WASHINGTON – The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedlydeclassified dozens of files from its cold-war era tests. It appears thatthe agency was betting not only on humans.
The declassified documents, cited by AFP, reveal that the CIA attempted totrain cats, dogs, dolphins, and even birds – from pigeons to crows – asfield operatives.
In particular, one “high-flying CIA agent” was a raven called Do Da whowould become a top “operative” in the espionage class. The bird – a centralfigure in a decade-long secret CIA program to train animals as agents -disappeared, however, in the middle of his spy school test in early 1974.
For the bird’s program, the agency reportedly enlisted professionalornithologists in a bid to determine which birds regularly spent part ofthe year in the area of Shikhany in the Volga River Basin southeast ofMoscow region.
According to the documents, the CIA saw the migratory birds as “livingsensors” which – based on their feeding – would reveal what kinds ofsubstances the Russians were testing by examining their flesh.
In the early 1970s, the CIA turned to birds of prey and ravens, hoping theycould be trained for “emplacement” missions like dropping a listeningdevice on a windowsill, and photo missions.
Raven Do Da was the most promising candidate for the Soviet mission, the”star of this project”, AFP reported, ciiting declassified documents. Buton a training mission, he was reportedly attacked by “the usual pair” ofravens – and was not seen again.
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Later, the agency reportedly acquired hundreds of pigeons, testing themwith attached cameras in areas around the United States to see if theycould be trained on specific paths. Their ultimate target was shipyards inLeningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Some birds during the training managed tomake perfect photos. The majority of them, however, flew away with theirexpensive test equipment still attached. The declassified documents,however, do not reveal if the Leningrad operation was attempted.
Not only birds were “enrolled” in the clandestine espionage trainingprogram. The agency also reportedly studied and tested cats as possible”audio surveillance vehicles”. According to the files, dogs with electricalbrain implants – to facilitate their remote control – were also notfiction.
The most effort was concentrated on training “combat dolphins” to bepotential saboteurs in a bid to deter the Soviet Union’s development of anuclear submarine fleet. In particular, these animals would have sneakedinto Soviet harbors, depositing acoustic buoys or missile detection units,or even swim alongside underwater vessels to collect acoustic data.
According to the CIA documents, neither of those programs succeeded.-Sputnik
