Sweden announced that it had monitored the movements of the white whale "Hvladimir", which is used by Russian intelligence to spy, while this incident brings to mind the issue of training animals from the international intelligence services in order to carry out espionage operations on their opponents.
Sweden announced, on Monday, that the white whale used by Russian intelligence in espionage operations, known as "Hvladimir", had been spotted off its southern coast. While the presence of this whale was first discovered in 2019, by two Norwegian sailors in the northern waters of the country.
This incident brings to mind the issue of training animals by the major intelligence services in the world, in order to carry out espionage operations on their behalf. While not only whales are used for this purpose, but also dolphins, dogs, crows and squirrels, as it is tasked with monitoring and collecting information about the opponents of these devices.
Hvladimir, off the coast of Sweden
According to media reports , "Hvladimir" was sighted in the Honbostrand region off the southwestern coast of Sweden. The Russian whale had spent more than three years slowly moving in the Finnmark region in far north Norway, before suddenly accelerating in recent months to move to southern Sweden.
"We don't know why it's accelerating like that right now," says Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with OneWhale. He added in his statements to the "Guardian" newspaper that this was "particularly puzzling" because the whale was moving "very quickly away from its natural habitat."
Hvladimir was first seen in April 2019 in Norway, strapped to his head with a belt that was supposed to mount an action camera. When removed, the belt bore the words "St. Petersburg equipment," leading to speculation that the beluga was supposed to be Russia's newest spy, reports have revealed .
These reports indicated another indication that the whale was being used for spying, quoting what the Norwegian marine biologists noted, that it was accustomed to being in the vicinity of humans, which means that it was subject to training.
Moscow did not issue any response to the Norwegian speculation in 2019. Regarding its recent finding in Sweden, marine biologist Sebastian Strand added: “It may be hormones that push it to find a mate. Or it could be loneliness, because the beluga whale is a very social species, and it could be move it in search of other whales of the same species."
Cats, crows and dolphins
Training animals from the intelligence services is not a recent thing, and it is not limited to Russian intelligence. Rather, this activity dates back to the Cold War period, when the American and Soviet intelligence agencies, their allies, used to launch programs to recruit animals to carry out espionage operations.
In the mid-1970s, the CIA successfully trained the "Doo Da" crow , and its intelligence work became the super bird. This crow was able to carry a heavy load, maneuver to escape from traps and enemy attacks, and carry out reconnaissance and monitoring operations from the sky for intelligence purposes.
This was not the first time that the "CIA" recruited animals into its spies, but before that, during the sixties, it launched a program to train what it called " auditory kittens ." These cats were given listening equipment, implanted inside their bodies, and sent to the designated targets, which were often Soviet.
However, the "auditory kitten" program ended in failure, after discovering behaviors in these animals that could not be avoided by training, including that "cats often left the places specified for them in search of food," according to what was revealed by a previous article on the American "Time" magazine . .
In September 2019, the CIA published dozens of data on the tests and training that animals were subjected to to carry out espionage operations. These ranged from cats and crows, to dogs, dolphins and pigeons.
In 2015, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that its commandos had discovered a dolphin that had been recruited by Israeli intelligence to monitor the movements of the Palestinian resistance on the Gaza coast . The organization said that the dolphin was equipped with a spy device and cameras attached to its back, which were later dismantled.
In 2020, the Indian authorities said that they had monitored the crossing of a herd of domesticated yak buffaloes into their territory, coming from Chinese territory, suggesting that Chinese intelligence is using these buffaloes to spy on them. And in the same manner.
In 2007, the Iranian authorities said they had kept a number of squirrels around its nuclear facilities, accusing the CIA of using them to spy on its nuclear program.
Social media : WhatsApp is testing a new feature of interest to many
WABetaInfo announced that those in charge of the "WhatsApp" application have begun testing a new feature that may be useful to many users of the application.
According to the information provided by the site, “WhatsApp” has begun testing a new feature called “Status Archive” or Status Archive with subscribers of WhatsApp Business services via Android devices, and if successful, it will be offered to the rest of the application’s users.
With the new feature, the WhatsApp user can save the cases that he had previously published on the application to re-publish them later, and the images published by WABetaInfo show that users who activated this feature were able to save and archive the cases that they published even 24 hours after they were published.
Cases will be saved in a private record that only the user can see and manage, and the record will store published cases for up to 30 days.
Experts believe that this feature will be important for business owners or conference organizers, as they can display cases related to their business more than once.
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