GPS-equipped spy squirrels 'arrested' by Iranians

Talk about getting into some hot water. Reportedly, some 14 implike squirrels were recently "arrested by Iranian authorities for espionage," as the critters were apparently found to have various amounts of "spy gear from foreign agencies" on (er, in) their bodies. Some reports even mention that the animals were sporting embedded GPS sensors, but due to the high level of secrecy surrounding the capture, things are still a bit foggy. Nevertheless, Iran has apparently claimed that the "rodents were being used by Western powers in an attempt to undermine the Islamic Republic," and while it doesn't seem that anyone is really aware of the squirrels' fates, it looks like sending in the animals to do a human's dirty work isn't as effective as it once was.

[Via DailyWireless, image courtesy of UMT]

[kingofwale @ Jul 21st 2007 11:53PM]

Same thing happened to me at the cottage.

Saw a bear with suspecious spy tech on his ear, It's clearly by Muslim extremists trying to change our way of lives. so I called FIB, the bear is arrested now and put into Guantanamo Bay under anti-terrorism law.

Damn those terrorist bears.

:)

[R. C. @ Jul 21st 2007 11:58PM]

"And, for the top item on the 'threat down'.....

BEARS!"

[Sanjin @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:51AM]

I bet they'll make them talk, like this - Talk, god damned!

[Boydbme @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:09AM]

yeah, NEW from the CIA, it's the Cam-Squirrels. the secret spy tool perfectly cloaked in nature!
Look out next week for Hamster-nades. *squeak squeak BLAM* : )

[Mike @ Jul 24th 2007 11:42PM]

I used your funny comment in DIGG comments for this story, it was just too funny not to...
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Spy_Squirrels_Arrested_by_Iranians

[sendeth @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:21AM]

this is some secret squirrel shit if i ever heard of it. excuse my language, but there is no other way to put it.

[Mike @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:31AM]

Someone's science experiment just went horribly wrong.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:37AM]

This is just nutty.

[Thomas S @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:38AM]

This is ridiculous! How the hell can you fit A GPS reciever, chip, power supply, and recording gear into the body of a squirrel, and still have the damn thing look halfway normal? And how do you retrieve whatever you've recorded later? And how do you get the damn things to go where you want? Lay a trail of acorns?

[fischju @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:46AM]

You can remote control mice by stimulating their pleasure centers when they go the direction that you want, I bet you could do it with squirrels. Also. IT'S THE MILITARY. THEY HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY. THEY CAN MAKE HIM FASTER, STRONGER, SMARTER.


BIONIC SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brett @ Jul 22nd 2007 3:37AM]

You wonder how they get all this equipment into a squirrel...

But the CIA once did it with cats. Seriously.

Check out this article from damninteresting.com, it's a riot:

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=636

...incidentally, this isn't spam, and I don't write for/host the site.

[RedBull Runner @ Jul 22nd 2007 11:16AM]

Well, as for the receiving of the data... i can think of a place or two to put a USB port where they will never look (unless they are some sick bastards)

[bradtwit @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:45AM]

Here at Texas A&M we have tracked squirells all over campus, they seem to live normal lives and are actually better off do to the tracking. Gives researchers the chance to make sure their food supplies, homes, and breeding areas are protected now and in the future. In an interesting note, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was our president when the GPS the program began.

[John @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:47PM]

It's not hard to track squirrels or any other decently sized animal. It's just that knowing where Iranian squirrels are is not useful knowledge in any possible tactical sense. To get anything other than a location via GPS would be immensely difficult to set up, and then maintain due to power constraints. If the only acorns in Iran are located at the homes of terrorists, then perhaps they have something to fear from these squirrels.

[Revrant2394 @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:45AM]

GPS equipped? How did they find them? Lodged in Cherry trees?

[paul34 @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:48AM]

I wonder if they'll be released and then offered book deals?

[Mickey Jones @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:04AM]

Rocky the SPYING squirrel.

[Paul @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:09AM]

Haha. This is so funny

[James @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:16AM]

Heh, I love the new tagging system. "Dumb" and "Iran" for the same post... have the feeling that until they get rid of Ahmedinajihad you're going to see those tags show up together an awful lot.

[Wwhat @ Jul 22nd 2007 10:29PM]

There's fierce competition from he area between canada and mexico though

[Ed @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:17AM]

People thought I was crazy about the squirrels. There taking over man! Iran was just the beginning, They are EVERYWHERE!

I told you so... Whos crazy now mofo's????

[Brian @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:19AM]

"Heh, I love the new tagging system. "Dumb" and "Iran" for the same post... have the feeling that until they get rid of Ahmedinajihad you're going to see those tags show up together an awful lot."

Ahh, you beat me to it! Dumb and Iran... haha!

[Mickey Jones @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:31AM]

Great idea though. They'll finally lead us to Irans secret cache of hidden nuts.

[Constable Odo @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:35AM]

Those American infidels will try anything to undermine the Muslims. Imagine using squirrels to catch a bunch of terrorist nuts. Insane.

[Mickey Jones @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:36AM]

If captured, they were suppose to take the little tiny cyanide pills tucked in their cheek pouches. Bastards!

Never send a squirrel to do a pigeon's job.

[aboriginal @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:07AM]

do I smell a sequel to Caddyshack?

[metal @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:20AM]

Did any of you guys ever put the zerg parasite on the critters in starcraft?

I swear this is 100% relevant

[dan @ Jul 22nd 2007 10:07PM]

Yeah, I used to do that all the time... it's cool, but it's just damn annoying that I can't tell them where to go.

[John @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:45AM]

Keep the faith little buddies, we never leave anyone behind.

"The Chair is Against The Wall"

[Oban @ Jul 22nd 2007 3:18AM]

John has a long mustache

[qwert @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:11AM]

i for one welcome our bionic squirrel overlords.

there it is. someone had to say it.

but the logic is great. terrorism is nuts. squirrels eat nuts. squirrels are good against terrorism. great.
what will they think of next?

[Oliver Wale @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:34AM]

im in ur squirrels watching ur doodz

[simon.nutsy @ Jul 22nd 2007 6:33AM]

And this news is also WELL OVER 2 WEEKS OLD.... Why is it being posted now?

[PeteC @ Jul 22nd 2007 7:00AM]

I'm getting sick of these "this news is old, I knew about this XX days ago" comments.

IF you knew about it 2 weeks ago, why did you not send it as a tip to Gizmodo? If you do that, no one publishes it and then it turns up 2 weeks later, you can bitch. If you don't send in tips then how can you expect sites to just automatically find everything as fast as you might? At least this way I got to read about it, 2 weeks late but who cares, it's still a funny story.

[simon.nutsy @ Jul 22nd 2007 7:09AM]

Or prehaps the Engadget people who post these late news reports could actualy read other news sites? Like bbc.co.uk Or uk.reuters.com/ as these stories where rather well publisised not to mention I'm not a reporter and I dont work gor Engadget? I'm here to read engadgets news, not write it.

[RedBull Runner @ Jul 22nd 2007 11:25AM]

Well, Have you ever thought that maybe they are a little busy writing/revising the news stories on here to read every other article, on every other news site, on the internet?

Have fun in bizarro world where people can stop time to read everything, everywhere in the world, at once. We will be here in the real world waiting for you

[Steve @ Jul 22nd 2007 7:51AM]

I bet the look on their faces when they got busted made that prairie dog look like a joke...

[Galley @ Jul 22nd 2007 8:45AM]

I think only gray squirrels are involved in this. Red squirrels are far too clever to fall for it.

[Eric @ Jul 22nd 2007 9:11AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Squirrel

'nuff said.

[TheBigB @ Jul 22nd 2007 7:06PM]

Lord Orwell?

[Josh @ Jul 22nd 2007 9:52AM]

Likely because that's where most news organizations' Arab branches are located.

[Alex @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:56PM]

Wow, I thought Conker was just a video game... I guess it was really based on a secret CIA program.

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:33PM]

VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY.

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:50PM]

KILL THE SPAM.

[Matt @ Jul 22nd 2007 7:01PM]

torture won't make these guys talk.

[jsanders4484 @ Jul 22nd 2007 8:17PM]

Brilliant! Oh...wait...before sending in those cheeky super secret spy squirrels...did anyone check to make sure squirrels were indigenous to that area? I mean alright I can understand a camel in the desert and all, but when you see a squirrel hanging out there something seems a lil off. Maybe that's why they got caught or something :-/

[quartempty @ Jul 22nd 2007 8:30PM]

wow. paul levinson wrote a book, The Pixel Eye, about bionic squirrels in Central Park. from the jacket:

"New York City, the next decade: terrorism is more threatening then ever; law enforcement and civil liberties groups are at each other's throats. NYPD forensic detective Dr. Phil D'Amato is called in to investigate a case of . . . squirrels missing from Central Park! Phil discovers that someone is using a new telecom technology that can transmit what small animals see or hear to human ob-servers. But who-Federal agencies or terrorists? Phil's latest adventure, against a backdrop of a post-9/11 New York City, is supported by a mesh of wild and wise nature in the park and a new generation of cellphones, holograms, transport systems, and forensic computers."

truther than fiction?

[Hilz @ Jul 23rd 2007 9:36AM]

That picture is great.. nuff said

[John @ Jul 24th 2007 1:30AM]

Laugh now, but one day they'll be in control
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm