Today, German officials claimed that U.S. intelligence agencies may have been monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. Chancellor Merkel spoke directly to President Obama about the issue, according to her spokesman. Merkel told Obama that if accusations of the NSA spying are true...
“I unequivocally disapprove of such practices and
see them as completely unacceptable...a serious breach of trust!"
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the United States "is not monitoring and will not monitor" her phone conversations. Asked if the NSA had monitored Merkel's calls in the past, Carney said he did not have an answer to that question.
This story reminded me of the CIA's (now comical) Acoustic Kitty Project.
In the 1960's the CIA attempted to use cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet Embassies. A battery and a microphone were implanted into a cat and an antenna into its tail, allowing this seemingly "feral" cat to eavesdrop on "secret" Soviet conversations. The first "mission" was to take place outside the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the cat was hit and killed by a taxi. Other tests failed most likely because "cats are difficult to control" or the cats decided they would rather hunt for mice than listen to Communists!
Meow...
In 1967, after 5 years and over $20 million in surgery and training expenses (and massive bills for Cat Chow)...the project was cancelled!
Next CIA Program?!?
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