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New CIA Tech Museum: Spy Scat and Robo-Fish
PSaltyDS writes "According to this AP story, the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology is celebrating its 40th anniversary by revealing a few dozen of its secrets for a new museum inside its headquarters near Washington.
When the CIA's secret gadget-makers invented a listening device for the Asian jungles, they disguised it so the enemy wouldn't be tempted to pick it up and examine it: The device looked like tiger droppings. Besides the jungle transmitter, the exhibits include a robotic catfish, a remote-controlled dragonfly and a camera strapped to the chests of pigeons and released over enemy targets in the 1970s.
There is also an International Spy Museum in D.C. with more pics, including an early version of the Pigeon-Cam."
Wouldn't it find its way into traditional Chinese medicine or something?
Imagine what kind of gadgets the CIA have available to them today...
What's also interesting is that the gadgets are not the type you would expect. I.e., not what we are used to see in movies and all.
By the way, is that limited to tiger scat? Are there acceptable scats to pick up, paw through, wear at a business casual dinner party?
And we mustnt forget that famous cat that they stuffed full of wires and gadgets for spying on and spent millions of dollars developing only to have the cat run over before it got to where it was supposed to go.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
...and in a related story, video proof of the existence of yeti's was found today by a camera carrying pigeon. Sources say that the owner of the pigeon was tipped off that there may be a yeti in the area due to the eaves dropping tiger dung that he had accidently dropped in the area.
This sig was generated by a barrel of trained kittens for SeXy_Red (550409).
I bet the reception was shitty....
It is accessible only to CIA employees and guests admitted to those closed quarters.
The International Spy Museum mentioned is open to the public, but admission is quite pricey: about $10 per head, if I recall correctly.
In another news, the DARPA sponsored a secret project in TCPIP development to support the pigeon-cam early in the 90's. Due to its confidential nature, the details remain sketchy. To the best of my knowledge, it is the most comprehensive document leaked from the project so far. If you are onto spying technology, I recommend you to learn it by heart. It can be taken offline anytime....
I, for one, welcome our new pigeon overlords...
this place has a enigma you can touch, and free coloring books for the kids (free as in tax dollars)
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The Associated Press press agency.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Lends a whole new meaning to the term "eavesdropping".
Cool spook toys -- all very sexy.
But what about the assassination devices -- shellfish toxins, flechette umbrellas, that sort of thing?
What about MK-ULTRA -- the covert testing of hallucinogens on unsuspecting civilians?
What about CIA/Mafia alliances?
What about Operation Phoenix?
-kgj
-kgj
When the CIA's secret gadget-makers invented a listening device for the Asian jungles, they disguised it so the enemy wouldn't be tempted to pick it up and examine it: The device looked like tiger droppings.
Vietnam vets have talked about these for years, I also heard stories that they disguised radio beacons as tiger droppings as well. Special forces could call in air strikes and guide the fighter/bombers to the target with a beacon that looked like tiger poop.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I went to the Spy Museum in DC a couple months after it opened. I wasn't that impressed. It seems like they still have some kinks to work out.
A lot of stuff was recreations. Few of the exhibits seemed to be the actual items. There is a "James Bond" car exhibit which is literally just a car that has spotlights shined at certain parts while a radio says what secret weapon could be hidden inside.
There is one section where children can climb through air ducts. The racket that is created as dumb parents let their children stomp and yell through the air ducts ruins the whole exhibit room.
I think all museums are a little rough around the edges when they first open. Maybe I'll check out the Spy Museum again in several years. As it currently stands, you'll learn more about spies by surfing around on google.
"The pigeons' missions remain classified, made possible only after the CIA secretly developed a camera weighing only as much as a few coins. An earlier test with a heavier camera in the skies over Washington failed after two days when the overburdened pigeon was forced to walk home."
"...when the overburdened pigeon was forced to walk home!!!!!" I can just picture it: A pidgeon walking down the sidewalk in front of the White House with a camera strapped to it's neck. Hell, it would fit right in. Just another strange tourist, right?
If you live around Washington, or are visiting the area, you might also be interesting in seeing the National Cryptological Museum near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. More information is available here.
Here's a link.
You're using her as bait, Master!
I have always wondered at the absence of such things in the various SciFi universes. The crew of the Enterprise, locked in a cell by this week's bad guy, is always free to build a "sub-space anti-tachyon field inversion beacon", or some such, out of Jordy's visor because there are NO bugging devices in any of the plots. "Nanites" and other nano-tech stuff run through several episodes, but somehow never get married up with so much as a security cam and a microphone in the Enterprise's brig. When you confine the Ferengi to a stateroom for trying to blow up your ship, shouldn't you at least keep an eye on them?
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
Thanks to its technological superiority, the CIA war in Vietnam was a stunning success. Combined with vehement Presidential and Congressional backing, the decade-long committment of massive troops, air superiority, and compelling kill-ratios turned the tide in Vietnam. We immediately brought the War on Communism to a healthy, decisive close, with millions of Vietnamese dancing in the streets to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy".
Now our 21st Century CIA is again rising to the occasion in the War on Terrorism. Just as their partnership with justice in the War on Drugs has eliminated that scourge from the American prospect, our tech supremacy in Afghanistan and Iraq is swiftly delivering peace and freedom from the forces of fear. We can learn so much from the CIA museum, with its smart turds and omniscient birdbrains. With our arsenal and steely-eyed leaders, not to mention god on our side, American supremacy will remain as unsullied as it has been since the 1960s.
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make install -not war