IS THE MILITARY LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MAGICIANS?
Thanks to an article from the WIRED.com Danger Room blog, we have learned of a four million dollar project which hopes to "demonstrate and assess the operational effectiveness of advanced human-deceptive technologies on military ground, sea, and airborne systems."
What? Magic on the battlefield? Who'd have thought!
If this all sounds a little outside the military norm, it shouldn’t. Magicians and generals have had a long-standing relationship — one that produced very real effects during wartime. Harry Houdini snooped on the German and the Russian militaries for Scotland Yard. English illusionist Jasper Maskelyne is reported to have created dummy submarines and fake tanks to distract Rommel’s army during World War II; some reports even credit him with employing flashing lights to “hide” the Suez Canal. At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on misdirection, concealment and stagecraft. It was republished in 2009 as “The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.”
Print Article