The death of a spy is rarely newsworthy because of the secrecy surrounding it. But when a beluga white whale suspected of spying for Moscow was found dead in Norwegian waters in September, the animal quickly became a minor celebrity.
Hvaldimir (a play on the Norwegian word for whale, hvaland the first name of the Russian president) was even given an official autopsy by the Norwegian Fisheries Directorate.
The whale was discovered in 2019 as a spy and is one of several animals used by the intelligence services. This included a Soviet program to train marine animals to become spies and assassins, which failed in 1991.
The US conducted similar experiments on 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 away and was run over by a taxi, causing the program to be quickly abandoned.
The history of spy pigeons
A more successful example was the use of spy pigeons. Equipped with small cameras, pigeons could easily access otherwise restricted areas and “take pictures” without arousing suspicion before returning safely to home base using their extraordinary home-based ability.
What became a highly successful CIA program during the Cold War was inspired by British efforts during World War II.
Over time, technology created opportunities to exploit the stealth 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 nor insectothopter designs ever became fully operational, they are recognized as precursors to today’s drones.
Fast forward to the 1990s, and the CIA’s robot catfish Charlie emerges as one of a longer line of successfully operationalized underwater drones that are more effective and less vulnerable than the hapless Hvaldimir.
Exploding rat carcasses
But effectiveness is not always best measured by the success of an unusual spying method.
A World War II British plan to use explosive-filled rat carcasses and distribute them to boiler rooms in German factories, where they would then explode once pushed into a boiler, seemed doomed to failure when the first shipment 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 far greater success… than if the rats had actually been used.”
While working with animals has often proven problematic, attempts to gain advantage by disguising devices as inanimate objects have also proven to be a source of embarrassment. One such effort involved the MI6 station in Moscow attempting to improve the technique of “dead letter drop” to obtain secret information from spies in Russia.
Rather than risk leaving classified information at a pre-arranged location, MI6’s version of James Bond’s Q came up with the idea that the information could be sent electronically to a recipient hidden in a fake brick located near the ministry in question had been posted and which could then be downloaded. by another walk along.
However, the concentrated activity of many men in suits in one part of this park led to the discovery of the rock. The revelation of the operation in 2006 caused great embarrassment to the British 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 organizations are always looking for innovative ways to improve their spy craft, perhaps 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 handy bag of chips
The team of two British diplomats and their wives had to pass through three Soviet and two Finnish checkpoints. As the first guard dog approached, one of the party members offered the sniffing Alsatian a crispy cheese and onion, appropriately distracting the Alsatian from the scent of Gordievsky hiding in the trunk of the car.
When another dog began to sniff the boot, a very ingenious and successful method of espionage was brought into play.
The wife of one of the diplomats placed her 18-month-old baby on the trunk of the car, changed the baby’s diaper and then dropped the freshly filled, steaming deposit on the floor, successfully distracting the dog and its handler .
These actions were never part of the Gordievsky extraction plan, but were an improvisation as instinctive as they were ingenious by those accustomed to operating in hostile environments and skilled in deceiving the unwanted attention of enemy agents.
Expensive research budgets and promising technological advances provide an edge under certain circumstances, but the most effective espionage techniques can still depend on the application of quick thinking and bold, fearless action.
Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham and David Hastings Dunn, Professor of International Politics in the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham
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