全球大徵兵潮The world’s most bizarre secret weapons: how pigeons, cats, whales and even robotic catfish have acted as spies through the ages
刊出日期 2025.01.23
The US ran similar experiments with animals, some dating back to the 1960s. One of the CIA’s more unusual attempts to use animals as spies was Operation Acoustic Kitty.
The idea was to implant a microphone and antenna into the cat and use it to eavesdrop on potentially interesting conversations. The test of the “prototype” went horribly wrong when the cat wandered off and was run over by a taxi, leading to the programme being quickly abandoned.
The history of spy pigeons
A more successful example was the use of spy pigeons. Equipped with tiny cameras, pigeons could easily access otherwise restricted areas and “take photos” without arousing suspicion before safely returning to home base using their extraordinary homing ability.
What became a very successful CIA programme during the cold war took its inspiration from British efforts during the second world war.
Over time, technology created opportunities to exploit the stealthiness of animals while eliminating their unpredictability. Project Aquiline aimed to create a bird-like drone fully equipped in the style of more traditional spy planes, but smaller and more versatile so it could get closer to its targets.
Another, even more miniature version was the insectothopter that the CIA developed in the 1970s. Although neither the aquiline or insectothopter designs ever became fully operational, they are acknowledged as forerunners of today’s drones.
Fast-forward to the 1990s, and the CIA’s robotic catfish Charlie emerges as one in a longer line of successfully operationalised underwater drones that are more effective and less vulnerable than the hapless Hvaldimir.
Exploding rat carcasses
But effectiveness is not always best measured in the success of an unusual spy method.
A British second world war plan to use explosive-filled rat carcasses and distribute them to boiler rooms in German factories where they would then explode once shoved into a boiler appeared to be doomed when the first consignment of about 100 dead rats was intercepted by the Germans.
But the discovery of the rats, and the sheer ingenuity behind the plan, led to such paranoia that the “trouble caused to them was a much greater success…than if the rats had actually been used”.
While working with animals often proved problematic, attempts to gain advantage by disguising devices as inanimate objects have also proved a source of embarrassment. One such effort involved the MI6 station in Moscow trying to improve on the “dead letter drop” technique of obtaining secret information from spies in Russia.
Rather than risk leaving secret information in a pre-arranged location, MI6’s version of James Bond’s Q came up with the idea that the information could be transmitted electronically to a receiver hidden in a fake rock placed near the ministry in question which could then be downloaded by a subsequent walk past.
The focused activity of many men in suits in one part of this park, however, led to the discovery of the rock. The revelation of the operation in 2006 caused massive embarrassment to the UK government. That this was not MI6’s finest hour was suggested by headlines ridiculing the Moscow spy-rock as “more Johnny English than James Bond”.
While intelligence organisations are always looking for innovative means to enhance their spy craft, arguably the most successful application of intelligence comes in the form of human improvisation. A notable example of this was the clandestine extraction of Oleg Gordievsky in 1985 after the cover of one of the west’s most valuable double-agents working for British intelligence was blown.
A useful bag of crisps
The team of two British diplomats and their wives had to negotiate three Soviet and two Finnish checkpoints. As the first guard dog approached, one of the party offered the sniffing Alsatian a cheese and onion crisp, duly taking the Alsatian off the scent of Gordievsky who was hiding in the boot of the car.
When another dog began sniffing at the boot, a most ingenious and successful method of spy craft was brought into play. The wife of one of the diplomats placed her 18-month old baby on the car boot, changed the baby’s nappy, and then dropped the freshly filled and steaming deposit on the ground, successfully distracting the dog and its handler.
These actions were never part of the extraction plan for Gordievsky but were an equally instinctive and ingenious improvisation by those used to operating in hostile environments and practised at deceiving the unwanted attentions of enemy agents.
Expensive research budgets and promising technological advances provide an edge in certain circumstances, but the most effective spy techniques may still rely on the application of quick thinking and bold, fearless action.
(To read the Chinese version of this article, please click: 〈世界上最奇特的祕密武器：鴿子、貓、鯨魚，甚至是機械鯰魚是如何在古往今來擔任間諜〉)
＊This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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作者
我是政治學與國際研究系的國際政治學教授。在伯明罕大學任職期間，我曾擔任社會科學學院的國際化主任、政治學與國際研究系的主任（2012～2016）、社會科學學院的研究生導師，以及商業與社會科學學院的研究生招生委員會助理會長。1997～2000年間，我還獲選為英國國際研究協會的成員，並作為該協會的代表參加政治學會。自1992年起，我成為西密德蘭軍事教育委員會的成員，並從2000年起擔任該委員會的主席。 我的研究興趣廣泛，且隨著學術生涯的發展而不斷地拓展。我所關注的主題主要集中在美國外交與安全政策、戰略與安全研究，以及外交與國策等領域。2000年，我成為傅爾布萊特計畫下的研究學者，並在華盛頓特區的國防大學擔任訪問學者。 I am Professor of International Politics in the department of Political Science and International Studies. During my career at Birmingham I have been Director of Internationalisation for the College of Social Sciences, Head of Department of POLSIS 2012-2016, Postgraduate Tutor to the School of Social Sciences, and Assistant Dean for Postgraduate Admissions for the Faculty of Commerce and Social Science. Between 1997 and 2000 I was also an elected member of the British International Studies Association and through that the BISA representative on the Political Studies Association Executive. Since 1992 I have been a member of the West Midlands Military Education Committee and since 2000 its chairman. My research interests are diverse and have evolved and broadened over my career. They fit largely within the areas of US Foreign and Security Policy, Strategic and Security Studies and, Diplomacy and Statecraft. In 2000 I was a Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Nationals Defense University, Washington DC.作者
作者兼編輯史蒂芬．沃爾夫撰寫了24本書，以及近百篇期刊論文和書籍章節。他是英國伯明罕大學的國際安全學教授。政治學家出身的史蒂芬．沃爾夫的研究專長是當代安全挑戰，尤其是在預防和解決族群衝突與內戰的方面，以及在嚴重分裂且遭戰爭蹂躪的社會中進行衝突後重建、和平建設和國家建設。他的研究專長還包括地緣政治，尤其是歐亞地區的大國競爭。他對北愛爾蘭、巴爾幹半島、中歐、東歐以及前蘇聯地區擁有廣泛的專業知識，而且還曾研究包括中東、非洲、中亞、南亞和東南亞在內的其他地區所發生的各種衝突。 The author and editor of twenty-four books and almost one-hundred journal articles and book chapters, Stefan Wolff is Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham, England, UK. A political scientist by background, he specialises in the management of contemporary security challenges, especially in the prevention and settlement of ethnic conflicts and civil wars, and in post-conflict reconstruction, peace-building and state-building in deeply divided and war-torn societies. His expertise also includes geopolitics and in particular great-power rivalries in Eurasia. He has extensive expertise in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union, and has also worked on a wide range of other conflicts elsewhere, including the Middle East, Africa, and Central, South, and Southeast Asia.
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