Turkish authorities are examining the carcass of a European bee-eater on suspicion that the bird was spying for Israel, Turkish websites and media have reported in the past couple of days.
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Of particular interest to the authorities, the media reports say, were the dead bird’s nostrils, one of which is larger than the other, leading to suspicions that Mossad surveillance equipment was implanted in the beak.
The big-nosed spy-bird saga began when a farmer found the dead Merops Apiaster, or European bee-eater, on his land and alerted authorities after noticing a band inscribed with the word “Israel” on the bird’s leg.
Well, you know, in 2001 the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa that claimed Pokemon was a Zionist plot to corrupt Arab children. And Iranians are claiming that the London Olympics logo is a hidden Zionist symbol.
Those loons would be hilarious if the consequences of their lunacy were not so detrimental.
The best part of the article is the caption on the photo: “An example of a European bee-eater, not thought to be a Mossad agent.”
You know, if I was putting sophisticated spying equipment up a bird’s nostril, I’d probably resist the urge to put a band with the name of my country on its legs. Cause I have a suspicion that this would sort of diminish the whole covert aspect of the thing.
Also, if I was considering doing anything remotely like this, I’d put my cameras in the local equivalents of the turkey vulture which spends its days circling around in thermals, rather than some near-passerine that probably spends all its time hanging around in bushes. A birds-eye view from a insectivore would probably redefine “shaky-cam”
Considering that there’s been successful work done on mounting remote controls & cameras on insects, it isn’t all that paranoid to suspect such a thing. I don’t know if they’ve figured out how to remote control birds like they can insects though, and I doubt you could pull it off yet without the results being obvious at close range.
Still, if someone does develop the capability for such things now would be a great time to use it; the idea is still scifi-ish enough that most people will reflexively dismiss it, and at the same time you have plenty of people with conspiracy theories about such things to provide further cover. Any reports by someone who actually saw a bird with a little camera attached to it would be swamped in the claims of the paranoids who only think they’ve seen one.
C’mon, conspiracy theories depend on the coexistence of fiendish genius with rank stupidity.
The idea of using birds to confound one’s enemy has a long and, well, stupid history. For instance, during WWI there was an Australian inventor, Thomas Mills, who devised a plan to train seagulls to detect German U-boats:
*"What Mr Mills was doing was trailing a ‘dummy’ submarine behind his own boat all around Exmouth Bay. His cunning apparatus was so devised that it rose from the depths and showed its dummy periscope to the seagulls while at the same time distributing food to them.
In time, it was Mr Mill’s belief, the birds would associate periscopes with free and easy food and any German submarine breaking the surface would be immediately identified by the flock of gulls that would descend on it.
All that was necessary to beat the submarine threat was to have a thousand or so of these dummies being towed around the coasts of Britain and very soon the seagulls would be doing their bit in the Great War for Civilization."*
For some reason I can’t fathom, the British decided on the convoy system instead.
And here I was thinking that Pokemon was a plot to corrupt all children and that the London Olympics logo was a hidden symbol of Lisa Simpson giving a blowjob.
Not all Muslims are like that. Me and my best friend (he’s Turkish) are Muslims and we both love Pokemon. I’m even friends with a Jewish girl.
If anything I find it ridiculous that Turkey is falling under the Islamist sphere of influence. Kemal Ataturk created a secular nation where religion had no part in the government, and here Turkish government officials are acting like the Saudi mutaween.
We, or atleast I know that this isn’t a Muslim thing it’s a politics thing, wrapped in religion to make it palatable. I mean some one has to be engaged in a dark conspiracy to subvert our morals, culture, children etc. so we aren’t responsible for the real problems our society has. Hence birds carrying cameras and Mossad trained sharks. Same stuff happens here ie. Teletubbies are making children gay, not the Priests sexually assaulting them and confusing their sexual identity, nah its the Teletubbies
