ACOUSTIC KITTY

The CIA's Secret Spy Cat Program · a novel by J.B. Fox

The CIA really did try to turn a cat into a listening device. This is the novel of the people who built her. The problem is a room.

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WHAT IS ACTUALLY IN THE RECORD

Drawn from documents the CIA released under the Freedom of Information Act and from the published recollections of officers who worked on or near the effort.

1. The program existed. Agency files record a sustained effort across the mid and late 1960s to develop trained animals to carry audio equipment. Both dogs and cats were used, with contractor work funded through fiscal 1968 and 1969.
2. Cats were chosen partly on cost. A budget memorandum calls felines highly desirable test vehicles because they were much cheaper than dogs.
3. The training was real science: modified operant conditioning after B.F. Skinner, approached as "engineering design rather than statistical experimental research."
4. The guidance was acoustic: one signal for on course, one for turn left, one for turn right.
5. The first pen was described in the file as "essentially an oversized skinner box."
6. The surgery was real. Published accounts describe an implanted microphone, a transmitter, and an antenna run into the animal's fur.
7. The conclusion was real. The closing memo found it "indeed possible" to train the animals, called that "a remarkable scientific achievement," and judged the technique not practical for the Agency's purposes.

Two accounts. Former officers left conflicting stories of what happened to the cat. The record has never settled it.

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