of life, they'll enjoy it, and as a room decoration, it's second to none.
http://www.bonsaikitten.com
They say to give the CIA more free reign over what they do, that it would make them more effective. This only solidifies my doubts. They're no more effective, it seems - just have free reign to do stupid things. Like kill cats. Or fail to assassinate Fidel Castro how many times...?
But we know about those, so perhaps I am incorrect. Perhaps we only hear about what they do wrong; after all, the failure means that it is no threat to our security (except our loss of faith in the CIA?). After all, it's whatever succeeded that would need to be kept secret, so that it could continue to work. You have to wonder... if they make enough stupid mistakes, and know they're stupid enough to be benign in regard to security, perhaps the CIA is somewhat smarter than we think. They know what they do wrong, then perhaps they know what they do right. They'll just never get credit for any of it.
Golly gee, I've refuted myself again.
________
"And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion...." -- J.S. Mill
Last time I posted a story about cats, I got angry email from cat-lovers. Let's see what happens this time.
Ummm...angry letters from CIA lovers?
The frightening part of this whole debacle -- at least for USians -- is that this took place when the CIA was supposedly competent and well-staffed/well-funded... What does that say for their current capabilities?
Thats probably what they said when the prototype got run over. :)
For the benefit of the many who are not enlightened enough to be Australian this is funny because we have a Toyota(?) advert over here which involves a farm ute being used for various tasks, the ute is supposedly very powerful and goes over board for every task here are some examples:
Pulling stump out of ground: Stump gets airborne and smashes up dunny (outside toilet)
Dog tries to jump onto ute but ute takes off, dog lands in mud and dog says bugger.
You probably don't have the idea yet but believe me, it is funny (Could some of you other Aussies back me up here before the karma police lock me up?)
DR. EVIL CIA GUY: Release the sharks! All the sharks have had laser beams attached to their heads. I figure every creature deserves a warm meal.
FRAU FARBISSINA: Dr. Evil?
DR. EVIL CIA GUY: Yes, what is it? You're interrupting my moment of triumph.
FRAU FARBISSINA: It's about the sharks. Since you were frozen, they've been placed on the Endangered Species List. We tried to get some, but it will take months to clear up the red tape.
DR. EVIL: Right. Mr. Kremlin, we're going to lower you in a tank of piranhas with laser beams attached to their heads.
FRAU FARBISSINA: *cough*
DR. EVIL CIA GUY: What is it now?
FRAU FARBISSINA: Well, we experimented with lasers, but you would be surprised at how heavy they are. They actually outweighed the piranha themselves, and the fish, well, they sank to the bottom and died.
DR. EVIL CIA GUY: I have one simple request and that's sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their heads, and it can't be done? Remind me again why I pay you people? What do we have?
FRAU FARBISSINA: Cats.
DR. EVIL CIA GUY: Right.
FRAU FARBISSINA: They're mutated cats. With surveillance devices.
DR. EVIL CIA GUY: Really? Are they ill-tempered?
Despite what you may think, it's not that easy to control a cockroach.
How do I know, you ask?
I'm a neuroscience graduate student who works in a lab that studies cockroach neurophysiology and movement control:
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/delcomyn/
Yes, we can GUIDE the motions, by stimulating parts of the CPG (central pattern generators) in cockroach motor control - each pair of legs in cockroaches have internal movement pattern generators, as well as connections to other legs as well as the higher CNS ganglia. This still doesn't mean we have total control, or even relatively FINE control - something that would be required for this kind of fantasy "bug" intelligence work. It's really not that practical, and I doubt it will ever be - a lot more can be acheived by remote sensing technology, or possibly MEMS-type sensors.
Sincerely,
Kevin Christie
Neuroscience Program
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
crispiewm@hotmail.com
Dammit! This MUST be why my cat only comes near me when I'm on the phone or typing at my computer, he's friggin' rigged! Where is that little furry bastard?!?! I bet some water would short circuit his electronics....
Here kitty kitty...
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There was a BBC documentary about 4 or 5 years ago with this story in it; the main subject was the MKULTRA project, and it was entitled "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate" (or something like that), but this "Acoustic Kitty" thing came up as an anecdote from some ex-intelligence guy they interviewed. Unfortunately, Google turns absolutely nothing up, and the BBC themselves apparently don't know a thing about it!
http://www.blitzbasic.com/
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So reading a hair past the ha-ha bad product description, we've learned that the CIA can stick a wire into your head and change the way you feel.
And they knew how to do this in 1960. Damn, but they must have some cool toys by now.
Mike Hoye
The CIA cats working on this category must have been catatonic, or maybe just got caught catnapping:
The kitty carcass catapulted by the cab catercorner across the catwalk caterwauled, then went cataleptic and catatonic. It's hard to categorize such cathodically catheterized cattails as anything but cataclysmically catastrophic. The catcalls clearly catalyzed the cattiest CIA agents to consider acoustic catfish to catch confidential conversations near cataracts. Catfights in cathouses are another matter: maybe covert catsup bottles? Gee that was cathartic - I think I'll have some catnip...
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
So, let's see : if they wired a kitten, it would emit short waves. Then, as the kitty grows up, the frequency would slowly shift to the long wave band. Kind of like a very slow naturally occuring frequency-hopping encoding : if the Russian had picked up the transmission and went back to it several week after, they wouldn't have been able to find it again !
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Then we'd have to call it a Meowulf cluster, shouldn't we?
Why are you guys groaning???
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> The document ... is still partly censored. This implies that the CIA was embarrassed about disclosing all the details of Acoustic Kitty
Actually, the reason is that project Acoustic Bovine was a success, and is being covertly operated on the streets of moscow as we speak.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Use of kitties for special operations is far more widespread than many people realize. Here are some kitty rules as part of a widespread project to decrease the productivity of American citizens:
Kitty Rules
Bathrooms:
Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything. Just sit and stare.
Doors:
Do not allow any closed doors in any room. To get door open, stand on your hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. Especially after you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain, snow, or mosquito season.
Chairs and Rugs:
If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good. When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so the mess is as long as a human's bare foot.
Hampering:
If one of your humans is engaged in some activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping" otherwise known as "hampering". Here are the rules for hampering:
1) when supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted.
2) for book reading, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself.
3) for paperwork, lie on the work in the most appropriate manner so as to obscure as much of the work as possible and pretend to doze, but every so often reach out and slap the pencil or pen.
4) for people paying bills or working on income taxes or Christmas cards, keep in mind the aim; to hamper! First sit on the paper being worked on. When dislodged, watch sadly from the side of the table. When activity proceeds nicely, roll around on the papers, scattering them to the best of your ability. After being removed for the second time, push pens, pencils and erasers off the table, one at a time.
5) when a human is holding the newspaper in front of them, be sure to jump at the back of the paper, preferably with a running start. Humans love surprises.
6) when a human is working at computer, jump on the desk, walk across keyboard, bat at the mouse pointer on screen, then lay on the human's lap across arms, hampering typing.
Walking:
As often as possible, dart quickly and as close as possible in front of the human, especially on stairs, when they have something in their arms, in the dark, and when they first get up in the morning. This will help your human with their coordination skills.
Bedtime:
Always sleep on the human at night so he/she cannot move around.
Litter Box:
When using the litter box, be sure to kick as much litter out of the box as possible. Humans love the feel of kitty litter between their toes.
Hiding:
Every now and then, hide in a place where the humans cannot find you. Do not come out for three to four hours under any circumstances. This will cause the humans to panic (which they love) thinking that you have run away or are lost. Once you do come out, the humans will cover you with love and kisses and you will probably get a treat.
One last thought:
Whenever possible, get close to a human, especially their face, turn around and present your butt to them. Humans love this, so do it
often and, don't forget guests.
Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people.
A whole bunch of people work for the CIA. They aren't all "sick fucks." If you don't like the cat thing, fine... but without "intelligence" we'd be a lot worse off than we are with it.
The CIA may do some distasteful things, but you can't condemn them all for that, and you are definitely enjoying some protection from the agency.
It's is suspected that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was actually based on the above operation.
If you havent read it already check out Body of Secrets , a recent history of the NSA, and proof that the land of the free is far from that