Hi Tweets,

Here's a story which would be farcical if the two frighteningly paranoid
governments involved weren't nuclear powers and already in a low-grade Hot
War along their border.

>From the Vancouver (BC) Province, Dec 07 1998

(headline)
India nabs wired falcon near Pakistani border

New Delhi--Police in the state of Rajasthan were investigating a possible
breach of national security yesterday after a falcon carrying an antenna
flew over the border from Pakistan. The bird was captured in the sand dunes
of Shahgarh, a remote area close to the border, with a 34-centimetre antenna
and a box thought to contain a transmitter. It is being held at a sanctuary
in Jaisalmer while Amil Paliwal, while police, (typesetting got a little
strange there, I guess--M) investigate claims that it belongs to Pakistan's
intelligence service, the ISI.
Relations between the two countries are strained and both sides often accuse
the other of spying. Intelligence chiefs in New Delhi fear the ISI has
trained birds to fly into Indian airspace, transmitting data from agents on
the ground.
"We are looking at this from all angles, including the military intelligence
point of view," a police official said.
Last year a hawk equipped with an antenna was captured in the same area and
later handed over to officials from the United Arab Emirates. The Pakistani
side of the border is popular with Arab sheiks for falconry and the antenna
had been used to track the bird. No one has claimed the bird in the latest
incident, prompting suspicions it had been trained for something more
sinister. (--Daily Telegraph)

Yeah, like establishing pigeon population densities in New Delhi. Of
*course* no one's gonna come forward to claim a lost bird: it's bad enough
to look like an idiot among your friends, who'd want to go international
with the embarrassment?

Still, very disturbing that something as innocuous as a bird of prey,
possibly a migrant being satellite-monitored, or an escaped falconer's bird,
demonstrates how poisonous and--well, loony, is the only word I can think of
to fit--is the relationship between these nuclear-armed countries. Who
knows, may have to sweep out--I was gonna say 'dust off', but thought that
under the cicumstances it might be too apposite--those old 1950's shelters
after all.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier