Cats flunked CIA tests

The CIA tested cats for implanted bugs and tried to train them to approach
targets. There is a 1967 CIA memo that noted the "work done on this problem
over the years reflects great credit on the personnel who guided it," but
that "the environmental and security factors in using this technique in a
real foreign situation forces us to conclude that for our.purposes, it would
not be practical." The first wired and trained cat had been released near a
park and ordered to eavesdrop on two men sitting on a bench. On its way to
the target, the cat was run over by a taxi.

The CIA was inspired by the Ramayana (one of the holy books of the Hindus),
where in the great war against the demon king Ravana, one of the gods takes
the form of a cat to scout out the enemy because walls are no bar to cats,
who go anywhere invisibly.

I didn't dig it out, but a search of
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
should uncover the memo.

Dick