The Acoustic Kitty and Other Crazy CIA Plots

Summary

Everything Everywhere Daily: The Acoustic Kitty and Other Crazy CIA Plots

Episode Release Date: January 27, 2025
Host: Gary Arndt | Glassbox Media

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Introduction: The CIA’s Creative Espionage Methods (00:00 - 01:47)

In this intriguing episode of Everything Everywhere Daily, host Gary Arndt delves into some of the most unconventional and bizarre plots concocted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout history. Highlighting the agency's vast leeway and creative freedom in espionage tactics, Gary sets the stage by emphasizing the mix of inspired initiatives and outright oddities that emerged from the CIA’s secretive endeavors.

Gary (00:00): “Take everything regarding the CIA with a grain of salt because the truth is often messy and hidden in the shadows.”

Promoting Abstract Expressionism: Art as a Cold War Weapon (01:48 - 05:20)

One of the CIA’s most unexpected ventures was its active promotion of Abstract Expressionism, an art movement characterized by its chaotic and emotional style. The CIA saw this art form as a strategic counter to Soviet Socialist Realism, which epitomized governmental control and rigidity.

• CIA’s Strategy: By funding the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CFF), the CIA sponsored exhibits, publications, and lectures that elevated Abstract Expressionism globally. This not only shifted the art world's center from Europe to the United States but also symbolized artistic freedom and individuality, aligning with American values against Soviet conformity.

• Impact on Artists: Unbeknownst to the artists, many left-leaning and some with anarchist tendencies, the CIA’s financial support neutralized their political leanings by ensuring their financial success, thereby redirecting their influence towards American cultural dominance.

• Legacy: Today, Abstract Expressionist works like Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm have sold for over $100 million, a testament to the lasting influence of the CIA’s cultural investments.

Gary (02:30): “Abstract Expressionism symbolized artistic freedom, individuality and the absence of government control.”

The Stargate Project: Delving into Psychic Espionage (05:21 - 07:40)

Venturing into the realm of the paranormal, the CIA initiated the Stargate Project in the 1970s to explore the potential of psychic phenomena, specifically remote viewing, for intelligence purposes.

• Objective: To determine if individuals could psychically perceive distant locations, objects, or events without conventional sensory input, thereby serving as “psychic spies” against Soviet targets.

• Execution: Subjects were tasked with describing secret Soviet sites, military installations, and hostage situations from a controlled environment.

• Outcome: Despite occasional specific results, the project was deemed unreliable due to inconsistent findings and inability to replicate results under controlled conditions. Ultimately, the Stargate Project was considered pseudoscientific and a financial misstep, with over $20 million invested before its termination.

Gary (06:15): “The project’s findings couldn’t be reproduced under controlled conditions, and many officials viewed the project as pseudoscience and a waste of money.”

Jack in the Box Project: Inflatable Mannequins as Decoys (07:41 - 09:30)

Another eccentric initiative was the Jack in the Box Project, designed as a covert escape tactic to help CIA agents evade surveillance in hostile territories like Moscow.

• Mechanism: Agents under surveillance would exit their vehicle amidst a distraction, replaced momentarily by an inflatable mannequin resembling them. This deception would confuse tailing agents, allowing the real agent to escape unnoticed.

• Execution Challenges: The initial prototypes were ingeniously repurposed from inflatable pleasure dolls, highlighting the project’s unconventional approach. While the tactic reportedly worked in several instances, the reliance on improvised mannequins placed the project firmly in the realm of the bizarre.

Gary (08:05): “The prototype Jack in the Box dummies were made from... inflatable pleasure dolls purchased at adult stores.”

Pigeon Spy Program: Feathery Reconnaissance (09:31 - 11:00)

In a bid to bypass technological advancements in surveillance, the CIA developed a program utilizing pigeons equipped with miniature cameras to gather intelligence over Soviet installations.

• Operation: Trained pigeons flew predetermined routes over military bases, shipyards, and missile sites, capturing high-resolution images that were later retrieved and analyzed.

• Advantages: Pigeons offered a discreet means of surveillance, potentially surpassing spy planes in image resolution without the limitations of radar detection.

• Limitations: The unpredictability of pigeon flight patterns, vulnerability to weather conditions, and predation by hawks often thwarted missions. As satellite imagery and high-altitude reconnaissance advanced, the pigeon program lost its strategic value and was eventually phased out.

Gary (10:45): “Bad weather or predators like hawks could often interfere with missions.”

Project Acoustic Kitty: A Feline Surveillance Failure (11:01 - 14:20)

The crown jewel of CIA's unconventional espionage efforts, Project Acoustic Kitty, epitomizes the agency’s willingness to explore even the most far-fetched ideas.

• Concept: Transforming a domestic cat into a covert listening device by implanting microphones and transmitters, allowing the cat to eavesdrop on Soviet conversations discreetly.

• Implementation Challenges:

  • Surgical Difficulties: Implanting electronics into a cat’s body without hindering its natural behavior was a monumental task, especially given the technological limitations of the 1960s.
  • Training Issues: Unlike dogs, cats are independent and unpredictable, making it nearly impossible to reliably train them to follow specific paths or remain near targets.

• Field Test Failure: The inaugural test near the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., ended disastrously when the Acoustic Kitty was struck by a taxi immediately upon release, leading to the project's termination despite an investment of approximately $10-20 million.

• Conclusion: By 1967, recognizing the impracticality of using cats for espionage, the CIA abandoned Acoustic Kitty in favor of more dependable surveillance methods such as satellites and human operatives. The project remained classified until its declassification in 2001, serving as a cautionary tale of overreaching in the pursuit of intelligence.

Gary (13:45): “The first field test took place near the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC. The mission was an instant and catastrophic failure. As soon as the cat was released, it wandered into a street and was struck by a taxi. It was killed.”

Conclusion: The Absurdity and Innovation of CIA Espionage (14:21 - End of Content)

Gary wraps up by reflecting on the CIA's blend of desperation and creativity during the Cold War, illustrating how the agency’s pursuit of intelligence often led to a spectrum of strategies—from the culturally sophisticated to the downright absurd. These declassified projects not only reveal the lengths to which intelligence agencies will go in the name of national security but also underscore the often blurry line between innovative strategy and sheer folly.

Gary (14:00): “These programs highlight the CIA's willingness to explore even the most unconventional ideas in its effort to gain an advantage over the Soviet Union.”

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Key Takeaways:

• Cultural Warfare: The CIA’s strategic promotion of Abstract Expressionism served as a soft power tool against Soviet cultural hegemony.

• Psychic Espionage: The Stargate Project exemplifies the agency’s foray into unproven and speculative methods in the hunt for intelligence.

• Innovative Decoys: Projects like Jack in the Box demonstrate the creative lengths taken to ensure agent safety and operational secrecy.

• Animal Espionage: From pigeons to cats, the CIA’s attempts to utilize animals for espionage highlight both ingenuity and the limitations of such approaches.

• Failed Ambitions: Project Acoustic Kitty stands as a testament to the impracticality of certain intelligence strategies, despite significant investment and effort.

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Notable Quotes:

• Gary (00:00): “Take everything regarding the CIA with a grain of salt because the truth is often messy and hidden in the shadows.”

• Gary (02:30): “Abstract Expressionism symbolized artistic freedom, individuality and the absence of government control.”

• Gary (06:15): “The project’s findings couldn’t be reproduced under controlled conditions, and many officials viewed the project as pseudoscience and a waste of money.”

• Gary (08:05): “The prototype Jack in the Box dummies were made from... inflatable pleasure dolls purchased at adult stores.”

• Gary (10:45): “Bad weather or predators like hawks could often interfere with missions.”

• Gary (13:45): “The first field test took place near the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC. The mission was an instant and catastrophic failure. As soon as the cat was released, it wandered into a street and was struck by a taxi. It was killed.”

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Final Thoughts:

Everything Everywhere Daily continues to deliver captivating stories that unveil the lesser-known facets of history and intelligence operations. This episode serves as a fascinating exploration of how necessity can drive creativity, sometimes leading to endeavors that blur the line between genius and madness. For those intrigued by the unconventional methods of espionage, Gary Arndt’s deep dive into the CIA’s craziest plots offers both education and entertainment.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections to maintain focus on the informative aspects of the episode.

Transcript

[Gary]

Since its creation, the Central Intelligence Agency has been tasked with gathering intelligence on foreign adversarial governments. Exactly how they were to go about doing this was not exactly spelled out in advance. This gave them an enormous amount of leeway and creativity in how to go about their mission. Some of their ideas were truly inspired and others were, how shall we say, odd. Learn more about the Acoustic Kitty and other crazy CIA plots on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

[Mike]

Yeah, sure thing. Hey, you sold that car yet?

[Sarah]

Yeah, sold it to Carvana.

[Mike]

Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy.

[Sarah]

The guy who wanted to pay me in foreign currency, no interest over 36 months.

[Gary]

Yeah, no.

[Sarah]

Carvana gave me an offer in minutes, picked it up and paid me on the spot. It was so convenient.

[Mike]

Just like that.

[Sarah]

Yeah.

[Mike]

No hassle?

[Sarah]

None.

[Mike]

That is super convenient. Sell your car to Carvana and swap hassle for convenience.

[Sarah]

Pick up.

[Jessica]

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[Gary]

Whenever you talk about the Central Intelligence Agency, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. They are not want to spill their secrets. If somebody says something wrong about the CIA, they do not issue public corrections. They're more than happy to let people think what they want, especially if it leads the world to think that their capabilities are more than what they really are. Some of the things I'll be talking about in this episode have been declassified and others have been pieced together from stories and other evidence. So again, take everything regarding the CIA with a grain of salt because the truth is often messy and hidden in the shadows. What we can say for certain is that certain elements of the CIA have shown, how shall I say, A great deal of creativity. Your average CIA agent has a pretty straightforward and boring job. They work at a desk and are not involved in day to day cloak and dagger activities. However, there are small units within the CIA that have carte blanche to come up with new ideas and they have come up with some doozies. So I'll start with one of the oddest CIA programs and one that has been disputed in some circles. Their Promotion of Modern art I'm not talking about modern art generally, but specifically the genre known as Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionism, represented by artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, was chaotic, emotional and seemingly anti establishment. The movement grew to prominence in a shockingly short period of time. What began in the late 1940s was getting global attention in the early 1950s. By 1957, a year after Jackson Pollock's death, his painting Autumn rhythm sold for $30,000, an unprecedented amount. The CIA secretly funded the Congress for Cultural Freedom, or CFF, an organization that promoted Western intellectual and artistic movements. The CFF sponsored exhibits, publications and even lectures that helped elevate Abstract Expressionism internationally. The CIA also funneled money through private foundations and figures like Nelson Rockefeller, the future Vice President of the United States, whose mother had co founded the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Rockefellers were major patrons of Abstract Expressionism and the MOMA played a key role in promoting it worldwide. So why would the CIA promote this sort of art? There were several reasons. First, the CIA saw this as a perfect counterpoint to Soviet rigidity. Almost all Soviet art was a type called Socialist Realism. It was a top down artistic movement. Abstract Expressionism symbolized artistic freedom, individuality and the absence of government control. Even if people didn't like the art, like President Harry Truman, who hated it, the CIA felt that it showed the world that you could do anything in the United States, including drip paint onto a canvas. Second, culture was an important part of the Cold War. By promoting Abstract Expressionism painters, they helped move the center of the art world from Europe to the United States. And finally, it may have had something to do with the artists themselves. The artists had no clue that any of this was going on behind the scenes. Almost all of them had leftist sympathies, with several of them being open anarchists. One of the best ways to neutralize their political opinions was to make them rich. The CIA did not create Abstract Expressionism and none of the artists worked directly for the CIA or even had any knowledge of the program. But the CIA did champion it behind the scenes. The CIA was involved in many cultural and artistic programs, but the promotion of Abstract Expressionism was probably the oddest and most unexpected. Today, Abstract Expressionism paintings have sold for over $100 million. And much of that can be directly attributed to the early promotion by the Central Intelligence Agency. Another odd program the CIA launched in the 1970s was the the Stargate Project. The Stargate Project was a top secret program that investigated the use of psychic phenomenon Specifically, remote viewing for military and intelligence purposes. Remote viewing was the idea that certain individuals could psychically see distant location objects or events without any physical or electronic access. Essentially, the US Government was testing whether psychic spies could gather intelligence from the Soviet Union and other adversaries. Subjects would sit in a controlled environment, attempting to describe secret Soviet bases, military installations, and hostage locations. While some of the results were oddly specific, they weren't reliable enough for military use. The program's findings couldn't be reproduced under controlled conditions, and many officials viewed the project as pseudoscience and a waste of money. The total amount spent on the project over the years was over $20 million. Another CIA project that sounds stranger than it actually was was the Jack in the Box Project. The Jack in the Box Project was a covert CIA escape tactic developed during the Cold War to help spies evade surveillance, particularly in Moscow and other Soviet controlled areas. The way it worked is that a CIA agent under surveillance would enter a car, often with a driver. As soon as the car turned around a corner or entered a momentary concealed area, the agent would slip out of the vehicle unnoticed. Just as they left the car, an inflatable mannequin dressed to resemble the agent would pop up in their place, making it look like they were still inside. The kgb, tailing the vehicle, would continue to follow the car, unaware that the real spy had escaped. The deception didn't have to work for very long, just for a few minutes to confuse the tale. The system reportedly worked in multiple instances, allowing the CIA agents to meet with informants or defectors without detection. What puts this into the odd category is that the prototype Jack in the Box dummies were made from. How shall I put this? Inflatable pleasure dolls purchased at adult stores. Another program, which isn't quite as crazy as it sounds, was the attempt to use pigeons. During the Cold War, the CIA developed a secret program using pigeons equipped with tiny cameras to spy on Soviet military installations. This was part of a broader effort to gather intelligence without being detected by radar or human observers. In theory, a pigeon with a camera could take higher resolution images than a spy plane. The plan was straightforward. Pigeons were trained to fly specific routes over Soviet military bases, shipyards, and missile sites. A miniature camera was strapped to the pigeon's chest using a small harness. The camera was automated to take photographs at set intervals as the pigeon flew over the target. The pigeon would then return to its handler, allowing the CIA to retrieve the camera and analyze the photos. The program did have some limited success, and pigeons were able to capture useful images of Soviet facilities. However, it was difficult to control where the pigeons flew, and bad weather or predators like hawks could often interfere with missions. As satellite imagery and high altitude reconnaissance planes like the U2 spy plane improved, the pigeon program became less necessary. There were a host of bizarre CIA plans with regards to Fidel Castro. In fact, there were so many truly strange plans that the CIA had conjured up that while researching this episode, I realized it would probably be best if I devoted an entire episode to the topic of the CIA and Castro. And that is what I shall do. The last CIA project I want to bring up, and the one that is in this episode's title, is Project Acoustic Kitty. Acoustic Kitty was a program that did have a small kernel of a good idea at its core. Unfortunately, it was 5% good idea and 95% bad idea. Operation Acoustic Kitty was an attempt to turn a cat into into a covert listening device. And for those of you who have ever had a cat, you probably know how this will turn out. The idea behind the project was simple in theory, but nearly impossible in execution. Implant a microphone and transmitter into a cat so it could discreetly eavesdrop on Soviet conversations. The program was launched in the 1960s as part of a broader effort to develop new methods of surveillance against America's Cold War adversaries. The CIA theorized that since cats were already common in parks and around embassies, they could be used as undetectable mobile surveillance devices. Unlike human spies who could be recognized and followed, or electronic bugs which could be discovered and dismantled, a wandering cat was unlikely to attract suspicion. And that is the one part of the plan which is not totally crazy. The agency hoped that a specially trained cat implanted with sophisticated listening equipment could be released near Soviet officials and relay valuable intelligence. To bring this idea to life, CIA scientists undertook an elaborate surgical procedure to implant a microphone inside a cat's ear canal, a small radio transmitter in a trip cage, and a fine wire antenna along its tail. This setup would theoretically allow the cat to pick up and transmit nearby conversations to CIA operatives stationed at a distance. The surgical team faced several challenges, particularly in ensuring that the cat would survive the procedure and function normally despite having an array of electronic components inside its body. The operation was highly invasive and required extensive adjustments to the cat's physiology to accommodate the spy gear. And remember, this was back in the 1960s when electronics were not as miniaturized as they are today. Once the prototype was created, the CIA had to train the cat to perform its new role. And this proved to be another major hurdle. Unlike dogs, which can be trained to follow precise commands. Cats are notoriously independent and unpredictable. The Agency spent months attempting to condition the cat to follow specific paths and remain still in designated locations to pick up conversations. The challenge was not just in getting the cat to behave predictably, but also in ensuring that it would approach and stay near the intended targets, AKA Soviet diplomats. The agency even experimented with modifying the cat's feeding schedule, hoping that hunger might drive it towards people in search of food. Despite these efforts, the cat consistently failed to follow commands in any reliable way because it's a cat. Despite the training difficulties, the CIA eventually decided to test Acoustic Kitty in a real world espionage scenario. The first field test took place near the Soviet Embassy in Washington, dc. The plan was to release the cat and have it wander towards a group of Soviet officials engaged in conversation, allowing CIA operatives to listen in on their discussions. However, the mission was an instant and catastrophic failure. As soon as the cat was released, it wandered into a street and was struck by a taxi. It was killed. Immediately following this disastrous test, operation, Acoustic Kitty was abandoned. The CIA had spent an estimated 10 to 20 million dollars on the project before concluding that controlling a cat for espionage purposes was was simply not feasible. By 1967, the CIA shut down the project entirely, shifting its focus towards more reliable surveillance methods such as electronic eavesdropping, satellites and human operatives. The program was finally declassified in 2001. These programs that I've covered highlight the CIA's willingness to explore even the most unconventional ideas in its effort to gain an advantage over the Soviet Union. Decades later, details of these operations were declassified, revealing just how desperate and sometimes absurd the intelligence agencies could be in their pursuit of Cold War espionage.

[Charles]

The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Keever.

[Gary]

I want to give a big shout.

[Charles]

Out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day and also Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to Everything are in the show.

[Sarah]

Notes.