Russia homes in on stool Pigeons

The secret is finally out. The FBI is barking up the wrong tree. Jared Kushner was not the real link between Donald J Trump and Vladimir Putin. It was Columba Livia Domestica, street name, Pigeon. Given his background in the KGB and stint as director of its successor security agency, the FSB, it is very likely that Putin cultivated a veritable army of stool pigeons in his time.

Just because he went on to become a political leader does not mean his flock has gone back to pecking around Moscow’s squares for capitalist crumbs. As surveillance of electronic communication has been stepped up round the world, the value of pigeons as go-betweens has seen a logical upsurge.

Most metros around the world have large populations of these birds anyway, affording avian spies an admirable cover. And it is not surprising that India has also been nabbing such fly-by-night operatives every few months, particularly from border areas where they are easier to spot.

Had Putin not inadvertently acknowledged one of his feathered stoolies with a wave of his hand — which got a military wing salute from the pigeon as per a doctored video, but a more credible cold shoulder in the actual one — the world would have been none the wiser. Clearly, the West needs to take a closer look at Putin’s undercover wings rather than homing in on the usual suspects.