Our spooky spy friends Bob Wallace and Keith Melton—the guys behind the amazing spy-gadget bible Spycraft— uncovered one of the supposedly incinerated "magic" journals. Their new book, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, is in part a verbatim reproduction of that manual, but, thrillingly, it also shares the (declassified) history of CIA trickery from the beginning, including the formation of the double top-secret and sometimes sinister MKULTRA division. MKULTRA was supposed to have been erased from history in 1973, but—in true spy fashion—the few shreds of paperwork that remained ended up telling its whole story.

The discovered manual was penned by John Mulholland, the David Copperfield and/or Blaine of his day. Though Mulholland knew more than anybody since Houdini about pulling fast ones, his challenge was to teach people who were not necessarily pros to pull off tricks in front of an audience that didn't know it was an audience. Perform a lousy trick, and you don't get booed—you get beheaded.

Here Wallace and Melton have kindly shared some newly created illustrations of tricks from the book, CIA sleights you could employ to escape from a water-bottling plant, poison a friend, send messages with your shoelaces, steal single sheets of paper, look dumb, and of course, kill Castro. Not all of the tricks below come from Mulholland's original manual, but they were all devised at Langley, and are all lovingly described in the book—a $16 thrill of a read for anyone with even a passing interest in spyology:

Thanks to Bob Wallace and Keith Melton for sharing their book's illustrations with us. If you'd like to know more about the book, check out its sales page on Amazon (there's a Kindle version too), or visit the authors' new website, CIA Magic.

To bypass the gallery format, click here. And no, this is not a holiday gift guide.

OSA PB2 "Less-Lethal" Multipurpose Pistol
Ever since I watched Rosa Klebb trying to kill Bond with her shoe-dagger, I considered the Russians the world experts in tiny hideaway weapons. The PB2 is an eeency-weeency little double-barreled "less-lethal" pistol weighing less than 7 ounces, firing anything from rubber bullets to flares to flashbangs. It's also got a safety and integral laser sights, which can be upgraded to near-Scott-Summers strength on order. Just don't practice on some poor country bumpkin like they did here. [OSA]

DrugWipe by Securetec
The DrugWipe is what makes the customs guys all-knowing. It's a tiny drugtest in a pocket. These plastic sticks can test up to four classes of illegal drugs in a single go. According to Securetec's PR guy, your saliva can give you away 12 hours after doing—or even just being near—cocaine, weed, opium, meth or whathaveyou. All the government grunts have to do is wipe your tongue. Won't open your mouth? They can also swipe your sweat and random stuff you're carrying. [Securetec]

Spy Watch
When I approached the director of a small security/protection company to ask about this normal looking watch, he wouldn't tell me a whole lot. What I managed to squeeze out of him is that although it's normal size, it also records audio and video. Near the 2 o'clock mark you can see a tiny lens, activated by buttons on the side. He wasn't the only cagey guy on the show floor—the guys in a nearby booth forbade me from taking pictures of their micro surveillance gear.

Trikke uPT
The Trikke uPT (ultralight personal transporter) was the funnest (and funniest) thing at the entire expo, and that's saying a lot when you're surrounded by a pirateload of guns. It's an idea so simple, the company's European director, the dark-suited Dutchman whizzing around on it, couldn't figure why his potential buyers would spend any money at all on the wayyyy more expensive Segways parked in the next booth. The uPT is a trike tricked out with a 250-watt electric motor and a 22-mile range lithium-ion battery; it weighs just over 37 pounds. And like that blasted Segway, there are plenty of models to choose from. [Trikke]

RiotBot by Technorobot
The RiotBot is billed by its makers as "the first robot for riot control." It uses a PS3-looking remote controller to zip this PepperBall-equipped metal beast at 12 miles/hour into all kinds of riots. The carbine fires at 700 rounds per minute and can be operated for 2 hours. [Technorobot]

MaxFit Gloves
It's usually next to impossible to do precise tasks with gloves on. Most of the time, your hands move around in the gloves, you can't feel what you're holding and you end up feeling as useless as a eunuch in a whorehouse. But the MaxFit workgloves are fanfriggintastic. They were the thinnest, grippiest workgloves I had ever worn. Their try-out test was having me grip an Armor-All lubed PVC tube, then try to twist it out of my hand—it didn't budge. Unfortunately, though the site advertises that it's good for construction, DIYers and "fall yardwork," I couldn't help but wonder what ulterior activities they were promoting it for at a security show. [MaxFit]

Piexon Guardian Angel
The Guardian Angel is a tiny plastic toy that looks like your niece's water pistol, but it's actually a lightweight, disposable two-shot explosive-propelled pepper-spray gun. The cartridges give it way more range than a spray can. Just don't carry it around in Scandinavia or other places where it's banned, or they'll arrest you for it (like they nearly did with me two months ago). By the way, it's interesting to note that the Piexon website names "liberal politics" as a chief reason for needing more protection these days. [Piexon]

Rimmex 288 Prototype Amphibot
The Rimmex 288 is a prototype amphibious robot that can roll straight into water—streams, rivers and lakes mostly, or just very muddy terrain—and then roll right back out again. Its single arm with 6 degrees of freedom can be swapped with whatever you like—from a gun to an x-ray, apparently, depending on your, uh, objectives. [ROV Developpement]

Apoorva Prasad is a freelance writer and photographer based in Paris, France, who recently covered the Milipol 2009 military-police expo for us. He has a thing for holo-scoped assault rifles, and sounds disappointed when admitting he's never been Tased.

What global means exactly is uncertain, as there's no mention of the US anywhere. But if given the opportunity to combine this beast with the Matsuhashi B-400, you better believe I won't hesitate to do so. Also, you're only allowed to hang out in my blanket fort if you have a Watchphone too. [Akihabara News]

I'll let Brando's stream-of-consciousness pitch speak for itself:

It's not ONLY a Normal Power Extension Bar, Slot your Sim Card and works as a Spy Ear! Slot the Sim Card inside this Power Extension Socket place it under the table and start your spy work! It is a Real Power Extension Bar support with 8 sockets. Also, the device can be recharged, it can still work for spy ear even not attach to the power outlet. You can place it ANYWHERE without notice by others!!

$66. [Brando vie Redferret]

Australian Paul Gardner-Stephen originally created his Gen 2 prototype shoe phone for his church group by carving out the heel of a dress shoe and stuffing in parts of a cellphone, along with a bluetooth headset. As a result, Gardner-Stephen is able to place calls using voice commands, and use a handful of controls using makeshift buttons he created by punching holes in the heel.

The only problem is that Gardner-Stephen says he wants to produce the shoe for the medical industry and help people by using it to relay data from biosensors and other crap. Um, what?! If globalthermonucleardynamic espionage isn't your primary objective with this thing, Mr. Gardner-Stephen, I believe you're missing the point. [Gen 2 Shoe Phone via Instructables via Crave]

There's even an ID card and ink pad so anyone that enters said playroom can get their prints on file, in case any funny business should happen later, and some evidence sacks to bag up incriminating fibers. What every kid needs is their own high-security, civil-rights-violating border crossing station in his room. I had my prints lifted off a water bottle, so this thing works. It's $16 and available this fall. [Toy Fair 2009]

Now all it needs is a Tumbler-like mechanism to instantly eject the moto. [MotoPod via Oh Gizmo]

• Robotic critters, from the insectothopter of the 1970s to the robofish of today

• Cigars developed to kill, confuse or humiliate Fidel Castro—not surprisingly, one would have made his beard fall out.

• The beloved skyhook—yes, the thing that yanks people from the ground up into airplanes. Learn of its origins, early animal test runs and its one successful on-record mission.

• The Soviet's most amazing spy gadget, dubbed "The Thing" by befuddled CIA agents who didn't know how on earth it worked. It was built by Theremin, inventor of that wacky musical thingy, himself a part-time Soviet agent and researcher.

• Spies, spying and spy talk. Yes, the book may be focused on hardware, but man it's full of crazy stories about spies. The most interesting tales are about the Russians who were leaking info to the US, often upon pain of death. Stories of American traitors are pretty familiar, but you rarely get to hear about what went on over on the other side of the Curtain.

Meanwhile, here's a recap of what I did cover, in case you missed it:
• My interview with the authors
• Blow-up Sex Toys as In-Car Decoys
• A Speedboat Disguised as a Junk
• Hide and Seek, CIA Style
• The Inflatable Rescue Plane
• Animal Agents, Live and Dead
• A Gallery of CIA Spy Cameras

Anyway, I enjoyed the book and the authors, and I highly recommend it for a Father's Day gift. Needless to say, I've not received anything in return for this endorsement except a copy of the book itself, which they can have back when they pry it from my cold dead hands. [CIA Spycraft; Amazon Sales Page]

You can either go through these steps to have yourself this cut-rate spy device, or you could just use a stethoscope to listen through walls directly. Or how about this: You could just stop being such a nosy muthafucka and mind your own beeswax. [Instructables]

Too bad the vehicle itself only travels 30 feet, and it's one of those wind up cars (you pull it backwards along the floor and then let go). But the signal supposedly works through walls, which means that the movement is really a secondary feature to being able to listen-in on your sister talking about boys. Ewwww.

Available next fall for between $14.99 and $19.99. –Noah Robischon

...which means you can put it on top of your iPod and it will flash a red light and start whistling if anyone tried to nab it. (The unit shown in the picture below is a prototype, the real thing won't have that big black wire with an ugly box hanging off of the end.)

The second sensor is a motion detector. But this alarm is only armed after the touch sensor has been triggered. So now the burglar is running but they head smack into alarm number three, which is a motion sensor loaded with two darts—thwap! Hahaha. Busted. Okay, now back to work.

This will be available next fall for between $29.99 and $49.99.–Noah Robischon

I happen to have been one of those kids who wanted to be James Bond. And having this "collection of essentials spy tools" would have made my day. The case itself is made of black plastic and has a motion alarm that emits a loud whistle if anyone passes too near. It's also got a vision scope, red flashlight and shoots two foam darts in case of attack by Fembots.

Inside there is a spindle for carrying DVDs, a compartment that is just the right size for an iPod. The motion sensor and the dart gun are removable, and there are some funky magnifying glasses in there too. Although this is the biggest in the lineup, it's not as neat as the Intruder Trap System. The Agent Action Briefcase will be available next fall for between $19.99 and $29.99. –Noah Robischon

Because we're not so self-important to think anyone would bother to listen to anything we're saying or doing, we're not thinking this little $229 unit would be worth it. However, the website that tries to scare you into buying one of these homemade-looking devices is slightly amusing. – Charlie White

The MCH-22H [SpyNexus, via c|net]