That's the recruiting pitch they use, but in all honesty, I think it's bogus. Things have changed. Researchers are now more likely to take a job elsewhere than volunteer to be locked away in the depths of Langley. We have no grand enemy and those capable of developing such technology are choosing to work for contractors instead

Background on this device: has been declassified for some time and it's main defect was that it can not function in over 2-3 knots, both from an acoustical recording quality and navigation standpoint.

From the 70's indeed. In fact, it looks like the CIA tried to implement a device from 70's juvenile Sci-fi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn,_Invisible_Boy

I'm highly skeptical about that dragonfly from the 70s. I think it's a mock-up at best, there's no way they made something useful for surveillance etc the size of a large dragonfly. Not in the 70s. Researchers working on this for decades can barely do this today!