Police in Saudi Arabia are crowing about foiling another fowl Israeli plot. They've nabbed a vulture they claim was working for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The feathered spy is a griffon vulture, a species that is found in parts of the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Police say the vulture, which was shot and wounded while trying to fly the coop, was wearing a GPS satellite transmitter and an identification tag which read, "Tel Aviv University - R65." If that evidence wasn't incriminating enough, the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Weeam claims that the suspect had a "foul odor coming out of its mouth -proof of a zionist plot." The story has now gone viral throughout the Middle East with hundreds of posts on Arabic language websites claiming that the Zionists are training birds to do espionage work.
Israel claims the tags indicate the animal was part of a long-term research project into the migration patterns of the griffon vulture.
This is not the first time Israel has been accused of using animal agents against its Islamic neighbors. Just this December the governor of Egypt's Sinai region suggested that Zionist agents may have released the shark that attacked tourists at its Red Sea resort.
"What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark in the sea to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question. But it needs time to confirm ," Gen. Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha told the press.
Here are some other examples (from Sky News' Tim Marshall):
The Iranians once caught 14 Mossad squirrels inside the Islamic Republic. All were wearing listening devices and cameras. In 2008 they arrested two spy pigeons near a nuclear site. These birds were suspected of spying for either Mossad or (Britain's) MI6. Etemad Melli newspaper quoted a government source - "Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings," At the time a diplomatic source told me "It must be a shattering blow to our intel boys that that the 'invisible string' has been discovered, after all it's the first thing Britain has invented since the Hovercraft".
Another added "It's clear there has been some sort of coo in Tehran", while a third told me, "I don't think this story has legs, but it does have wings".
Also in 2008 the Palestinian newspaper WAFA printed a report claiming that jews had trained rats to distinguish between arabs and jews and released them into the Old City of Jerusalem. A year later the Israelis had trained wild boars to destroy Palestinian crops, antelope were patrolling the Lebanese border, and llamas were being trained but turned out to be too unruly and suspected of having pro Hizbollah sympathies.
Blaming Israel for anything and everything that goes wrong is extremely common in Islamic countries and even the educated classes subscribe to it, says Sky News' Tim Marshall (who I heard on National Public Radio yesterday while driving on a Los Angeles freeway).
But before you ridicule the Muslims for their credulity and lack of critical thinking, remember a few of the silly things many Americans believe in -like pyramid power, homeopathy, death panels, fake presidential birth certificates, Bigfoot, flying saucers, post-mortem Elvis appearances, etc., etc.
As for what is happening to Mossad Agent R65 (IE: the griffon vulture)? It's hard to say. The Saudis are holding him (or her -how do you tell with vultures?) incommunicado. And if R65 is tied to a chair in some dark cell somewhere and Saudi interrogators are shining a bright light in his eyes while questioning him, I have no doubt that poor vulture is singing like a bird.
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Comments
Actually, a grand battle will take place in that region, and the vultures will have a field day. Revelation, chapters 16 and 19.
Obviously it's a sign.
Terry hasn't quite caught on that the events in the Revelation were supposed to have occurred within a few years of its writing. Since they didn't, it's "false prophecy" (one of my favorite redundancies).
I thought the dumbing down of America was the only thing to laugh about. Good Grief!!! This would be so funny if it wasn't the most pathetic thing I have heard in a long time. Paranoia??
Obviously that picture wasn't of the spying vulture, as he's not wearing a Kippah.
But seriously, how can Saudis be so gullible as to believe the Isrealis are using wild animals to spy on them? That takes a level of incredulity that's unimag... wait, they believe in an invisible, magical sky-daddy who can't even defend himself from words... never-mind.
We know that Israel spies on Saudi Arabia. We know that birds have been used in military operations. While the scientific study explanation is more likely, there is nothing amusing about the Saudi's thinking this could be a spying device.
I don't know why we laugh at everything Arabs do.
Unless they found a recording device or a transmitter coupled with a camera on the vulture, the thought that he was spying is utterly ridiculous; hence my amusement.
Once they captured the vulture, they easily could have checked it for electronic devices, and even if it was wearing a tracking device, where a bird flies gives spies no useful information without a camera or microphone.
Birds don't knowingly spy for another country, they're not good at it; hence the term "bird-brain".
Bobby said: I don't know why we laugh at everything Arabs do.
Response: Because it's funny!
"If that evidence wasn't incriminating enough, the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Weeam claims that the suspect had a "foul odor coming out of its mouth -proof of a zionist plot."'
You have to wonder what kind of odor Al Weeam expects to come from the mouth of a bird that eats carrion? Attar of roses? By Al Weeam's reasoning, every vulture must be part of a Zionist plot!
That's the part that made me laugh aloud. I've always assumed that saying "a vulture with bad breath" is like saying "a round circle that has no corners."
Ya know, my dog's breath is none too sweet these days. I wonder who's spying on me.
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