14 DAY TRIAL // There are plenty of things folks can say about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, for short) in the United States, but here is the one thing that it cannot be accused of: lacking imagination.
Granted, the CIA might be imaginative in a dark and twisted sort of way, but it is imaginative nonetheless, and this is precisely why some of its past activities are now making headlines.
Long story short, a Washington Post report says that, several years ago, the CIA started working on Osama bin Laden demon dolls like the odd-looking action figure pictured above.
Apparently, the code name for these dolls was Devil Eyes, and it really is not all that difficult to figure out why the Agency settled on this moniker. Simply put, Devil Eyes is the best possible name for a doll that's scarier than Chucky.
Information leaked to the public says that the dolls stood about 12 centimeters (4.72 inches) tall, and, creepy eyes aside, also had a not-so-fun-to-look-at red face that was criss-crossed by black markings. Still, these features weren't the weirdest thing about them.
On the contrary, the CIA's Osama bin Laden demon dolls were two-faced. Literally. In a nutshell, the demonic red face was covered in a material that made it look normal and that melted when exposed to heat.
What this means is that, prior to accompanying one family or another to a quiet day at the beach, the dolls looked like the one featured in the photo below this article. However, some heat was more than enough to melt their first face off and turn them into demons.
By the looks of it, the CIA hoped to use such dolls to scare families into hating Osama bin Laden and fearing him. However, it appears that, following the creation of several prototypes in 2006, the project was pulled the plug on, and no such dolls ever hit shelves.
Still, word has it that several hundred such action figures did make it to the city of Karachi in Pakistan in 2006 via a freighter. For the time being, it is unclear what happened to these dolls and if others were distributed in other regions as well.
In its report, the Washington Post explains that the CIA created the dolls with the help of toymaker Donald Levine, who helped the Agency leave the manufacturing process up to workers in China. Apparently, this move was intended to ensure the secrecy of the project.
Presently, the CIA maintains that, although it did set the basis for one such project, it has no knowledge of any Osama bin Laden demon dolls being distributed anywhere in the world.
“To our knowledge, there were only three individual action figures ever created, and these were merely to show what a final product might look like,” CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said.
Furthermore, “After being presented with these examples, the CIA declined to pursue this idea and did not produce or distribute any of these action figures. Furthermore, CIA has no knowledge of these action figures being produced or distributed by others.”
