1. Bob Walla
5
Alumnus Writes about
CIA Tools of Espionage
Ski pole guns, dagger shoes, poison pens, and exploding alarm
clocks are just a few of the spy gadgets used by James Bond
during his decades-long career in espionage. However, former
director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Service (OTS) Bob Wallace
’66 can tell you that “James Bond wouldn’t last five minutes as an
operations officer in the clandestine world.” (NPR, August 5, 2008)
In their new book “SPYCRAFT: The Secret History of the CIA’s
Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda,” Wallace and H. Keith
Melton provide an organizational and operational history of the OTS,
detailing the role of technology in the CIA’s covert operations, while
also providing the reader with insight into the human factor of spy
exploits. The technical devices designed, developed, deployed and
serviced by OTS are described in the context of actual assignments
and encounters of operations officers that make for reading intrigue.
Wallace, who served as director of OTS between 1998 and 2002 and
coordinated the OTS global response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks,
hopes the book will give readers a new sense of confidence and pride
in America’s intelligence service.
Wallace spent a total of 32 years with the CIA, both in field
operations and senior administration. He knows from both
perspectives that officers depend on their devices for the successful
completion of their assignments, and often their lives. That’s why
OTS always keeps quality, reliability and performance as their
guiding philosophies, whether the devices are for surveillance, covert
communications, documentation, concealments, special weapons, or
disguises.
“There is always a second take for Hollywood if the scene doesn’t
go right,” said Wallace. “(Real) operations officers don’t get a rerun.
Make up for actors may take hours to apply. Disguises for operations
officers need to be applied in seconds – and look real. Devices always
work for James Bond; sometimes in the real world, they don’t. James
Bond never got tired; our officers do. Bond always had the right
device. Sometimes our agents don’t and they have to improvise – fast,”
explained Wallace.
The
name
is Wallace,

2. ver use these gadgets or technologies?
Thank the OTS!
6
While James Bond had “Q”
to develop an endless array of
gadgets as part of the British
Government’s Ministry of
Supply, OTS often works
with the private sector to
develop products for its
officers. “We were agnostic
in terms of who we worked
with; we just wanted to work
with people who we knew
would produce,” said Wallace.
“It didn’t matter whether it
was a guy running a two-
man shop out of his garage
or a multi-billion dollar corporation. It’s a process that has served us
incredibly well.”
That process produced a “gadget” in the mid-1970s that changed spy
history - the T-100 subminiature camera, designed by Paul Howe,
an OTS engineer and private optical machinist. It had the capability
to photograph up to 100 full-size pages with a camera concealed in
something as small as a fountain pen or cigarette lighter.
Other gadgets outlined in “SPYCRAFT” include hollowed out
freeze-dried rats used for information drops (also covered in Tabasco
sauce to deter curious cats!); microphones hidden in bullets fired into
trees; hollowed out Soviet coins containing concealed text; odorless
paint; fake ears; and the OSS Stinger, an easily concealed .22 caliber
single-shot pistol that could be fired from the palm of one’s hand at
short range.
Though the gadgets themselves could not be marketed, once the
technology used for a piece of CIA spy equipment was declassified,
it could be used commercially. In fact, you may be surprised at the
number of gadgets or technologies you use everyday that were first
designed by OTS (see above).
Why write a book about spy gadgets and operations? Three months
after Wallace was appointed director of OTS, he had a conversation
with John Aalto, a retired case officer who spent five decades in
Soviet operations. During their conversation Aalto told Wallace, “It is
because of the techs and TSK that we in Soviet operations eventually
won the intelligence war against the KGB in Moscow. . . You should
get this story recorded before all of us who were involved are gone
and the inevitable organizational changes at CIA obscure this history.”
In 2003, after retiring from the CIA, Wallace had a conversation
with another friend, H. Keith Melton, who was a life-long student
of intelligence history and private collector of espionage devices and
equipment. Melton made a similar comment, asking if Wallace had
ever considered writing an account of his tenure as OTS director.
“SPYCRAFT” was born of those conversations. The book, which
has received excellent reviews, offers an unprecedented look at
information and photos deemed “inappropriate for public disclosure”
by the CIA just two years ago.
Reflecting on the book-writing experience, Wallace, who is originally
from Barnard, Kansas, was drawn back to his OU days. “One of the
sad points for me on this book was that two of my professors, Dr.
Ronnie Averyt and Keith Shumway, for whom I had great affection,
died before we got it done. I would have liked to have them read it
because I would covet their criticism, which would have been right
on the mark, I know.”
Wallace continues to support the CIA as a part-time historian with
the Center for the Study of Intelligence. In 2002, his co-authored
book about the Vietnam War, “Nine from the Ninth,” was released,
and in 2004 he founded Artemus Consulting Group, a network
of skilled intelligence and security professionals. He currently lives
in Reston, Virginia, with his wife Mary Margaret. They have three
grown children and three grandchildren.
• Text messaging (first developed in 1970s as BUSTER covert
communications system)
• Baby monitors
• Hot air balloons
• Microphones in hearing aids
• Handheld digital cameras
• Infrared radar used for night flying
• Sky-hook air rescue devices
(like those used in Batman: The Dark Night)
• Pacemaker batteries