Birds Of A Feather Spy Together

The scene: Two men in a chilly Soviet apartment converse in whispers, careful to protect their plans from enemy ears. Little do they know, the benign-looking raven outside their window is not merely a city scavenger hunting for food, but a spy for the U.S. government.

Sound too ridiculous to be true? In fact, animal spies — and their very real missions — are the subject of journalist Tom Vanderbilt's article "The CIA's Animal Spies" in Smithsonian magazine this month.

On Sunday, Vanderbilt sat down with All Things Considered's Arun Rath to discuss the furry and feathered secret agents of the Cold War.

Continued