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Israeli Vulture Suspected of Spying Returned

Posted by timothy on from the bird's-eye-view dept.

New submitter red crab writes: BBC reports that a griffon vulture with GPS tracking device attached to its leg that was part of conservation program at Tel Aviv University was captured in Lebanon after it was suspected to be a Israeli spy. UN Liaison forces helped secure the release of the bird after holding talks with Lebanese and Israeli officials.

21 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Well d'oh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the Arab and Muslim worlds, if anything is in any way associated with Israel, it's perfectly obvious that it's nefarious - I'm surprised they didn't think it was the "vulture of doom, spreading biological weapons" or some such.

    The Arab POV on Israel is so one sided as to be cartoonish.

    1. Re:Well d'oh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, this remind me of Saddam Hussein's weapon of mass destruction we are still searching. Complete paranoia, and totally one sided.

    2. Re:Well d'oh! by cold+fjord · · Score: 2, Informative

      *COUGH!* Boy, that line of yours just never gets old, does it?

      Iraq's 'hidden' chemical weapons: US 'covered up' discovery of chemical weapons after 2003 invasion – with many are now in Isis’s hands

      “'Nothing of significance' is what I was ordered to say,” said Jarrod Lampier, a recently retired Army major who was present when more than 2,400 nerve-agent rockets were found in a single compound in 2006.

      Jarrod Taylor, a former Army sergeant who witnessed the disposal of mustard shells that burned two members of his company, told the Times the public has been misled for a decade. “I love it when I hear, ‘Oh there weren’t any chemical weapons in Iraq,’ ” he said. “There were plenty.”

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      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    3. Re:Well d'oh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Animals could certainly be, and have been, used to carry small packages for spying purposes. The derisive tone of the media blasts on this story clearly are meant to ridicule these fears and make those who are jumpy about Israel appear ridiculous, but these facts combined with the state of mistrust that residents of its neighbors feel towards high tech and aggressive Israel make the reaction more than understandable. The fact that some villagers found a bird carrying strange Israeli electronics and reported it to their government, which performed an investigation and returned the animal once the equipment had been vetted serves, perhaps, to underline the pervasive mistrust that decades of occupation and war have created, but it ought not be used, as it is being, as an excuse to ridicule those who distrust such a violent, well-heeled, and determinedly colonialist society.

    4. Re:Well d'oh! by quenda · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The sarin/taurin rockets, mustard shells - they're real. And horrifying. But 'WMD' ?

      More relevant, these were very old stockpiles, leftovers from the Iran-Iraq war. Probably useless.
      As the line goes, the West already had proof of those older weapons because they'd kept the receipts.
      They were not evidence of any renewed domestic weapons program, as claimed by the Neocons.

    5. Re:Well d'oh! by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Informative

      You left out the nerve gases Tabun and Sarin, which Saddam had in quantity, and VX nerve gas, which he secretly disposed of by dumping large amounts of it in the dessert. You also left out biological weapons which Saddam also developed.

      Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction

      The Bush administration was NOT adamant that "Saddam had a bomb." They were adamant that he not GET a bomb.

      The West didn't sell Saddam chemical agents, Iraq manufactured them by itself. Any state that can produce modern insecticides can produce nerve gas. Mustard gas is less demanding, if a country has a chemical industry it can make it.

      Below is a link to the text of Powell speech. He seems to mention chemical weapons a lot, with some mention of biological, and of nuclear program information.

      Full text of Colin Powell's speech

      Powell wasn't setup, at least not deliberately. Most intelligence agencies thought Saddam had WMDs, but not everyone thought it was worth going after him. It was very unfortunate in many ways that the Bush administration didn't make the information public. At the end of the day Powell was not responsible for the information he presented, that was the responsibility of the intelligence agencies. His job as the US chief diplomat was to make the US case.

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      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    6. Re:Well d'oh! by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

      You omitted biological weapons, and there were biological weapons located and removed from Iraq during the Coalition forces presence.

      Post invasion Saddam was found to have a number of unfilled warheads for missiles, secretly dumped VX nerve gas in the desert, and from pre-invasion inspections it was believed that he had unaccounted for biological agents suitable for weapons.

      One of the casus belli was Saddams continuing development of banned weapons such as long range missiles.

      Saddam had chemical WMDs, biological warfare bombs, and was preserving documents and know-how for the nuclear program. What he didn't have was current manufacturing (to the best of my knowledge), but his regime clearly wanted to reestablish production when it became possible.

      Many of the WMDs found would certainly be suitable for terrorist attacks. You may recall that Saddams support of terrorism was another charge made against him.

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      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    7. Re:Well d'oh! by jafiwam · · Score: 2

      Let me get this straight, the lack of WMDs in Iraq -- easily Bush's single biggest embarrassment in eight years in office -- was actually a lie perpetrated by the Bush administration. You're nuts. And an idiot.

      I find it more likely it was a lie that Saddam's underlings told him. He believed it, some of the top brass believed it (or were at least playing along).

      They couldn't or didn't have the capacity to make more than what they had in the war vs Iran and they lied to the guy at the top to avoid getting killed for failure of it.

      When foreign intelligence found this out, they thought the lie was true because they were plugged in too high to figure it out.

      Iraq didn't have a useful amount of WMDs at the time of the second war, but they were convinced they did.

  2. I guess by burtosis · · Score: 3, Funny

    In the end they flipped them the bird.

    1. Re:I guess by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 2

      Must've been the Hartlepool Liberation Front https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  3. suspected? by turkeydance · · Score: 4, Funny

    this was a spy swap for the Lebanese osprey.

    1. Re:suspected? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      Part of the deal involves exiling the vulture Stateside, with a scholarship to a decent law school.

  4. If it was Lebonese and captured in Isreal by fred911 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Surely it would be equipped with explosives, not GPS.

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  5. Only half the story by flopsquad · · Score: 5, Funny

    The media is trying to spin this as no big deal, but the secret terms of the exchange required Isreal to release 2 convicted Hezbollah attack pigeons, a weapons-smuggling-tunnel canary, and an ill-tempered parrot that keeps saying either "Yasser Arafat" or "Yes sir, you're fat."

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    Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    1. Re:Only half the story by Kohath · · Score: 5, Funny

      And who do we see watching all of this from a safe distance? Turkey.

  6. Paranoid conspiracy theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Arab press is filled with fairy tale stories about israel and about Jews. I remember a few years ago one story was circulating that israel was dropping poisoned candy to children on gaza. Then there was the story that aids was created by Jewish doctors to afflict the Palestinians. Then there was the one the israel was organ trafficking palestinians. Etc. Etc. Etc. The vulture story is frankly rather mild, if amusing. Much of the paranoid conspiracy theory about israel's and Jews on the Arab world could be rooted right off the pages of Nazi propaganda rags. Why this kind of trash is actually believed in the Arab world is another story entirely, but illustrates wht it's so hard for the two parties to come to compromises - if one side believes the other is capable of such inhuman Acts, it's no surprise they won't compromise.

    1. Re:Paranoid conspiracy theory by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Such stories are common in any dictatorship or conflict. Look at Russia, Turkey, Venezuela. Bizarre, improbably stories of "foreign agitators". As they say, the first victim of any war is the truth.

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      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:Paranoid conspiracy theory by gibbsjoh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Except that wasn't the case:
      http://ukmediawatch.org/2016/01/25/report-refutes-guardian-indy-claims-ethiopian-jews-given-birth-control-wo-consent/

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      -- "...I'm a bad guy because I, well, I sing some rock-and-roll songs." M. Manson
  7. Israel-related animal conspiracy theories by kopo · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's an entire Wikipedia article about this phenomenon.

    1. Re:Israel-related animal conspiracy theories by techno-vampire · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Honestly, I'm almost surprised to learn that the Arabs haven't accused the Israelis of tying lit torches to the tails of foxes and let them loose to set fire to the Arab's crops. After all, there is a historic account of this being done at least once in the past.

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  8. should have known better by superwiz · · Score: 2

    It's Tel Aviv university. Not exactly a high-tech hub. If the vulture was from Technion, that would be a different story.

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