The large bird, which was carrying a GPS transmitter and a tag bearing the identification code R65 from Tel Aviv University, strayed into rural Saudi Arabian territory at some point last week, according to a report in the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.
Residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia’s Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be linked to a “Zionist plot” and swiftly alerted security services. The bird has since been placed under arrest.
The accusations went viral, according to the Israeli Ha’aretz newspaper, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the “Zionists” had trained the birds for espionage.
The incident comes amid growing paranoia among Israel’s neighbours over the nation’s growing military might.
Several weeks ago an Egyptian official reportedly claimed that a shark that attacked tourists off the coastal resort of Sharm el Sheikh was also acting on behalf of the Israeli spy service.
The Israeli authorities said the bird’s activities were much more innocent and that it was in fact part of a long-term academic study of the migratory habits of the vulture.
Source: The Telegraph
Bird expert calls for release of ‘vulture spy’
An Israeli bird expert has called on Saudi Arabia to release a vulture that has been captured amid speculation it was on a spying mission for Israel.
The Saudi press speculated the rare griffon vulture, which was carrying a GPS transmitter, was sent by Israeli spy agency Mossad.
The avian ecologist says the vulture did not come from Israel but had been trapped there and fitted with a transmitter as part of a research project to track bird migrations.
The vulture was found in the Saudi desert carrying a tag bearing the words, Tel Aviv University.
Last month the governor of Egypt’s South Sinai region said he was not ruling out speculation that Mossad may have been responsible for releasing a killer shark in the Red Sea off the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
The theory emerged after a tourist was killed and others were injured in a spate of shark attacks near the Egyptian resort.
If this is symptomatic for Saudi thinking, you don’t have to wonder why no Nobel Prize has ever been awarded to a Saudi (while 9 Nobel Prizes have gone to Israel). But it rather adds to my worries about what will happen with Saudi Arabia once the oil reserves will have been depleted: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/it-was-the-mossad-2/
ReplyDelete