A cunning Israeli plan to use Mossad-operated spy vultures to glean valuable intelligence on Arab nations went seriously awry when one of the feathered spooks was arrested in rural Saudi Arabia.

According to Israel's Ha'aretz, government operatives' attempts to disguise the bird as a participant in a vulture migratory study - by equipping it with a GPS transmitter and a tag bearing the ID code "R65" and "Tel Aviv University" - didn't fool locals, who quickly alerted the powers that be.

Residents and on-the-spot reporters were happy to denounce this "Zionist plot" to Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper, and the black helicopters were soon circling in force as the accusations went viral and "hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums" decried the vulturine black op.

Claims that Israel is mounting a zoological assault outside its borders are not without precedent. Sinai regional governer Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha recently suggested that a shark which killed and maimed tourists off the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh was playing Jaws at the behest of Israeli agents.

Reports that the beast was equipped with a frikkin' laser stamped "Made in USA" are unconfirmed. ®