Israel using bird to spy on Saudi Arabia
MrMerkinball
Posts: 1,978
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... israel-spy
JERUSALEM—Barely one week after Iran hanged Ali Aqbar Siadat for allegedly collaborating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad, Saudi Arabia claims to have uncovered its own Israeli infiltrator.
His vision and code name may rival 007’s, but “R65” has none of Sean Connery’s sex appeal.
After all, he is only a vulture. Al Weeam, a Saudi newspaper, reported the suspected secret agent was discovered around a house of a sheikh near the city of Hayel. The bird had earlier been banded in a study on bird migration, and was therefore equipped with a GPS locator and a ring tracing it back to Tel Aviv University.
This apparently aroused the suspicion of the sheikh who reported the bird to local police. Scientific practice notwithstanding, al-Weeam and bloggers all over the Arab world were certain: This vulture had been spying for a “Zionist cabal.”
The Saudi accusation may seem paranoid, but fear of Mossad and its penchant for high-tech methods is a staple of Arab coverage of Israel.
And animal-flavoured plots are a rich vein on their own.
Only last month, after a shark attack killed a German tourist in the Red Sea, Egyptian officials blamed the Mossad. One could not rule out the shark had been released next to Egypt’s shores to harm its tourism, speculated the peninsula’s governor Muhammad Abdel Fadil Shousha.
Many animals undoubtedly serve in Israel’s army and security services: dogs sniff out bombs and alpaca help mountaineers carry their loads. At Tel Aviv University, no one denied the connection to R65.
According to one researcher, it was one of seven vultures that had been banded and had subsequently flown to Saudi Arabia. Four have apparently been killed, one still crosses the desert skies after waiting out the winter in Sudan.
But tales about the use of sharks, birds, rodents or, as has also been claimed, insects in the service of the military are more the fruit of imagination than hard fact.
In October, 2008, Iran “arrested” two pigeons who were reportedly staking out the nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz.
A year earlier, the Iranian press agency IRNA reported that 14 spy squirrels working for the West had been arrested “at the very last moment.”
The Palestinian news wire WAFA reported a few years ago during the Intifada that Israelis were releasing giant rats in East Jerusalem. These killer rodents, “large as dogs,” were supposed to scare the locals out of their homes to leave this equally holy and contested city to the Jews (who apparently are not afraid of giant rats).
JERUSALEM—Barely one week after Iran hanged Ali Aqbar Siadat for allegedly collaborating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad, Saudi Arabia claims to have uncovered its own Israeli infiltrator.
His vision and code name may rival 007’s, but “R65” has none of Sean Connery’s sex appeal.
After all, he is only a vulture. Al Weeam, a Saudi newspaper, reported the suspected secret agent was discovered around a house of a sheikh near the city of Hayel. The bird had earlier been banded in a study on bird migration, and was therefore equipped with a GPS locator and a ring tracing it back to Tel Aviv University.
This apparently aroused the suspicion of the sheikh who reported the bird to local police. Scientific practice notwithstanding, al-Weeam and bloggers all over the Arab world were certain: This vulture had been spying for a “Zionist cabal.”
The Saudi accusation may seem paranoid, but fear of Mossad and its penchant for high-tech methods is a staple of Arab coverage of Israel.
And animal-flavoured plots are a rich vein on their own.
Only last month, after a shark attack killed a German tourist in the Red Sea, Egyptian officials blamed the Mossad. One could not rule out the shark had been released next to Egypt’s shores to harm its tourism, speculated the peninsula’s governor Muhammad Abdel Fadil Shousha.
Many animals undoubtedly serve in Israel’s army and security services: dogs sniff out bombs and alpaca help mountaineers carry their loads. At Tel Aviv University, no one denied the connection to R65.
According to one researcher, it was one of seven vultures that had been banded and had subsequently flown to Saudi Arabia. Four have apparently been killed, one still crosses the desert skies after waiting out the winter in Sudan.
But tales about the use of sharks, birds, rodents or, as has also been claimed, insects in the service of the military are more the fruit of imagination than hard fact.
In October, 2008, Iran “arrested” two pigeons who were reportedly staking out the nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz.
A year earlier, the Iranian press agency IRNA reported that 14 spy squirrels working for the West had been arrested “at the very last moment.”
The Palestinian news wire WAFA reported a few years ago during the Intifada that Israelis were releasing giant rats in East Jerusalem. These killer rodents, “large as dogs,” were supposed to scare the locals out of their homes to leave this equally holy and contested city to the Jews (who apparently are not afraid of giant rats).
Post edited by Unknown User on
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As for the story, feels kinda The Oniony, though without sufficient derisive sarcasm.
or when israel was first accused of using white phosphorous and DIME rounds (which is a war crime in a populated area) they in turn accused hamas of firing them?
or how about operation susannah, yosi, was that paranoid and irrational??
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'