High-Tech Squirrels Trained to Conduct Espionage

Pcol writes "In the July 20 issue of the Washington Post, columnist Al Kamen reports that the BBC has translated a story headlined 'spying squirrels,' published in the Iranian newspaper Resalat on the use of trained animals to conduct espionage against their country: 'A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country's borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes.' According the story the squirrels had 'GPS devices, bugging instruments and advanced cameras' in their bodies. 'Given the fast speed and the special physical features of these animals, they provide special capabilities for spying operations. Once the animals return to their place of origin, the intelligence gathered by them is then offloaded. . . .' Iranian police officials captured the squirrels before they could carry out their assignments."

Comments

Re:Squirrels?

[darkmeridian]

Spying with squirrels and small animals would be great if you can actually do it. Two words: plausible deniability. Even if your targets capture your squirrely assets, the technology aboard the animal is not a huge wash, and probably is not so special it has to be from the United States. You do lose a trained squirrel, however. If you could get a squirrel to enter a house and just sit there, you can effectively bug a house. With the GPS gear, you can figure out whether you're bugging the right house. If you hear conversations about insurgencies, and killing Americans, and stuff, then you can send a GPS-guided JDAM bomb right through the window.

But if your target complains about being spied on by a trained squirrel, people will laugh at them for being paranoids.

Re:Squirrels?

[acidrain]

plausible deniability

It is well known the CIA did this with a cat in the 60s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty I would be quite reasonable to expect them to have moved on to smaller animals by now. The CIA has an overwhelming need to spy on Iran. Sure this story is funny, but not really all that unlikely.