Pigeon held on suspicion of spying

Pigeon held on suspicion of spying

news.ninemsn.com.au

Indian police are holding a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an alleged spying mission for arch rival and neighbour Pakistan, media reported on Friday.

The white bird was found by a resident in India's Punjab state, which borders Pakistan, and taken to a police station 40km from the capital Amritsar.

The pigeon had a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Pigeons used in espionage are nothing new.

They have been in widespread use since World War I.

A pigeon is one helluva intelligent bird, and it is trainable, can follow the earth's magnetic fields and can fly fairly long distances.

World War II saw the largest use of pigeons as communications.

What wonderful birds they are...

news.ninemsn.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

sounds like a racing pigeon who has got lost. Unless you really think that the spy is someone from a monty python film and left his phone number for the enemy to capture him

pakistan racing pigeons

Here's some old pictures of carrier pigeons. They are magnificent messengers.

Perhaps they should water-board it.

Yeah sounds like a hobbyist's bird. Real spy piegons wouldn't have ID. On it. Guess the desire to make it seem like terrorists are everywhere is as strong over there as it is here.

Originally posted by eNumbra
Perhaps they should water-board it.

You could water board it, but what will you do with the bird once it admits to killing JFK?

Stop the pigeon, stop the pigeon, stop that pigeon, now!

Anyone remember the old TV cartoon?

reply to post by ironfalcon



Pigeons are cute too.

Sometimes I see them in couples searching food on grass patch near roadside .. wonder which one is husband and wife .. I guess the darker one with straighter posture must be husband.

Originally posted by MrWendal

Originally posted by eNumbra
Perhaps they should water-board it.

You could water board it, but what will you do with the bird once it admits to killing JFK?

Hold it in detention indefinitely and start a war against all pigeons.

Ahh the great pigeon conspiracy!! I knew they were pooping on my car on purpose!

Clearly it is an act of retaliation for our "War on Pigeons"




Could it be blow back from not feeding them in the park all those years?



[edit on 29-5-2010 by MrWendal]

Reminds me of the Blackadder shetch where he shot and ate the King's carrier pigeon and was sentenced to death for it lol...



Maybe it's just a home address?

All my pets has my address and phone number on them, not once were they picked up by the anti-terror police here.

Give it time though.

CX.

In WWII no less than 250,000 pigeons were used. As an avid pigeon flyer (all of my life i've kept/raced pigeons, my father raced pigeons, his father raced pigeons) it is possible that they could be used for spying, they can fly up to 60mph depending on the wind and i've had bird who can cover 600 miles and come home the same day they were released, and there are birds who can cover 1000 miles (i have no doubts my birds could do this but the WHU organizes the races and we rarely see races over 650 miles on this road, although when i was on the North road a few years back we had a 719 mile race), training them to spy would be much harder than you think, they fly from A to B and it would be almost impossible to train a bird to spy unless it passed over that particular area.
any pictures of the bird in question? would be appreciated.

i have just read that it had a stamp on it's body, (i would guess the wing, but this would contain a phone number and an adress) a ring, and pakistani telephone number on it, this is most definately a racing pigeon, how stupid are the indian intelligence and police force?

Indian police are holding a pigeon under armed guard...

Is that really necessary?

I call false flag...

The pigeon was owned by Al Gore and sent into India sweating to prove global warming..
And he wasn't held in detention, he was curried....Do disspose of evidence.

Very nice with jasmine rice

This is the best thread on ATS.

I hope they're not serious enought to really be keeping a pigeon under armed guard.

Frankly , this is pathetic. Its idiocy for the article to suggest that the pigeon is under armed guard. This would suggest that the military fear the birds ninja skills. No , what they mean of course, is that the bird is under watch to prevent someone freeing it to return to its origination point.
Personaly I dont even see the point in holding the damn thing. Better off killing it and getting on with other more pressing matters.

In theory a country like usa, can use any animal to spy, as long as it has a brain, and can see and hear.

The nsa, would have some wild stuff for this i would suspect. Anyone who thinks this is rubbish is a fool. Any animal with eyes and hearing, could in theory spy today. All brains transmit out, and in theory nsa could do this i would suspect.

[edit on 5/29/2010 by andy1033]

Hmm,OK the bird may be being used to carry information,but a quick examination would tell you if thats the case.

The dang bird is not actually spying itself though is it?

A spy would collect and report back its findings-pigeons do not have this ability(unless its one of DARPAs secret AI talking pigeons with eye cameras of course).