BY: Spencer Croy Steven Santiago

Cost They cost about $30

Furbies banned at US spy base By Andrew Marshall in Washington THE FURBY was one of the best-selling toys in America last Christmas. But now, the hirsute mechanical playmate has been branded a threat to national security, joining drug smugglers and arms traders as the latest target of US intelligence. The National Security Agency, America's equivalent of GCHQ, has banned Furbies from its premises. The toy mimics the speech of its owners, and gradually developing its own language. That could be a risk in a building where much of the talk is top- secret, the NSA has decided. In other words, having asked endearingly for a cookie, the Furby might then suggest bugging the Russian embassy and intercepting wireless traffic from the Iraqi military. Perhaps, in the long term, the playthings might make valuable additions to the staff of GCHQ. At least they would never go on strike. spy-base html spy-base html

What exactly is a furby? A furby is a moving, talking, burping, and yes farting interactive toy. A motor activates it legs, eyes, beak, ears, and its annoying little voice. A computer chip coordinates it and allows it to learn. It has been described by many people as a hideously homely stuffed animal, a Mogwai too ugly to make it out of the Gremlins prop room, and a cross between Chucky and an Ewok, or Urkel and RuPaul.