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Egyptian Authorities Detain French "Spy" Bird Found With Tracker

An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post reports, 'In a case that ruffled feathers in Egypt, authorities have detained a migratory bird that a citizen suspected of being a spy. A man in Egypt's Qena governorate, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Cairo, found the suspicious bird among four others near his home and brought them to a police station Friday, said Mohammed Kamal, the head of the security in the region. With turmoil gripping Egypt following the July 3 popularly backed military coup that overthrew the country's president, authorities and citizens remain highly suspicious of anything foreign. Conspiracy theories easily find their ways into cafe discussion — as well as some media in the country. Earlier this year, a security guard filed a police report after capturing a pigeon he said carried microfilm. A previous rumor in 2010 blamed a series of shark attacks along Egypt's Mediterranean coast on an Israeli plot. It wasn't. In the bird's case, even military officials ultimately had to deny the bird carried any spying devices. They spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.'"

29 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. FP by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Two words: Hartlepool, monkey.

    Mind, that was 200 years ago when people had an excuse for being thick.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:FP by gmack · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are more recent examples such as Saudi Arabia accusing a condor of spying Or Egypt Blaming Isreal for shark attacks. The fact is that the Egyptian government wants to distract it's people from the latest military takeover of the government and finding something to blame on the "Zionists" is a time tested way to do that.

      I used to have a Moroccan co worker who blamed Israel for everything bad in life down to his country's poor economy. It really is a weird how an otherwise intelligent person could miss the game of misdirection being played out repeatedly.

    2. Re:FP by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      There are more recent examples such as Saudi Arabia accusing a condor of spying

      Hide! Spies of Sarucohen!

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:FP by torsmo · · Score: 2

      The pigeon was quite clearly Yankee-Doodle Pigeon and the condor was part of the Vulture Squadron. So this can only mean a new Wacky Races movie.

      "Wake up, Muttley, you're dreaming again, You're not Robin Hood and you're not Gunga Din"

    4. Re:FP by gtall · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is the middle east, it wouldn't matter how educated they are. The educated elite of Saudi Arabia believe the same fantasies about Israel. They tend to believe there is an Iranian behind every grain of sand.

      The problem is Islam. It promotes itself over everything. That leaves the pop. unprotected from the plots and stories of the Imams and mullahs. So given a choice between what their local mosque is saying and what an educated world view would tell them, they'll believe the mosque every time. Mind you, the same thing happens in some Christian churches in the U.S. where even something as science is regularly "exposed" as a web of lies. That G-d fellow is one strange dude, burying those dinosaurs bones all over the place. What mystifies me is how She got the oil down there.

    5. Re:FP by skywhale · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "So I'm going to tell you what the facts are, and the facts are the facts, but then we know the truth. That always overcomes facts,"
      pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons, The Eagle Mountain International Church, Texas.
      http://www.npr.org/2013/09/01/217746942/texas-megachurch-at-center-of-measles-outbreak

      --
      :wq!
    6. Re:FP by BluBrick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem is Islam.

      Close.

      The problem is religion.

      Closer yet, but still not quite accurate. You see, religion is just fine until people get involved in it. Only then does it become dangerous.

      --
      Ahh - My eye!
      The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
    7. Re:FP by korbulon · · Score: 2

      Closer still, the problem is people. The pervasiveness of religion betrays a basic need felt by nearly all humans to understand the world, not merely in a cause-effect sense, but in an origination and ontological sense. Where did I come from? Why am I here?. Religion is the institutionalization and politicization of spirituality, not inherently evil but prone to egregious abuse. There are many on this earth who recognize this basic need - often not being able to distinguish it from their own personal beliefs - and exploit it for their worldly ends, often for money and political power. Therein lies the evil.

  2. WHY ONE MUST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Walk like an Egyptian when in Egypt !!

  3. In soviet Egypt by o'reor · · Score: 4, Funny

    When a bird flies like a stork and quacks like a stork and walks like a stork, then it's a fucking swan.

    And a spying one, at that.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
    1. Re:In soviet Egypt by alexhs · · Score: 3, Funny

      And a spying one, at that.

      At least they got that part right: It was a spying device.
      French show no respect for stork's privacy !

      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    2. Re:In soviet Egypt by someone1234 · · Score: 2

      Actually, they caught some stork from Hungary too. It had a GPS to track its migratory path. Hopefully, the bird is still ok.

      --
      Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
    3. Re:In soviet Egypt by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Ve haf vays of making them squawk...

    4. Re:In soviet Egypt by only_human · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not a swan, a mean french duck because this is a vicious canard.

  4. Intelligence by ameen.ross · · Score: 2

    I think this is indicative of the intelligence of the people that supported the overthrow of Mursi.

    FTFA

    the state-run daily newspaper Al-Ahram quoted Kamal as saying the incident showed the patriotism of the man who captured the bird in the first place.

    --
    $(echo cm0gLXJmIC8= | base64 --decode)
    1. Re:Intelligence by o'reor · · Score: 4, Insightful
      If you are supporting Morsi, I suppose you're supporting his vocal positions on Jews and freedom of press, here you go.

      After watching this, I consider that any man with just a little common sense would support the overthrow of Morsi. Which does not mean supporting the slaughter of hundreds of opponents in the aftermath. But the independence of the USA was not completed in one day, neither was the French revolution, nor will the Arab revolutions. It takes time before an appeased democracy takes place after centuries of colonial occupation and military dictatorships.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
    2. Re:Intelligence by ianare · · Score: 2

      The French revolution is probably the worst example for arguing violent overthrow of the governement. It goes something like this:

      1. Overthrow the government, kill the royal family.
      2. Kill a bunch of aristocrats, a bunch of priests, desecrate tombs
      3. Kill a bunch of people that don't agree with all the killing
      4. Put a Corsican in charge, eventually becoming an Emperor
      5. More killing, war all over Europe
      6. A couple heirs to the Emperor here and there
      7. Put the kings back in place from time to time

      ... All in all, it took over 80 years for a real, permanent republic to be put in place (3rd time's the charm it seems), and THAT was mainly after the military defeat of the 1870's.

  5. The evolution in spying by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 4, Funny


    Ladies and gentleman, I propose that this is only the beginning. Soon the evil Zionists and western imperialists will send their GM mind controlling bacteria to spy on us from inside our bodies.

    Let's fight the oppression of foreign powers, the military, bad people and bacteria together. Unlike some cowardly dictators I lead by example.In the interest of public safety, as I have personally not felt a lot like myself lately, I asked officials to prove that I do not carry such bacteria. As they have failed to give any substantial evidence to the contrary I must conclude that however remote, there is a possibility this is the case.

    If you do not feel like yourself and are tempted to take a power drill to your temple PLEASE STOP this is exactly what they want. Don't let them win!

    Flying pigeons, swimming sharks and bacteria will not end us! Fight on my brothers and expose their wicked ways!

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    1. Re:The evolution in spying by c0lo · · Score: 2

      Fight on my brothers and expose their wicked ways!

      I would gladly fight on your wicked brothers, except... I can't find them. Somebody must've hid them.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  6. sorry but by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 2

    IDIOTS.
    No wonder they are having problems.

  7. Not unexpected by ianare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When you hear about the Western spying programs (US, UK, France, etc) all over the news, when a country is undergoing huge changes, and when said western powers have been meddling in the region for decades, it's not completly unexpected for this sort of thing to happen.

    I just feel bad for the poor stork that is still locked up.

    1. Re:Not unexpected by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      For me, the bigger surprise is how the comparatively wacky and/or retro theories (is somebody using up their spare microfilm from WWII? trained attack sharks? Surveillance birds?) even in a situation with modern communications and surveillance apparatuses to worry about, and plenty of murky-and-actually-happening-to-people attacks, disappearances, just-showing-up-at-the-morgue, and so on.

      Concerns about spying are very plausible (and spying is also very plausible); but I would have expected the abundant supply of high plausibility conspiracy theories to have competed more successfully against the oddball ones.

  8. Re:It's not a coup. by oobayly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yup, I was listening to a quite interesting program on BBC Radio 4. It was interviewing some Egyptian women - all of whom said that they voted for Morsi as he "appeared" to be a good choice and they felt they should give him a chance. Unfortunately he wasn't, they felt mislead and supported him being removed by the military. I know that many people were worried about Morsi from the start, and maybe these ladies were naive, but change can fill people with a huge amount of optimism.

    What was also interesting was that one said that before the Muslim Brotherhood came into power they'd never had a Sunni - Shia problem, and when they looked into it, it turned wherever Sunni - Shia sectarian violence erupted, the Muslim Brotherhood weren't far away.

    I've got to respect you guys - you (the country, maybe not you personally) voted for a politician because they promised the world, and when they did as politicians usually do, you said "screw that, we're getting rid of him". Unlike us who bitch and moan and then vote for the same bastard next time round.

  9. Haven't we heard this sort of thing before? by petes_PoV · · Score: 2
    So a guy found something that he didn't understand. He took it to the authorities who examined it and told him (and the world) that it was nothing to worry about. Due to ignorance and fear however, many conspiracy theories abound and are stoked by this sort of story and the "official" explanation.

    Roswell, anyone?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  10. It is a cover up by BluPhenix316 · · Score: 5, Funny

    That bird is a spy. It works for the NSA to capture traffic over IPoAC

  11. Re:It's not a coup. by gtall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    More specifically, the choice in Egypt was between Morsi and a representative of the old regime. Hell, Stalin could win an election like that.

    Then Morsi showed his true colors. He went to work putting his people in as many positions of power as he could even down to local level. Bad news for him was that most of these were incompetent. It became clear Morsi still was working with the old MB line: one man, one vote, one time. When that became too apparent to ignore, and given the economy was getting worse and worse, the people got fed up and walked into the all too welcoming arms of the military. The people thought the military was the only organized group strong enough to counter the MB.

    Just as an example of the bone-headedness of Morsi, he put as head of the monuments in Luxor the very guy who led a terrorist attack against foreigners there. At that point, the people realized he had no economic sense because that certainly wasn't going to encourage tourism which was a big part of the Egyptian economy. He also wouldn't do anything to prevent the MB from antagonizing the Christians which were 10% of the pop. His views on women only drove home what King Abdullah of Jordan said of him, Morsi has no depth. (Incidentally, he also said Erdogan of Turkey thought of Democracy as bus, when he reaches his destination, he is going to get off. His destination will be a theocracy...I give him 10 years and another failed theocracy will be born.)

  12. Re:"Popularly-backed military coup"? by gtall · · Score: 2

    Morsi made a mockery of democracy by placing his cronies and MB people in every position of power he could. It was clear that he was aiming, not at running Egypt, but rather establishing an everlasting dynasty of the MB.

  13. Enlightened Turkey by slashmojo · · Score: 2

    Fortunately not all countries in the region are that batshit crazy.. Turkish authorities recently cleared a bird suspected of spying for Israel.. such a shame the bird in question wasn't a Turkey as that would have made for some great headlines - "Turkey spies for Israel!" followed by "Turkey clears Turkey!" etc.

  14. Hrm! by AlphaWoIf_HK · · Score: 2

    This seems inadequate...

    --
    Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.