CLOAK-AND-DAGGER BEHIND THE SCENES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400390007-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 23, 1998
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: March 3, 1962
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

tiN1 MAR 3 1962
Sanitized - Approved For ReleaseF&l--~P75-
:After twenty years of silence, a former Government..
'scientist describes the diabolical workings of our,.,
pionage.
CPYRGHT
BY STANLEY P. LOVELL
going well for us, when I was introduced to Gen.
(then a colonel)'' ~J~Jd?jXpc> X11. Dr.
Vannevar Bush, mychief in the Office of Scientific Re-
search and Development, had recently distributed to
all his staff a special problem :
"You are all alone on a rubber raft, about to land
on a German-held coast. Your mission is to destroy a
well-guarded enemy radio tower. It has armed guards,
searchlights and police dogs. You can have only one
weapon, but it can be anything you can suggest De-
scribe that specific weapon."
I submitted, "I want a flashless, completely silent
submachine gun."
My answer won first prize in Doctor Bush's contest.
That is why Wild Bill had sent for me. He looked up
as I entered his office and said, "Doctor Moriarty 1 He's
the man I want on my staff. I think you're it."
"Do I look to be as evil a character as Professor
Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes stories?" I asked.
"I don't give a damn how you look," Donovan an-
swered. "I want every devilish, subtle device and every
underhanded operation possible to use against the
Germans and Japs by the Underground in all occupied
countries. There's only one condition. You must
promise to wait twenty years before you tell what
you've been responsible for."
That is how I became director of research and de-
--7.>...-,, ~~~ R .
v to meant r onavan s rnTir o
~. ~,~. A.~,A?,~ .' ear ..~-,..~.,. nth ~#C a
to is Services ~usf twentys ago. And from then
o nerai Donovan called me "Doctor Moriarty."
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
Now, although there are some matters which must
still remain secret, 1 feel free t.P. MC.~veal?-q~r, Xi_first
I upe''or spies and saboteurs'to use behind enemy linpe
From 1942 to 1945 we used our scientific knowledge
and all manner of unorthodox materials to develop
precisely the kind of "devilish, subtle devices" Dono-
van had asked for. Some were undramatic-the forgery
of passports, ration books, identification papers and
foreign currency, for example. Some were rather funny,
at least to us. And some,. of course, were weapons of
death and destruction.
By mid-1943 we had perfected some twenty special
devices, ranging from delay firing systems and in-
cendiaries down to a simple firecracker device we .
called "Hedy Lamarr," because my young officers told
me that Miss Lamarr created a panic wherever she
went. When you pulled a small wire loop on the gadget,
it simulated the screeching Doppler effect of a falling
Nazi bomb, ending in a deafening roar-but all com-
pletely harmless. We madg_ it for our spies who might
be trapped in a theater or a hotel lobby. By activating
"Hedy," the agent might escape in the turmoil.
General Donovan and I gave lecture5, before many
mihtar' rau' s. I' vividly recall one` on A
Y g p ugps_(, 28,
1943, before the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After General
Donovan's talk on OSS objectives, he asked me to
demonstrate several of our simpler devices. I showed
our "boo_bv traps," our incendiaries and other devices,
and el- xplained the need for "Hedy Lamarr." As I
spoke, I activated one and dropped it casually into a
metal wastebasket. "Hedy" interrupted me by suddenly
shrieking. Then came the deafening bang. To my
surprise I saw generals and admirals clawing to get out
through the room's single door.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000 0T07